Roasterkat IG Reel about rain.

YouTube version of the Q&A portion

James Hoffmann Healthy Coffee Video

The 2025/2026 Harvest has not gone according to plan.

Nick and I have found ourselves with some down time and therefore have put together this casual, end of year update on how the season is going so far. Spoiler alert: not well.

I've combined a harvest update with listener questions about fermentation.

Questions featured in this episode are:

• Are all coffees that are not anaerobic, aerobic?
• Am I aware of any efforts to design yeasts for Robusta?
• Do I think producers should create terms that further describe processing?
• How can you more precisely measure fermentation process with whole cherries?
• What's the most eco-friendly way to treat waste water and effluent?
  
  Email info.luxiacoffee@gmail if you would like to discuss Plur1bus.
  
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  Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
  Intro song: Elijah Bisbee
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Sprudge Best Of Panama Article

Remanence and survival of commercial yeast in different ecological niches of the vineyard

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Water massively impacts your coffee's flavours. But most of us struggle to fix our water because water science is confusing...

Join me and James as we go step-by-step through:

• Why these concepts matter for coffee flavour and equipment
• How to test your water at home
• How to fix it, depending on what you're working with

Check James' website for all of the visuals mentioned in the episode.

Resources: 

#44: Are Wine Making Techniques the Future of Coffee?

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Resources:

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Get a ticket to FTC-10 December 2025

Luke's Website: Pomelo Coffee Consulting

Luke's Book: Pre-Order Pomelo book

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

Office Hours with Luke: 9am (GMT-6) Friday July 18th 2025

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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This episode developed thanks to Nick, who thought it would be a good time to revisit a bit of my history in coffee to reconnect with long-time listeners, and to share a bit more about myself with new listeners. We started this podcast about 6 years ago, and if you've been through all 72 episodes, you probably have a good idea about my coffee philosophies. 

But I also know that not everyone enjoys, or maybe even has the time to go back and start at the very beginning of a podcast. So we thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a bit of my coffee origin story, and a manifesto of sorts, all under one roof.

Resources:

Responses, Inquiries, & questions about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Intro song: Elijah Bisbee

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Today's episode offers a behind the scenes view of how I approach a coffee producer's first time using yeast for their coffee fermentations.

We run through all of the potential variables to pay attention to when designing your first trials with commercial microbes. From cost of production to work-flow and data collection.

This conversation was recorded during a recent Office Hours session through our private Discord community. If you would like to be a part of this community, join Patreon and come participate in the discussion.

View the decision flow-chart here


Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

Support the show

Some of the questions in this episode:

• What typically happens to the water, along with cascara and whatever else is part of a fermentation, after the fermentation has been completed?
• Cascara is sometimes processed into a secondary product, cascara tea. Are there other secondary products that are made?
• As a roaster, what should we put on our bags to better point towards the farm?
• What's the consensus on adding flavor descriptors to bags? Do or don't?
• How can I store coffee cherry for 2–3 days without creating high damage?

Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes pictures.

Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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This episode is a final harvest update and the behind the scenes of performing whole cherry fermentation with various microbes in an attempt to create a Dry Process/Natural coffee that I want to drink.

Resources:

Inquiries about coffee sales or future Fermentation Training Camps: [email protected]

Support the show on Patreon  to join our live Discord hangouts, and get access to research papers, transcripts and videos.

And if you don't want to commit, show your support here with a one time contribution: PayPal

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Cover Art by: Nick Hafner
Into song: Elijah Bisbee

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I have wanted to make this episode for a long time, but I wasn't sure how to make it work. Finally some research for Dr. Flavio Borem helped crack the topic for me and the result is today's new episode.

 Things we discuss on this episode:

• Washed processed that tastes like a natural
• Process-forward coffees, funky coffee
• Neutral processing 
• The need for speed, & gentle drying
• Drying is not just removing water
• Biggest producer mistakes, not upgrading the drying
• Fallacy of terroir 

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