What Green Coffee did you Buy or Roast Today?

[Mick]

Mid 60's outside today so another good roasting day outside

Three 1/2 lb roasts. I am just about out of pour over roasts so everything today was light roasted as that is the way SWMBO likes her pour over.

First roast was Colombian Supremo roasted "American style" (light, just into first crack 410º)

Second roast was some Kenyan Kirimara Estate peaberry that I have been hording, roasted to city + (end of first crack 415º)

Third roast was Costa Rican Tarrazu roasted "American style" (light, just at first crack 408º)

 

[StillShaving]

Roasted mid last week, it was cold outside but I was out of coffee. Reached second crack before I expected.

A before and after picture of the Ethiopian Sidamo, naturally processed.

 

[HydroWVU]

I really liked the before and after pictures. That was a good idea



John

 

[HydroWVU]

Lots of questions. I am insanely curious how it tastes. And where were you able to procure such a unique coffee

 

[HydroWVU]

We got a beautiful day on Saturday. Upper 60s. I roasted a little over 1lb of Brazilian pea berry and 1/2 lb of black honey Costa Rican


Just in to second crack Brazil


About 30 seconds into second crack Brazil

And finally

Black Honey just into second crack


Is the first crack of a pea berry roast not as pronounced as regular split beans. I had 5 lbs of that Brazilian pea berry and every time there were only a few pops for first crack


John

 

[HydroWVU]

Got my pics messed up. First is black honey and the last is lighter pea berry

 

[StillShaving]

@turtle, @hard_heart, @HydroWVU, you guys are all producing some nice looking roasts.

@hard_heart, I have never seen a coffee that pale before, what kind of processing did it undergo?

@HydroWVU, I cannot answer your specific question about minimal first crack on your peaberry, but I have had coffees that seemed to do the same or immediately start rolling from 1st crack into 2nd with little or no time in between. I don't know if my roast temperatures were too high or it was something else, but this seemed to happen more the older the coffee was.

 

[Evil4blue]

I finally get to join you guys in this thread (major milestone for me). I just christened my Hottop and roasted my first batch. It went OK, but was way faster than I was ready for. I could barely keep up with what was going on in the roaster, the control panel, and my data sheet.

Anyway, I picked the Colombia Concordia Santa Monica to test on. Here's the link to the bean info:

http://www.roastmasters.com/colombia.html

My charge was 215g @ 275F

First Crack was at ~8mins

Second Crack was at ~10mins

Drop was 10:15 @ 425 F

I think the roast ended up about Full City +

All in all, I'm just glad I didn't start a fire.

Here's some pictures:







Here's the resulting profile:



I learned a lot. I really need to back off on the heater a bit earlier than I did. I had a hard time hearing the end of First Crack and Second seemed to start pretty quick after it. I was going for more of a City+ roast but everything was moving so fast I missed my mark. Better things in the future I think.

 

[Mick]

Those are some nice looking beans for your first roast.

grab some and grind them. Wait about 10 minutes after you grind them then brew. See what you think. A 10-15 minute rest after grinding seems to be about right for freshly roasted beans to degas enough to not taste like lawn clippings.

You need to find out what freshly roasted coffee taste like. Then you can compare it to the taste tomorrow and by Saturday or Sunday at the latest they should be ready to go.

You want to grind your beans as close to the time you start brewing as possible when the beans have settled down but very fresh (that day roasted) you can usually grind early and they taste OK if you give them a little time between grinding and brewing.

GO FOR IT.......

 

[ltjaw]

Like Mick says. I think freshly roasted coffee is best 48 hours after the roast, but I often want to try it the next morning. So I grind about 10-15 minutes before brewing, and this helps it taste better.

The roast looks nice, congrats. I have often wondered if my Hottop temp probe is calibrated differently. If I go to 425, I have black, oily, burnt coffee. Or maybe there's something to do with my profile?

 

[StillShaving]

Nice looking inaugural roast. I expect that you will enjoy drinking it this weekend.

 

[Evil4blue]

@Hard_heart

The beans look a lot darker in person, but color rating beans is another one of those things I'll get better at as learn and roast more. I was shooting for a little lighter, thinking that is I overshot, I'd still get something drinkable. I'm happy with the way they turned out, so far, but the proof will be in the cup.

I felt like I had little control over what was really going on with the roast. I was adjusting the heater and fan settings,but it seemed to have little affect on the actual rise of temperature. I think everything I did tonight was reactionary, rather than anticipatory. As I get to know the equipment and beans, I think I can control the roaster environment better.

@Andrew

Does you hottop have the newer bean mass thermocouple or the older button style thermocouple? That may account for the difference in temp. Mine came with the newer style thermocouple, but it's still not truly measuring bean temp. I can see that I'm going to want to do the mod that measures the real BT and ET at some point in the future.

@Mick

It was too late in the day for me to drink coffee and still get a good night of sleep. I'll try some in the morning.

@All

I forgot to add to my previous post. The resultant weight of the beans was 183g, ~14.9% weight loss. This seems to be about what I should expect, at least from what I've read.

Thanks to everyone for the help and insight you've all offered me. I can't wait to try this coffee and roast some more beans soon.

 

[ltjaw]

Yes, my Hottop has the older button style temp probe. That clears things up for me, I think.

I totally understand what you mean about having little control over the roast your first go round. It takes a few roasts to get a handle on what changing the heat level and fan speed do, and how long it takes for these changes to have an effect. Adding BT and ET probes to my Hottop has given me a better idea how changes in roaster settings affect the roast profile. Adding probes isn't necessary for getting great roasts from your Hottop, though. It just adds a sense of control and makes logging your roasts easier.

Before adding temp probes, the two main areas I focused my efforts to control the roast profile were the length of the drying phase and the length of first crack. I occasionally drop the heat level down to 30% and bump the fan to 100% a minute or two before first crack to slow things down. The important thing is to maintain a rise in the bean temp.

With the new temp probes installed, I have been able to play around with lifting the filter from the back of the roaster to allow more air flow and faster cooling of the roaster to slow the rise in temp. I'm not convinced yet that this has any beneficial effect on my roasts, but it's another variable to play with.

A couple other things to consider: humidity can have a significant effect on your roast. Also, as the filter in back of your Hottop ages, the airflow decreases and changes in the fan setting have a less noticeable effect.

 

[Mick]

Yes, my Hottop has the older button style temp probe. That clears things up for me, I think.

I totally understand what you mean about having little control over the roast your first go round. It takes a few roasts to get a handle on what changing the heat level and fan speed do, and how long it takes for these changes to have an effect.

I keep the burner on full blast all through the roast and adjust the timing (how long the roast stays at the drying temp and 1st crack temp) by using the fan to draw heat out of the roaster during bean drying and at 1st crack to the end of the roast. I find that the burner is just too slow responding (lowering temp and raising it) to take it off of full except if I want to extend the roast into to the dark side, then burners go off and fan goes on full around 420º so that the machine thermocouple does not register to the safety bean dump temp and force the beans into the cooling tray before I am ready for them to be dumped

I DO NOT use the fan for smoke control, I use it for roast control. I wish the heating elements were stronger as I want to get 100% more heat out of it sometimes. IF they had made a larger burner and made the machine 20 amp only (dedicated 20 amp plug) I would be happier but that would have cut their thin specialty market even thinner as many homes do not have adequate wiring for a dedicated 20 amp appliance.

Adding BT and ET probes to my Hottop has given me a better idea how changes in roaster settings affect the roast profile. Adding probes isn't necessary for getting great roasts from your Hottop, though. It just adds a sense of control and makes logging your roasts easier.

Before adding temp probes, the two main areas I focused my efforts to control the roast profile were the length of the drying phase and the length of first crack. I occasionally drop the heat level down to 30% and bump the fan to 100% a minute or two before first crack to slow things down. The important thing is to maintain a rise in the bean temp.

With the new temp probes installed, I have been able to play around with lifting the filter from the back of the roaster to allow more air flow and faster cooling of the roaster to slow the rise in temp. I'm not convinced yet that this has any beneficial effect on my roasts, but it's another variable to play with.

What type probes (k-type) what location. Photos.... photos... photos.... please

 

[life2short1971]

HydroWVU.... I have a Behmor although I haven't used it lately, but when I do I like either P1 using 12-14 oz and stopping at the first hints of 2nd crack and also P3 doing the same. P3 really seemed to bring out the sugars and flavors of the bean best for me with Columbian,Guat, and Ethiopans.


Todays roasts were a Guatemala Huehuetenago Codech for 2 10oz batches to be used for Espresso and then I did 10oz Rwanda Rulindo for another member to start of second crack for drip use.

Normally I drop at 350ºf using 10oz and the beans hit 300º after just over 5 minutes and I end the roast at the start of second crack with around 1-2 minutes left on the default settings using the HotTop B2-K.

 

[HydroWVU]

@turtle, @hard_heart, @HydroWVU, you guys are all producing some nice looking roasts.

Thank you

@HydroWVU, I cannot answer your specific question about minimal first crack on your peaberry, but I have had coffees that seemed to do the same or immediately start rolling from 1st crack into 2nd with little or no time in between. I don't know if my roast temperatures were too high or it was something else, but this seemed to happen more the older the coffee was.

The only one I have noticed that with is the peaberry... but I haven't noticed any problems with the flavors. How did the coffee taste when you noticed the roast roll from 1st to 2nd crack.

John

 

[HydroWVU]

@Evil4Blue Great looking roast... Get ready for some get tasting coffee...

Here are a couple of pages that I helped me out when I first started roasting

This page has pics of the beans at different levels and temps during the roast.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/content/using-sight-determine-degree-roast

Which is a small part of an entire library about using all five senses during the roasting process.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/category/content-tags/degree-roast

My first couple of roasts, I brought up the roast pics page on my ipad and had it right beside my roaster while I was roasting. The thing I had to remember with the behmor was carry over.

John

 

[HydroWVU]

Coffee is from Burman Traders co. Actually, one of the baseline priced coffees. Monsooned Malabar India.



Thank you, and the coffee is left out to process naturally during the monsoons in the Malabar region of India. This stuff is easily in the best coffees I have had. I just finished off the last of the Bob-o-Link Peaberry (roasted a 2nd lb and I decided I won't post pics of a coffee I've already roasted to the same roast point) and I'll be drinking some tomorrow!

@hard_heart

I ordered 5 lbs of the Monsooned Malabar and 1 lb of the Bob-o-link Peaberry today. I can't wait to try them out. Thanks for reference.
You mentioned earlier that you could preheat your roaster, so that you can do a full pound. Have you tried it yet? If so has it given you any problems? I frequently roast 1/2 lbs roasts on the pound setting letting them go 18 to 23 minutes with out any issues what so ever.


Thanks

John

ps Sorry about blasting the thread with three different posts, that is what I get for not reading this week.

 

[Mick]

SWMBO went off to the library today (she volunteers) so I put Fremiet (our doggie) on the balcony, shoved out the Hottop, and did 3 half lb roasts today: Brazilian peaberry (city, to 405º), Tanzanian peaberry (city + 415º), and some Sumatran Goya (city 410º).

 

[life2short1971]

I learned a lot. I really need to back off on the heater a bit earlier than I did. I had a hard time hearing the end of First Crack and Second seemed to start pretty quick after it. I was going for more of a City+ roast but everything was moving so fast I missed my mark. Better things in the future I think.

The temps shown on the display vary from roaster to roaster so they are not an exact science unless you put your own thermocouples in and use an external meter.

What works for me to know when to cut the heat is when I know first crack will be starting soon I turn my fan on to 50% and as soon as first crack is starting I turn my heat down to 70% if the temperature in the room in in the 60's and the warmer the room is the more I cut the heat down. Like last night it was upper 60's in my garage so when first crack started I had my fan 50% and turned the heat down to 60% and the roast hit hit second crack consistently in about 2.5 minutes. When the warm season moves in I will use a bit more fan speed and cut the heat a bit more as well. It looks like your off to a great start and I wish I could roast on the stove but whoever built my house did not vent the hood to the roof. : (