Gary, Yes that’s a little uneven but in my experience lighter roasts on Ethiopian beans are going to be uneven. Dry processed seem to be more uneven that wet processed. But if you want to keep city roast you are going to have to accept a little unevenness. That’s said, I find most other beans to be more even at lighter roast levels and I am sure that you can work with your roast profile to reduce the unevenness somewhat.
I don’t mess much with my roast profile now but have experimented with extending the time between first and second crack. I found that doing so can have an impact on body and what I can best describe as green flavors that I sometimes get out of Sumatra beans when lighter roasted. Extending that time helped me lesssen those flavors while keeping a lighter roast. I still take Sumatra coffees into second crack but most everything else I stop after first crack.
Is the plus upgrade worth it on the Behmor? I am still using the older version but it is still going strong. I usually stick with the 1 - P3 - C roast profile for 10 oz of coffee. Making my way though 10 lb of Guatamala Patzun Finca Las Camelias from Sweet Marias right now.
Alan, are you roasting for espresso or coffee?
I did 3 batches yesterday. Up’d it to 220g
And following your advise, roasted outside.
One of the batches the exhaust fan came on, at which point the temp dropped from 305 to 275 and even on P5 (full power Manual) could not get the temp back up. The batches all look like they came out better than my previous, as I roasted a bit past 1C (about a minute) and immediately removed the drum to quickly shake and cool, (while putting the Behmor in cool mode) to avoid coasting.
I roast Full City or Full City plus, not for espresso. Never had exhaust come on as you describe. Even at 305. I go between P4 and P5 Manual at the end to keep temp 300-305 till first crack ends.
Thanks much Alan for your valuable input.
Seems the Exhaust coming on is a function of time more than temp. I will try to search to find out more about it. I also noted that once the timer was nearing 10:00 it would not allow me to add more time. I did as you had , and max’d out the timer from the start. on the batch where the exhaust fan came on (you can tell when it comes on by pushing the A button to see the exhaust temp rising), I did not max out the timer. It started at 18:00 and the exhaust came on around 7:00
Do you let your beans to go into Second Crack?
hitting 1 lb gives an 18 min roast. Can hit + and take it to 20:30 before hitting start. (I also do a 2 min preheat.) Have to hit start again between 6:30-7:00 or it shuts down. When I get to one minute, I hit C and P5, bouncing between P4 and P5 based on temperature. I roast 400 gm. I don’t go to second crack. I go mostly by smell and sound.
Slight thread drift for a question from you coffee experts. I buy freshly roasted whole bean coffee from a local roaster and grind in a Capresso grinder. Was in Costco and was tempted into buying a big bag of Starbucks whole bean on sale. When I grind it, it sticks to everything and makes a mess. Asked my friend Google and he said it’s due to static electricity. If so (or if not) why does my locally roasted coffee grind cleanly and the Starbucks makes such a mess?
I also have a Capresso and if there is an oily sheen on the beans it always has an issue with static. Supposedly, if you place three drops of water at different places on top of the beans in the hopper before grinding, the static issue goes away. I’m mainly using medium to light roasts these days, so haven’t tried this trick.
I also suspect that the big bag of Starbucks is going to be stale as sh*t by the time you’re through with it, though it matters a lot less for those very darkly roasted profiles than for a lighter roast.
Looking back on this thread that I started a long time ago, I can now report that I have a Behmor that was used maybe 12 times and now sits in my basement collecting dust. I just find I don’t really have the time for it so I have gone back to buying from local roasters. I should probably sell it in a coffee forum. It was fun to experiment with but I couldn’t deal with the time commitment.
not sure I understand. I roast Central American beans on a Behmor 1600+. I weigh the coffee, do a 2 minute preheat (outside), set time for 20:30 and my timer for 13:00, go back out there at 7:00 to hit the mandatory start again, set timer for 5 min and go out there then again for about 2-3 min to finish the roast. Return in 13 min to shake the cooled beans to rid chaff, and I’m done. Total time is about 40 min but in front of the machine only about 5 of those minutes, doing other things the rest of the time.
The superiority of fresh, quality beans roasted how I like them outweighs any time commitment. And I save a lot of money.
I usually do 3-4 400 gm roasts on a weekend when I’m hanging around the house or in the morning when reading and drinking coffee, so it’s easy.
Alan, that’s still a lot of time involvement for me. Young kids, busy with work, large old house to care for, so I just find that is about an hour of involved time that I could spend doing other things. Maybe when my kids are older I’ll return to it.
As for quality I completely agree wrt freshness, but there’s a roaster here who, IMO, roasts absolutely top notch beans, so I go there whenever possible. There are a couple of others who do excellent work as well if I can’t make it to my first choice. With any of those options I’m getting beans within 2-3 days of roast, because I always make sure to grab the most recently roasted bag. Now, the money thing is definitely a valid point, because I’m paying anywhere from $16-25 for 12 oz of beans, depending on what type I select.
My protocol is similar to Alan’s… start the roast, set a timer to be in front of roaster to monitor first crack, then cool the beans. A few minutes of hands-on time 2-3 times a week yields a steady supply of fresh coffee, roasted the way I like (usually City/City+; the darkest I go is Full City). I’d spend way more than twice that time making weekly drives to a local roaster – for coffee roasted too dark for my taste anyway.
That all makes sense, but still too much time for me, particularly the 2-3 times a week bit. I stop at the most convenient option (my second choice roaster) on the way to work, or to the place I prefer more when I on my way to get a haircut, get beans and a drink and it adds just a few minutes to a trip I’m making anyway. However, the roasters I’m frequenting certainly don’t go too dark at all. To me that would be a hallmark of a bad roaster, or at least someone I’d avoid. These are top notch places, particularly Sump, whose beans are as good as any I’ve had.
Alan W. - Late reply on my part, sorry. I am not to worried about my lungs. I roast only a few times a week, a 9-10 minute roast each time. Having said thatm I am impressed by the amout of coffee oil at the bottom of my roasting chamber. I had to break the roaster down and clean it up…wowoo what a mess
Roasting… I am in front of the roaster from start to finish since my roaster is all manual
Just placed an order for some more Green Beans. Since I respect your Burg Palate, figured I should try some Guats too! … Ordered some Guatemala Xinabajul La Libertad Lot 2, Guatemala Huehuetenango Xinabajul SWP Decaf, Nicaragua Dipilto Finca La Laguna, Nicaragua Finca Buenos Aires Caturra Lot 2 and 2 Espresso Blends, Sweet Maria’s Altiplano Blend and New Classic Espresso.
Alan on my last 2 batches I used your method, 2 minute PreHeat, then started my Roast, stopped it just before 2:00, and restarted, adding time up to 20:30. Is it possible that you do not notice the exhaust fan coming on because you are not standing there the whole time? or maybe that you have the older model and upgraded it? Either way, my exhaust fan comes on when there is 10:30 left in the roast. Next time you roast, towards the end, hit the A and see if its above 129F. If so I believe it means the exhaust is on… when it comes on, I get a dip in temp…
Before the fan comes up, I get up to 315 or 320 on P5, then back off to P4… but when the fan comes on , the temp drops to 280F… using P5 I can get it back to 305…
