dawn_coffeelover
New member
I just started roasting green coffee beans about two months ago. I started out roasting them in my Presto Poplite popcorn popper, and was very happy with the results (great tasting coffee beans and ability to control the dark/light roast). But I decided to buy an entry level coffee roaster, a Freshroast SR300, to help keep the chafe under control as well as to avoid burning up my Poplite.
I'm really not happy with how the coffee is turning out compared to the coffee from my Poplite though. I can't seem to get the depth of flavor, nor as dark of a roast and it takes FAR longer to roast a batch to a simple City Roast. One thing I've noticed is that first crack happens a whole lot slower (only one pop about every 10-30 seconds) in the SR300, and I've yet to even get to a second crack with the SR300 even after roasting for 14 minutes. First crack happened very quickly with my Poplite - finished within about 30 seconds to one minute, and it was very distinct. I only roasted for about 6-7 minutes in my Poplite to get to second crack, and sometimes even well INTO second crack at that time. Could my SR300 just not have enough heat to adequately do the job? Is there any way to make it roast at higher temps? We're talking same beans, same batch sizes, same ambient room temperatures, same everything other than style of roaster. But I AM very new to roasting, so maybe I'm missing something?
Hoping for some words of wisdom here...
Dawn
I'm really not happy with how the coffee is turning out compared to the coffee from my Poplite though. I can't seem to get the depth of flavor, nor as dark of a roast and it takes FAR longer to roast a batch to a simple City Roast. One thing I've noticed is that first crack happens a whole lot slower (only one pop about every 10-30 seconds) in the SR300, and I've yet to even get to a second crack with the SR300 even after roasting for 14 minutes. First crack happened very quickly with my Poplite - finished within about 30 seconds to one minute, and it was very distinct. I only roasted for about 6-7 minutes in my Poplite to get to second crack, and sometimes even well INTO second crack at that time. Could my SR300 just not have enough heat to adequately do the job? Is there any way to make it roast at higher temps? We're talking same beans, same batch sizes, same ambient room temperatures, same everything other than style of roaster. But I AM very new to roasting, so maybe I'm missing something?
Hoping for some words of wisdom here...
Dawn
