The Coffee Lab

The Big Paws Coffee Lab is a combination of equipment, procedures and tests that assist us in developing the best possible roasts. These are some of the things we do in the lab.

When the beans arrive, we inspect the beans and bags. We look for any damage to the bags and inconsistency with the beans. In addition to that, each bag will be weighed for accuracy.

We then test the moisture content of each bag to ensure they are within acceptable limits. We will refer to these measurements throughout the life of the bag.

We then determine the density of the beans. This will provide some important insight such as determining charge temperature.

Multiple sample roasts will be conducted on the IKAWA Pro Roaster to determine the various flavor profiles possible. We will then cup these roasts to target a specific roast

When we believe we have found the ideal flavor profile we then measure internal and external bean color in addition to measuring weight loss. This provides us with some important information we can use when recreating a production roast.

We use Artisan Roasting software to assist us in creating an initial roast profile for our Diedrich IR12. Once we feel we have achieved the best roast possible, we will save that profile and rely on it to guide us on each subsequent roast.

We rely on a sensory tool referred to as “cupping”. We use this when creating roast profiles and later on to maintain consistency.