Basically what I was able To deduce from several hours of watching the Mill city roaster’s “Roaster Edication” playlist. This is what I was lookin g fir to start off with, but I’m glad I watched all that other stuff as well.
I always wonder why coffee experts like John do not use SCA guidelines for levels of roasting. It is a much more effective way to judge your roast, ie city- to full city+. I have been roasting for about 15 years and everything John says is bang on!
Extremely helpful;; how I wish I'd had the simple explanation two years ago. I stopped roasting two years ago due to it being too stressful as I wanted dark roast but ended up with either too light or burnt beans, because the information I had was too complicated is my roaster. But NOW I understand the precise process which is simple so I'm going to dust off my roaster, pull out the "green" beans and have another go, because I'm tired of crappy tasting "stale" coffee.
Thanks for the tips. First time I’ve seen anything about the moisture loss percentage making with lvl of roast. Thanks so much that’s going to help me dial things in that much better.
Thanks! I have a Sonofresco fluid bed roaster and still have issues with the roast profiles....or I'm not very good with modifying them through the ADR software. I get my best results when using sight, smell (which involves redirecting a portion of the exhaust air towards my nose) and hearing. Your advice on different timing periods after first crack and the cool down window have given me a better perspective.
Am I right in thinking that a Sonofresco fluid bed roaster is over $3,000? I'm at the beginning stages of roasting. (First batch today!) Although it seems like a fun project, I'm not sure if I need a "real" purpose made roaster. Problem is, my wife and I love one really good mug of coffee a day. I'd actually like to drink 3 pots a day, but can't do that anymore!
The total roasting time matters too, if you take too long the coffee starts to lose flavour, but if you roast too quickly, depending on the beans and the equipment, the batch can become uneven.
@@bbasevic So glad to hear that you're psyched! I always leave the heat on 9. Start with the fan on 9 for a few minutes and then begin dropping the fan speed roughly every minute or so until you start hearing first crack. You can fine tune this according to your voltage and ambient temperature but this will be an excellent default profile to play with. Enjoy the amazing journey :)
That's amazing, have a wonderful time! As a great starting point, try these settings with the stock chamber: Heat on 9 the entire time Fan on 9 for 2 minutes then Decrease fan by 1 every minute until finished. Enjoy
How did it go? I tried mine for the first time yesterday, and I'm drinking some of the best coffee I've ever had today. And, I live in a city with many very well respected roasters. I'm not a stranger to good coffee.
Another great lecturer in coffee roasting! Please include also the temperatures of each roast. And maybe your background plant could be a coffee tree. .
Love the idea of a coffee tree, just give me a few more years, hah! I've never used any temperature probes so I can't tell you what the bean temp should be at any given stage. The temp readout on the Behmor is useless and the one on the FreshRoast is helpful but inaccurate. I really just go off of total roast time, time to first crack, intensity and length of first crack, and then the % of weight lost. This has been enough to help me dial in the roasts to my liking.
Liked liked liked a bunch if i could hit that button more than once. thank you for the calculation towards the end. This video was very help in understanding the roast level from light to dark. I'm new to roasting coffee from home using a popcorn coffee roaster so any new information is very much appreciated and put to work.
Thank you so much, I'm really glad this helped you! Coffee roasting is such a fun journey - enjoy that popcorn roaster! I hope you've been getting some great roasts dialed in
A very straightforward video, I have the Behmor and agree about its limitations. With the FreshRoast, how can you hear 1st crack over the roaster noise?
It's much easier to hear in person, it's just hard to capture with my microphone. The fan is much louder than the Behmor but I'm able to hear even the weaker and fainter cracks no problem at all
You're very welcome! I do have one video showing a similar style roaster in action, which you can view here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0nQdt6f_Ljg.html I recently moved and only brought the FreshRoast and the Behmor with me so I won't be able to make any tutorials about that but if you follow the guidelines in this video and make sure you keep your beans moving, I'm sure you'll do great! Steady heat application and consistent movement are the keys. Best of luck to you!
Hello, i just started coffee roasting recently, and i have a question. I read somewhere that total roasting time normally is around 15 minutes to 30 minutes. But in the video John made an example with total roasting of 7 minutes. Is that also normal? Also, doesn't that means that the Maillard phase will happen too fast? Thank you.
I am using a rotisserie in an air fryer @ 450 degrees. It takes at least 23 minutes to reach 1st crack. Does it matter how long it takes to get to first crack. I saw just over 6 min on your machine. I am roastin an organic Ethiopia Gera nano Challa wet processed. I have had some success, but noticed the end result tastes good, but is missing a full flavor one would expect in a freshly roasted coffee.
In my own experience, any roast that takes more than 13-14 minutes to complete has a negative effect on flavor. People often refer to these as being "baked". This happened a lot on my Behmor, which is why I much prefer the FreshRoast roasters. If there is any way to boost the temperature of your machine, or get it fully preheated before adding the beans, I would recommend trying to shave as much time off your roasts as possible and see how you like it. Keep in mind that most commercial roasts are completely finished in the 10-13 minute range. Keep experimenting and I hope you enjoy your results!
The beans will still go through the exact same stages but you will have WAY more control. You’ll be able to preheat as much as you want, as well as quickly change the temperature up and down as desired. Plus you’ll have temperature probes charting the entire roast so that you can replicate the results you prefer. For the two home machines I’ve used, I basically need to roast on full power the entire time. Commercial machines give you nearly endless options to play with. Sure sounds like fun! Best luck to you on becoming a masterful roaster!
Hello, where did you pull this equation from? Looking for a guide from light to dark roast based on that calculation. Can you also change weighing from grams to oz?
Hi, this is just a mathematical equation to calculate the percentage of weight lost. I wouldn't do oz personally because you'll end up working with a lot more decimals. There are no hard rules about which % correlates to each roast stage as this will change somewhat from bean to bean. But I have found that, in general: Light roast = 12.5% - 13.5% Medium roast = 13.5% - 14.5% Dark roast = 14.5%+ These values seem to be reasonably accurate for most of the coffee I've roasted. The one notable exception was a peaberry that lost about 18% moisture at a medium roast. You'll have to dial this in for every bean you roast though. Just remember that the middle of first crack is a good place to start for a light roast. The end of first crack is a good place for medium. The very start of 2nd crack is dark. Roast to those points and then check the moisture. Repeat on your next roast and you'll be able to dial it in by going slightly longer or shorter on the roast. I hope this helps! Have fun :)
I usually shake the chaff out and let the beans cool first. I’d be surprised if there was even 1 gram of chaff in a pound of coffee, it’s super light. Most of it just floats away during the roasting process
I generally just leave mine in a colander on the counter lol. I’m roasting small enough batches that last 4-5 days so I don’t really worry about it anymore. But I used to always wait until the second or third day to transfer to the airtight container. Seems like the CO2 would all disperse from the airtight container once you opened it but I can’t honestly say for sure
i woudl have thought there would hav been more sound for the first crack. like does each seed have to emit this sound? or is that sound many seeds at once ?
It’s a bit hard to hear over the sound of the fan on this machine but it generally takes from 1-2 minutes for all of the beans to go through first crack. As long as the heat isn’t too low, you will hear all of them like a batch of popcorn
The biggest issue with roasting coffee is smoke. If you can't solve that, you can't roast. Roasting generates significant smoke and I've found that hood vents on stoves are not capable of handling the smoke. Since this is such a big problem, I am puzzled why this issue isn't addressed in videos such as this?
Smoke and vapor can certainly be an issue. I had to roast outside for several years due to insufficient vent hoods and overly sensitive smoke alarms. Currently, I am able to roast under the vent hood at this house but I never do dark roasts and my batch size is 1/2 lb or less. Roasting indoors has definitely been a gamechanger, since I am getting stable temperatures year round, but you are right that it isn't possible in all homes. How big are your batch sizes and how dark are you going?
I often hear people saying they roast for X amount of minutes "from first crack". Does this mean when first crack literally starts, peaks, or finishes? E.g., I heard something say they roasted for 45 seconds from first crack, and apparently that is considered a very light roast.
Great question. They're talking about the amount of time from the start of first crack. Not from the first few outliers, but the actual start when you hear multiple cracks in a row. 45 seconds is a very short amount of time. I would generally aim between 1:30-2:00 depending on the batch size and the heat level (I go for ~medium). Hotter roasts progress more quickly so this won't always give you the same results but is a decent statistic for you to dial things in.
@@JohnDennery That's what I did with my SR800 yesterday when trying it for the first time with some organic Honduran beans. I continued to roast about 2 minutes after hearing first crack. Whatever it was I did certainly worked, because the coffee is amazing today. I just hope that wasn't beginners luck, and I can repeat it. lol
I’ve only used small, home roasting machines but if I was going to upgrade I’d get the Aillio Bullet. This is fully capable of helping you with a small business. Some shops use 2 or 3 of them and it looks like an absolutely fantastic roaster! aillio.com/?product=bullet-roaster-r1
I didn't see what roaster you were using. It looks like a tube was added to a freshroast like roaster. What roaster were you using for this video? Thanks
Hi John, sorry , i did not go through all the questions that may be be similar than mine, I want to know where you got hold of your home roasting device and what make it is, also what capacity it can handle? Thx DG
You'll have to rely on your other senses of sight and smell. Also you can pay close attention to timing compared to other roasts. If there is a way to get a temperature probe into your setup, that will also give you some accurate readings that will be useful. You may find in the future that different coffees crack more loudly due to their higher moisture content so hopefully you can get that experience to help you!
Hi, I'm just a home roaster! I've been lucky to learn a few things from a friend who is a professional but I really just love to research and experiment. Luckily with commercial equipment you'll likely have some sophisticated graphs and readouts you can refer to to dial things in but I don't have access to any of that so I'm just going on sight, sound, smell, time, and taste!
@@JohnDennery yup im serious..hehe..i messed up my 1st roast..the beans overcooked so it became charcoal then i tried it on espresso it does tastes like charcoal..hahaha
The point is to help you determine the level of roast compared to other batches you have roasted of the same beans. If I roast a coffee that loses 13.5% and it tastes amazing, I will try to repeat that again with the next batch. If it seems like a bit lighter or darker would be more to my liking, I will use that as a guide to make my next roast longer or shorter. It really just helps you dial things in!
You can search for the Freshroast SR800 online. I think it was about $220 USD. I also purchased an extended chamber from Razzo Roasting on Etsy. Don't remember the price on that. It's been a really good setup for a few years now!
I usually just leave it in a colander on my kitchen counter. Since I’m roasting smaller batches (1/2 lb) I don’t really have any problems with losing freshness. At some point on the 2nd or 3rd day I’ll transfer it to my airscape container
This roaster is a bit underpowered so I leave it on the highest heat setting the entire roast. It doesn’t give accurate temperature readings though so that’s all I can say
Drop is when you end the roast. In a typical drum roaster, the beans will literally "drop" down into the cooling tray. For the home machines I use, it just means when I end the roast and begin the cooling cycle. I've never used temperature probes so I can't comment on any specific temperature data to look at. Listening carefully to how the cracks are progressing will give you all the info you need!
@@JohnDennery I just found your channel. I'll watch more videos and hope to find the info on the application of heat applied to each stage of the roasting process. What stage requires what abount of heat. Please reply so we can discuss the finer details of the various methods. Thank you so very much. I just roasted on a cube shaped roaster over a gas camping stove not 30 minutes ago.
My microphone doesn't pick it up well, but you're right, the fan is definitely loud compared to the cracks. Never had trouble hearing them but it does take careful listening for sure
That would be an excellent choice. You could also go much deeper and research the farms producing the coffee, the methods they use to ship the coffee, and the packaging it arrives in, etc. This will require a global effort at some point but renewable energy and selling locally will be a powerful way to start!
