Barista Magazine

Apr-May 2012

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patios tend to take a little bit longer to dry the coff ee, ranging from fi ve to seven days on average. GILING BASAH ( WET HULLED ) T e main islands of Indonesia (Sumatra, Flores, Bali) and Sulawesi are known for the extremely unique way of drying coff ee that is not really found anywhere else. In English, we called this style wet hulled; in Indonesia it is called Giling Basah. A few things to note before going fully into the process: In Sumatra—about which I will focus on the wet hulled method of drying— there is very little centralized wet mill processing. T is means that most producers have a coff ee pulper at their house, and they pulp, ferment and wash the coff ee themselves. As I touched on in the fermentation section, farmers will generally pick coff ee in the morning or mid-day and pulp the coff ee before evening. T ey let it ferment overnight in a bucket or bag and then wash it clean in the morning or the middle of the next day. Once the coff ee is relatively clean, they dry it for a few hours up to half a day on patios, tarps, by the side of the road, or really wherever they can. T en the farmers bring their wet parchment to markets that are held in the evening. At these markets, coff ee collectors (buyers) will buy the wet parchment. From here the coff ee will either be sold again to a mill, or the collectors themselves will do more drying. Either way, the wet parchment is generally dried for another 12 hours up to three more days, mostly on a cement surface (road or patio). When it's around 30% or more moisture, the coff ee is then wet hulled. Wet hullers are just like normal dry milling equipment found all around the world, except that they have been up-fi tted with rubber teeth instead of metal to pull off the parchment surrounding the coff ee. T e rubber is used because the coff ee is very soſt and can damage easily. Once the parchment has been removed the coff ee will be taken back out to dry for another two to three days on average. T ese countries are the only places I have heard of drying their coff ee without the parchment on, and this practice is something of a defi ning characteristic of the coff ee and fl avor profi le itself. I will say that wet hulling is the one type of drying that likely adds/changes the fl avors of the coff ee more than any other sort of drying. T is is because the raw green coff ee itself is likely to take in fl avors from the environment around it, whether good or bad. One special note is that Indonesian producers tend to wet hull their coff ee slightly earlier than those in Sulawesi. Sulawesi is known for wet hulling at a slightly lower moisture percentage. RAISED BED/AFRICAN BED While of course other drying methods exist in Africa, raised beds are by far the most common method of drying coff ee, so much so that in many places around the world they are called African beds. Interestingly enough, diff erent places have unique ways of using the raised beds. So under the topic of beds, I'm breaking it down a little further. • ETHIOPIA — Aſt er soaking, coff ee is placed on raised beds generally about one to three inches deep, and in full sunlight. During the day, the coff ee is turned over many times to ensure even drying. At many washing stations the coff ee will be covered with a cloth or tarp during the lunch hours to protect it from the mid-day direct sunlight; but other stations do not. At night, the coff ee is typically covered with plastic tarps to protect it from rain and moisture. General drying time is 14 days. • KENYA, CONDITIONING BINS — Aſt er soaking in tanks, the coff ee is taken or pumped to what are called skin drying tables. T e skin drying tables are raised beds that are used for only the fi rst 30 minutes to a few hours of drying until the outside parchment is dry. Once the parchment is dry to the touch, the coff ee is taken to other raised beds for further drying. Here the coff ee will be turned oſt en, covered mid-day, and covered in the evening. At most washing stations, especially when they are busy and have lots of coff ee, the coff ee will be taken off the raised beds at fi ve to nine days, when the coff ee is around 19–20% moisture, and placed in large wire bins for what is called conditioning. In these bins the coff ee will very, very 48 barista magazine slowly dry over the course of between 20 to 40 days. During that time the coff ee will be moved around to ensure even drying and equalization of moisture. When there is space on the raised beds, the coff ee will be taken out of the conditioning bins and placed on the raised beds again. It will generally only take another three to fi ve days to fi nish the drying. In a slow year, or in places that have enough room and enough raised beds, conditioning bins are not used or are used less. When this is the case,

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