octopolis
New member
Hey all,
I started interning, out of interest, with a local coffee roasting company about 9 months ago. I have been in the coffee industry for many years and wanted to round out my experience with the one piece that was missing--- roasting.
The first few months my mentor, Jeff, walked me through the process on the Royal No. 5 here at the roastery. Slowly, he started to let me do things on my own. The only information he ever really gave me was the starting temp he used, and the temp to pull the beans. This worked out pretty well for awhile until I started to notice the beans were getting a little too dark with the old temps... so I pulled back and got them looking about what we were hoping for.
About a month ago Jeff passed away suddenly of a heart attack and I am now the roaster for the company. I really enjoy roasting but feel like we need to obviously get a better grasp on roast times, temps, etc. I want a more consistent roast and I want exceptional coffee, not just good coffee. So, I started logging each roast using a very thorough roast log I found on the web.
I guess I am hoping to get some guidance here. Any information I find for industrial roasters is completely not pertinent to me as I use a turn of the century roaster and do everything manually.
Jeff's normal starting temp was WAY above what other roaster's use as a guideline, 670 degree fahrenheit, and first crack is pretty consistently at 400 degrees. My medium roast is done at around 434. I am starting to get a pretty good grasp on the air flow lever and how to utilize it to achieve a 15 minute roast, but most of the batches aren't quite there. The roast color is dead on, but the inside of the beans need a bit more time. I get a bit of chewiness.
Do any of you have experience with a Royal No. 5? Share some advice?
I started interning, out of interest, with a local coffee roasting company about 9 months ago. I have been in the coffee industry for many years and wanted to round out my experience with the one piece that was missing--- roasting.
The first few months my mentor, Jeff, walked me through the process on the Royal No. 5 here at the roastery. Slowly, he started to let me do things on my own. The only information he ever really gave me was the starting temp he used, and the temp to pull the beans. This worked out pretty well for awhile until I started to notice the beans were getting a little too dark with the old temps... so I pulled back and got them looking about what we were hoping for.
About a month ago Jeff passed away suddenly of a heart attack and I am now the roaster for the company. I really enjoy roasting but feel like we need to obviously get a better grasp on roast times, temps, etc. I want a more consistent roast and I want exceptional coffee, not just good coffee. So, I started logging each roast using a very thorough roast log I found on the web.
I guess I am hoping to get some guidance here. Any information I find for industrial roasters is completely not pertinent to me as I use a turn of the century roaster and do everything manually.
Jeff's normal starting temp was WAY above what other roaster's use as a guideline, 670 degree fahrenheit, and first crack is pretty consistently at 400 degrees. My medium roast is done at around 434. I am starting to get a pretty good grasp on the air flow lever and how to utilize it to achieve a 15 minute roast, but most of the batches aren't quite there. The roast color is dead on, but the inside of the beans need a bit more time. I get a bit of chewiness.
Do any of you have experience with a Royal No. 5? Share some advice?
