Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 1 - Nature's lottery and coffee's 3,000-year lag
Producer Toolkit: Fermentation, Pt 1 - Nature's lottery and coffee's 3,000-year lag  
Podcast: Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries
Published On: Mon Aug 24 2026
Description: This episode explores why coffee is only fifteen years into a fermentation revolution that wine and bread went through millennia ago, what's actually happening inside the tank when microbes multiply into billions on their own, and why farmers who used to ferment as fast as possible are now trying to do the opposite.  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.    Please spread the word about Filter Stories!   Follow us on Instagram - James (@filterstoriespodcast)  and Lucia (@lluciasolis) - and tag us in an Instagram story.    Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter Stay up to date with Lucia through her newsletter   Write a review on Apple Podcasts   Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify   Support James’ work directly by buying him a coffee at Ko-fi.com/FilterStories 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: Filter Stories - Coffee Quality, Part 1: The birth of specialty coffee flavours   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   Cabal Cafe Podcast en Espanol   Lucia's Favorite Tools: Temperature Gun Ambient Temperature Sensor Temperature Gun pH meter & buffer solution   The Coffee Producer Toolkit is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:   The Coffee Quest | BWT | Descamex | InterAmerican | Pinhalense | Novonesis | GrainPro   Check out Standart, the award-winning coffee magazine. Get a free magazine and a free bag of coffee by clicking here. Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses.  Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here.  Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here.    What kind of racing car does the Gaggia Classic GT home espresso machine remind you of? Use discount code FS202610 to get 10% off.