a late christmas surprise...

[linty1]

Today my wife surprised me during a trip downtown:

I Behmor. And it came with a credit and I also picked up some beans to start

So I have yet to crack the box (its late) but I plan on using these instructions:

Very excited... I guess my questions are, so at the first sound of crack, I hit the cool doen button? Or do I let it crack for a but then cool? I like my roasts to be light... Also is putting 1/4 lbs ok?

 

[Mick]

Don't forget to do the recommended break in dry run since you have a new roaster

 

[linty1]

Don't forget to do the recommended break in dry run since you have a new roaster

Thanks turtle, in your instructions, you say "at 1st crack" do you mean at the beginning when it starts to crack? Or when the cracking has stopped?

 

[Mick]

Start of first crack to begin with.

Don't be fooled, sometime you will get an early/rogue crack or two before 1st crack actually begins.

This should yield a medium roast

 

[StillShaving]

The start time and length of first crack will vary depending on the coffee and amount. For your first few roasts I would recommend using a simple profile and letting it run well beyond the end of 1st crack, to the point of starting 2nd crack. Not for the purpose of obtaining the ideal roast but for you to learn the sights, sounds, and smells of the roast taking shape. Then you can do subsequent roasts varying parameters to determine what roast profile you like best. IMO you want to nearly charcoal one of your starter roasts so that you better understand the process.

 

[linty1]

Hello, thanks for the tips, I'm trying to find a few youtube videos that take one throught a roast just to try and get some sounds... but yes, I might have to sacrifice some beans... I wish I had bought more.

 

[linty1]

A picture of the unboxing...


The brush is shedding a lot... a slow process as I also have a stack of paperwork and family duties to attend to..

 

[Mick]

The brush is shedding a lot...

Maybe they'll re-knot if for you?

 

[linty1]

Alright, I did a dry run, decided to do it on the stove top as it will withstand heat and its got the vent hood fan... finished that and ran 1/4 lbs of Yunnan Catimor.. as it was counting down, it had reached 1:40 without cracking so I had to hit the "+" time a few times... anyways the results:

I notice that there is still a lot of chafe still stuck on the beans.. but how did I do?

 

[Mick]

The important question is.... Did you enjoy roasting?

Looks like a city or light American roast to me.

Grind some up and make a cup

You can put your beans in a colander and shake them around to remove chaff.

what I do is put them over a patton fan. That cools fast and blows the chaff away. Once they cool enough to stick your hand in, move them around to help separate the chaff from the beans

 

[linty1]

Grind some up and make a cup

That will be fun... and yes! I think I read somewhere one should wait a day or two before grinding no? Its a little bugger to clean... I thought I had gotten it all, close the door, reopen and a few flakes have suddenly come out of nowhere... the brush shed, but is handy... I may go pick up a better on from the hardware store. So to get a darker/lighter roast, I simply repeat the same steps, but hit the cool button either sooner or later?

 

[Leatherneck]

When I remove the chaff, I jus carry the whole drum outside and shake the snot out of it. The beans will loosen almost all the chaff into small enough pieces to fall through the drum. Plus it's fun to watch the chaff blow away. Some will stick to your shirt. Badge of roasting honor.

 

[linty1]

That's a good idea... I did shake the drum a little but was a little afraid to "shake the snot out of it" lol but I will do that next time. As for the Yunnan Cantimor, I went back to the website of the store I got the beans from, and apparently instead of a light city roast, I should be aiming more for a Full City... so does that mean going until the END of 1st crack and hitting the cool button? Or the start of second? middle of 2nd?

Also when I'm hitting 1/4 batch, then P2 then start, the initial roast time isn't very long... I can hit the "+" button, but is there a way to start it off with a longer timer?

 

[StillShaving]

Congratulations on completing your first roast! It looks a little light, I would try brewing a cup and roasting longer/darker the next time to compare against. As for additional feedback:

1) I would expect your brush to stop shedding soon. Maybe it was over packed at the factory like some of our badger shave brushes? I am still using the brush shipped with my roaster many years later and it has not shed. Though is pretty low quality, reminds me of a brush to used to slather on barbeque sauce while cooking on the gas grill. I expect that an angle trim paint brush would work better.

2) Chaff does tend to get stick inside the roaster, probably due to static electricity and being very lightweight. It is a pain to clean out 100%, particularly if you are roasting more than one batch at a sitting. I just keep on brushing and occasionally blowing a puff of air inside to flush it out as best I can. I would not care about any chaff which remains on the beans as it will easily pass through your grinder and is not water soluble.
3) Do not "shake the snot out of the drum" as you risk damaging it to the point of needing to repair or replace it. As you can see the drum is mostly a wire mesh which in theory is sturdy enough to last for the life of the machine.....however this wire mesh has some metal fins affixed to the mesh in order to stir the beans inside the roaster. If one briskly shakes a drum loaded with coffee beans the force of those beans against the fins will act as lever and may cause the fins to break off since there is not much surface area between the fin and drum surface to support that kind of dynamic load. I had to repair my drum after a shaking it in an attempt to remove some funk on the beans pre-roast (which may have been a result of the green coffee processing or from transport inside a disintegrating burlap shack).

 

[linty1]

So four days have passed and I've let the coffee rest, today after work I excitedly went to put them in the grinder and not sure if I'm imagining things, but it seemed harder to grind? Anyways here it is:

Put it in the french press and mmmm... very yummy! Even though I had discovered the website recommended a medium+ roast, it was still a cup I could get with. And yes the chafe was not an issue. Next time I roast (still have a 1/4lb bag of this lft) I will try to take it past 1st crack and just when it starts 2nd, hit the cool. Well.... that is the plan anyways.

 

[Mick]

Typically, hard to grind means under roasted.

Your photo shows a light roast but acceptable.