Home roasting is slowly catching up among coffee drinkers as the best way to make coffee beans taste just like you want.
During this process, coffee beans are roasted at home in small coffee roasters for the length of time it takes to get the roast you prefer.
If you don’t roast coffee beans properly, you will end up with a batch of coffee that makes a flavorless brew. The same case applies if you don’t degas them correctly.
What is Degassing Coffee?
Degassing or resting is a process that occurs after coffee roasting to enhance its flavor. It necessitates leaving roasted coffee beans for a while to ensure they expel most of the gases in them. Where do these gases come from?
Well, a chemical reaction occurs during coffee roasting that breaks down carbs and other substances in the coffee beans, releasing carbon dioxide. This gas builds up throughout the roasting process and increases the darker the coffee beans get.
You can roast green coffee beans to light, medium, or dark roast quality or according to your preferred brew. A good example is espresso coffee beans.
These dark roast coffee beans for making espresso are preferred over other roasts because they make great-tasting coffee packed with caffeine.
When brewing coffee, espresso coffee beans are exposed to hot water at high pressure. This forces any flavors, aromas, and gases out of the coffee beans creating a boldly flavored drink with lots of crema.
The crema is made up of bubbles formed from the trapped gases that are released from the coffee grounds. While most coffee drinkers prefer a nice crema on their espresso, too much of it will interfere with the flavor of the espresso brewed.
The more gases produced during espresso brewing, the less flavorful you can expect the brew to become.
Therefore, to avoid this, you must rest/ degas espresso coffee beans long enough to release trapped gases and leave just enough to create a flavorful coffee drink.
So, the degassing step in coffee roasting is necessary, especially for espresso coffee beans, because it gives them time to release a large percentage of the gases trapped in them.
This ensures the espresso coffee beans are only left with enough gas to release a small layer of crema, ensuring the resulting cup of espresso is flavorful.
How Long Does it Take to Degas Espresso Coffee Beans?
Roasted coffee beans can take 5 – 14 days to release the gases trapped in them. Most of these gases escape from the roasted coffee beans within 6 days of the post-roasting period.
During this time, the roasted coffee beans are kept in bags with one-way valves to prevent oxidation. These bags allow for the slow release of carbon dioxide while keeping the coffee beans protected from light, moisture, and oxygen to keep them fresh.
You can expect espresso coffee beans to release a lot of the gases stored in them during the first few days after roasting coffee beans. In fact, 40 percent of the carbon dioxide in these beans leaves the coffee beans in the first 24 hours.
If you brew coffee using these improperly degassed coffee beans, it will result in an uneven extraction. This is why you must wait at least 10 days to degas espresso coffee beans after roasting.
How the Coffee Brewing Process Determines the Degassing Period
Coffee beans are also degassed depending on how they will be used to brew coffee. Brewing methods such as pour-over coffee-making that necessitate coffee grounds to have more contact time with hot water do not require coffee beans to be degassed for a long time.
However coffee beans meant for espresso coffee making, a process used to brew coffee in minutes at high pressure, require lengthy degassing periods. This is to give them more time to release the carbon dioxide in them, ensuring they make the most flavorful brew.
However, oxidation can also affect the flavor of coffee you get from espresso coffee beans, even if you degas them properly.
When coffee beans are exposed to oxygen, they oxidate, losing their flavor and aroma. Therefore, you must store espresso coffee beans in resealable bags with a one-way valve to keep them from absorbing moisture or letting in any air as they degas.
If you store your coffee beans in this way, you are assured they will make boldly flavored espresso with a fantastic aroma and great caffeine kick.
Conclusion
Now you know how long it takes to degas espresso coffee beans. Although we’ve recommended 10 – 14 days, you can decide on your own time limit.
So why don’t you experiment with various coffee beans and time limits to find how long to degas your coffee beans to extract the flavor you prefer? You only need a small home coffee roaster for this process.
After a few tries of coffee roasting and degassing, you’ll be able to prepare the perfect espresso coffee beans for your home coffee brewing.
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