Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 3 - Is using yeast cheating? And who decides?
Show notes
This episode explores why 30 cents a kilo is trivial for a large farm and unaffordable for a small one, the strange power imbalance that lets roasters define quality when nobody asks a winemaker what yeast they used, and how producers can talk to buyers who think starter cultures are cheating.
Part of The Coffee Producer Toolkit, a series made in collaboration with Lucia Solis, it will help you understand coffee farming better than most professionals you'll meet at a trade show.
Each episode takes one part of the farming business — agronomy, processing, fermentation, storage, quality, sales — and lays out what the best farms are actually doing.
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Related podcast episodes:
Lucia:
- #72: Planning Your First Coffee Fermentation Trials? Start Here.
- #76: How Commercial Microbes Threaten The Coffee Industry
- #80: How Microbiology Can Explain Beginner's Luck
James:
People mentioned in the episode:
- Lester Lerner, Old Willow Coffee, Colombia
- Victor Chala, Palma Rosa, Colombia
- Fridolin Stocker— Mount Sunzu, Zambia
- Shyira washing station, Rwanda
- Evangelos Filippatos, La Cabra
- La Cabra, Copenhagen
- Helen Riley — Novonesis
- Gunne Øregaard — Novonesis
- Franz Zeimetz — Lost Origin Coffee Labs, Panama
- Alejandra Rodríguez Delgado — Hacienda San Pedrito, Puerto Rico
- Gustavo Arroyo — Rancho Contento, Puerto Rico
Resources:
- pH meter & buffer
- Thermometer
- Novonesis Pichia yeast
- Novonesis Lactobacillus bacteria
- Pressure washer
- Fermentation Log Sheet
- Yeast’s impact on the environment in research on vineyards
- Sprudge Best Of Panama coverage
- Lucia’s Fermentation Training Camp
- Coffee Wet Mill Sanitize
- Opciones para la desinfección del beneficio
Lucia's Favorite Tools:
The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro
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