What's coming out of YOUR roaster?

[joel]

Hi Folks,
I wanted to start a thread where we can share pictures and videos of what coffee we're roasting, share roast profiles/stats, strategies, and discuss our results. This thread can also be used to chat about different harvests, how good they are, and to help folks new to coffee bean roasting, get stellar results. Fire away, folks!

 

[Lightcs1776]

Today was a couple of pounds of Guatemalan beans using an RK Drum BBQ roasting kit. On hand is Columbian, Ethiopian, and Ethiopian Harrar (I only recall the name Harrar because I have been able to get a blueberry flavor out of this one).

 

[joel]

Alright - I'll kick this thread off with my first addition - and continue to update it each time I roast a new batch. Given I drink coffee I roast 95%+ of the time, expect regular updates/pics/videos from me here

Yesterday's roast, a lovely batch of Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Natural Geed Bedhatu Jibicho Grade 1 lot #4 was done on my trusty decade+ old Behmor 1600 using the P3 profile. It needed about 18:38 seconds to get to my ideal state of City+. Don't let the color/appearance fool you - these beans in particular are particularly difficult to roast, as they start to darken and show a surface sheen during first crack, so I imagine most folks end up over-roasting this particular bean. If you roast it too lightly, you end up with lots of sharp, acidic fruit notes that lean just a little too far into the sour spectrum for my taste, but a solid City+ preserves the dizzying complexity and intoxicating chocolate jammy flavors that really flex their muscles on this particular bean. I'm bummed I only purchased one pound of these beans, and will have to stock up in the future.


Description of the beans, from Burman Coffee Trader...

An awesome single farmer top lot natural produced by Bedhatu Jibicho. Bedhatu was born and raised in Worka where her farm is also located. She started working in coffee in the 1960s when the government gave land to her husband. Bedhatu’s takes great pride in the fact that she has managed the farm operations for over 50 years, even before her husband passed away in 1991. As Bedhatu is now over 80 years old, her adult children have started to become more involved in continuing her rich tradition of coffee production. The family plans to use the premiums from coffee sales to expand production and start an export company.

This season Bedhatu and her neighbors have banded together, using the premiums they’ve received on their awesome coffee to establish a farmer-owned export company to sell their coffee independently and direct to consumer instead of through the government organizations that kill traceability to the farmer.

Bedhatu Jibicho is a native to the Worka region of Gedeb. At over 80 years old, she might be the most experienced farmer we work with, having co-managed (with her late husband) the 23-hectare plot of government-allotted farmland since the 1960s. Her family continues to work the farm, especially aided recently by her son Tesfaye Roba.

Originally part of the Worka cooperative, Mrs. Jibicho joined the Banko Gotiti cooperative when it opened in 2013 and that same year, her farm was recognized as a community model, and she took specialty coffee preparation training.

 

[Toothpick]

Gosh, really making me want to have a cup of coffee! I gave it up over a year ago for tea. Still love the smell of a fresh brewed pot.

@joel you got any experience with Burman’s organic tea assortments?

 

[joel]

Gosh, really making me want to have a cup of coffee! I gave it up over a year ago for tea. Still love the smell of a fresh brewed pot.

@joel you got any experience with Burman’s organic tea assortments?

Who are you talking to?

They’re entirely decent. Not going to change your life though.

 

[Whisky]

This is the results of my first 2 attempts in my newly purchased Behmor 2000. I did some practice runs with “seasoning” beans and roasted them everywhere from just at first crack to past 2nd crack just to figure the machine out. This a pound (done in 1/2lb batches) of “Brazil Bravo” from Theta Ridge Coffee. It’s a little lighter than I like it. Gonna drink this then try again.

 

[joel]

This is the results of my first 2 attempts in my newly purchased Behmor 2000. I did some practice runs with “seasoning” beans and roasted them everywhere from just at first crack to past 2nd crack just to figure the machine out. This a pound (done in 1/2lb batches) of “Brazil Bravo” from Theta Ridge Coffee. It’s a little lighter than I like it. Gonna drink this then try again.

Wow Adam, what a great start! I've been using a Behmor for over a decade - if you have any questions, or need some help, let me know. Here's a recommendation that may help accelerate your journey and increase the fun factor:

It takes a little bit of time (but not that much!) to really get used to the sights, sounds, and smells - and what each means throughout the roasting process, and how they can change based on the varietal. These soft skills are the most important to hone in on, and in time they'll become natural to you, and your roast will read like clear text based on those three senses. While you're working on those, you'll also be figuring out roast profiles, what they do and how they change those three senses, as well as the taste of the coffee, and last - but NOT least, you'll learn how how early you have to hit the "cool" button and call an end to the roast - while accounting for the extra "roasting" you'll naturally experience with a contained system like the Behmor (IE: it doesn't belch the beans out of the roasting cavity onto a separate cooling tray, like a hot top roaster would). If you try to take all of that on, while going for an array of different roast types (City, full city, French, etc) your are juggling too many balls, and short and mid term results (and learning curve) will suffer as a result.

Based on the above - when you first start roasting, try purchasing beans that taste best as a darker roast and stick with the same beans for the first few months - as hard as it might be. In this manner you can really focus on those three aforementioned skills and start by timing (and pulling) your roast to hit somewhere around a French roast. Slowly pull back on future roasts - by just a short period of time and see how it affects the end results. Pay special attention to how much darker the beans get between when you stop the roast (by hitting the cool button) and the actual end of the cooling cycle. You'll notice how much "in the future" you'll have to plan future pulls to get ideal results. Keep doing this (and taking light tasting notes to gauge what you like) until your roast gets to the point where it's too light for the bean and the taste begins to suffer. You should know the magical sweet spot for your tongue for a darker roast, what it sounds, smells and looks like as it's getting there - and you have a strong baseline to work from. While other beans will act a little differently, when you're going for a darker roast of another bean type, the knowledge will get you ~90% of the way to perfection on your first shot with a new bean - that you're trying to get to *your* perfect dark roast.

Next - put it to the test. Buy another type of dark roast (green beans) but not nearly as much as you had done for your kick off above, and give the new beans a shot for your next 3-4 roasts and see how good they are the first time, and how quickly you can then dial them in to "your perfect." I think you'll be surprised how quickly you can do it. Now - the adventure - follow the rainbow down and move to lighter and lighter roasts, repeating the same process until you feel comfortable roasting anything.

After a period of time, you'll be able to roast nearly any bean to a shockingly good state, on your first shot on your first try. Once I got that good, I changed the beans I drank every week.

If you give it a shot - let us know how it goes!

 

[StillShaving]

This is the results of my first 2 attempts in my newly purchased Behmor 2000. I did some practice runs with “seasoning” beans and roasted them everywhere from just at first crack to past 2nd crack just to figure the machine out. This a pound (done in 1/2lb batches) of “Brazil Bravo” from Theta Ridge Coffee. It’s a little lighter than I like it. Gonna drink this then try again.
View attachment 1375737

Your coffee looks good, I expect it will make a good drip/pour-over.

Last week I roasted some Mexican and Rwandan from Theta Ridge in my Behmor 1600.

 

[joel]

Your coffee looks good, I expect it will make a good drip/pour-over.

Last week I roasted some Mexican and Rwandan from Theta Ridge in my Behmor 1600.

Do you happen to have any eye candy to share? Would love to see what your roast preferences look like from those two single origins!

Mexican coffee (which one exactly did you roast up?) tends to hit the spot for me - especially if they're good crop from Oaxaca and Chiapas, which have become really hard to find as of late.

 

[FarmerTan]

I'll have to stay away from this thread. I'm lusting for a roaster again.

 

[Whisky]

I'll have to stay away from this thread. I'm lusting for a roaster again.

 

[Whisky]

Wow Adam, what a great start! I've been using a Behmor for over a decade - if you have any questions, or need some help, let me know. Here's a recommendation that may help accelerate your journey and increase the fun factor:

It takes a little bit of time (but not that much!) to really get used to the sights, sounds, and smells - and what each means throughout the roasting process, and how they can change based on the varietal. These soft skills are the most important to hone in on, and in time they'll become natural to you, and your roast will read like clear text based on those three senses. While you're working on those, you'll also be figuring out roast profiles, what they do and how they change those three senses, as well as the taste of the coffee, and last - but NOT least, you'll learn how how early you have to hit the "cool" button and call an end to the roast - while accounting for the extra "roasting" you'll naturally experience with a contained system like the Behmor (IE: it doesn't belch the beans out of the roasting cavity onto a separate cooling tray, like a hot top roaster would). If you try to take all of that on, while going for an array of different roast types (City, full city, French, etc) your are juggling too many balls, and short and mid term results (and learning curve) will suffer as a result.

Based on the above - when you first start roasting, try purchasing beans that taste best as a darker roast and stick with the same beans for the first few months - as hard as it might be. In this manner you can really focus on those three aforementioned skills and start by timing (and pulling) your roast to hit somewhere around a French roast. Slowly pull back on future roasts - by just a short period of time and see how it affects the end results. Pay special attention to how much darker the beans get between when you stop the roast (by hitting the cool button) and the actual end of the cooling cycle. You'll notice how much "in the future" you'll have to plan future pulls to get ideal results. Keep doing this (and taking light tasting notes to gauge what you like) until your roast gets to the point where it's too light for the bean and the taste begins to suffer. You should know the magical sweet spot for your tongue for a darker roast, what it sounds, smells and looks like as it's getting there - and you have a strong baseline to work from. While other beans will act a little differently, when you're going for a darker roast of another bean type, the knowledge will get you ~90% of the way to perfection on your first shot with a new bean - that you're trying to get to *your* perfect dark roast.

Next - put it to the test. Buy another type of dark roast (green beans) but not nearly as much as you had done for your kick off above, and give the new beans a shot for your next 3-4 roasts and see how good they are the first time, and how quickly you can then dial them in to "your perfect." I think you'll be surprised how quickly you can do it. Now - the adventure - follow the rainbow down and move to lighter and lighter roasts, repeating the same process until you feel comfortable roasting anything.

After a period of time, you'll be able to roast nearly any bean to a shockingly good state, on your first shot on your first try. Once I got that good, I changed the beans I drank every week.

If you give it a shot - let us know how it goes!

Joel, thanks. That’s a lot of good info there. The beans I’m roasting now are part of the 8lbs that came free with the roaster. They were the sellers choose so I got 8 1lb bags of green beans from all over the world. I also got 10lbs of green “seasoning beans” that look like a small peaberry bean. Those are the ones I’m experimenting with because i can toss them out and not feel like i wasted a good coffee. The 1lb bags are nice, but I’ll never get them “perfect”. What they will allow me to do are flag some beans/areas of the world I’d like to try again in the future.

When I’ve roasted through all the free coffee I have 5lbs of Costa Rican Terrazu which is probably my top choice for coffee right now.

Everything is being brewed either in a well used TechniVorm or a Kalita Wave. The French press may be making a cameo appearance soon as well.

I’ll probably be doing another roast in about a week and I’ll post results here again.

 

[joel]

I'll have to stay away from this thread. I'm lusting for a roaster again.

It will likely become one of your favorite purchases of all time, and you literally reap the benefits daily.

Plus, you get to hang out with the cool kids in the roasting threads.....

 

[joel]

Joel, thanks. That’s a lot of good info there. The beans I’m roasting now are part of the 8lbs that came free with the roaster. They were the sellers choose so I got 8 1lb bags of green beans from all over the world. I also got 10lbs of green “seasoning beans” that look like a small peaberry bean. Those are the ones I’m experimenting with because i can toss them out and not feel like i wasted a good coffee. The 1lb bags are nice, but I’ll never get them “perfect”. What they will allow me to do are flag some beans/areas of the world I’d like to try again in the future.

When I’ve roasted through all the free coffee I have 5lbs of Costa Rican Terrazu which is probably my top choice for coffee right now.

Everything is being brewed either in a well used TechniVorm or a Kalita Wave. The French press may be making a cameo appearance soon as well.

I’ll probably be doing another roast in about a week and I’ll post results here again.

Awesome - looking forward to hearing about your next roast. What do you think of the TechniVorm? I had one many years ago, but never understood all the excitement.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Gosh, really making me want to have a cup of coffee! I gave it up over a year ago for tea. Still love the smell of a fresh brewed pot.

@joel you got any experience with Burman’s organic tea assortments?

Fresh roasted decaf is still really good coffee. Just saying.

 

[Lightcs1776]

I'll have to stay away from this thread. I'm lusting for a roaster again.

Just give in and be done with it already.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Joel, thanks. That’s a lot of good info there. The beans I’m roasting now are part of the 8lbs that came free with the roaster. They were the sellers choose so I got 8 1lb bags of green beans from all over the world. I also got 10lbs of green “seasoning beans” that look like a small peaberry bean. Those are the ones I’m experimenting with because i can toss them out and not feel like i wasted a good coffee. The 1lb bags are nice, but I’ll never get them “perfect”. What they will allow me to do are flag some beans/areas of the world I’d like to try again in the future.

When I’ve roasted through all the free coffee I have 5lbs of Costa Rican Terrazu which is probably my top choice for coffee right now.

Everything is being brewed either in a well used TechniVorm or a Kalita Wave. The French press may be making a cameo appearance soon as well.

I’ll probably be doing another roast in about a week and I’ll post results here again.

I used a Behmor for years. Best roasts, in my opinion, were between 10 and 12 ounces. Although the machine is rated for a pound, it seems to struggle with it. Also, the closer I got to the circuit box, the better it seemed to do.

 

[Whisky]

I used a Behmor for years. Best roasts, in my opinion, were between 10 and 12 ounces. Although the machine is rated for a pound, it seems to struggle with it. Also, the closer I got to the circuit box, the better it seemed to do.

I’ve heard that 10-12oz is the sweet spot for the Behmor. I’ve only done 8oz per roast so far but that’s just because I want to get 2 roasts of the same size out of 1lb of coffee.

 

[Whisky]

What do you think of the TechniVorm? I had one many years ago, but never understood all the excitement.

We’ve had ours close to 9yrs now. It replaced a KitchenAid and I don’t remember thinking that the TechniVorm was that much better than the KitchenAid. My only complaint with TechniVorm is the size of the Carafe/pot. We drink a lot of coffee in my house and use big mugs. A full pot gets us about 2 1/2 mugs of coffee. So we have to make at least 2 pots every morning. This isn’t necessarily bad as it ensures we always have fresh brewed coffee, but the grinder wakes the kids up. With company in town were brewing coffee pretty much non-stop all morning. I have an old Corning ware pop-up-top carafe that I keep filled when company is here.

 

[StillShaving]

Do you happen to have any eye candy to share? Would love to see what your roast preferences look like from those two single origins!

Mexican coffee (which one exactly did you roast up?) tends to hit the spot for me - especially if they're good crop from Oaxaca and Chiapas, which have become really hard to find as of late.

Looks like the one they are currently selling is from the Veracruz region. Their website does not provide many details beyond labeling it as "High Grown Mexican" and describing as "Distinct delicate, light flavor of sweet chocolate, honey, nuts and rich brisk acidity with a medium to light body." I had tried a Mexican Chiapas a year or two ago and liked that, so trying this one. It is the first time I have roasted this batch of green beans and my initial impression is good. That overall this should end up being a decent to very good coffee depending on how it is roasted. It had more acidity than I was expecting, almost like an African coffee which was a surprise and enjoyable. This is when brewed in a Hario v60. Next time I will try roasting it a touch longer to see what the flavor profile will be like. I expect it will mellow out a little more by next week. The Rwanda was also good, the acidity and flavor profile was different but I find it hard to describe the flavor now.