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S5:E10 - Coffee Smarter: Barrel-aged Coffees & Innovation · Coffee People Podcast

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I'm Andrea Lopez beef. Anya, I'm Andrew keatts.
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I'm Scott Lewis. We host the voice of San Diego
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San Diego podcast every Friday. Subscribe now wherever you
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listen? Hey, good morning everyone.
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Welcome to season 5 episode 10 on the roast West Coast coffee
0:48
podcast. We're already halfway through
0:51
another season which is pretty freaking wild.
0:55
I'm Ryan, Walton. This is the show where I bring
0:57
you the stories of coffee professionals entrepreneurship
1:00
and coffee education, Ryan Sullivan, director of coffee at
1:04
the award-winning moisture Coffee Company returns to talk
1:07
about Barrel, aging coffee and what the future holds.
1:11
Coffee in general. There is a kind of creativity
1:14
magic and Artistry to creating a final barrel-aged coffee product
1:19
that actually works. There's also a lot of risk age
1:23
it too long or Too Short or choose the wrong barrel and
1:27
you've lost a bunch of good green coffee and wasted a lot of
1:30
person power, Ryan's going to talk us through that process and
1:35
if you're in the San Diego area, go check out mostra coffee for
1:38
yourself, they have three Cafe locations.
1:41
Now, including Bankers Hill, which is Is right in the city.
1:44
So you're never really that far away.
1:45
Even if you're just visiting, I just wrote about the 4S Ranch
1:48
Baht for the Bean Journal, which paid subscribers can read on
1:52
roast westcoast.com and you can find addresses and directions
1:56
and all of that on most your coffee.com, while you're
1:59
plotting your trip to one of the cafes at this morning, multitask
2:03
for yourself a coffee or at least order one from the nearest
2:06
craft coffee, roaster, or coffee shop, and enjoy that fine
2:10
beverage while listening to this roast West Coast coffee.
2:13
Our episode featuring coffee expert, Ryan Sullivan of mostra
2:17
coffee company. Mr. Sullivan welcome back to
2:35
roast West Coast's, the coffee podcast.
2:37
I appreciate you, coming back. We've got another coffee smarter
2:41
episode to get into, welcome back, thank you, appreciate it.
2:45
Good to be back. I've done this before.
2:48
I want to get It into something that you guys do it most rather
2:51
than not a lot of people do. But because you guys also have a
2:55
food and beer program through mostra and at the cafes and that
3:01
we talked about with Mike actually a while back.
3:03
You guys do barrel-aged coffees, I'm wondering a little bit about
3:08
one. How did that get started?
3:10
What was why do it and then, how does Barrel aging with a coffee
3:15
bean work? You know, I I'm thinking about a
3:18
barrel aged two beer, where Actually, they produce a beer
3:21
dump, it in a barrel and leave it.
3:22
Sit for however, long, they decide to leave it.
3:24
Set it kind of feels like a little bit like magic.
3:27
So, I'm wondering how that works with coffee and what what is
3:31
actually happening to the coffee?
3:32
While it's in the barrel. It's not a big enough question
3:34
for you. Yeah I think there's a few
3:35
people a so that so we like you said we do.
3:39
We do a lot of beer, Mike definitely heads up the beer
3:43
program and Mike is a huge beer nerd and and was a big part of
3:49
the Secondary Market much like, there is for shoes.
3:53
There's a secondary market for beer, the secondary market for
3:56
bourbon, and all kinds of other things.
3:58
But as a beer lover might just really do head in on doing
4:02
coffee beers. I think that's definitely like a
4:05
bigger part of our wholesale program is geared towards our
4:10
peer relationships, so with that.
4:12
Yeah, you said tons of breweries do barrel-aged Stouts and other
4:18
types of coffees, Sorry, other types of beers, we kind of took
4:22
that approach and decided that, you know, why not try it with
4:24
coffee. Mike is for his background as a
4:28
fine-dining Chef. So he thinks about flavors, I
4:31
think a little bit differently than some people do we talked
4:34
about, you know, I think just in the coffee World in general,
4:37
like when you ship green coffee to what we're to, wherever
4:41
you're going, you know, or even storing in your Warehouse, to
4:43
get to be really careful with what's around the coffee because
4:47
it can absorb a lot of Smells and Aromas.
4:51
So if you have a freshly painted shipping container and you put
4:54
green coffee into that shipping container, it's going to have a
4:56
lot of this paint smell, if you ship coffee, with oranges in the
5:00
same container, it's going to smell like oranges.
5:03
So in that sense Mike might like to talk about and we joke about
5:07
this all the time, but, you know, he says that green copies
5:10
are like eggshells. So they're very porous and they
5:12
absorb flavors and you can do a lot of things with eggs, just
5:14
like you could do a lot of things with coffee.
5:17
So we kind of took that concept and decided to put Um, coffee in
5:20
barrels. You know, at first I think it's
5:22
just let's just see what happens before you go further.
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Are you putting green coffee in the barrel?
5:28
It's what I'm assuming based on what you just said or roasted
5:31
coffee. Yes we put we put green coffee
5:33
in the barrel. Primarily we do a little bit of
5:35
cold brew barrel-aged coffee as well, but we have not so far
5:39
done roasted copy and barrels. So we put the green coffee in.
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Like I said, it's kind of a wait and see game, you know, we'll
5:48
check moisture content. You know, throughout the aging
5:52
process and we take small samples and we roast them to
5:56
kind of see what's happening. I think a big, big part of what
6:00
we do is we try to take what we do, seriously, but we also have
6:04
a general philosophy, which does it taste good.
6:06
So, bear, Legend coffee? It was like, okay, we may not
6:10
know exactly what's happening here but Does the end result
6:12
taste good? And if it does great, let's
6:14
let's keep going with this idea. So we now have a pretty
6:18
extensive barrel-aged program as a with a lot of the breweries
6:22
that we work with. And the beers that they do, a
6:25
lot of them on the secondary Market are definitely typed
6:28
beers and carry a lot of weight in a community.
6:32
So, we'll take those barrels age coffee in them, and it's kind of
6:35
a repurposing of this product or we can say, okay?
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Hey, you love this Barrel. Aged out that this Brewery did.
6:40
Now try this Coffee that we aged in the same barrel of the same
6:45
beer from the same Brewery, who Stout you just loved and, you
6:49
know, wanted to buy. But, you know, it was hard to
6:51
find or something. So in that, in that case, the
6:54
coffee that's going in, there is actually the third product
6:57
that's in that Barrel behind the bourbon and then the beer and
7:01
that was a question I had was, are you taking green coffees?
7:05
And that will have a flavor I'm assuming that you've kind of you
7:09
purchased that coffee because of certain flavors, you're
7:11
expecting to Get and trying to match them to the flavors from
7:14
the beer or the bourbon. That was in that Barrel before.
7:17
Correct. Yeah so not just bourbon, I
7:19
mean, bourbon is, it's a generally speaking what most
7:22
people would think of but it could be any type of barrel.
7:25
Brandy Scotch need anything wine, barrels.
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Anything that's been in the barrel before.
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It's a spent Barrel. Meaning it's been used and has
7:35
some flavor imparted from the previous product.
7:40
And then, you know, secondary, Tertiary products going after
7:44
and kind of take on some of those flavors.
7:47
I'm hopefully in a complimenting way, right?
7:50
Not always, but hopefully when I taste, if I were to taste like a
7:54
whiskey sample off of a barrel, it comes out pretty hot.
7:57
Do you notice like major flavor changes during the aging
8:01
process? Are you tasting like say I don't
8:04
know how lat that's actually. How long you age things
8:06
generally be? Like if you were to taste it a
8:08
week, in six months in, do you notice major?
8:12
Fences that way the way you do with whiskey.
8:14
Yeah, I think there's definitely some some Malla wing and I think
8:18
we compared a lot to think about spaghetti sauce like day one
8:25
spaghetti sauce, tastes great but Day 2 is actually a little
8:29
bit better right? All those flavors of kind of had
8:31
a chance to harmonize and becoming a homogeneous with each
8:34
other. So I think there's that think
8:38
about a graph right? This very quick peek and then it
8:41
kind of a Mode tapering to it of the flavor is going to quickly
8:45
get imparted into the coffee, but it won't quite mellow and
8:50
stabilized until you. Give it a little bit longer with
8:53
a dry product, though, like, green coffee, you are fighting a
8:57
little bit against the barrel because the reason that barrels
8:59
work is they have liquid, which is swelling the wood and keeping
9:03
it tight. So, once you take the liquid
9:06
out, the barrels, tend to fall apart fairly quickly and then
9:11
you have a lot of Extra oxygen and things like that.
9:13
So we got to be kind of careful with with that.
9:15
So once the barrel starts to kind of loses Integrity, it's
9:18
not even up to us necessarily. It's more of a barrel is told us
9:21
like, it's time to take this. Take this coffee out of here.
9:26
What would be like, an average not?
9:28
I mean, and I know that this is a very general question for
9:31
anyone listening, but like, for a barrel, aged coffee that, I
9:35
might, by like, has it been aged?
9:37
I mean, what is the timeline I mean?
9:39
Like, when I think about like whiskey, it's like five years,
9:41
ten years, 15 years. I'm assuming that's not the case
9:44
with God. No, not the case.
9:45
Yeah, so seasons have a big play, right?
9:50
It much. Like the reason that Bourbons
9:51
able to age so quickly and Kentucky is because the summers
9:55
are really hot in, the winters are super cold, so that's all
9:57
this. This push and pull out of the
9:59
wood. So same thing like in the summer
10:02
coffees are going to age a lot more quickly so we might be able
10:05
to get a copy there leads to a point that we feel is really
10:08
nice in. Maybe Six to eight weeks and
10:13
then the winter might be three to four months.
10:16
Sure. And that's a general timeline.
10:19
But yeah. All right.
10:20
And that would be longer if your winter we're saying Wisconsin or
10:23
Minnesota. That would be here.
10:25
Yeah, and that seasonal impact is so crazy.
10:29
I actually just was doing some whiskey sampling at a Distillery
10:32
here in San Diego, Pacific Coast Spirits.
10:34
If anyone comes down, they should check that out and the
10:37
Whiskey's that were in barrels, that were in a window like this.
10:42
Even though they were barreled at the same time, we're totally
10:44
different than the ones that were, you know, in the shadow.
10:47
And and that was done somewhat intentionally.
10:49
I mean both for marketing because when you walk by, you
10:52
see the barrels in the window and it's awesome.
10:53
But also just to see what the differences would be.
10:56
And that was pretty cool of her. Fellow bourbon aficionados.
11:00
That's a like, like myself. I'm a self-proclaimed
11:02
Aficionado. I just really like bourbon but
11:05
yeah Rick houses and what the brick house is made of whether
11:09
it's deal, or it's brick or wood, What level they're on, you
11:13
know, like for four roses, for example, like a tier 6 Barrel
11:18
from Four Roses of stage for let's say 10 years carries like
11:22
is like immediately a sought-after product from four
11:26
rows of the barrel. Aged release compared to like a
11:28
tier 1 or 2 for whatever reason. That's just seems like that TR6.
11:33
Create some magical calm, honey barrels.
11:36
The best product comes, typically comes from, you know,
11:38
this this region. Yeah, that's crazy.
11:42
Can I guess that TR6 would be higher than a lower tier?
11:45
Yeah, I mean so naturally different heat rises and
11:48
humidities is different and it's gonna cause all those different
11:51
changes. Yeah.
11:52
Whether it's at the center of the Rick house, or towards the
11:55
exterior of the Rick house, totally to change the flavors as
11:57
well. Yeah, it's all.
11:58
It's all really crazy stuff which is why distilleries and
12:02
I'm assuming, even with coffee storage, product, gets rotated
12:06
to some extent, depending on to keep it from.
12:10
Then only one sort of change to try to blend together those
12:13
changes. Yeah, if you were to give me a
12:16
bourbon recommendation, if you could only give me one, what's
12:20
it going to be? I have a say, definitely a
12:24
unpopular opinion, but for the, for my fellow Wild, Turkey
12:28
Lovers, I think wild turkey is probably my favorite.
12:31
Distillery, if I had to pick one one, Distillery to drink the
12:34
rest of my life with you while turkey.
12:36
If you can find it, great bottle, it's actually Just Wild
12:40
Turkey. 101. So a standard well check you
12:42
want to one? But if you can find a pre like
12:45
2010 or older would be even better, it will say, Austin
12:49
Nichols on the label and the turkeys.
12:52
Actually in color as opposed to being in like a black-and-white
12:55
or now, the new bottles just have it all engraved in the
12:58
glass for some reason it's like we call it like Dusty Dusty
13:01
turkey and it's just got this really kind of funky profile to
13:05
it. That's like very distinct wild
13:07
turkey interesting. I'll look for that for sure.
13:10
We ever meet up in person. I'll have.
13:12
I'll pour you some. Yeah, well that's a motivator
13:15
for sure. So this was going to lead me
13:17
into, you know, kind of the future of coffee.
13:19
Obviously, I don't think there was a lot of coffee roasters,
13:22
barely edging coffee, 10 years ago or 20 years ago.
13:26
I can't say that I've done a lot of history on it but just to
13:29
guess since Bourbon Barrel beers became kind of really popular
13:32
about 10 years ago. What do you see as kind of the
13:36
future of coffee and what sort of Innovations are you guys
13:38
doing at most or coffee? That you think could become
13:41
something that is looked at either either as a one-off or
13:44
something. You think, you know, this could
13:46
be the next thing. Big question always.
13:51
I've got nothing to lose on this side.
13:53
I think my personal opinion Coffee's really affected the
13:59
idea of cultural products, really affected by what's
14:02
happening, you know, on planet Earth.
14:04
And so global warming is having a really big impact on coffee
14:09
Growers. So I really think Innovation
14:13
wise, there's going to have to be a lot of work done on
14:16
varietals that are disease resistance and a lot of changes
14:19
and when coffees actually ripen and when they ship to us and
14:24
there's going to be a whole shift there and then Just some
14:27
of those changes we might end up with slightly potentially we end
14:31
up with with great varietals of coffee.
14:33
That tastes really great. You know.
14:35
Fantastic coming coffees and and we may end up with varietals
14:39
that you need to be a little bit harder to withstand some of
14:42
these changes in the environment.
14:44
So I think and we've already started to see this but
14:47
fermentation experiments, I think are definitely where the
14:53
future of improvements and coffee are going to be from a
14:56
green. Perspective.
14:58
It's really understanding what is happening.
15:01
Once the coffee is picked off the tree and from that point all
15:06
the way until it's essentially bagged and is just being stored,
15:10
you know, what changes are occurring and how do we
15:13
manipulate those those changes and do things that are more
15:16
favorable to the the outcome. So I think that's definitely a
15:20
big thing. And so, you know, we
15:21
specifically for most trending, but we work with, I think the
15:24
most in the Philippines, we're definitely One of a very small
15:28
amount of Roasters that work in the Philippines but working on
15:33
on those experimental process coffees to really improve the
15:36
cup quality. And ultimately you know I think
15:39
once once coffees have a higher cup quality than they can be put
15:43
on the same level as your Panama geishas and you know like I love
15:48
personally and you know, Kenyan double wash coffees and
15:52
Ethiopian wash varietal, you know heirloom or recall on
15:56
landrace. Vitals now.
15:58
So we need Philippine coffee like specifically for us to
16:02
really Elevate and score higher so that we can be like look like
16:06
Philippine coffee is just as good as coffee from Kenya and
16:08
Ethiopia in Panama but that's going to take some time.
16:12
We're you, I know the team for most sure did a trip to the
16:15
Philippines a few years ago, were you able to be part of that
16:18
trip? Yeah, and yeah.
16:20
And what was that experience? Like I mean how did that change?
16:22
What you believe about the coffee?
16:24
You're working with. I mean, life changing to an I
16:28
think you just as my first time visiting a coffee farm and just
16:33
travel so far and you just you know walk down this road on this
16:38
mountain and then all of a sudden you're just like looking
16:41
out over this like beautiful landscape and then there's just
16:46
a handful of families living here and they just have all this
16:50
land and they're growing all kinds of things including coffee
16:54
and you're like wow like that's where my coffee comes from.
16:56
Like that's So awesome during that trip we were talking with
17:01
with the with the farmers and the producers of the coffee and
17:06
talking about, you know, I mean really the only way to do make
17:10
impactful changes is volume. So I think one of my big caveat
17:14
with like direct trade can be that it's a little bit of a
17:18
photo opportunity and you know we're buying micro Lots or Nano
17:22
lots of coffee but we're not buying 80 or 90% of what the
17:26
farmers. Singing.
17:27
Then there may be left to sell that to a local commodity Market
17:31
or you know who knows. They could be taking a loss on
17:34
that coffee and then I'm taking out a loan to cover the loss
17:37
and, you know, get through the next year, the next year, the
17:39
next year or so, on so forth, so volume and really being able to
17:42
buy everything that a farm produces.
17:45
So when we were talking about that it was kind of like to me I
17:48
was like well as like what do we use every single day that we
17:51
could put Philippine coffee and that would really make an impact
17:54
on that kind of scale. We came up Up with ghost bear
17:58
espresso, which is our daily served as press 0 and we put
18:04
Philippine coffee in there and so it's an every single drink
18:06
that we serve in the cafes and so people be like okay cool big
18:10
whoop but it's Philippine coffee is incredibly incredibly
18:15
expensive. I think our average price after
18:21
shipping and financing everything comes to about nine
18:24
dollars a pound green. Wow, that is really high for
18:28
anyone listening. Even craft coffee companies that
18:31
I'm aware of. It's generally between like four
18:34
and five. Maybe six dollars.
18:36
So nine is definitely up there. Yeah.
18:38
Right. Great.
18:39
A great coffee can be five. Six dollars a pound.
18:42
Absolutely. Yeah.
18:43
So nine dollars is totally absurd and we're probably a
18:47
little bit, if not a lot, crazy for putting that in our espresso
18:50
blend but through that we were able to just drastically.
18:55
Increase the volume of If you're buying, so we went from six
18:59
bags, our first year of buying coffee from from this Farm to
19:03
130 bags last year of again, this crazy 5x price coffee.
19:10
Rory pay for Brazil or or something of, it's a more
19:13
similar quality coffee is the price the higher price based on
19:19
the product itself or is it based more on the fact that it's
19:22
more of a logistical challenge? Because it's not a traditional
19:25
place that people are in. Importing coffee from logistical
19:28
challenges, volume challenges, think last year was the first
19:32
time they were able to fill half a container.
19:35
So, you're paying full full container costs to ship it,
19:39
half-full from the Philippines in Southeast Asia, all the way
19:43
to the US, it's not economical to do so.
19:48
And that those are some of the challenges, right?
19:50
And then it's, you know, and we had financing charges and
19:54
trucking charges and all these things on top, and it's
19:57
ultimately brings the price to a pretty astronomical level.
20:00
For again, a copy that cups. The way that might say, most of
20:03
the Philippine coffee, we by Cubs.
20:05
And so it's a lower scoring, I'd say 84 points, which is, you
20:10
know, 100% specialty grade. It's great solid coffee but it's
20:14
not typical for what a coffee that price would come.
20:19
It's really interesting to hear that.
20:21
I'm, I mean, obviously we learned a lot and we talked a
20:23
lot about the coffee belt in the show and just about the
20:25
challenges that face shipping and Logistics but that
20:29
definitely surprised me and that's probably why we have the
20:32
ghost bear nft coming out. Yes, gonna throw that out and
20:35
not Say anything else about it for now, I could take much about
20:38
anyways. I don't know.
20:41
I have to look up. What an N of T is exactly,
20:43
before I talk any further about it, you've been in this industry
20:47
for quite some time. Now, we learned on the last
20:49
show, you got your started Starbucks, which is like a
20:52
feeder program for future coffee professionals.
20:55
We're just Santa Barbara, and then a bird Rock.
20:58
And now with mostra, what is kind of something you've learned
21:01
along the way. That is kind of been challenging
21:04
or that you've learned like through.
21:05
Audience to get to where you are now.
21:07
And I would also add caveat that question just a little bit by
21:13
saying that moment. You mentioned on our last show
21:15
where you had that nine dollar cup of coffee from Bird Rock and
21:19
immediately, kind of had this moment of like this is what I
21:21
want to work when work in this industry.
21:24
Has there ever been gaps in that passion?
21:27
Where you thought, man? You know what, maybe I should go
21:29
get that office job that mom and dad wanted me to get.
21:32
Definitely to that. Last point you just mentioned, I
21:36
think dollars speak loudly, right?
21:39
Put your money where your mouth is. as a barista and as a long
21:45
time Barista, I think you know you can get by for a minute with
21:50
some of those lower wages that Bruce's typically get paid And
21:55
then you get a little bit older and that starts to hurt a little
21:59
more, and then a little bit more, a little bit more and just
22:03
becomes this slightly, you know, can be slightly degrading to
22:07
that. That passion.
22:09
We're like man, like I've put in so much time, and, you know, I
22:14
feel like I'm really qualified to do this or that, but then the
22:18
money isn't there to back it up right now.
22:20
And I'm definitely far from it's a greedy person that I don't
22:24
need a Lot but you know, making well, I guess at the time,
22:28
probably twelve dollars an hour or something is pretty hard and
22:32
then you add on, you know, commute and you know, just
22:34
saying Diego living expenses, it can definitely make you make you
22:38
Ponder and question whether you made the right choice.
22:41
So definitely had those moments. What kept you going then?
22:48
I just, I just really like It's kind of like I think I said in
22:52
the last episode like I have to win cup tasers, it was almost
22:55
like I have to make this work for myself.
22:57
So it was like like what am I going to do?
22:59
Like what's like what? Like okay what am I not?
23:02
You know what more can I do? And just really just Just nose
23:07
to the grindstone. I worked really hard for a long
23:10
time and it's not the work that you get paid for.
23:13
Is the work you do on your own outside of outside of that,
23:17
right? So it's the networking, it's the
23:20
learning. You know what book can I read
23:22
that I haven't read before? That's going to teach me
23:23
something new. You know what online YouTube
23:27
video or Forum or something? Can I read?
23:29
What other person can I talk to what other skills?
23:32
Can I learn that I'm not getting paid to do in my current job?
23:35
But But that I know I can take forward and my next job whenever
23:38
that comes. So like I said, probably four
23:42
years of me, trying to get a job at moisture and every day trying
23:46
to learn something different about coffee.
23:48
And I think that just again for me, luckily worked out that when
23:54
I did get started Moser and they were, I would say, generous to
23:58
offer this random person that kept coming in four years, a job
24:03
that, you know, I was able to just to just Take it and run
24:06
with it. And most just let me do that.
24:10
The coffee program. Pretty much is in the direction
24:13
that I, that I want to take it. That, you know, they're
24:16
supportive of most, if not all of the decisions that that I
24:19
would like to do. So I get to buy the copies that
24:20
I want roast coffee is the way we want to roast coffees and and
24:24
they're happy to let us take that and run with it.
24:28
So that's been really lucky for me.
24:30
What was the other the first part of that question?
24:32
The other part of that was just if there was anything Thing that
24:35
you've kind of learned along. The way that stuck out is that
24:38
was challenging beyond that, and I would also say in this isn't
24:43
it. Another question is still the
24:44
same question, but as you kind of modestly say that they took a
24:48
chance on you, you also had some pedigree.
24:51
You worked with a company that had quite a bit of a claim with
24:53
Bird Rock and end up in Santa Barbara and and you are on the
24:56
show is a coffee smarter expert. So I need people to believe that
24:59
you are an expert. Yeah, well I don't like to talk
25:04
about highly of myself. Of I guess.
25:08
I think, you know, I like to just do the work that we do and
25:11
I hope that that can speak speak for itself.
25:14
And that way, I don't have to talk about it myself.
25:17
I'll talk about it for you. So I'll stick about I'll stick
25:20
with, you know, just if there's anything that you've learned
25:22
kind of about coffee or about the industry that is stuck out
25:25
with you over the years. Yeah, I think I think one of the
25:28
thing that I learned that was definitely a struggle.
25:31
And one of the things that I, at least, I strive really, Had to
25:35
make a big part of most just program is that I feel like
25:39
coffee has this orcam have this closed or aspect.
25:44
And, you know, there might be a lot of resources that want to
25:49
know more and learn more, but then they face this obstacle
25:52
this wall. That's preventing them from
25:54
moving to the next step. Because either they're the
25:59
company that they're with doesn't, you know, they'll tell
26:02
you, it is like your job. Don't worry about it, you know.
26:05
I don't have time to teach this to you.
26:07
Oh, you know, we might be coming coffee right behind you but you
26:11
can't you can't come over here and cup of coffee because that's
26:13
the word doing that. You need to focus on being a
26:16
barista, would, you know, serving customers.
26:19
So that was definitely a really big struggle for me.
26:23
And if I didn't have that experience everywhere, and it
26:26
definitely wasn't my experience the whole time and coffee.
26:28
But it was, you know, definitely odd experience or a few
26:31
experiences that I had. So at most R has day one, I
26:36
tried really hard and when we only had a one Cafe in Carmel
26:41
Mountain, Ranch, I actually kept all of the coffee that we
26:44
roasted in the cafe. We built this little cupping bar
26:47
in the back and I would go, relieve, the Baristas that were
26:51
working so that they could go and cup coffees, and just kind
26:56
of peek behind the curtain, so to speak and, you know, kind of
27:00
get a sense for what we're doing.
27:03
No, hey, this coffee tastes like this.
27:04
Like, tell me about that. Like, like, what?
27:06
Like, you know, why does it taste fruity?
27:08
You're like, okay, you did. You said you didn't like this
27:10
coffee? Like what do you not like about
27:11
it and trying to really dive deeper into into some of those
27:14
things. So, generally speaking at most
27:18
right, I don't get to come up with with the staff all the
27:20
time, but we do make a really big effort to happen.
27:24
Taste coffee with the staff, as much as possible and then I do
27:28
have a just standing standing open door policy so if anybody
27:32
ever Wants to come to the warehouse week of coffee here
27:36
all the time. We have an espresso machine.
27:38
You know, people can come and do things on their own and you
27:42
know, if someone tells me him coming up, can I come up?
27:45
It's like cool. Yeah, we'll set up something.
27:47
You know, what do you want to try?
27:48
Here's some new things that you probably haven't had because we
27:50
haven't released it yet, you know, things like that, to just,
27:53
hopefully, trying a little bit of that light.
27:56
That that often, you know, things get left in the dark and
27:59
people don't get to see, there is a entire world.
28:03
Of coffee outside of the cafe that until, you know that exist.
28:07
You don't know that that exists, I talked to a family member
28:10
about coffee. It's like oh what do you are you
28:12
Barista or do you roast? It's like, no, I you know, I buy
28:16
coffee in there. That's like, that's just right
28:18
over their head, right? They don't know what that means.
28:21
They don't know that there's, you know, just so many different
28:23
people Traders and importers, and exporters and Farmers that
28:27
have such huge impacts of goals along the way.
28:31
So, trying to trying to shine a little bit of light, like I
28:33
said, on some of those lesser seeing aspects.
28:37
Very cool. I think, what I just heard is
28:40
that I can just show up at the warehouse one day and Abstract
28:43
coffees with you 100 percent. That's a standing invitation for
28:46
anyone. Visiting San Diego, perfect.
28:49
Good to know. Well, Ryan, thank you so much
28:51
for sharing, just some more information with us and, and
28:54
your time I'm always grateful for that.
28:56
And what you guys have been doing at mostro to help draw
28:59
attention to San Diego and So, uplift craft coffee has been
29:02
great. So, thanks for being part of
29:03
that. Thank you, appreciate you having
29:05
me on to recap coffee, especially green coffee can
29:13
absorb the flavors and smells around it Roasters and coffee.
29:17
Drinkers need to be careful about how their coffee is
29:19
shipped and stored if you're expecting chocolate cherry notes
29:23
but you get the overwhelming flavor of paint fumes that isn't
29:27
good, but it is. Why Barrel aging Coffee Works.
29:30
It's the green coffee gets stored in a barrel previously,
29:33
used for another beverage product, that green coffee will
29:36
pull out the leftover flavors of the bourbon, the beer, the wine
29:40
along with Aromas and flavors from the barrel itself.
29:44
How long it takes will depend on the seasons temperature and
29:47
humidity the quality of the barrel.
29:49
The location, it is stored and so much more generally speaking
29:53
at least here in Southern California.
29:55
The aging process will take six to eight weeks during the warmer
29:58
seasons and upwards of three to four months.
30:00
During the colder ones on that note, Ryan used the term Rick
30:04
house, which is interchangeable with rack house.
30:07
A rick house is a building constructed with tiered shelving
30:11
to better store. Wooden barrels during the aging
30:13
process prior to the tiered shelving system.
30:16
Bourbon companies would stack their barrels, on top of each
30:18
other and the pressure from the weight of the barrels at the
30:21
top. Would strain the barrels on the
30:23
bottom causing leakage or even collapse?
30:26
Ryan, Sullivan really likes Bourbon and I really like
30:29
bourbon So, I think it is safe to say that 100% of the Ryan's
30:33
on this show like bourbon. And I really do recommend
30:37
Pacifico Spirits as a Southern California.
30:40
Distillery that really excels a producing bourbon and whiskey,
30:43
check them out. If you're looking for an indie
30:45
distiller to support looking toward the future, Ryan believes
30:49
that there will be innovation in disease-resistant coffees and
30:52
even a changing of the growing cycle in part, due to climate
30:55
change, that will end up leading to Coffee.
30:57
Fermentation. Experimentation I'll close up
31:01
this recap by saying, Ryan's door is open Ryan Sullivan.
31:04
That is the door to this closet podcast Studio was closed.
31:08
Frankly, I'm not sure two of us would even fit in here, but Ryan
31:12
and mosters doors open. If any members of his team or
31:15
even if you want to learn more, you can reach out to him with
31:18
questions, at most your coffee on Instagram, or most your
31:21
coffee.com online. And if you have questions, you'd
31:24
like, answered on a future coffee smarter episode of this
31:26
podcast, send those to me through Instagram to share.
31:30
So handle is at roast West Coast.
31:33
I'll be back next week with this Show's official 100th episode,
31:37
and an interview with David Foster of Kiln Coffee, Roasters
31:40
in Grand Junction, Colorado, I travel through Grand Junction, a
31:43
few times a year and my wife and I go out of our way to stop at
31:47
Kiln. As always you can stream this
31:50
coffee podcast on any major podcast platform but you'd
31:54
really help this show and press the sponsors by subscribing to
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the newsletter at roast westcoast.com.
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Not only provide me with a little bit of an emotional
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the newsletter paid subscribers can also check out the new
32:26
column, the bean Journal which details, what and where I'm
32:29
drinking coffee. My coffee experiments and will
32:31
feature my summer travel coffee diary.
32:34
Thank you for listening to the show today.
32:36
And to my industry Partners, my legacy Partners have been with
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me for 99 shows so far, and I'm really grateful to say that
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they're sticking it out to 100. They include most your coffee
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round out, this shows partners and I couldn't do this without
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Coast coffee. Podcast is was has been written
33:12
produced and recorded by me Ryan Walt.
33:15
I hope this show is found you happy healthy and with at least
33:18
enough sanity and coffee to make it through the day.
33:22
And please always tip your Baristas and be sure to drink a
33:26
coffee. I like beer, hey, everyone.
33:55
If you like the roast West Coast coffee podcast, you might also
33:58
appreciate the, I like beer the podcast.
34:01
Listening to these guys is like being a fly on the wall of the
34:04
pub with a few of your favorite mates.
34:05
Having a pint these professional beer appreciators, have plenty
34:09
of stories to share on everything from the mating
34:11
habits of penguins to there behind the scenes Brewery
34:15
experiences check out the, I like beer the podcast where
34:18
ever, you are listening to this show about coffee or head.
34:21
To, I like beer, the Podcast.com.
34:22
Podcast.com.