Coffee Roaster

Bohrio

Hi guys

I was wondering if you have ever used tis particular roaster.

here is a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ3q3hitlHk

I s the GeneFace Roaster. It seems easy to clean and operate of course (not that others arent)

I know there are others around but I find this one not as big as others

Mr Magnolia

I've never used that one. I've a Behmor 1600 that I intend to sell whenever I get around to it. It's reviewed here. It'll roast 1lb of coffee in a session. Drop me a PM if you're interested. It'll be going up on adverts.ie soon otherwise.

Bohrio

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

I've never used that one. I've a Behmor 1600 that I intend to sell whenever I get around to it. It's reviewed here. It'll roast 1lb of coffee in a session. Drop me a PM if you're interested. It'll be going up on adverts.ie soon otherwise.

I have heard about that one.

PM sent

Mr Magnolia

A pleasure meeting you Bohrio, glad to see the Behmor off to a good home. Nice to talk espresso too without getting odd looks from blank faces!

Bohrio

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

A pleasure meeting you Bohrio, glad to see the Behmor off to a good home. Nice to talk espresso too without getting odd looks from blank faces!

I know what you mean, everytime I talk about coffee with someone, after a few minutes I start feeling he/she has started to look at me a bit weird... like if I am some sort of Coffee Geek or something... well, maybe I am but at least I am not the only one!!

Just finished tuning my pressure gauge on my expobar and in fact it was set a bit too hight. I am getting a bit more crema now, well quite a lot but I am still having problems with that cuban coffee, barely get any at all... but I am getting there, I just need to grind it at the right size...

Can't wait for use the roaster now, green beans will be coming next week, I will keep you posted!

Oh, and it would have been cheaper to send a courier, I tell you! Nice drive though...

Great meeting you too mr! I would have stayed for longer but I didnt want to bother!

Mr Magnolia

Bohrio wrote: »

Oh, and it would have been cheaper to send a courier, I tell you! Nice drive though...

Much more fun too! Keep me posted.

Bohrio

Just a quick update, while I wait for the green beans to arrive I decided to mess around with the pump pressure. After a bit of tweaking, not really hard to do, I brought the pressure from 10 down to 8.5 bars and I must say that not only I get more crema than before but the shot length and the cup taste has also improved inmensly.

Thanks for the tip, can't believe I wasnt aware of such magical screw

Bohrio

Ok lads

So I finally got the roaster last weekend and the green coffee on friday.

since then I have been reading about the roasting process, 1st crack, 2nd crack, roasting degrees (city, city+,etc) and etc etc

I must say that it has been a very interesting experience. I am new at this and there is a lot for me to learn still (obviously) but I wanted to share my experience so far.

I ordered fresh green beans from hasbean. Brazilian type, espresso beans. Cheap enough (17 pounds 2 kg), perfect for this learning process.

First time I got the machine I tried roasting 1 lb of brazilian beans.

First attempt was a bit of a disaster. As I have never heard those cracks before by mistake I confused 1st and 2nd crack so I stopped the machine (which was running out of time anyway) right after the 1st crack.

So the coffee tasted like if I had grinded and brewed wallnuts. Bit weird.

I tried again but couldnt get a darker roast, the machine will run out of time before hitting 2nd crack. I have heard that behmors tend to loose power with use so I decided to reduce the amount of coffee from 450 gr to 300 gr and try again.

The results were perfect. The next two roast were absolutely amazing. This time I let the machine go all the way trought 1st crack and right into second. There was plenty of time left so on my first attempt I stopped the machine right after 2nd crack (2 seconds after). On my second roast I let the machine a few more seconds into 2nd crack, always careful the roaster wouldnt caught fire... results were a darker roast...

As you can see from the picture the one on the left was my first roast (2st ever), the second one was the second attempt (1st roast after reducing the amount of coffee from 450 to 300 grs). On this one I was looking for a city roast / medium roast and the last one (same amount 300 grms) I was looking for a city+ or medium-dark roast.

So I was very pleased to see it worked well...

Another improvement was the smell, my first roast smelled of nuts, the last two smelled as they were supposed to smell...

And last of course the taste and the crema... judge for yourself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39GPKwwWZkk

I used the naked portafilter but you get almost the same crema using a standard double one.

PS: Bear in mind and it was my second shot of the day so the grinder has not been adjusted to the new beans yet... oh and sorry for the dirty dishes too!

In conclusion, best coffee I have ever had! well... maybe not but close enough!

PPC

I found to get the best results from my Behmor i'd have to prewarm it for a few minutes before use.
I think i used 1/4lb P1 for 5 minutes then i'd mostly do a 1lb P1 with 400g of beans.
Haven't used my Behmor in a year or so though, too much effort setting it up and the smell isn't the most desired

Bohrio

PPC wrote: »

I found to get the best results from my Behmor i'd have to prewarm it for a few minutes before use.
I think i used 1/4lb P1 for 5 minutes then i'd mostly do a 1lb P1 with 400g of beans.
Haven't used my Behmor in a year or so though, too much effort setting it up and the smell isn't the most desired

Actually I dont mind the smell... is not what I expected but once the roasting is over is not too bad!

I need to play with the settings a bit, also, I have bought different type of beans too... P1 is a bit too agressive (so I have heard). As the power is always at 100% it could burn the bean very easily if its left for too long.

P3/4/5 tend to be a bit better as the roasting levels vary from 25% to 100% depending on the length of the roast...

Anyway shame I wasted over 2 lb of coffee during this tests... but it will all be worth it!!!

Bohrio

PPC wrote: »

I found to get the best results from my Behmor i'd have to prewarm it for a few minutes before use.

Oh I missed that part... maybe that would help... thanks!

donnacha

Great post Bohrio on your learning experiences with the Behmor.

I've been using my Behmor for a couple of years now - have found every bean needs a change to roast time but I typically roast in 250g portions on 1/2 P3 C - then I'll have to add between 10 and 40 seconds. One piece of advice would be to let your beans degas for at least 24 hrs - I tend to leave mine for 48hrs. If you are doing big enough batches I assume you'll be tasting the roasts over a period of time and you'll find certain beans improve significantly after 7 or 8 days of resting.

You may also find this site/download pretty useful - loads of users and plenty of databases you can compare results with:
http://www.roasterthing.com/

Mr Magnolia

Looks very good Bohrio. As Donnacha points out the beans do need a couple of days to degas so they'll improve when they get the resting time. I'm glad that you're enjoying the Behmor.

Bohrio

donnacha wrote: »

Great post Bohrio on your learning experiences with the Behmor.

I've been using my Behmor for a couple of years now - have found every bean needs a change to roast time but I typically roast in 250g portions on 1/2 P3 C - then I'll have to add between 10 and 40 seconds. One piece of advice would be to let your beans degas for at least 24 hrs - I tend to leave mine for 48hrs. If you are doing big enough batches I assume you'll be tasting the roasts over a period of time and you'll find certain beans improve significantly after 7 or 8 days of resting.

You may also find this site/download pretty useful - loads of users and plenty of databases you can compare results with:
http://www.roasterthing.com/

Thanks for that. Couldnt wait for my first beans to rest for that long... I was way too excited about the whole roasting thingie, I had to have a go a it...

But I will from now on, also waiting for resealable bags as well as more coffee from hasbean. I dont thin I can roast more than 350 grams on the behmor at one go... maybe 400 grams. We will see. I drink around 400 gr per week I think, more now with all this experimenting going on.

You are right, every bean is different, at least I am getting used to the roasting process, the way the beans behave etc... I am sure I will get it wrong a few more times still but I find the experience very interesting. Also green beans probably last longer than roasted beans (not 100% sure).

I want to try different roasts now, maybe a darker roast and also try with harder beans. So much to do, so little time!

thanks again for the tips! Very happy with the roast mr Magnolia!

PPC

Bohrio wrote: »

Also green beans probably last longer than roasted beans (not 100% sure).

I think i remember reading the rule for coffee is 14.
14 months for green, 14 days for roasted and 14 minutes for ground.
Of course there are exceptions and i've had some coffees take 3 weeks to mellow out into a nice drinkable cup.

I normally try leave the coffee 3-4 days before drinking it, so i'll normally roast 2 batches at a time and note what i did to them on the bag. That way i can compare results and find whats nice.
Most of the time it was just P1 until just after the first crack.

Check out http://www.toomuchcoffee.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&f=4 for some more info as well.

Bohrio

PPC wrote: »

I think i remember reading the rule for coffee is 14.
14 months for green, 14 days for roasted and 14 minutes for ground.
Of course there are exceptions and i've had some coffees take 3 weeks to mellow out into a nice drinkable cup.

I normally try leave the coffee 3-4 days before drinking it, so i'll normally roast 2 batches at a time and note what i did to them on the bag. That way i can compare results and find whats nice.
Most of the time it was just P1 until just after the first crack.

Check out http://www.toomuchcoffee.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewforum&f=4 for some more info as well.

Thanks again, I am looking forward to my next roast. At the moment I have enough coffee for 1 week, and I am on holidays next week, However I want to roast some more before I go. I have ordered several different types of coffee they should be arriving soon.

Very exciting moments lol

Thanks, I have also downloaded that piece of software... I am getting there, slowly but surely...