Could use some advice on roasting

[Heather11]

Hello,

I am roasting on a Probatino and so far it's been a bit hit and miss.

The bean I am having trouble with is from El Salvador and is meant to have undertones of toffee/ caramel and ripe fruit. However, I do get slight caramelly flavours and it is very smooth, but apart from that it is just very flat and dull.

I am dropping the green beans at 170c on setting 4
First crack comes about 180 and lasts about 2mins, about 1min into it I drop the heat to around 3
second crack comes about 194 and I drop the beans at about 196

The whole process lasts around 10mins.

Is there something I am doing which is terribly wrong? Or any suggestions on what I could change would be hugely appreciated

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I am not a pro on commercial roasting but I would lower the temperature and give enough time between beginning of the first crack and second to develop its flavor. But i am sure if you wait around for Eldub and Topher to come in, they will have much more specific advise on this.

Good Luck

 

[Heather11]

I am not a pro on commercial roasting but I would lower the temperature and give enough time between beginning of the first crack and second to develop its flavor. But i am sure if you wait around for Eldub and Topher to come in, they will have much more specific advise on this.

Good Luck

Thank you! Yes i'm having trouble getting a decent gap between first and second, have been playing around with it but just can't seem to get it right!

 

[HRC]

Why are you going to just beyond second crack? Have you tried dropping them after first crack is complete? We use a fluid bed so I can't speak to specifics about your drum, but it seems like you're not roasting long enough either.

 

[peterjschmidt]

I would echo both replies... lower your heat a before going into 1C - not so early or so much that 1C stalls, but your drum should have enough heat that the roast will be slowed. Remember the beans are storing heat going into 1C, and then are exothermic and releasing energy during 1C; if you pour too much heat into them prior to 1C, they will plow right through it w/o developing the flavors you want and will run too quickly into 2C w/o developing the body during that phase.

And, unless your customers want the darker roast, I'd suggest stopping the roast before 2C, as you're roasting out the nuance the bean should have. Which begs the question, are you sure this El Salvador actually has the notes you're looking for, or are you taking the word of your supplier? Did you roast and cup a sample beforehand?

 

[sae]

Your drop temperature seems OK, maybe a bit low

I aim for a first crack at around 10 minutes. On my roaster if I drastically decrease my flame once first crack is really going I can stretch the time out nicely between first and second. On your roaster you might have to decrease the flame just before first crack gets going.

For maximum sweetness you want your roast to finish about 1/2 way between first and second crack. If you are hitting second crack you are killing a lot of the sweetness and replacing it with roast taste. After rolling first crack I continually look at the beans in the trier. At the beginning of first crack you'll see what I call tiger striping which is pronounced stripes or lines on the bean as soon as these are gone and the bean is smooth I stop the roast. This is the point of maximum sweetness and in my case this is about 2 minutes after rolling first crack. For me the total roast time would be around 12 minutes. From here if you find you want more acidity you speed up the time between first crack and when you drop (total time of 11:30 maybe), to decrease acidity you extend the time between first crack and when you drop (total time of 12:30 maybe)

 

[eldub]

IMO, you are prolly waiting too long to lower the temp setting to 3. The beans are blowing through the first crack without having time to develop.

I also don't believe that most beans reach their full potential until at least the onset of the second crack. I'm tasting a lot of underdeveloped roasts that customers are bringing in from other roasters.

According to my roaster as well as reference material, first crack usually begins between 195 and 200*C. Second crack starts up around 225*C. Our lightest roasts come out at 225*C. Our medium roasts get dropped at between 230 and 235*C. Our dark roasts come out around 240 C. All of our roasts to finish after 15 minutes, give or take a minute.

Light roasts taking ten minutes will taste grassy/herbal/tea-like. Try slowing the process down. Shoot for one degree rise in temps every six seconds until the beans reach 185* or so and then throttle down the heat so the process slows to a rise of 1*c every 8-12 seconds until finish.

One problem I see is that the temps of your roaster appear to be a bit different from my reality and that needs to be taken into account when proceeding with the directions I gave above.

Good luck.

lw

 

[Heather11]

Thanks very much everyone, hugely appreciate the advice.

eldub - on my roaster 1C seems to very consistently happen around the same temp, even when I drop the green beans on a lower setting (3) - perhaps this is just down to my machine? With my limited experience, and this being the only roaster I have used - apart from the gene cafe! - I am finding it tricky to work out!!

Will let you know how I get on

 

[Heather11]

I would echo both replies... lower your heat a before going into 1C - not so early or so much that 1C stalls, but your drum should have enough heat that the roast will be slowed. Remember the beans are storing heat going into 1C, and then are exothermic and releasing energy during 1C; if you pour too much heat into them prior to 1C, they will plow right through it w/o developing the flavors you want and will run too quickly into 2C w/o developing the body during that phase.

And, unless your customers want the darker roast, I'd suggest stopping the roast before 2C, as you're roasting out the nuance the bean should have. Which begs the question, are you sure this El Salvador actually has the notes you're looking for, or are you taking the word of your supplier? Did you roast and cup a sample beforehand?

The strange thing is I did a quick sample roast which tasted exactly as described, then when I received the full batch just couldn't seem to quite match it!

 

[eldub]

Some machines are just calibrated a bit differently, IMO. However, they are usually still consistent within their own reality. No biggie, except when another roaster (like me) tries to give advice. Then some recalculation a need to be made. For instance, when beans reach first crack in your roaster, the temp reads around 160*C but my roaster reads 195*C (bean mass temp.)

What kind of temp monitors do you have? (Air temp, bean mass temp or both?)

 

[Heather11]

Makes sense I have air temp monitor - didn't know much about bean mass temp monitors until after reading on here! Will roast a few test batches tomorrow and see what happens, hopefully can get this right!

Thanks

 

[Hankua]

Hopefully your keeping track of the roasts; I've got charts in *c you can print out. I use a second stopwatch for the roast development stage when 1c gets going and try to end at a combination of BT & RD time.