Another point that supports the CBR101 being a better choice for more mellow, traditional, and darker roasting - it is easier to vent the exhaust funneled out the back and can be modded to accept ducting. The SR800 is more difficult to manage smoke, but that isn't too much of a concern for more modern roasts dropped before second crack. I personally really enjoy the flexibility and agility of fluid bed roasters like the SR800, however the approach and profiles for these types of roasters is much less available than for drum roasters. The instructional videos on The Captain's channel have been pivotal in understanding my roaster. Thanks so much!
Thanks so much! I'm planning to do a video covering ducting and ventilation modifications for home roasters eventually! I've been held up because there are safety concerns and I wanna be careful what I recommend but there are definitely tons of options out there!
For just starting out in roasting, you can’t beat the SR 800. 300$ is a lot easier to take than almost 800$ for the Gene Cafe. Especially if you find roasting is not for you ! I’m just getting into roasting and I’m going even cheaper with the Fresh Roast SR540 but I am getting the extension tube to be able to handle a little more coffee and more roasting control. Really enjoy your videos and the information from them. Hopefully I’ll be buying some beans from you guys soon when I start roasting.
I just got the Gene Cafe specifically because I am to busy to get super deep into my SR800. I have had the SR700 and modded the crap out of it and then did the same with the SR800. I eventually got burnt out and am to busy to put the time in so it eventually collected dust. I ended up switching to the Gene Cafe and it is so much easier to use. It isn't as complex but in my phase of life that is what I was looking for. So your different type people profiles is 100% accurate.
Agree with this video -- as it happens, I purchased a Gene Cafe a number of years ago and it recently had An Incident which left me not willing to continue using it. So, for budgetary reasons, it was replaced with the SR800. By pure luck, this turns out to have been a good skill-level match. Gene Cafe was great to have fairly easy, little to no interaction roasts for the 6 or 7 years I used it -- but the SR800 is fun to get the most out of the various roasting stages. I can even tell the difference between 1st and 2nd crack easily! My only regret is not finding The Captain's Coffee website and RU-vid channel before making that purchase, but they do sell green coffee....
My brother bought the CBR101 3 months ago and I just bought an SR800. I think your discussion on the type of person that is best suited for each machine is accurate. My brother has added a long vent tube to runout the window and it is great for him. He began using various beans to learn then he was given 25 pounds of Honduran washed beans and is very happy just roasting them the same way each roast. On the other hand, I think very differently. Before ordering my roaster I reviewed many videos over many months. With cost not being a factor, and only home roasting being my goal, as I am not young, I considered many roasters and decided to get an electric roaster that I could modify and attach to artisan. I decided that with the SR800 I could learn the basics quickly as I was purchasing all the items I would need to get everything that I needed to go down a more risky path. So I am presently awaiting a RazzoRoasting Extension Chamber and Chaff Collector Upgrade and Phidget company electronics and thermocouples for both bean and environmental temperature measurements.. ARTISAN will be used to track the roast and a microphone will be used with Audacity software to enable me to accurately see the FC on the computer as my hearing is not too great. Crazy, but for my personality, I went with all this stuff, while my brother took a different path. We are both enjoying this adventure in roasting but I am still waiting to really get going once all my upgrades arrive in the next week or so. Both of us are primarily espresso drinkers but brew by every method.
Very good video When I was working as a barista, we had in store a sonofresco 1.2kilo roaster (same design as SR800 but professional) Air roaster offers an extremely bright coffee that emphasizes fruity notes, that are not only notes but vibrant taste One thing that you have to pay attention with these, instead of drum roasters, is that you may have been roasted at higher level, for example full city, but the color of the bean is lighter as city
I've used a few pro roasters but never had the pleasure of using a Sonofresco! I love air roasters and hope I'll get to try one eventually, I've heard great things about em
I used a sr300 for 5 years. Simple to use. Playing with it makes you a master. I believe the total roast volume is the same for either machine. Yes you can manipulate the freshroast more, but, you don't have to. I'll go with SR800 because of the price. GREAT VIDEO!!
My friend and I are dabbling with the idea of roasting beans as another source of income for both us. I like the fact that both of these sample roasters that you showcased have major pro's towards the kind of roaster's profile. Your other tutorials are easy to watch and very informative. Thank you.
Roasting beans for sales and profit? No offense but I would think these roasters are definitely too small. A person orders a pound of coffee and that will suck up almost an hour of youertime.
@@lyncchoo Hi Charles, so just to let you know, most places don't sell 16oz of coffee, they sell 12oz. Secondly, I can do 48oz of net weight roasted coffee in about 1 hour. Now when you purchase wholesale you can easily turn a profit.
Another great video! I think you have nailed how each roaster can be used. I own both and, like you said, either preference in cup profile can be achieved with either one. However, the Freshroast excels with light and bright while the Gene excels with sweet and mellow. If you cool externally on the Gene you can get more brightness with no roastiness but you really need to cool quickly, less than 1min in my experience, and it goes against the manufacturer recommends, who says do not preheat or cool externally. I've found neither detrimental to the machine reliability after nearly 3 years.
If I could afford you, I'd hire you as a writer, you said it perfectly! Excellent point about the cooler, I should have mentioned that. The cooler or some form of manual cooling is a game changer with the Gene Cafe
There are a few forums that has mods for the Gene Cafe to use Artisan, but heat control on both are lacking to really dial into your roasts. Both are great beginner roasters, they are really entry level as you can't control the heat to really dial in a perfect roast, great for home roasting though.
Oh, I know it's possible to get exhaust/air temp readings to artisan, I should have clarified in the video I meant bean temp! I'd agree the temperature control on either isn't nearly as good as a higher end roaster, but now we're talking thousands of dollars 😯. With the SR800, I've found if you get good at managing the fan setting, you have much more control over the heat, especially with an extension tube. It does take quite a bit of practice though!
I have the smaller SR. It's good except that I always end up with some crust stuck to the roasted beans. Never clean beans. I am exploring Gene for only this reason.
Some crust stuck to the beans? Like chaff? I will occasionally see some chaff fall back in but I've never noticed a crust. Feel free to email me through our website if you'd like to share some pictures and we can figure out what might be going on!
Same experience here. You get better results if you roast dark and the worst results with light. Recently, I am getting better by slowing down the process and taking a longer time. I checked this video for the same reason: considering Gene 🙂
Thank you so much for this informative video! You confirmed some of my prior thoughts about drum roasting. I'm deciding to stick with my Freshroast 540+ext tube. 2+ years in, and I'm still dialing in my light roast-It's a real blast!
Oh good question! I'm a little afraid to answer definitely since I've never walked in your shoes, ya know? If I had to guess, I'd go with the fresh roast since you're only using one knob for everything. It may take a little practice to hold the two piece chaff collector assembly with just one hand, though I do it no problem. With the Gene, I feel like it's a two hand job to remove the chaff collector to empty the chaff. Also, it may be a little trickier inserting and removing the roast chamber on the gene if the clear shield gets jostled and falls down. And if you are pre-heating the gene or cooling your beans externally, you'll DEFINITELY need 2 hands to safely remove the bean chamber. Again, though, take this with a grain of salt since all I can do is imagine what using them would be like for you! Hope that helps
The SR roasters are not as complexificated as you make them sound. To do a roast they say start and max air, min temp, slowly raise temp to max then decrease air to some value. The people that sold me mine recommend not going below air speed 5 and I agree with that one. This however is not how I have roasted beans with this roaster. I set both air speed and temp to max right out the gate. It takes some time for the internal roasting temperatures to come up anyway and this happens slow enough to not harm the beans. Once I see the beans have lost some of their water weight I reduce the air speed slightly which increases the temperature a little but if you go too far the beans wont circulate and you wont get an even roast. The hot air blows up from the center / bottom of the chamber and the beans should be thrown out to the top / outside of the pile. That causes the beans to circulate in a toroidal shape. IF they are doing this farily quickly you can reduce air speed in successive steps as the beans get lighter and lighter (in weight : ) during the roast. I have never seen a need to go below air speed 5. Once the first crack has started I watch closely and monitor the bean color. I also monitor the smell of the roast and when it gets to a certain point I cannot describe but past the first crack (mostly?) I start the cool down. I have never had anything other than an absolute perfect roast every time with this procedure
Hello loved the video. I am looking for a home roaster, but, being a “she” not a “he”, it looks like maybe neither of these roasters are for me. All kidding aside, I like medium dark to dark roasts. Which roaster is most consistent at that roast level? Also, does roasting decaf make a difference in either of these roasters. I did read somewhere that decaf is a bit more finicky. Thanks
Haha, yup those characterizations are definitely unisex 😉 I think both roasters will handle med to med/dark without any problem (as well as decaf), it's definitely just a question of how you approach things: are you methodical and love tinkering? SR800. Do you prefer simplicity? CBR-101. If it helps, Mrs. Captain prefers the SR800 😍
@@TheCaptainsCoffee lol thank-you. I used to teach graduate level writing. “She” and “he” are gender specific pronouns. An alternative when speaking would be using “they”. Or, in the case of your video, use “he” in one example and “she” in the second example. Alternating pronouns would be more inclusive. OK taking off my professor hat now:))) Tinkering is my middle name. And knowing Mrs. Captain goes for the SR800 is good enough for me.
Hello, hope you are well. First of all, congratulations for your RU-vid channel, love it, pretty informative, simple to understand and pleasant to watch. I am a coffee lover and enthusiast, I live in Brazil and buy whole beans to grind at home and brew mostly medium roast using the Aeropress. I will invest in an entry level espresso machine (probably the Bambino Plus) and also would like to start roasting at home, so I am about to decide between the SR800 and the Gene Cafe (I really liked the Link Nucleous Coffee, but it is out of my budget for a first coffee roaster machine... maybe in the future). I have watched your videos comparing them.... I am a computer engineer and always liked reading manuals, tweaking, etc, but after my daughter was born (she is 4 now) my "free time" has become very scarce, and basically everything in my life is based on ease, less time and energy spent. I have watched your comparison video between the two models, and I am still in doubt, so please if you could help me, I would appreciate. Thanks in advance, Denis
Hey Denis! Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying the vids! I was about to type you out a long response here but I notice you also sent an email, so I'll respond to your question there :)
Dude, that was hilarious. Roaster #1 is for nerds. You could have said that in 30 seconds. I'm nerding out on the SR800 with Kent's bong tube, nuclear thermometer and turbo chaff collector. Done and more fun than generic cafe.
Haha! I would love to review and compare more roasters! I've got a pretty limited budget for these videos so I generally focus on the gear and equipment most available to beginner's and more budget minded enthusiasts, but hopefully one day I'll expand the library! I do have an aillio bullet that I'll do a guide and comparison on at some point
100% agree Captain For me I love the SRA 800 I love being able to be or get more scientific with my roast and the Gene Cafe just wouldn’t let me do that Both roasters are great and will make someone happy with the decision they make Merry Christmas and happy New Year
With enough practice and the right modifications, I do. However, the real issue is production capacity. Under ideal conditions you can achieve professional results, but duplicating those results at a production scale presents major issues and will have you pulling your hair out! As a professional, these machines once set up and understood correctly would make excellent sample roasters (esp the fresh roast w/ thermocouple mods), but I would never recommend them for production roasting
@@TheCaptainsCoffee I wouldn't get these for professional use. I just like to know that I can achieve as good, if not better coffee then I'm buying :) Just the fact that I'm not necessarily skimping on quality.
i had a gene cafe for one year of great roasting . then one day during the cooling phase the chaff basket burst into flames destroying both the basket and the roaster. in spite of the roaster having security procedures requiring periodically pressing a button to continuing the roast, a fire caused by overheated beans or chaff in a flammable chaff basket is UNACCEPTABLE
Hi David, got the SR800 and also got immediately bummed out after reading in the manual that it may contain toxic materials known by the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, so on and so forth... What are your thoughts around that? THanks
That's news to me! If you're concerned, I'd recommend reaching out to the manufacturer here for clarification: homeroastingsupplies.com/contact. If I had to guess, I'd venture the "MAY contain" part of that disclosure is doing a lot of heavy lifting and it's likely nothing you should need to worry about, but please report back!
@@TheCaptainsCoffee Thank you, I will write to them and report back. 3rd warning in page 3 here img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/544b3439-8874-41f1-9bbd-912123591b92/downloads/SR800%20User%20Manual.pdf
@@TheCaptainsCoffee @Rje James not sure how but my answer back in Nov-Dec wasn't saved... This is what I got "If our machines were to catch on fire and the temp of the plastics reached 1100*F, then there could be a concern according to Prop 65, that would be a house fire. The machine reaches temps of 480-500*F under normal use. I am not aware of any chemicals that are harmful enough during the roasting process on such a small machine. I believe a commercial roaster that can do 50-100lbs of coffee would be a worry, especially without proper ventilation." There is an interesting research if anyone is interested by Googling "california acrylamide warning". I even found a study that states that small roasters are safer than industry grade machines in terms of acrylamide accumulation, so now I feel safer. Thank you.
SR 800 roaster here. I've done about 25-75 8 oz batches maybe 20 lbs of beans over about 2 years. Blower motor has burned up, sounds like bearings are going/gone, screaches and howels with reduced airflow, trips a 15 amp braker. So actual use life expectancy seems around ~50 batches over 1 1/2 to 2 years. I like the unit, I was able to get beans roasted to my tastes, mostly to just the begining of second crack, quite repeatably. But I really don't think I am inclined to get a new unit (now around $300) which I strongly suspect will just die in another 1 1/2 years/50 batches. And the CBR101 @ $650 and again a one year warrenty like the SR 800 which kinda tells me it wont last much longer than that is a non-started. I guess I will just have to cobble something together for myself.
Have you tried reaching out to fresh roast? They have a really inexpensive repair/renewal program! Absolutely amazing folks and incredible customer service: homeroastingsupplies.com/repair. I've had my current SR800 for over 2 years and have roasted well over 50lbs with it, no issues whatsoever and I haven't sent it in for repairs. Careful storage and basic maintenance go a long way! Hoping to put out a maintenance procedure video soon, hopefully that'll be helpful to folks in extending their service life! I'm also careful not to run it on circuits under 20amps if I can help it and it's best to avoid long extension cords, especially those that are high gauge. This can wreak havoc on the lifespan of the roaster
@@TheCaptainsCoffee Second that. My SR800 started acting up, so I got a hold of Sam at HRS. Immediate response. Told him what was going on, said he'd take care of it. Sent it out over Christmas, had it back like brand new in less than 2 weeks. Outstanding customer service! One caveat: the refurbed unit ran ~ 20° warmer than previously, at the same fan/heat settings. Obviously the thermocouple was in a slightly different location. No biggie, just had to be cognizant of that.
I've owned the same Gene Roaster for 13 years. About 5 years ago the heating element needed replacing and it was easy to do and cost ~$80. The digital readout is burnt out but since I just turn it to max to the end I just listen for the heater to click and know it's hitting max temp. When the heating element died, customer service was helpful and provided a link to a youtube on how to replace it.
The fresh roast brands work fine when they work however once they go bad no replacement parts on market so my 5x SR500s served a year or so each and went bad 😢 sitting on a shelf. Considering that I will never buy anything that’s made by FreashRoast. You are not telling the truth about how the company makes the roasters but not electronic replacement parts.
This video is on the SR800 which Fresh Roast absolutely does keep replacement parts on hand for. The SR500 hasn't been sold in nearly a decade and they only recently (this year as far as I'm aware) stopped manufacturing replacement parts for it. They still have some replacement parts for legacy models available, have you tried contacting them? They have the best customer service and support of any roaster manufacturer I've dealt with so I am absolutely telling the truth of my experience.
and when i click "shop now" in the home page it shows: 404 OOPS... THE PAGE YOU LOOKING FOR APPEARS TO BE MISSING! with a cat in background @@TheCaptainsCoffee
Did not watch yet.... I have owned both of these and i used my Gene Cafe so much over the few years that i owned it that I literally wore it out beyond repair. It also at one time had a manufacturing defect which THEY RESOLVED for free for all their customers, they stand by their product. I also found that on my unit at least, the spring to engage the latch on the roasting chamber was a little weak so I just replaced it with a stronger spring and had no issues. I never brought that up with the manufacturer. I currently own the SR540 and it does just as good a job of roasting as the Gene Cafe but not as large a batch and I have some "issues" with its design. Firstly, the plastics used in its construction are extremely brittle. I have had to purchase a new chaffe collecter twice. This brittleness gets worse over time, probably due to heat cycles. I also accidentally dropped the roasting chamber on the floor one day and ...well... lets just say it did not bounce lol :) Another issue I have with this is the fact that even with the chaffe collector on properly chaffe gets everywhere. it is blown out the edges of the collector as powder and get sucked back into the bottom of the roaster and over time this has done a number on my rotary switch so i go from 10 to 7 to 10 to 6 to 8 to 2 to 9 .. bingo got where i wanted to be. later I go from 9 to 4 to 6 to 4 to 7 to 10 to 8....i.e. the rotary encoder that is built into the rotary switch which measures not only direction but distance is now so dirty that it has become unreliable and a huge pain to control. I did purchase this roaster a number of years ago (i forget how long I have had it) and even with its present uppity rotary switch it produces an absolutely *perfect* roast every time and would still recommend it to anyone if they cant afford the Gene Cafe. If you have the money and need the larger roasts I would recommend the gene cafe over the 540. I do however do the "not recommended" batch roasting with my 540, i will do two successive roasts at a time and have had no problems with this.
