One of the best video for Behmor, I watched it 3 times, and went roasting. The first batch was 225 grams, charge temp 240f I ended up with 56, 29,15, so I did 2 things on the next one, charged at 277 loaded 200 grams and got 50,34,15,4 , could not resist tasting, Yirgacheffe natural, came out sweet and fruity, raspberry taste, can’t wait to let it evolve. Thank you so much for this video!👍👍👍
Hello Andre, thanks for watching my video and for sharing your comments and results. I'm glad you are experimenting with charge temperatures. They are so important to set you up for a good profile, especially on the Behmor. I see a lot of people putting in Aluminum Foil to retain heat to get the shorter times but I'm not so sure it's necessary. The batch size is also a huge factor and by lowering the batch size you have also helped speed up your dry phase, hence your entire roast. The drum speed can also be a factor, although not as much during dry, mostly plays a part during the browning and development. So you roasted sweet and fruity coffee, congratulations. I' glad you had that experience. Important note here, keep in mind that different coffee will most likely require different variations of the profile. Some do better with a longer development or a longer browning phase. You will notice this as you roast and taste different coffees. This is due mainly to the bean size, density and overall flavor profile. Also, there is the creative side of roasting where you roast based on the notes you want to have presented. Some don't like the fruit forward cups, but prefer a more balanced cup, or even low acidity. Pretty cool stuff. Nice Job Andre!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab This was so much fun, I think I did about 4 roast prior to the last 2, trying to nail the 50-30-20, the biggest challenge was trying to figure out dry end through the Behmor window, but I had a work light that I placed in front of the window, it’s in an angle, hard to explain, but now I can clearly see the beans color change. So now my goal is to start with the 50-30-20 and adjust from there, always have to keep an open mind to try new things when roasting. Did I tell you I loved this video! And also your channel 👍👍👍
Just starting to roast and have a used Nesco coffee roaster and getting decent roasts from it but Im wanting more control of my roast. This gives me more confidence to step up to a better roaster. Thank you for your videos!
I think it’s called a Breadman Ultimate Plus. I cannot control paddle speed. The only control is the variable temp heat gun in conjunction with a digital thermometer inserted from the side which monitors bean temp. I use your guide for roast 50/30/20 winding up at about 18min total roast time for 680g of coffee. Though this method is impossible to exactly duplicate, I am pleased with the results. Most are about as good as anyone else’s I occasionally try. Thank you for your response and your helpful tips.
Thanks for sharing Randy. You might want to consider a smaller batch size when you roast. This will shorten your total roast time and it could help improve your results even more. Just a thought. Thanks again for letting me know your setup.
I just want to take few minutes to thank you for your quality content ! I bought a behmor 1600+ few months ago because my coffee bean budget was out of control , i figured i could roast myself and save at least 50% so I found a used and very cheap behmor and bought it . At first i was victim of my beginers success because my few first roast were really nice so i thought it wasnt rocket science after all ! But the more the time and roast batch passed i notice that for some reasons some of my batch were good and some were strange , i could tell by looking at the beans mainly but of course the taste and extraction was weird also . I figured it might have to do with the green bean themself and brush it off , but my last batch i decided to strech the drying and browning phase and oh boy the result was very very good , i could see a difference looking at how it pour out of my naked portafilter . So today i kept digging and found this video from you and this is so helpfull ! I didnt even know that i could read my roaster temp using B .... 😅 you also answer my question about why my roaster fall in error ( over heat security ) and your videos are always very easy to understand , keep your good work 👍👍👍
Thanks for watching my video @Razor _Sharp. I'm glad it was helpful. The Behmor is a great roaster and still brings a smile to my face everytime I use it. I have more Behmor videos planned to subscribe and stay tuned!
You have greatly increased my knowledge of coffee roasting and the ins and outs of the Behmor. At present all our house contents are in storage as we relocate to Australia. So I am looking forward to continuing my long time hobby now that i have a good basis to go forward with. Thank you for your hugely informative and practical videos. Very very much appreciated.
I'm glad my content is helpful for you John. Thank you for watching my videos. Good luck with the move down under. There are quite a few Australians who watch my videos.
I tried to copy your roast using an Ethiopian coffee. I ended up with a charge temperature of 204 and first crack came at 8 minutes at a temperature of 296. I have to get better at determining the end of the dry phase so I'm not sure when that was. I started cooling at 9:53 as I felt the beans were getting dark. My temperature never really got into the 300's for long but the roast happened so quickly. I probably should have had a lower charge temperature
Congrats on your new roaster Amy. Yea, the Behmor is a wonderful roaster. Like all roasting devices, they have their strengths and weaknesses. There will be a learning curve. One friendly suggestion would be to pay attention to the beans, their color, the size, sounds, and other senses like smell during the roast. There is a lot of stuff to try and remember and will take practice but after a dozen or two roasts you will start to get comfortable. One other thing. You will have more success by using 6-8 ounces of green coffee. It will roast faster than putting a whole pound in. Good luck and happy roasting!
Amy, are you roasting 1/2 lb of coffee? Are you roasting in the manual mode? Not doing that could be causing you to take longer to get through the dry phase quicker. Watch the video at the 9:10 mark and you will hear me talk about the amount of weight to roast AND you will see me press P1 then Start Then P5 to roast at 100 percent power in the manual mode. Congrats on the roaster by the way!
I finally got my SR800 5.17.2024 and the first roast was a little over done. But still able to drink the coffee. I love that machine and plan to get good with it.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab It is so much fun and I wish I could roast all day but I can't drink that much coffee. Thank Mike for all of your videos. I have learned a lot.
@@jerryhubbard4461I'm so happy for you. Mike is a great dude. He had helped me so many times. What brew methods do you use? What upgrades do you want to get? The only things I want at this time is a better grinder and some magnesium. I live in Japan and I can't find just a small bag of food grade magnesium. Online they sell big bags. That is soooo much. I want to make brewing water for filter and water for espresso. My grinder is ok, but not precise at all. What coffees do you enjoy? I hope to hear from you soon. 😊
Glad it was helpful! The Behmor is a great coffee roaster. Thank you very much for watching my video and for the encouragement @Club CFF. Enjoy roasting great coffee!
I replaced the light in my Behmor 2000ab with a white led microwave oven light. I like it so far, though it reflects a little harshly on the drum, I'm sure the drum will patina further with more use and reduce that glare. Removing the factory light was a pain in the rear, it was threaded with loctite.
Hi @neuroflare. Your light replacement sounds like a great modification. Where did you get your LED light? Also, sometimes you can get a Loctite screw to loosen up a little by applying lots of heat. Maybe you already tried that.
@@luigicollins3954 Sorry, I've tried replying several times with some detailed info but I guess the channel just deletes whatever I input without warning because it contains a link so I'm not wasting my time again. I bought a light on amazon
This was extremely useful. I have been thus far unsuccessful in getting a good light roast out of the Behmor but I will try these techniques and report back. Thank you so much!
Thanks for watching and for your comment sammu. The Behmor is a great roaster but it is not as easy to get a light roast as say a Fresh Roast SR type roaster. I look forward to hearing how your roast went!
Thanks @Dat Bui, I appreciate you watching my video and for your kind words. The Behmor is a great roaster and I hope to share more roasts using it in the future!
Bummed that I’ve been roasting on the Behmor for like 4 years and never thought to check on TH-cam for additional help. Glad I’ve found the channel though and can’t wait to try this profile.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab just did this recipe today. I think it went well but the tasting will tell the story. How do you recommend brewing it? I typically use a Chemex.
Got around to brewing this today with the chemex. Very smooth cup. Did medium course grind at 14-1 ratio. Might tweak the grind settings and ratio tomorrow.
Thank you so much for the detailed video. This was really helpful in understanding the reasons behind the decisions. This narration of a roast after the fact is really effective in helping us understand your thinking. Rather than do this, do that (which is important in the beginning), this type of video helps develop knowledge at a much deeper level. Thank you!
Another great video - I will be able to use the info on my Behmor & Hive. Future videos on a Hive Roasting Recipe would be nice as well. I pulled the trigger on the "plugged data" model after your Hive video. Next year I am driving to South America (2 years plus trip) From what I hear it will likely be easier to find green beans enroot than trying to find roasted beans. The Hive is compact and durable and now I know it produces great roasts.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yes - about 8 roasts (150 &170 gram) - with great results, right from the get go. The last 6 were with Artisan - still getting used to the Hive workflow and interacting with the app. The Behmor currently is on hiatus... BTW - I am using this "Tenta Kitchen Stainless Steel Spider Strainer Wire Strainer Skimmer Colander" as a cooling colander a/w with vacuum. The slots do not let roasted bean to pass thru but are wide and long enough to vacuum up all of the chaff - which is not the case with a round hole or a screen style colanders.
I just found your channel and I am learning. Thanks for this great site. I’m roasting on a Behmore 1600 plus that I’ve been using for the past 10 years or so. It’s so nice to listen to you explain the phase’s of the roast and the roast time percentages. I’m roasting today and will working on this new way to roast.
Thanks for watching my video! I’m so glad you found my channel. Yea, we’re all learning. That’s what makes this hobby so fun. There is a learning curve but hang in there because roasting great coffee is worth the effort.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Sorry for this late reply. I think the coffee is better however a couple days ago I pre heated to 215 then shut off the roaster to reset the timer to 18 min. Unfortunately the temperature continued to drop. What happened was one of the quartz tubes failed. Now the Behmore is in pieces as I try to remove the lower tube before ordering new tubes.
I have the behmor 1600 with the up grade motor ,board and pushbutton board. When colder temps outside when roasting the start button is intermittent working . Suggestions?
Hi Denver. I can’t say for sure. Other than the contact for the button being warn, dirty, or moist, I can’t think of a reason why this would happen. Behmor has good customer support so I would contact them. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. I’ve not had that kind of issue.
I had an original Behmor 1600 for 12+ years before it finally died. I struggled to make a decent roast on it, and after a while stopped trying, content with comfort-style dark roasts. Last week I bought a Quest M6 and a pair of thermocouples and am excited to up my game.
cjhacker23, The Quest looks like a great roaster with full control over the roast. You are going to have a lot of fun experimenting with variables. You might want to consider buying a bulk bag of coffee to practice with on the Quest. This will help you understand how the changes made in the roast profile affect the flavor.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for the suggestion--I got a 20-pound sample pack from Sweet Marias of Central American coffees (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador) when I bought the roaster, 5 pounds of each. My advance research on the Quest M6 tells me that the ideal charge size is 450 grams. That means I would only get 5 tries with each bean. Are Central Amercan beans similar enough that I could go from one bag to the next without having to totally recalibrate things? Or would be better to put these beans aside (how? freezer?) and get a 20-pound bag of a single origin to learn on?
@cjhacker23 the point of my recommendation was for you to be able to taste the same coffee and then sense differences in taste from one profile to the next. clean, dirty, fat, thin, sweet, bitter, bright, dull flat, etc...... If you change coffee after 5 lbs, there might be some similarities, but your basically starting all over because the taste will be different. In my video here I mention what happens when you change the length of the browning phase. The longer percentage of the other roast wasn't as sweet as the roast I showed on the video. So, from coffee to coffee this changes. One might be better with a little longer browning percentage. Another might be a little better with a longer development time and so on.... This is going to vary from coffee to coffee. The good news is you can start with the standard phase percentages I have been talking about and then tweak based on what you taste in that roast. It will be fun to try the different coffee and see if you can notice different roasting behaviors... Enjoy!
I think I'm going to purchase a 2000ab not just for roasting coffee but for roasting cacao beans too. From what I understand it's the best small batch cacao roaster out there. I'm currently roasting on a JIAWANSHUN coffee roaster. A 2000ab would be a step up for coffee roasting.
Michael, that is a great choice for a roaster. I've been very happy with my Behmor. It is a great roaster to learn how to roast AND it is capable of roasting some great coffee! I don't know about cacao and the Behmor, that's pretty cool. Thanks for watching my video and for your comments!
Thanks for the tip. My thought was more volume would hold more uniform heat. I’ll try a pound. How long you think that should take from start to finish.
Nice job, thanks. Could you elaborate more on how to get a less ashy taste? That is my current pet peeve. I've been using the Behmor roaster since 2007, now with roasters 2 and 3 in action.
Hi Norm, Thanks for the message and for watching my video. Yea, i believe there are several reasons I have been experiencing the "ashy" notes on some of my roasts. I would be interested to hear a little more about how you are roasting the coffee. That might help me answer your question a little better. In the mean time, here are some reason why you might be experiencing the "ashy" notes. 1. Wrong Roasting Phase Percentages - This is an interesting topic in itself. Let's say we're tasting an Ethiopian coffee that has both sweetness & fruit. Our goal is a nice "medium" roast maybe slightly on the lighter side. This coffee needs the right amount of time during the middle phase of roasting to allow the complex reactions to take place. I'm talking about both carmelization and the miallard reactions to take place. The reactions build on themselves and create layers of different flavors helping us experience the complex tasting experience. Like any food we expose to heat over time, the longer or shorter we go, the flavor is affected. Imaging roasting a carrot in the oven. The longer we roast the carrot, the sweeter it gets until a point where it will start to add bitterness because we have gone too far. Coffee is a similar experience. I did a video on this "How to Roast Sweet & Flavorful Coffee" and it is in my "essentials" playlist if you're interested. So, this long answer is to say you are tasting ashy notes possibly because your other flavors are not as pronounced as they could be. Then, the roasty/ashy flavors might have been more masked. Just a possibility. 2. Roasting too fast - Similar to the wrong phase percentages, roasting a coffee too fast will not only put your phases out of wack and you miss the opportunities of those great flavors, but you have pushed the coffee too hard. You are tasting roasting defects. Scorching and tipping affect flavor notes by adding that ashy flavor. 3. Going too dark - This is an obvious one but it needs to be mentioned. Maybe your coffee needs a lower drop temperature...... the temp the coffee is at when you end the roast. This is hard on the Behmor because our temperatures are limited by the safety features of the machine (not sure what model you have) but all in all, you need to lower that temp to avoid the roasty flavors. Again, just a possibility. 4. Cooling Time - This one is a Behmor trait. The roaster is slow to cool and unless you are immediately pulling the coffee out of the roaster and cooling with a fan in a cooling tray, your coffee is still roasting. So, you end your roast by hitting "Cool" and your coffee is going a little past where you wanted your roast to end. In my video, I anticipated this and that is one reason you see a 13% development. I new the coffee would probably go another 2% during cooling. 5. It's a natural Coffee - You are roasting a natural and there is charred mucilage on the bean and this is what you are tasting in the cup. Inspect your beans and see if there is a crusty black line along the center line of your naturally processed bean. So, These could be some reasons why your coffee has an ashy taste. There may be other possibilities like
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks a lot for your elaboration, much appreciated! I have the newest boards in my roaster. My current approach is to not do a preheat as ambient temperature in the garage and outside is 80 degrees or more here in the AZ desert. Voltage under load is rarely less than 120V and with afterburner 119V. I drilled and put two eyebolts in the right part of the chamber in which to keep a k-type probe tip just above the drum. This is about as close to the actual bean temperature as possible without putting the probe tip inside the drum, a procedure I don't want to explore. With this I can constantly see the temperature readings. Airflow when the afterburner starts reduces the reading for a short time before the readings rise again. I normally use (M5) and reduce it to (M4) at least one or two minutes before 1st crack normally starts. Roast weights are normally 300-350g. The Rate of Rise when 1st crack is underway is 7 to 10 degrees per minute. I aim for City+ to FC+ depending on the bean and recommended roast level. Cooling is done right after roast completion, in a metal colander with proper sized table fan (same diameter by coincidence) blowing down on it. No stirring but it drops the temp to ambient pretty quickly. The beans are ground in a Niche Zero. They are prepared either with a Strega lever machine or the Behmor Brazen coffee maker. I think there's more to learn about drying and development timing in my roasting. Any other thoughts you have would be most appreciated, by me, and those patient enough to read these long posts.
Yea, I'm sorry for the long reply. Thank you for your answers. It would be most helpful to hear more about how long each of your phases is. By the sounds of it, your total roast time is probably 13 or 14 minutes but I could be wrong. The larger batch size and not pre warming your roaster are two big factors in your overall flavor profile. It doesn't sound like you are a fruit forward person but rather a nice rounded cup kind of drinker. Again, I could be reading into this too much but based on what I read, that seems to be the type of roast your after. What type of coffee are you roasting? I'm thinking you are getting a slightly muted flavor result and if we try and make a few minor changes you might see some improved results. I would do the following: 1. Pre warm your roaster, even if it is only to 150 degrees. 2. lighten your load and try sticking to the 8 ounce per roast. even if it is just to experiment and see results. 3. Write down your roasting events, times and temps. 4. Share your results with me.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab No need to be sorry for the length. I'm retired and very patient these days. Yeah, I'll take your recommendations and apply them for the next roasts. I keep logs of every roast, from 2007 to now. I love the blueberry and similar aromas in Ethiopian beans. But I'm not stuck to one flavor profile favorite. Again, I appreciate your site and your help. Thanks.
ok, so the blueberry and other fruit notes will come out bright at a city roast level. I find myself dropping beans at the tail end of first crack. My video here is a pretty good representation of a city roast taken to its end before we allow the development to mute much of the fruit notes. Unless you are trying to modulate the flavors to a darker version you might want to consider the profile I did as an experiment. Please note my temps and times for context. Also note that I toggle back and forth between P5 and P4 all the way through the middle of the browning phase. In the end, If I would have taken the coffee out of the roaster when cooling began, I might have even been able to improve it more, which is hard to believe.
Great video! Very helpful. I wonder about your non use of the “A” button. That temp of the afterburner is what I use to determine if I am getting close to auto shut off. I found that if I go higher the 415 my roast will shut off and my roast is ruined. I just wonder why you never mention it regarding your BehMor roasts? Thanks so much for what you do! Frank T
Hi Frank. Yea, probably referencing the "exhaust" A Button would have been helpful but honestly I never used it in the past. I found the "B" button to do the job. I can see why you would find it helpful. I think the important point for me is we have at least one reference we can use. The exhaust number kind of goes out the window when the fan turns on doesn't it? Not sure how that all fits into the equation. I think on some models it turns on automatically, the AB model maybe? Or maybe they all turn on automatically but depending on the model they turn on a different temps??? I'm glad you are finding my videos helpful. That coffee I roasted on the video was probably my best and I'm including all of the roasts I did on my drum roaster you see in the background. Yum...
Hi Mike! These videos are amazing! I just stumbled on your channel, and I'm hooked. I've been roasting with a Behmor 1600+ for almost 7 years. I log everything to help with consistency (temp with the B button and marking the times as colors change and 1st crack happens). I never knew about the percentages. This is gold! Should the percentages be more or less the same regardless of origin? I'm thinking yes since you didn't mention an origin. :) I've struggled to capture the ever-elusive fruity Ethiopian Natural. My idea of a "light" roast might not actually be light. 😂 The last Ethiopian roast I did was Drying: 44.9% - Browning: 45.8% - Development: 10.1%... those are WAY off! So now I have something to work towards. Thanks for all of this! The first change I will make is going back to roasting 12oz at a time instead of 16oz. I think that should even things out and shorted the roast times. Once I get the drying and browning percentages closer to what they should be, the main thing I'll want to play around with to get the fruity light roast is the development time, correct? I'm so excited... thanks again! 😎☕
Hi Chris, thanks for watching my video. I was roasting an El Salvador natural in this video. There are quite a variable that cause me to change my recipe. Batch size, process type, bean size, density, and my end goal for a roast color (temperature) and flavor profile all cause me to make adjustments to my times and temps. The phase percentages are helpful and the context of your total roast time can make for some fun experiments changing the browning and development phases. Your time to first crack as well as how long you roast after first crack is helpful for. I could go on but in short, you should be changing up your phase percentages (times and temps) with different types of coffees as mentioned earlier.
Hi, Ive had a Behmor 1600 plus for about 6-7 years and its finally carked itself, so Im looking at your video as Im thinking of buying the new Bm 2020 SR Plus. AS a side note, what I did with my BM 1600+ was when Id finished roasting and hit cool, I'd rush it outside, opened the door completely and used my Makita 18V blower to speed up the cooling to preserve the yummy flavours. Your thoughts? DB from NZ
Hey David. Thanks for watching. The blower sounds like a cool idea. I'm assuming you are roasting outside. Are you happy with your roast quality and quantity with the Behmor?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab No I roast inside, then wisk it outside once cooling mode is activated. Not totally happy with roasts, after watching your video, I think Im roasting too lower temperature, I was roasting on P5 , I think I'll try P3 and P2 ands see what happens
David, I roast in the manual mode on the Behmor. This provides more control. So, in the manual mode, P5 is 100% power, P4 is 75%, P3 is 50%, P2 is 25% and P1 is 0%.
Thanks a ton for this video! It gives me a baseline anchor with which to refine my roasting technique. By taking notes as you have instructed, one thing I've noticed with my model (the newer one, black color) is that on P5 the temp automatically lowers once it gets above 250 degrees and will then moderate btw 212-225. I am still trying to determine at what point I should mark my beans at the dry phase...
Hi Jason, thanks for watching my videos. So the Behmor 2000 AB ( all black) manual says to get to the manual mode you Begin a roast (Weight - desired, then Press Start), once a roast has begun at any point press either P1 - P5 to go into Manual mode. Are you really in the manual mode? If yes, and your roster won’t go any higher temp then 225 there is a problem . You should contact Behmor. Are you really in the manual mode? On a separate note, you might want to consider the 1/2 lb batch size so you can have faster roast than a 1 lb.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yes, I have been pressing 1 lb button, start, then P5. I figured the machine was just regulating temp so as not to get too hot and cause a shutoff. I do notice the heating elements regularly cycling off and on during a roast, I can hear a click every time it happens.
@@Durkur_Owl Interesting. I don't own an AB so I can't really offer more help other than to say 250 is way to low of a shutoff and i don't think that is what is happening. When you oveheat past the max the roaster stops roasting. At least that is what happens on older units. Did you say the highest temp you can see is 250? maybe you are pressing the exhaust temp "A" and not the "B" button for the bean temp??? Those would give you different readings.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I have only been pressing the B button for temp readings. For my last 3 roasts, the highest temp each time has been 253 exactly (used manual mode, 1lb, P5). I am not using an extension cord. Maybe they erred on the side of caution for the new model? It'd be interesting to know what other users of this model are reporting on chamber temps in manual mode.
I have the Behmor 1600 AB. I've been trying to perfect the Finca La Maria Geisha Natural, using P1 to P4 at smell of bread to P3 at first crack. Having inconsistent results, so now I'll try using the temps as a guide. Any suggestions for this Colombian Geisha?
You might want to watch the behmor espresso I did as well. It shows me using the temp readings. Just another reference for you before you roast on the behmore using temps. With the Gesha, I’m assuming you won’t want to roast too dark. Double pre- warm your behmor with the drum out and loaded and the chaff tray in the roaster. Stuck to the p5 100% power until just before the 320 degree b temp then slowly let your temps decline so your around 285 at drop. The fan will kick on at 5 min so kick up the power at 4:50 so you don’t loose your heat. You may need to monitor power and toggle after the 5 minute mark. Are you monitoring phase times? Remember to end your roast a little early and cool the beans quick. Hope that helps. Let me know what happens.
Hey Mike great vid. Have you still got a copy of this method written down? i am trying to makes notes and timing to replicate the method i just don't want to miss anything!
Nothing written down Andrew, sorry about that. I would suggest watching my other behmore videos. I have them in a playlist here th-cam.com/play/PLe757VIiQrPb3aXj2kNhI67dlDYkJrHMi.html You will start to get the idea of how I roast with the behmore as I talk through each roast.
I have asked this same question of another seasoned home roaster. I’d like some input from a few of you. Question. If you roast a certain variety bean, say Mexican Chiapas from a certain farm one year’s batch. Then buy the same variety from same farm a year later, so different harvest…would it be possible using the same recipe for the same roaster possibly result in a different outcome? I’ve always wondered that but have not had the opportunity to do a comparison.
Hi Lori. The Short answer is yes with some exceptions. Assuming the roast is the exact same and the only variable is the seed from year to year, Yes, you can experience different results. The reason is because coffee is an agricultural product and the environmental conditions will have a great impact on the way the plant grows. Water, temperature, altitude, nutrients, disease, overall soil conditions, shade, sun and other factors play a roll in how that seed grows inside the coffee cherry. That is one reason why the exact same coffee variety can be grown in two different places and taste different. So, if temperatures are not as cool from one season to the next, that can impact the coffee. More dense coffees usually experience cooler moist temps grown at high altitudes. But if there is a temperature difference or the rain is different from one year to the next, this can impact the way the seed grows and the resulting flavors. Then there is how the coffee is processed. If the fermentation process is different from one year to the next that can also be a factor. I guess even the way the coffee is packaged and how the environment while being exported can play a roll in flavor. Then there are two big variables left. The roaster and the barista. You mentioned using the same recipe (assuming on your behmor) but even that is difficult to replicate exactly. Power fluctuations, ambient room temperature, and even the condition of your roaster can impact the roast somewhat. Lastly and a biggie is the barista. This person is the last in the "chain of custody" of a coffee seed. How this person brews the coffee will greatly impact the flavor profile of your coffee. You can have all things remain exactly the same but it can greatly be influenced by the barista. Now, if you roast darker, you have a much greater chance to experience consistency. That is how Starbucks does it. Even though they buy their coffee from different farms, even regions, their roasting process basically removes most of the origin and simply tastes like a dark roasted coffee with very little defining characteristics as far as flavor goes. At least that is how I see it. One more thing. I can't tell you how many coffees I roasted on the Behmor that i absolutely loved. One was a Sulawesi Bone Bone coffee that every once in a while I will find, buy and roast. It has a big body, hempy rustic vibe with wonderful sweetness. There is even a little bit of fruit in the cup. Roasting it to a medium dark brings out a milk chocolate note that is really enjoyable. Hmm, anyway, i've been chasing that experience for a long time but can't seem to capture it. The couple of times I have bought the beans it has been close, but not the same. Hope that helps.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Wow, sooo interesting! When I started my home roasting journey (with a little popcorn air popper) I found it frustrating doing tiny tiny batches. That lasted about a month before we found out about the Behmor. The outcomes were decent though which surprised me. What started it? A friend of mine at work was following a truck carrying burlapped bags of beans to deliver to local roasters in Arkansas. The back door rolled open and out came some bags of raw coffee beans all over the road. Truck pulls over and driver proceeds to stand and ponder over his predicament. My friend pulls up and asks if he can help. Drivers says sure and ends up my friend got to bring home about 50 pounds of raw (mystery coffee). Lol My coffee loving friend never roasted coffee before but that didn’t stop him from putting some beans on a cookie sheet and enveloping his kitchen with smoking beans from his oven. His poor wife! Haha He brought some to work and oh my, it was horrid. He gave me about a cup of raw beans which I took home and did a little research. Put some in my air popper and voila! I roasted my first beans. Then came the Behmor. Long story but that’s how my coffee roasting began. I think what you said about all the conditions being so ever changing is spot on. One could app,y it to anything grown in the ground. Even if you took two coffee plant seedlings from the same parent plant and grew one in water and one in soil, they won’t have the same taste because of their beginnings. Change the soil, another variation. Change the altitude and climate, another variation. All from the same parent plant. Isn’t nature wonderful?!
Hi NY Buckeye. Thanks for watching my video. The Behmor is a great roaster. Do you have the original 1600 or the plus? Moving to the Hottop will be exciting and challenging. Which Hottop are you saving for? Using logging software like Artisan will give you good data so you can really see what is going on with your roast profile.
Hey Mike, great content as always. This gives more ideas for me to work with as a Behmor user. A couple things I noted with your approach and how it differs from mine. My machine is an original 1600 with upgraded components (PCB, panel, drum motor) that match the 2000AB, so it may just come down to a difference in machines. 1. Obviously, the Behmor has a slow beginning ramp even with preheating, but 6+ minutes to yellow seems a bit long. Granted, yellow is hard to call in the Behmor, and I normally roast washed coffees, but most of my roasts are usually full yellow by 4 or 5 minutes, depending on my preheat temp. 2. I noticed that you only record B temps. I always understood that, once the fan and afterburner kick on, the A temps become more useful, even if only as an indicator of the general progression of temperature. Is there a reason you stick only to B temps? 3. I use the same batch size as you do here (225g, normally), but I hit first crack by 7-9 minutes into most roasts, even with stretching out browning prior to first crack (by going to P4 when I see tanning/browning). Is my heat too aggressive? Do I need to dial it back sooner? Thanks again for all you do!
Hi Dustin, Thanks for sharing the info. Someone else asked about the "A" button as well. I just never used it. That is the "exhause temp" right? I thought the A temp was the one that was influenced by the fan. IDK, I always used the "B" temp for my roasts. In all honesty, the behmor temps readings are not that great. When it's all over, it comes down to what we taste in the cup and i'm confident that how much time we spend in each phase will influence that. Regarding your roasts, 4 or 5 minutes to dry on the behmor is really good. What type of coffee is it? You mentioned a washed coffee but is it a low or high density coffee? That can influence the heat transfer as a lower density bean will roast quicker. Have you broken your roast phases down into percentages? The times you shared are fairly broad so I can't really offer an answer until I get a sense of you times. Then we can talk about your heat application. Are you writing down your times and temps? If not, give it a try because there will be that golden roast and you will want to be able to repeat it. Also, have you noticed any roasting defects? Look carefully at the beans after roasting. Do you see any tipping or scorching? I doubt you will on the Behmor but it is possible. Lastly, what type of roast are you trying to achieve? light, medium, dark etc...
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yeah, A is the exhaust temperature. I’m with you on temp readings- neither A nor B really correlate to bean temps, so I really only watch the B temp in the first half of the roast to make sure I don’t get the overheat error. But I know for those who do record temps, they’ll look to the A temp once the fan kicks on. I usually go by aight and smell and will record the major events like color change and aroma change, and the times for them. Lately, I’ve been roasting two washed Central American coffees - a Mexico Oaxaca and a Guatemala Huehue, both from Sweet Maria’s. The Mexico is a little less dense, but both coffees are fairly high elevations according to SM’s notes. Just as a general note: I always roast in manual mode starting at P5, then will go to P3 at rolling first crack. I will also go to P4 at tan/brown depending on the coffee. Based on the notes from my last couple roasts - with the Guatemala, my times and percentages were as follows with a preheat of 200 on the B temp. Total roast time of 9:45; yellow at 4:15 (44%), mid-phase from 4:15 to 7:00 (28%); first crack started at 7:00 and ended at 8:50 (25%). I let it go at P3 until 9:45 when I ended the roast and cooled the beans outside the roaster. First crack actually came quicker than I anticipated, but I still was pleased with how the cup tasted - some brown sugar with a brisk acidity and some hints of apple. I made a note to myself to do a lower preheat and try to stretch out the mid-phase for the next roast. The Mexico was similar but at a lower preheat temp (180). I also took it a little darker than I had intended to, but flavor wise it still turned out really good. Very nutty with some chocolate tones and really nice body. I did notice what looked like tipping on a few beans with this roast as well. Overall, I usually aim for solid medium roast territory with most Centrals. I like the balance those coffees offer and really enjoy them with some development after first crack to bring our body and sweetness, although I’ve still had really good ones cooled right at the end of first crack. Usually I’ll try small batches of a coffee before I figure out what roast level is really what I’m looking for. Sorry the novel. Thanks for all your help!
Dustin, that was a great response. You have a good understanding of what you are doing and I am glad it is working well for you. I would back off on the heat after dry to stretch out the middle phase. You recognized this as a possible tweak. "First crack actually came quicker than I anticipated, but I still was pleased with how the cup tasted - some brown sugar with a brisk acidity and some hints of apple." That "brisk" acidity was maybe a tartness? That is a sign of a middle phase that you could go a little longer with. That will also help slow down the overall roast. Honestly, you might want to even use a slightly lower charge temp to lengthen the dry phase a little. Just my opinion, your totally aware of the events, color, smell and heat management. Maybe consider how you want to change your percentages to modulate your flavor profile. Nice Job!
@@dg10890 Hey Dustin, thanks so much for your reply. It seems we roast very similarly so I am encouraged hearing your results. I have many questions similar to yours. Please see my comment to Mike's post above where I ask a question on something I am thinking of trying for a roast. Please give comments if you care to. Also, do you do anything special with drum speed during your roasts?
I can tell you have a wealth of knowledge to share but you might want to consider your video editing process. 8 minutes before the action begins and an ad break on top of it is just too long, in my opinion, to ask a viewer to wait. I really do appreciate you sharing your experience with us. I just got an older ( 1600 ) Behmor and the upgrade kit just arrived yesterday. Thanks again.
Thank you very much for your comment and for watching my video. I really do appreciate it. For that video I let TH-cam pick where to place it. Sorry about that. I will try and change that in my TH-cam account. I think their system probably detected the change in the scene when the roast began and used that as the place to break. Your going to love the behmor. It can roast some really good coffee.
I just realized you were talking about my Poll request and subscribe section..... Yea, you're right. It was too early in the video. I should have placed it more towards the end. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
I have purchased some coffee from Coffee Bean Corral with no problems. They are a popular supplier. My only suggestion is to look at the harvest dates and other details when shopping from ANY coffee greens supplier.
Hello, I am using Behmor 2000 SR Plus for a year. I wonder if this roaster can produce coffee beans for an espresso machine. So far I use Hario V 60, Aero Press, etc, but no espresso. Thank you for your videos! Pavel
Hello Pavel. You are asking if the Behmor can roast for espresso? Yes 👍 I plan on doing a behmor espresso video soon. If you would, please share a little more clearly what you mean when you say coffee beans for espresso. What would the coffee taste like? What would the roast look like? Please share?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hello and thanks for a quick reply. Forgive me my English, I will try to clarify the question: I have heard that for espresso you need to roast the coffee differently, at a higher temperature. So I'm asking if the Behmor can provide such roasting, or if the temperature in it is too low for espresso. Someone claims that they roast coffee for espresso at a temperature maybe 100 degrees higher than the Behmor's maximum. Thank you so much for the reply! Pavel
@@pavelkaiser6787 Thank you for clarifying. Your English is great. I asked for clarification because this topic is controversial and I wanted to understand better your question. The Behmor can roast great coffee used for espresso. So, I need to clarify that roasting for espresso is not really that different from roasting any coffee. Let me explain. Espresso is not a roast. It is not a roast level. Espresso is a brew method. You can use any coffee you like and brew for espresso. Now that I have made those statements, let's talk about what an espresso should taste like because that is ultimately what this comes down to. I would like you to think about this. Do you like your espresso bitter, sweet, fruity, earthy? Because of the espresso brew method, you are experiencing a highly extracted roast. Whatever that roast profile you created taste like in a cup of coffee, it will be magnified and more intense. So, if you are going really dark, your roast will most likely be towards the bitter side of the flavor wheel. When brewing that in the espresso machine, how do you make that cup smooth and sweet? So, my opinion is you roast your coffee with intent to roast for espresso and this may mean you change your profile to reduce acidity, add sweetness and then taste the result in your espresso. What do you think about my answer? Does that make sense to you? I interviewed Rob Hoos, who is an expert roaster, trainer, barista and he has written a book called "modulating the flavor profile of coffee". I asked Rob about how to roast espresso on a Behmor. He shared his recipe here - th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html I plan on doing a behmor roast for espresso in the coming weeks. I hope my answer has been helpful. Ask more about this if you need to. Thanks - Mike
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to answer my questions! I was under the misconception that for espresso you need to roast the coffee in a completely different way and Behmor is not suitable for that. I am very glad that this is not the case. I will look forward to more videos and THANK YOU again! Pavel
No problem Pavel. Be sure to watch that short video part th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html that shares a espresso recipe on the behmor. You can experiment using that if you like.
I do not own any roaster. I basically throw coffee into a sauspan or pot and constantly stir with a wooden spatula. Is there a way I can improve my results with this crude set up?
Kpomo Bespoke, roasting coffee involves temperature over time. So, even the most crude setup potentially can give you some good results. There are several variables that can influence your results. 1. Quality coffee - I'm roasting specialty grade arabica coffee. 2. Good agitation of the beans so they don't get scorched/burned and result in a fairly even roast 3. A roasting profile that will maximize flavor. My coffee essentials playlist talks about this 4. Using your senses for color, smell and bean texture while roasting 5. Practice This video shows me roasting with a special roaster that works like a small pan with a lid. It is a better option, but none the less, pretty basic over a flame. th-cam.com/video/H5c7W78o8JI/w-d-xo.html The results are really good.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thank you. Will go and check out that video. I have seen all you'be said about roasting profile earlier. Planned to incorporate that into my next batch. I roast enough to last me one week with each batch. Still have my last bath. Will keep practicing and will let you know the results in comments under the video you recommended. Thanks again.
Hi Mike,I have a Behmor 2000ab and I preheat my insides as you do.After everything is in and I’m ready to roast at 000 time I’m at233degrees and by the 330 mark I’m at260 degrees..I stay at p5 and at the 530 mark I’m only doing253 while your at 315 degrees at the 530 mark.It seemed to stop heating along the way and I’m not sure what happened.Do you know what I possibly could have done.? Maybe I was in auto mode.
Hi Joe, TH-cam seems to think some of your text has links so it went into the "hold for review" area. Sorry for the late reply. Yea, you must have been in the Auto Mode or the AB has different restrictions. Be sure to hit the p5 button to start the manual mode.
Newbie Question: I'm currently using an AirFryer to roast my coffee, well actually I've halted all attempts at roasting until I can purchase an actual roaster. I'm now wondering though if I need to purchase a roast or will my air fryer actually do what I'm needing. Here is what I thought and what are your thoughts? My air fryer has a rotating fry basket that I lined with screen door mesh to keep the beans from falling out. The Air Fryer maxes out at 400F degrees and I thought the temps were too low, but as I watch your videos about the Behmor, you're never even hitting 400 degrees which makes me wonder if I just need to stick with my Air Fryer and change my temps around or something. Currently it takes me around 20 minutes to start reaching the color I like, light/medium roast; However, I don't ever hear any cracking and when I try to grind the beans they just lock up my grinder. It doesn't have any temp probes for me to confirm if 400 degrees is actually and consistently 400 degree, I HIGHLY doubt it, which is why I'm thinking I might need to get an actual roaster. Thoughts?
Hi Steven, unfortunately i do not have any experience roasting with an air fryer. 400 degree temps should do it. The beans sound like they are not fully roasted. There is a viewer (Jason) who uses an air fryer with great results. Look for the username @GoTellJesusSaves in the comments area of the video at this link: th-cam.com/video/cxEkrtmIXfY/w-d-xo.html . I'm sure he can give you some great advice to help with the air fryer.
I think I'm confusing 1st and 2nd crack in my behmor is the first crack very quite? I must be not even hearing it. Is it possible to get audio of the 1st crack?
FC could be quiet. For example, the Brazil natural I roasted recently had a really quiet crack. Another thought could be your temps are really high as you enter FC and it rolls into 2nd crack quickly and you don’t even know it? Are you roasting dark? Are you roasting in the manual mode or using a behmor P1 profile?
Hi Stanley, thanks for checking out my video. Yes, i'm pretty sure it does. Look at the temps I am writing down here th-cam.com/video/li_XZd1hrtI/w-d-xo.html and you will see on my charting the temp at five-thirty is higher than the temp at six minutes. I think this is influenced by the fan. I was looking at the behmor doc for the 1600+ and I couldn't find a reference to when/if it actually turns on at say 5 minutes or 7 minutes based on the load (1/2 lb or 1 lb). I think the newer model does that.
I'm roasting with the Behmor 1600+. One of the things I've done to cool the beans quicker is to open the Behmor all the way and use my leaf blower (I'm in the garage) on the beans while they continue to spin in the oven after I've hit the cool button. Is there such a thing to cool a bean too quickly? Is this a bad idea?
Hello Timothy. Thank you for watching and for your comment. No, you can never cool a bean too quickly. The idea is to stop the roasting development process fast. Coffee that cools down slowly is still roasting and developing. So, let's say you roasted a great roast. Everything was perfect. You are just about to hit the cool button because your coffee is the perfect color, it smells wonderful and the development time (time since first crack) is at the perfect level/percentage you want. Bam, you hit the cool and now it takes 1 minute to get from 385 on the "B" button down to 285. Your coffee is still in that hot roaster and still roasting, although at a slower rate. Now, when you finally take the beans out, wait a day or two or whatever, and brew the coffee, you realize it might be a tad darker than you wanted. That is the scenario that plays out when you don't cool your beans quickly. One way to compensate for this additional roasting is to do what you have done (great idea by the way). It won't work for me because I am in the kitchen and my wife would not be happy. The other way is to end your roast a little earlier to factor in that additional time OR whatever the time would be to cool down your beans enough to hold. How long are your roasts? How much coffee are you roasting per batch? How far do you take your roast after first crack?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I used to get very, very technical with my Behmor a few years ago, but I quickly burned out because I could never figure out how to get the RoR and Turning Point and everything just the way I wanted. I even used IR temp probes and all that jazz. So I got burned out and haven't returned until just a few weeks ago. Your channel has given me so much instruction and hope in just the selection of videos I've watched already (thank you!). I ordered 3 5lb bags of different beans from SM and I'm gonna start out with the methodology from this video to try to lock down a recipe. I think next time, instead of buying 3 5lb bags, I may just buy 1 20lb bag so I have more time to hone in the recipe and then benefit from it. Generally - I like my roasts city-city+, roast about 12oz at a time, preheat until about 300F (now way too much I see), and roasts lasted about 12-15min (probably too long?). I feel like I am starting fresh, so I'll have better responses for you once my order comes in (hopefully within the next week). Seriously, thanks for this channel and the wealth of information. You've given me renewed hope!
No. There are several really good roasters for under 500. It depends on your needs. How much coffee are you roasting at a time. How much coffee will you roast each week. Are you roasting dark? What type of coffee are you planning on roasting? Fresh Roast or the Behmor are good choices.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thank you for replay. I Will think to roast about 300g a weak. I like medium and light roast. I planning to roast mainly african's/fruits coffee.
Based on your roast type, I would consider a Fresh Roast. You would need to do 2 roasts to produce 300 grams. The Behmor is a great roaster but if you are going for light and fruity, it might be difficult to do that with the Behmor because of the longer roast times. This is my opinion, others may feel differently. I would highly reommend the extension tube to help you get good bean movement resulting in a more even roast.
Hello Amro, thank you for watching my video. The Behmor is a great roaster, the 1600 Plus, AB and AB Plus are all capable of manual roasting and this video was meant to display a manual roast that produces a great roast based on key roasting concepts related to roast phases (dry phase, browning phase, development phase). I'm glad you found my videos and hope you have great success roasting. There will be more Behmor videos in the future.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hi Amro. I also have a Behmor 2000 AB+ and have found the videos using a Behmor 1600 give very useful information that also applies to the 2000AB.
Ok, perhaps a silly question, but you said after the dry phase, “we want a descending rate of rise”. Is that meaning not a rise at all, but the temperature going down. Seems oxymoronic “descending rate of rise”.
It a silly question at all. Temperatures rise during the roast. Early in the roast the temperatures increase higher per minute, say 30 degrees per minute but at dry, we turn down the heat a little, causing temperatures to continue to increase, but at a lower rate, like 20 degrees per minute. Then at first crack, and beyond temperatures still increasing, but at a lower rate, like 10 degrees per minute. This is the case for most roasters but not all. Which roaster are you using?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for the quick response. I have been using a SM Popper. I have done about 120 roasts on it with pretty good results. (Frustrated with the small batch size and the time it takes to roast a pound or two. Also, comparing roast levels from batch to batch in order to be able to combine them to have a decent amount to give to friends or simply combine for personal use was another issue with the Popper). Just this minute I ordered a Behmor 2000 AB Plus from Sweet Maria's. Looking forward to try my hand at it. Your videos have been an invaluable resource in my roasting journey. Thank you so very much for the time and effort you put into your channel.
I'm glad my videos have been helpful... Congratulations on your new Behmor....... I think it is a great roaster for the money. BUT..... It is one of those roasters where the temperature display and Rate of Rise don't work. Using the temperature display you will have two different temps to watch.... the "A" temp and the "B" temp. The "A" doesn't really work until your in the middle of the roast and that probe is measuring the temperature leaving the roaster. The "B" temp sensor is lower in the roasting chamber (I think) and it reads a lower temp. All in all, your focus will be event times. Your time to dry and your time to first crack will help you understand how much momentum your roast has. Also, just because the roaster is "capable" of roasting 1 lb doesn't mean it will do it in a reasonable time. I usually roast 1/2 lb batches.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks again Mike. Yes,(due to your videos) I am aware of the two temp readings available on the Behmor. I figure having the ability to see and record a temp will be a benefit over the Popper. Also, with experience, I am hoping that I will learn to use the temp and how it relates to end results. About batch size, half a pound at a time will be a nice improvement over my Popper. Was planning on starting there anyway. That seems like enough to warrant trying to dial it in for espresso or sharing with friends.
Hello Sergey, no, it was a medium roast. Yes, the profile I used could be different for espresso. That topic is really interesting. I know coffee shops who use the same roast profile for their single serve pour-overs as well as espresso. I know there are some who use a blend for their espresso and others yet who roast with a longer development time to tone down the acidity and balance the cup. So, unfortunately I don't have a simple answer and you ask 5 people and get 5 different answers. I'm curious, what is your expectation for what an espresso roast means? I'm not trying to put you on the spot. In the past, I would have thought an espresso roast is darker. Because of this, I have been a little hesitant to put out a video on this topic. How have you understood this? I did a video with Rob Hoos (author, consultant, master roaster) and asked what advice he would give to a Behmor person who wants to roast for Espresso? He gave his answer here: th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html On an old "automatic only" Behmor 1600 with no manual control, he uses this recipe: 114 grams of coffee using the 1/2 pound setting. Press P2, B, +,+ and hit first crack in 9 minutes. spend 2 minutes in development. I have not tried this recipe because I don't drink espresso. Hope my reply has been helpful and thank you for watching my videos.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab agree in general. I’d expect espresso to be darker but miss the quantitive expression of the “darker” term. May be 1 min above what you did on the brink of the 2nd crack. Trouble with your technic is that the roast is not reaching 2nd crack at all . The RoR is such that we stall shy of 2nd crack. May be you need to pass the development phase surfing on on P3-P4
Thanks for your reply Sergey, Yes, many people agree that many people would expect espresso to be darker. Also, there are many people who do not think it should be darker, but more developed. My roast I did was a "medium" roast level It barely finished first crack. It was a slow first crack because my ROR / heat application was fairly low at 50% (P3) which allowed the coffee to develop at a slower rate. I guess that is what i was trying to share in my previous post Sergey, espresso roasts can be a medium roast or a darker roast, it is up to the roastmaster what they are trying to create. I interviewed a cafe owner and roaster a couple of months ago and asked if he does anything different with his roast for espresso. He said the roast level is the same BUT he uses a blend of different coffees to create a balanced pleasing espresso that had a blend of a guatemala huehue and an african coffee. Pretty interesting..... I have talked with many people about how they roast espresso and seem to get different views from them. There doesn't seem to be an agreement on how to roast for espresso. Thank you again for your comments. I understand and appreciate your question and supporting comments. This could make for an interesting video in the future.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab yeah. Thanks for the link Btw and for the videos. Very useful. Though it took me few hours of watching and few pounds of very sour roasts to realize that you are probably not an espresso enthusiast :) Question: you mentioned “not darker, but more developed” roasts . How do you achieve more development without getting darker?
That’s the part that is really interesting. By lowering ROR at first crack. You can stretch out the development phase without real high bean temps. So I can get a fully developed 20% roast and drop under 400 degrees fahrenheit. It is important to enter first crack at a low enough ROR . You can see this on a roast I did here. th-cam.com/video/VTRrOfOqejo/w-d-xo.html and go to the 9 minute and 28 second in the video to see graph.
It seems that the B temp continues to rise all the way through your roast. My Behmor 1600+ activates the after burner and the A temp rises sharply well into the roast. This causes the B temp to drop significantly and slowly rise again while the A temp rises sharply at first than slowly later. How do you get a good ROR calc? Do you use A or B? Thanks
Stanley,as I mentioned in your previous question, the B temp did drop. Yes, I think it is the afterburner that does lower the temp. I know there are people who stop monitoring the b temp after the fan turns on. They then monitor the A temp. For me, I just stick with the B temp as my main point of reference for temperatures. Honestly, I think the Behmor temps are very unreliable as far as actual temps because there is this whole radiant heat factor that plays into what the beans are actually being exposed to. So, I reference the B temp and use it as a reference to overall temperature progress (is it climbing or dropping) as well as my limit before the safety shutdown kicks in. As far as ROR and the Behmor go, that is tricky. I have briefly mentioned ROR with regards to the Behmor for a couple of reasons, mostly what I mentioned above. We really don't know exactly what is going on with temps unless we have a probe but even then, the radiant heat thing is a huge question mark in my mind. At least that is my opinion. For most of us who roast with a Behmor, I think the first and most important thing we can do to improve our cup is to first focus on basic roasting concepts, phase percentages and total roast time. Once we get those locked down we can try to improve ROR descent but logging software would be more helpful to figure that out during the roast. Think about it this way. The Behmor power levels are in 25% increments. I think we are hindered by the limitations of the machine. It would be like driving your car and constantly pumping the gas to control your speed. I get car sick when that happens by the way. hehe. Share your thoughts.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks! Your response is very helpful. I think I will concentrate on identifying the phases and decreasing power before the end of drying. I used 6.7 oz of beans in my last roast this used a total time of 12 min with a 210 preheat. I press the 1# for start eliminating the need to press the start to avoid shutdown. Thanks
Great recipe, thank you! But consider putting on gloves and pulling the beans to cool externally. The Cool Cycle in the all-metal Behmor interior remains too hot for too long.
Mike this is the video I have been waiting for since I started viewing this channel! Seriously. We can now see an ACTUAL roast with real numbers, real times, and a view of real procedure in action. You asked to hear about how our Behmor roasting procedures and experiences might vary from yours, so I mention a few of my differences below. Following that is something I was wondering about if you care to comment on it. I noticed as you described your roasting you referenced temperatures which I assume were always "B" (chamber) temperatures. Although I do record temperatures during roasting for graphing purposes, I never use any temperature values during roasting to determine anything - at all. Maybe I should start, but here's why I do not use them. On the Behmor, neither the "A" (exhaust) nor the "B" (chamber) temperatures are true bean temperatures. Those temperatures may somehow or sometimes behave like real bean temperature, but I haven't seen data from anyone to show any relationship. The B temp drops drastically when the afterburner vent fan turns on, totally ruining any ROR it may have been showing. But as I look at the rate of change curve for the A temperature, it does look somewhat like a real bean ROR curve. But since A is measuring the temperature of the afterburner vent air, I cannot say for sure it is the same as a real bean ROR curve. Also, A temperatures are useless until a little while after the afterburner vent fan turns on. When terminating a roast, you seem to use the COOL button and open the door; I pull the drum and dump the beans into an external cooler. You mentioned that you thought your roast development may actually be continuing 15 seconds longer during cooling; when I used to cool that way, it seemed to me to be much longer than that since it terminates development fairly gradually. On a typical roast, I do pre-heat and my phases run as follows. Dry Phase: 100% heat (P5), slow drum. Browning Phase: lower heat to 75% (P4), and set fast drum speed. Final Development Phase: lower heat to 50% (P3), pull drum and dump at proper DTR point. But it seems my Browning Phase times always come out fairly close to Dry Phase times and I would like to see them quite a bit less. What would you think if I changed to the following. Dry Phase: 100% heat (P5), fast drum. Browning Phase: 2 minutes into phase, lower heat to 75% (P4), and slow drum speed. Final Development Phase: lower heat to 50% (P3), pull drum and dump at proper DTR point. The main difference there is I swapped drum speeds and I kept the big heat on for two minutes into Brown. Any thoughts? I know, you're going to say, "Try it!"
Lou, your process is very similar to mine. To answer the question from your other comment re: drum speed, I usually either just leave it on high speed for the whole roast or will start slow and toggle to high speed once I'm past the drying phase to create some airflow and leave it there for the remainder of the roast. Sweet Maria's has a good article on their website about how roasting the same coffee with different drum speeds, specifically on the Behmor, can have a significant impact on flavor - roasts with the faster drum speed, in their opinion, were brighter and more complex, while the slower drum speeds had more body and sweetness. It seems like there's no hard and fast rules with drum speed in the Behmor; toggling between the low and high speeds are about the only semblance of airflow we have on that roaster, and I would think that controlling the heat would affect flavor more than anything. For your recommended changes, I'm going to pull a Mike and say, "Try it!" ;) Fast drum speed with full power would, hypothetically, shorten your dry phase and give you a little more liberty to stretch out or shorten your middle phase. I will try this on my next roast as well and see how it turns out. Thanks for the comments and the ideas!
Hi Lou, thanks for your message and apparently, your patience ! :-) Yea, "real times" is a key statement I would like to unpack as it relates to my total roast time and cooling. In my video, I hit the cool button at 12:15 and opened the door. So the real question might be, "when should I consider my roast ended on a Behmor?" On all other roasters we drop the beans and that is the point we end the roast even though the beans are "cooling". My statement about the additional 15 seconds was related to the roast calculation, not as much as how long before the beans would technically stop roasting... I agree that is would take longer for the beans to cool down without removing them and putting them into a cooling tray or something. That is part of why my roast development only displayed 14% rather than say 16 or 17 percent on my drum roaster. This makes for a very interesting conversation. The purpose of my video was to show a 50/30/20 ish roast is possible on a Behmor AND that this phase percentage breakdown is a great goal to try. I didn't want to get lost in the ROR levels for the roast because I believe the phase percentages by default will make or break a roast. Once the phase percentages are consistently worked out, then the "roast operator" can moderate the energy to produce a consistent slope in the ROR, IF that is even possible on a Behmor because of that fan. Phase percentages are also critical to control the roast and not stall or fly in the phases. So, as far as I have determined, the first step in learning to roast is to keep it in control and use the phases as the "training wheels of roasting". I''ve talked about my issues with a squiggly line aka.. roller-coaster type ROR and have been thinking long and hard about the impact that has on my flavors. My is consistently very good with the occasional bad roast where everything falls apart. I had a chance to taste the Aida Battle coffee roasted by "Facsimile Coffee" (Ryan Brown & Scott Rao) with an excellent, repeatable ROR decent and there was clearly a difference in my roast compared to theirs. Many of the notes were the same but there was a "clarity" in the cup from Facsimile compared to my roasts. That is another conversation that will some day become a video when I'm comfortable enough to work all that out and make a conclusion. I need to improve my roasting skills more before that will happen. As far as the "A" and "B" buttons providing temps, I have always used the "B" button. For those who switch to the "A" after the fan turns on, if that works for you, great! I'm not even sure exactly when my fan turns on. BUT, when the fan turns on, it does start to bring down the temps a little. Go ahead and try the different power settings. You should find out on that first roast if those changes were worth. You might want to also look at your heat management on the Behmor like this. On your roast phase percentage for browning, watch your temps and try and keep them up near 295 - 305 on the "B" and then as you are comfortably moving through the browning start to lower your heat. You might even notice you have to lower your temp settings anyway because the "B" keeps creeping up. That is the sign the beans are beginning to give off heat. Looking back at my roast, I was still going back and forth between P5 and P4 to manage my heat from the later part of dry until I hit first crack onward, similar to both you and Dustin. As I have always said, this isn't the only way to roast. You have said in the past you are roasting some really good coffee so now your tweaking. That is a really good place to be. Nice Job Lou. The drum speed thing is a personal preference. Lots of people don't change it. They turn it on full and then forget about it. I intentionally use it as a tool to "create" more air movement, like I would in a drum roaster, which creates the "Convection" heat to help speed up the roasting process. I need to get some oven type gloves with fingers so I can grab the drum and pull it out to cool right away. Just haven't done that yet. Thanks for your contribution to the discussion Lou. It has been fun to watch you learn, grow and roast some great coffee.
@Dustin Grooms , That's a good recommendation. I usually change the drum speed on my roasts as I near the end of the dry phase to help me finish my dry and also add "convection" type roasting to the roasting process. Yes, this will also help move the roast along and help with an even roast applied to the beans, not just "conduction" type heat transfer.. Can you send me a link to the article about the "Brighter", more complex taste because of the drum speed. I'm a little confused about that statement. That would mean that air roasters would roast brighter coffee? Hmmm, that's interesting. I see the body, sweetness, complexity and brightness as a result of the times spent in each phase along with the decending ROR. I could be wrong but it would make interesting reading. Thanks for your comments and encouraging other roasters! That's cool!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Here is the article from Sweet Maria's. There is also a video embedded in the article where they talk about the results for the coffees roasted at different drum speeds. library.sweetmarias.com/behmor-plus-drum-speed-comparison/
@Dustin Grooms, thanks for the link. That article makes total sense even though it is missing the most important data. They said" "The slow drum batch went into the cooling cycle after 11 minutes and 15 seconds. The fast drum batch started cooling at 10 minutes and 45 seconds." Their conclusion was by using the faster drum speed, it shortened the roast times and ultimately caused a difference in the flavor profile. That makes sense. What they don't share is how the phase percentages changed. So, by using a faster drum speed, they state it pulls the greens higher up the back of the drum, exposing it to more heat, speeding up the roast. I believe the change in the speed also affected how much time was devoted to both the browning phase and development phase. The Behmor is a slow roasting machine and drawn out browning phases will cause the coffee to be less lively. The flavors will be more muted compared to a shorter time. There will be some who might misquote what I am trying to say here. A short browning phase isn't good. The flavors don't have enough time to compound/maillard reactions to create the flavors and complexity. A browning phase that is too long will mute the flavors and the sugars will move towards bitter notes. So there is a "Sweet Spot" for the browning phase percentage. And, in some sense the total time of the roast plays an overarching roll in the flavor profile as well. So, my thoughts are the same, the drum helps speed up the roasting process by use of convection, although it makes sense that pulling the coffee up the drum to expose it to the heating elements would also speed up the roasting process. Thanks for that link. It was really helpful for me to understand why they would have thought that way.
Thanks for sharing. What preheat temp do you use for your Behmor ? Also, how much coffee are you roasting per batch and how long does it take for you to get to dry end?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hi I roast 225g. My charge temp varies with the environment. Mostly roast outside. Varies from 130 to 200. If it is hot out I lower it so I can run p5 the whole time and not hit that 320 mark. Roasts generally are between 10 and 11 minutes. Use. 1lb, 18 minute timer. Fan kicks on at 10:25ish.
Thanks for sharing JM. I think the P5 full power for most of the roast is the big difference. The radiant heat from the Behmor elements is a big factor. I'm not a big fan of direct IR heat as this tends to roast from the outside in but with more intensity. That is why I prefer a higher charge temperature. Then I am able to use less power further in the roast. Doing that allows me to reduce my power and allow ample browning and development phases. I have experienced difficulty lowering my temps to extend these phases for good flavor development. I don't doubt you can use a lower charge temp but this is why I take the approach I do.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Have been looking at them for awhile, just haven’t seen enough long lasting reviews to make me want one yet. You might be changing my mind though.😊
@@jonahex8463 Hey Jona - I saw this post and figured I'd would chime in. So I checked - I bought my Behmor from Sweet Maria's on Feb 2012 and roast about 100 lbs per year. So they do last! This coming February will be 10 years and will have roasted about 1000lbs without fail and without a single glitch. If that doesn't help your decision making... Having said that - the lack of "total" roast control has prompted me to buy a Hive Roaster a couple months ago and have been very happy with the coffee I have been drinking - might I say better than what I had on the Behmor. More work on the Hive - but more control and more engaging to roast & more fun. Hope this helps.
@@TerryManitoba Thxs for the info Terry, sounds like your behmor has served you well! Glad to hear, I’m close to needing an upgrade here soon. It’s on my list.
Hi Greg, I was roasting in the "manual mode" so going from P5 (100% power in manual mode) down to P4 (75% power in manual mode) is what I was doing. The Behmor is kind of werid in that way. The Power/Profile buttons (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) in the auto mode work differently in the manual mode. Hope that clears things up. Thanks for watching my video and for your comment Greg. Happy Roasting!
My Behmore at7min has the exhauste fan comes my exhauste temp A STARTS TO RISE WHILE MYDRUM TEMP OR B STARTS DROPPINGFROM AROUND 305 to 185 and then stars to rise again I feel this distorts my final results Thanks
Hi Norman, thanks for watching my video and for being a subscriber to my channel. Yes, this is somewhat alarming and kind of confusing. There are ways around this issue. I have a playlist for my Behmor videos and I suggest you watch them as I touch on this issue when it happens. My last Behmor video goes into detail and verifies what is really happening temperature wise inside the roaster th-cam.com/video/jm5MsA8poJs/w-d-xo.html and I think this will help. In short, the fan turns on at 5 minutes when roasting 1/2 pound or 7 minutes when roasting 1 pound setting. The fan event will happen with every roast. If you roast in the manual mode and preheat like I do, you will find you reach close to 320 degrees near the 5 minute mark when roasting 1/2 lb. The fan will kick on at 5 minutes. Around 15 seconds before this, make sure your power is set to P5 100% so when the fan kicks on you won't lose that much heat. Watch your temps, begin lowering your power to slow the roast during the middle phase (browning) and then at first crack you will want to toggle between P3 and P4 to keep your momentum going until you end your roast. My videos talk about heat management as well. Hopefully this will address your concern. Are you referencing the A temperature during your roasts. Quite a few Behmor users rely on the A temp. I stay with my B temp all the way through the roast.
I use both regularly. though the fresh roast is a little bit easier because it’s easier to clean. I just ordered a new roasting chamber which is supposed to allow me to roast up to 12 ounces on the fresh roast and the Beamer is getting kind of old since it’s only a 1600 it doesn’t have all of the features of the newer versions
Currently using a Nesco Cr-04-13, and see that it has a recall notice. It has roasted nicely, but the interior is difficult to clean effectively, and it's hard to judge the roasting process. Regular Columbians seem to need a Dark roast followed by a couple of minutes of medium. Today the dark roast overroasted my beans though, so this process does seem unreliable. Decaf Colombian needs medium roast and needs to be stopped early. Again, it seemed to over-roast today. However, I was using the oven at the same time while the Nesco was sitting on the top of the range, so the extra heat from the oven may have been the cause of the overroasting. Because of the recall, I'm looking into upgrading to the Behmor.
Hi Larry, thanks for your comments and sharing your experience with the Nesco. The Behmor is a different animal than your air roaster so keep that in mind. It can produce some great coffee. After you have a few roasts under your belt with the Behmor, I suggest you watch the video again (if you want) as you will begin to pick-up some of the details of what I was doing with my roast and more importantly "why". Congrats on the Behmor!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for your words of encouragement! I've been logging temperatures and times every 1/2 minute for my roasts so I can study what I have done and compare it. The Behmor is unique in that the B temperature is the oven temperature, not the bean temperature, which makes comparing profiles from drum roasters very difficult. If the Maillard is supposed to be happening from 300-350°F, caramelization closer to 400°F, first crack around 380-400°F, and 2nd crack 430-450°F, it is impossible to tell directly from the Behmor where you are at temperature-wise. Furthermore, roasting decaffeinated coffee is way different from regular coffees. One thing I have noticed is that there IS value to recording the "A" temperature as it gives clues to the bean temperature. So far, whether it's a regular or decaf Columbian, once the "A" temperature reaches about 340°F it reaches 1st crack quite consistently. I know there are many other variables, but in all my roasts so far, but this temperature has been quite consistent. Second crack appears to happen quite consistently at around 355 to 360°F for the "A" temperature, with a few exceptions. However, all my bitter or ashy coffees reached above 360°F on the "A", while my sweeter coffees were dumped at or below 360°F. My main point is that that "A" temperature is valuable and should not be ignored on the Behmor. As you said in your decaffeinated video, the drying phase is difficult to detect by colour, especially in a Behmor with the yellow lamp. Going by smell can be tricky because the Behmor doesn't turn the exhaust fan on until 6 minutes into the roast (13:00 roast profile). The only way to get an accurate sense of drying smells is by opening the door a crack periodically. I noticed that, with a charge temperature of 200°F the grassy smells were gone by the 4th minute. If you rely on the exhaust fan odors, you will be misled because the grassy odors will remain in the roaster until the exhaust fan removes them. Still very much a newbie at roasting, but I think these points deserve more credit than I have seen in general.
As I'm learning how to roast on the Behmor, much of my focus has been on reproducing a profile rather than simply achieving a desired roast, although the two go hand in hand. Because the "A" and "B" temperatures are not bean temperatures, using these is still a little bit like flying in the dark. I have found a few guidelines that are helping though. First crack is said to occur at approximately 384F, and often occurs when the "A" temperature is approximately 330-340F. Second crack is said to occur at approximately 435F, and seems to occur when the "A" temperature is approximately 360F. So, I monitor my "A" temperature just as much as my "B" temperatures for my profile. My current profile for my decaf starts with a 220F preheat and on the P2 profile. I let the temperature rise slowly through the drying phase. At about 5 minutes in, the fan turns on and I ramp up to P5 to achieve a "B" temperature of about 260F. I then start monitoring the "A" temperature. Once the "A" temperature reaches 300F, I allow it to rise slowly, switching to P3 for 30s, then P4, then back to P5 if my "B" temperature drops below 250F. Once my "A" temperature reaches 360F, 2nd crack is imminent. If I actually let it hit second crack, it will be bitter. Notice my general profile I'm playing with is not "so many minutes on P5, then so many seconds on P4 etc. I'm watching both "B" and "A" . "B" reflects the heat I'm applying to the beans, "A" reflects what is happening to the beans. My general profile so far is to achieve an "A" temperature rise slowly from 300F to 360F. I know the Maillard reactions must be happening at the low end of this range, and the caramelization is above, near the 1st crack temperatures. So, am I out to lunch with this approach? I still have yet to learn when drying ends, browning begins, and development begins. At least, for now, I'm not making undrinkable coffee (by my standards)!
Hi Larry, no you are not our to lunch. Everyone approaches their coffee roast differently. I'm glad you are closely monitoring temperatures. But, rather than focus on what you are or are not doing, It might be helpful to think about coffee roasting in the terms of time over temperature. A brief 1 minute summary of my roast philosophy can be see here in this video at 17:30. Each phase of roasting is important and monitoring times, temperatures and events will help us see what is happening to our roast. Changes to these times in each phase will influence the cup. We taste our coffee we roasted and see what we like or don't like. From there we make changes to our times and temps in the phases. This part of roasting is where I focus my attention. How much time I spend from dry end to first crack will influence flavor development. This means that marking dry end at the right time is important. Longer roast times affect the flavor profile of your coffee. I'm curious how long it takes for you to roast the coffee using the heat settings you are using? I appreciate you sharing your roasting journey Larry!
Hi Keegan, “soak” is a method where beans are exposed to a hot drum at charge with power set to zero for a short period of time. I learned this term from Mill City Coffee Roasters hen I attended roaster school. I do NOT recommend this technique with the Behmor or any other roaster unless it’s a drum roaster with lots of metal to maintain heat.
Thanks for sharing. Which bread machine are you using? are you able to control paddle speeds? Are you using a heatgun? How dark are you going? Are you please with your results?
Do you find the overall roasting time to be important or mainly the ratios of each phase? Ive read many times that the Behmor will "bake" your roast so try to keep it hot and short. I believe this bad advice has led me down a bad path of scortching my beans and ive been trying to correct ever since. Ive also had to replace my tirst Behmor and ive never gotten as good of results.
I think both total roast time and how Much time you spend in the browning phase and development will greatly impact flavor results. As for behmore baking, my opinion is many Behmor users are roasting too much coffee per roast. Behmor markets their product as roasting up to1 lb of coffee. I would not roast more that 1/2 pound at a time. What happened to your first Behmor?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab so roasting too big of batches makes the roasting time too long? What is the result of that? Just flat muted coffee? The afterburner in my first unit failed. I replaced it once, but it may have happened again. I can't remember. But I do remember being unable to fix it again because the wiring was too short. I remember getting better results with my first Behmor but part of me wonders if my standards have just gotten higher. Although I don't recall having scorching issues with my first roaster like I do now. I was also able to use the auto profiles more successfully in my first unit. I'm wondering if my original unit ran hotter and so to try to achieve that, I am relying on the manual mode, but going too hot.
Yes, batch size plays a huge roll in how fast you can roast on the Behmor. In this behmor video here th-cam.com/video/cxEkrtmIXfY/w-d-xo.html i reached dry at around four minutes, first crack around seven min and fifteen seconds and then dropped the coffee at eight min and thirty five seconds. There is no way to roast a pound of coffee in the Behmor in under 9 minutes. I had to roast less coffee. One variable you might be experiencing is the power iteslf. If you are using an extension cord OR if the outlet itself has less voltage, this can impact the performance of the Behmor. Also, if the roaster is dirty (the sensors) this can affect roasting performance on the Behmor. You could be outgrowing the roaster as well.....
@@VirtualCoffeeLab So is it important to have a shorter roast time? Does a shorter time equal better taste? In general, is there a target roast time for coffee? Does the Behmor adjust power based on temp readings even in manual mode? I do try to keep it clean, but I admit I'm not as diligent as others. I think I definitely have room for improvement with the Behmor. I've seen others (including yourself) achieve better results than me. I think in general I might be roasting too hot and not paying enough attention to the timing of the different phases. Would you say that preheat temp and batch size are two of the biggest factors with the Behmor (considering they might set the pace for the roast)? Thanks for your help! Your videos are super educational!
There is no optimal total roast time because there are so many variables including batch size, airflow, conductive heat transfer, bean size, process type, variatal and your style of roast. The same bean can have many different tastes based on how you roast it. My videos share my approach and the total roast time can vary from 7 minutes to 12 minutes based on the type of coffee, the roaster i am using and what kind of roast i am trying to achieve. In my 3 tips for new home coffee roaster video I talk about a "starting point" for a roast. Based on the outcome of that roast you would make a single change at a time to see how that impacts the cup. In order to do that, we use different temperatures over time to craft our coffee. I hope that makes sense. Unfortunately roasting is a craft and there isn't a set "formula" for everyone. I think that learning the principles (my essentials playlist) will help your understanding of the roast process. Even though I am using different roasting devices when I roast, most of the principles apply to everyone.
I can't say that I dislike it because I feel like I need more education to maximize it's capabilities. Your videos such as this have been helping me. I almost completely have been doing 1lb roasts. Now realizing that trying smaller batches may bring out some better flavors. Previously I had only been preheating for a minute and a half going by the manual. Now after watching a few of your videos I realize I can preheat longer. I am also learning from your instructional tips on the roast cycle that cooling fast is important. On my last batch I opened the door at cool down. I like the flavor of the roast I did, but am curious if I can make it better. I bought 25# of that bean so I can find that tasty cup. Contemplating some gloves to remove the drum so I can empty the beans. My wife an I are regular coffee drinkers so we go through a lot of beans. Time during the week is busy so my desire is to roast larger batches so I only have to roast every other week. Hence, I have been considering a 1kg gas drum roaster.I can also see roasting for friends and family if I had that type of roaster. Much easier to do one batch after another. Not the case with the Behmoor.
In the beginning of using my Behmoor the only recording I had been doing was when 1C took place and then when I hit the cool button. With your education on the 50 30 20 roast cycle and what each cycle does has me looking deeper at the numbers and recording B temps every minute now. I am planning on doing 1/2 lb roasts for a few weeks and work the numbers. I have greatly benefitted from all the great comments in this video thread.
Hi Karen, these are two totally different roasters so the methods will be different. Are you happy with your fresh roast results? What Fresh Roast model do you have and how much coffee are you roasting per batch. Also, let me know the roast level and coffee origin you enjoy drinking. With regards to the Behmor, what batch size did you select and how much coffee were you roasting per batch?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab i was always under the understanding from going out on forums that my naturals should not have a charge time before putting them in like i would with wet process. I have always roasted 100° chg incl drum then placed 1lb beans in (brazil natural) slow drum p5 to 1st crack then Increase drum speed lower p3 till end 1st crack then p2 thru dev till i removed at beep 5min. Deep peanut butter, sugar taste did this for 1yr then started encountering prob with machine. Returned machine after a very long and difficult time to get a new one. I can not seem to get my same profile back on my Brazil, i have switched to wet not sure if it's the beans this year but something has changed never use to get tipping and scorching at all.
Ok a little shocked on the outcome i have never charged to 210 it was a little challenging to write check temp watch progress and check time. Little more practice there. I still have some tipping and scorching but i used 1lb, the brazil dry process pedra branca expanded much nicer color much more uniform need to work better on the timing. Had to drop p4 7min when temp hit 303 increased again 8 min to p5 when after burner kicked on. Yellow started at 8:30 first crack 12:30 increased drum (maybe should have started this sooner) dropped p3. 14:30 min 282° dropped p2 at 15 cooled.
@@mirindal2106 Thanks for your message. First, you are roasting a dry process coffee, it is more prone to roast defects. Also, it is a brazil coffee which is likely a lower density bean and more prone to roast defects. I would suggest you use a lower charge temperature for prewarm like 150 degrees. Assuming you are roasting for fruit and origin tasting notes, my comments below may be helpful. Looking at your phase times you roasted for a total of 870 seconds. I used the calculation method from the video to determine your roast phase percentages. 58.6% is Dry Phase 27.58% is Browning/Middle Phase 13.79% is Development Phase. You need to shorten your dry phase, lengthen the browning phase a little. Depending on your roast style preference and how you cool you can adjust your development phase to be a little longer. It seems your roast starts out slow and then by the time you get to dry end it is moving too fast so you should adjust your heat to compensate and slow down the roast. If you use a smaller batch size, you will be able to shorten your drying phase time. Please know the exhaust fan turns on a different times depending if you roast 1 lb or 1/2 lb.
One of the best video for Behmor, I watched it 3 times, and went roasting. The first batch was 225 grams, charge temp 240f I ended up with 56, 29,15, so I did 2 things on the next one, charged at 277 loaded 200 grams and got 50,34,15,4 , could not resist tasting, Yirgacheffe natural, came out sweet and fruity, raspberry taste, can’t wait to let it evolve. Thank you so much for this video!👍👍👍
Hello Andre, thanks for watching my video and for sharing your comments and results. I'm glad you are experimenting with charge temperatures. They are so important to set you up for a good profile, especially on the Behmor. I see a lot of people putting in Aluminum Foil to retain heat to get the shorter times but I'm not so sure it's necessary. The batch size is also a huge factor and by lowering the batch size you have also helped speed up your dry phase, hence your entire roast. The drum speed can also be a factor, although not as much during dry, mostly plays a part during the browning and development. So you roasted sweet and fruity coffee, congratulations. I' glad you had that experience. Important note here, keep in mind that different coffee will most likely require different variations of the profile. Some do better with a longer development or a longer browning phase. You will notice this as you roast and taste different coffees. This is due mainly to the bean size, density and overall flavor profile. Also, there is the creative side of roasting where you roast based on the notes you want to have presented. Some don't like the fruit forward cups, but prefer a more balanced cup, or even low acidity. Pretty cool stuff. Nice Job Andre!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab This was so much fun, I think I did about 4 roast prior to the last 2, trying to nail the 50-30-20, the biggest challenge was trying to figure out dry end through the Behmor window, but I had a work light that I placed in front of the window, it’s in an angle, hard to explain, but now I can clearly see the beans color change. So now my goal is to start with the 50-30-20 and adjust from there, always have to keep an open mind to try new things when roasting. Did I tell you I loved this video! And also your channel 👍👍👍
Just getting back into roasting after 4 years away from the coffee world. Just got a behmor and your videos have been a tremendous help! Thank you!
Welcome back to the hobby. I have enjoyed my behmor for 12 years. Congrats on your new roaster. I’m glad my videos have been helpful for you.
I working more than 10 years in the coffee business.I planning to buy a roadster..
I learn a lot from your videos 😉
Thank you
All the best. Are you planning on buying a Behmor?
Just starting to roast and have a used Nesco coffee roaster and getting decent roasts from it but Im wanting more control of my roast. This gives me more confidence to step up to a better roaster. Thank you for your videos!
Hi Mark, thanks for watching and sharing. I'm glad my videos have been helpful.
I have my Behmor 1600 plus for almost 6 year.
thanks for the demo which help me a lot!
I’m glad my video was helpful! Thanks for sharing and for watching.
I think it’s called a Breadman Ultimate Plus. I cannot control paddle speed. The only control is the variable temp heat gun in conjunction with a digital thermometer inserted from the side which monitors bean temp. I use your guide for roast 50/30/20 winding up at about 18min total roast time for 680g of coffee. Though this method is impossible to exactly duplicate, I am pleased with the results. Most are about as good as anyone else’s I occasionally try. Thank you for your response and your helpful tips.
Thanks for sharing Randy. You might want to consider a smaller batch size when you roast. This will shorten your total roast time and it could help improve your results even more. Just a thought. Thanks again for letting me know your setup.
I just want to take few minutes to thank you for your quality content ! I bought a behmor 1600+ few months ago because my coffee bean budget was out of control , i figured i could roast myself and save at least 50% so I found a used and very cheap behmor and bought it . At first i was victim of my beginers success because my few first roast were really nice so i thought it wasnt rocket science after all ! But the more the time and roast batch passed i notice that for some reasons some of my batch were good and some were strange , i could tell by looking at the beans mainly but of course the taste and extraction was weird also . I figured it might have to do with the green bean themself and brush it off , but my last batch i decided to strech the drying and browning phase and oh boy the result was very very good , i could see a difference looking at how it pour out of my naked portafilter . So today i kept digging and found this video from you and this is so helpfull ! I didnt even know that i could read my roaster temp using B .... 😅 you also answer my question about why my roaster fall in error ( over heat security ) and your videos are always very easy to understand , keep your good work 👍👍👍
Thanks for watching my video @Razor _Sharp. I'm glad it was helpful. The Behmor is a great roaster and still brings a smile to my face everytime I use it. I have more Behmor videos planned to subscribe and stay tuned!
I bought one used saved money off the 2000AB model and bought hte upgrade nad ended up saving $200 off the retail price of the new model and am happy
You have greatly increased my knowledge of coffee roasting and the ins and outs of the Behmor. At present all our house contents are in storage as we relocate to Australia.
So I am looking forward to continuing my long time hobby now that i have a good basis to go forward with. Thank you for your hugely informative and practical videos. Very very much appreciated.
I'm glad my content is helpful for you John. Thank you for watching my videos. Good luck with the move down under. There are quite a few Australians who watch my videos.
I'm using a behmor 2000AB. It just arrived last week and I'm very grateful for this video.
I tried to copy your roast using an Ethiopian coffee. I ended up with a charge temperature of 204 and first crack came at 8 minutes at a temperature of 296. I have to get better at determining the end of the dry phase so I'm not sure when that was. I started cooling at 9:53 as I felt the beans were getting dark. My temperature never really got into the 300's for long but the roast happened so quickly. I probably should have had a lower charge temperature
Congrats on your new roaster Amy. Yea, the Behmor is a wonderful roaster. Like all roasting devices, they have their strengths and weaknesses. There will be a learning curve. One friendly suggestion would be to pay attention to the beans, their color, the size, sounds, and other senses like smell during the roast. There is a lot of stuff to try and remember and will take practice but after a dozen or two roasts you will start to get comfortable.
One other thing. You will have more success by using 6-8 ounces of green coffee. It will roast faster than putting a whole pound in.
Good luck and happy roasting!
Amy, are you roasting 1/2 lb of coffee? Are you roasting in the manual mode? Not doing that could be causing you to take longer to get through the dry phase quicker.
Watch the video at the 9:10 mark and you will hear me talk about the amount of weight to roast AND you will see me press P1 then Start Then P5 to roast at 100 percent power in the manual mode.
Congrats on the roaster by the way!
I finally got my SR800 5.17.2024 and the first roast was a little over done. But still able to drink the coffee. I love that machine and plan to get good with it.
Wonderful! Enjoy your new roaster Jerry!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab It is so much fun and I wish I could roast all day but I can't drink that much coffee. Thank Mike for all of your videos. I have learned a lot.
@@jerryhubbard4461I'm so happy for you. Mike is a great dude. He had helped me so many times.
What brew methods do you use? What upgrades do you want to get?
The only things I want at this time is a better grinder and some magnesium. I live in Japan and I can't find just a small bag of food grade magnesium. Online they sell big bags. That is soooo much.
I want to make brewing water for filter and water for espresso. My grinder is ok, but not precise at all.
What coffees do you enjoy? I hope to hear from you soon. 😊
dude you're like the Behmor wizard. Just picked one up used today and your video will be very helpful for me thank you
Hi John. Congrats on the purchase. Best roasts are using 1/2 lb or less. There is a learning curve with the behmor. Hope my videos will help you.
I have a Behmor 2000AB+ Great job with presenting this roast. First time roaster here. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful! The Behmor is a great coffee roaster. Thank you very much for watching my video and for the encouragement @Club CFF. Enjoy roasting great coffee!
I replaced the light in my Behmor 2000ab with a white led microwave oven light. I like it so far, though it reflects a little harshly on the drum, I'm sure the drum will patina further with more use and reduce that glare. Removing the factory light was a pain in the rear, it was threaded with loctite.
Thanks for sharing the light tip @neuroflare. Enjoy your Behmor, they provide lots of fun and some great coffee!
Hi @neuroflare. Your light replacement sounds like a great modification. Where did you get your LED light? Also, sometimes you can get a Loctite screw to loosen up a little by applying lots of heat. Maybe you already tried that.
@@luigicollins3954 Sorry, I've tried replying several times with some detailed info but I guess the channel just deletes whatever I input without warning because it contains a link so I'm not wasting my time again. I bought a light on amazon
@@neuroflare Thanks!
Which bulb did you use? Looking for one
This was extremely useful. I have been thus far unsuccessful in getting a good light roast out of the Behmor but I will try these techniques and report back. Thank you so much!
Thanks for watching and for your comment sammu. The Behmor is a great roaster but it is not as easy to get a light roast as say a Fresh Roast SR type roaster. I look forward to hearing how your roast went!
Excellent, if not the best Behmor roaster video. Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks @Dat Bui, I appreciate you watching my video and for your kind words. The Behmor is a great roaster and I hope to share more roasts using it in the future!
Bummed that I’ve been roasting on the Behmor for like 4 years and never thought to check on TH-cam for additional help. Glad I’ve found the channel though and can’t wait to try this profile.
Thanks for watching Mark. Let me know how your roast goes!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab just did this recipe today. I think it went well but the tasting will tell the story. How do you recommend brewing it? I typically use a Chemex.
I love the Clever Dripper. It removes most of the brewing variable because it is an immersion method and uses a filter.
Got around to brewing this today with the chemex. Very smooth cup. Did medium course grind at 14-1 ratio. Might tweak the grind settings and ratio tomorrow.
Your videos and this video in particular is really helpful for me getting the most out of my -6 month old Behmor roaster. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful Ben! Thanks for watching.
Thank you so much for the detailed video. This was really helpful in understanding the reasons behind the decisions. This narration of a roast after the fact is really effective in helping us understand your thinking. Rather than do this, do that (which is important in the beginning), this type of video helps develop knowledge at a much deeper level. Thank you!
Thank you for your comment and encouragement Chris. There will be more Behmor videos coming.
Another great video - I will be able to use the info on my Behmor & Hive.
Future videos on a Hive Roasting Recipe would be nice as well. I pulled the trigger on the "plugged data" model after your Hive video.
Next year I am driving to South America (2 years plus trip) From what I hear it will likely be easier to find green beans enroot than trying to find roasted beans. The Hive is compact and durable and now I know it produces great roasts.
Hi Terry, Thanks for watching my video. Yes, I do have more plans with the Hive. Have you roasted on your Hive yet?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yes - about 8 roasts (150 &170 gram) - with great results, right from the get go. The last 6 were with Artisan - still getting used to the Hive workflow and interacting with the app.
The Behmor currently is on hiatus...
BTW - I am using this "Tenta Kitchen Stainless Steel Spider Strainer Wire Strainer Skimmer Colander" as a cooling colander a/w with vacuum. The slots do not let roasted bean to pass thru but are wide and long enough to vacuum up all of the chaff - which is not the case with a round hole or a screen style colanders.
Thanks a lot for your video, it's so helpful.
You are welcome!
Nice video and very informative. I use a Behmor with an updated panel and higher speed motor.
Hello Pierre, what model Behmor do you have? I'm curious if you notice a difference in your roasts with the faster drum speed?
I just found your channel and I am learning. Thanks for this great site.
I’m roasting on a Behmore 1600 plus that I’ve been using for the past 10 years or so.
It’s so nice to listen to you explain the phase’s of the roast and the roast time percentages.
I’m roasting today and will working on this new way to roast.
Thanks for watching my video! I’m so glad you found my channel. Yea, we’re all learning. That’s what makes this hobby so fun.
There is a learning curve but hang in there because roasting great coffee is worth the effort.
How did your roast go Eugene? Did you have any successes?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Sorry for this late reply. I think the coffee is better however a couple days ago I pre heated to 215 then shut off the roaster to reset the timer to 18 min. Unfortunately the temperature continued to drop. What happened was one of the quartz tubes failed. Now the Behmore is in pieces as I try to remove the lower tube before ordering new tubes.
I have the behmor 1600 with the up grade motor ,board and pushbutton board. When colder temps outside when roasting the start button is intermittent working . Suggestions?
Hi Denver. I can’t say for sure. Other than the contact for the button being warn, dirty, or moist, I can’t think of a reason why this would happen. Behmor has good customer support so I would contact them. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. I’ve not had that kind of issue.
I had an original Behmor 1600 for 12+ years before it finally died. I struggled to make a decent roast on it, and after a while stopped trying, content with comfort-style dark roasts. Last week I bought a Quest M6 and a pair of thermocouples and am excited to up my game.
cjhacker23, The Quest looks like a great roaster with full control over the roast. You are going to have a lot of fun experimenting with variables. You might want to consider buying a bulk bag of coffee to practice with on the Quest. This will help you understand how the changes made in the roast profile affect the flavor.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for the suggestion--I got a 20-pound sample pack from Sweet Marias of Central American coffees (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador) when I bought the roaster, 5 pounds of each. My advance research on the Quest M6 tells me that the ideal charge size is 450 grams. That means I would only get 5 tries with each bean. Are Central Amercan beans similar enough that I could go from one bag to the next without having to totally recalibrate things? Or would be better to put these beans aside (how? freezer?) and get a 20-pound bag of a single origin to learn on?
@cjhacker23 the point of my recommendation was for you to be able to taste the same coffee and then sense differences in taste from one profile to the next. clean, dirty, fat, thin, sweet, bitter, bright, dull flat, etc...... If you change coffee after 5 lbs, there might be some similarities, but your basically starting all over because the taste will be different. In my video here I mention what happens when you change the length of the browning phase. The longer percentage of the other roast wasn't as sweet as the roast I showed on the video. So, from coffee to coffee this changes. One might be better with a little longer browning percentage. Another might be a little better with a longer development time and so on.... This is going to vary from coffee to coffee. The good news is you can start with the standard phase percentages I have been talking about and then tweak based on what you taste in that roast. It will be fun to try the different coffee and see if you can notice different roasting behaviors... Enjoy!
I think I'm going to purchase a 2000ab not just for roasting coffee but for roasting cacao beans too. From what I understand it's the best small batch cacao roaster out there. I'm currently roasting on a JIAWANSHUN coffee roaster. A 2000ab would be a step up for coffee roasting.
Michael, that is a great choice for a roaster. I've been very happy with my Behmor. It is a great roaster to learn how to roast AND it is capable of roasting some great coffee! I don't know about cacao and the Behmor, that's pretty cool. Thanks for watching my video and for your comments!
Thanks for the tip. My thought was more volume would hold more uniform heat. I’ll try a pound. How long you think that should take from start to finish.
I’m going to try a bread maker to roast with the hope of a 10 minute roast
Let me know how goes. I’d love to learn how I can improve. Been roasting at least 3 yrs. and have learned a lot.
Wanting to possible buy a Behmor.
Nice job, thanks. Could you elaborate more on how to get a less ashy taste? That is my current pet peeve. I've been using the Behmor roaster since 2007, now with roasters 2 and 3 in action.
Hi Norm, Thanks for the message and for watching my video. Yea, i believe there are several reasons I have been experiencing the "ashy" notes on some of my roasts. I would be interested to hear a little more about how you are roasting the coffee. That might help me answer your question a little better. In the mean time, here are some reason why you might be experiencing the "ashy" notes.
1. Wrong Roasting Phase Percentages - This is an interesting topic in itself. Let's say we're tasting an Ethiopian coffee that has both sweetness & fruit. Our goal is a nice "medium" roast maybe slightly on the lighter side. This coffee needs the right amount of time during the middle phase of roasting to allow the complex reactions to take place. I'm talking about both carmelization and the miallard reactions to take place. The reactions build on themselves and create layers of different flavors helping us experience the complex tasting experience. Like any food we expose to heat over time, the longer or shorter we go, the flavor is affected. Imaging roasting a carrot in the oven. The longer we roast the carrot, the sweeter it gets until a point where it will start to add bitterness because we have gone too far. Coffee is a similar experience. I did a video on this "How to Roast Sweet & Flavorful Coffee" and it is in my "essentials" playlist if you're interested. So, this long answer is to say you are tasting ashy notes possibly because your other flavors are not as pronounced as they could be. Then, the roasty/ashy flavors might have been more masked. Just a possibility.
2. Roasting too fast - Similar to the wrong phase percentages, roasting a coffee too fast will not only put your phases out of wack and you miss the opportunities of those great flavors, but you have pushed the coffee too hard. You are tasting roasting defects. Scorching and tipping affect flavor notes by adding that ashy flavor.
3. Going too dark - This is an obvious one but it needs to be mentioned. Maybe your coffee needs a lower drop temperature...... the temp the coffee is at when you end the roast. This is hard on the Behmor because our temperatures are limited by the safety features of the machine (not sure what model you have) but all in all, you need to lower that temp to avoid the roasty flavors. Again, just a possibility.
4. Cooling Time - This one is a Behmor trait. The roaster is slow to cool and unless you are immediately pulling the coffee out of the roaster and cooling with a fan in a cooling tray, your coffee is still roasting. So, you end your roast by hitting "Cool" and your coffee is going a little past where you wanted your roast to end. In my video, I anticipated this and that is one reason you see a 13% development. I new the coffee would probably go another 2% during cooling.
5. It's a natural Coffee - You are roasting a natural and there is charred mucilage on the bean and this is what you are tasting in the cup. Inspect your beans and see if there is a crusty black line along the center line of your naturally processed bean.
So, These could be some reasons why your coffee has an ashy taste. There may be other possibilities like
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks a lot for your elaboration, much appreciated!
I have the newest boards in my roaster.
My current approach is to not do a preheat as ambient temperature in the garage and outside is 80 degrees or more here in the AZ desert. Voltage under load is rarely less than 120V and with afterburner 119V.
I drilled and put two eyebolts in the right part of the chamber in which to keep a k-type probe tip just above the drum. This is about as close to the actual bean temperature as possible without putting the probe tip inside the drum, a procedure I don't want to explore. With this I can constantly see the temperature readings. Airflow when the afterburner starts reduces the reading for a short time before the readings rise again.
I normally use (M5) and reduce it to (M4) at least one or two minutes before 1st crack normally starts. Roast weights are normally 300-350g.
The Rate of Rise when 1st crack is underway is 7 to 10 degrees per minute.
I aim for City+ to FC+ depending on the bean and recommended roast level.
Cooling is done right after roast completion, in a metal colander with proper sized table fan (same diameter by coincidence) blowing down on it. No stirring but it drops the temp to ambient pretty quickly.
The beans are ground in a Niche Zero. They are prepared either with a Strega lever machine or the Behmor Brazen coffee maker.
I think there's more to learn about drying and development timing in my roasting.
Any other thoughts you have would be most appreciated, by me, and those patient enough to read these long posts.
Yea, I'm sorry for the long reply. Thank you for your answers. It would be most helpful to hear more about how long each of your phases is. By the sounds of it, your total roast time is probably 13 or 14 minutes but I could be wrong. The larger batch size and not pre warming your roaster are two big factors in your overall flavor profile. It doesn't sound like you are a fruit forward person but rather a nice rounded cup kind of drinker. Again, I could be reading into this too much but based on what I read, that seems to be the type of roast your after. What type of coffee are you roasting? I'm thinking you are getting a slightly muted flavor result and if we try and make a few minor changes you might see some improved results.
I would do the following:
1. Pre warm your roaster, even if it is only to 150 degrees.
2. lighten your load and try sticking to the 8 ounce per roast. even if it is just to experiment and see results.
3. Write down your roasting events, times and temps.
4. Share your results with me.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab No need to be sorry for the length. I'm retired and very patient these days.
Yeah, I'll take your recommendations and apply them for the next roasts. I keep logs of every roast, from 2007 to now.
I love the blueberry and similar aromas in Ethiopian beans. But I'm not stuck to one flavor profile favorite.
Again, I appreciate your site and your help. Thanks.
ok, so the blueberry and other fruit notes will come out bright at a city roast level. I find myself dropping beans at the tail end of first crack. My video here is a pretty good representation of a city roast taken to its end before we allow the development to mute much of the fruit notes. Unless you are trying to modulate the flavors to a darker version you might want to consider the profile I did as an experiment. Please note my temps and times for context. Also note that I toggle back and forth between P5 and P4 all the way through the middle of the browning phase.
In the end, If I would have taken the coffee out of the roaster when cooling began, I might have even been able to improve it more, which is hard to believe.
Thanks for the video! I’ve got a Behmor and this was really helpful.
Hello Aaron, thanks for watching my video and for sharing your comment. I'm glad it has been helpful for you!
Love this content, I have a Behmor 1600+
Hello Patrick, thanks for watching. I hope my videos have been helpful!
Great video! Very helpful. I wonder about your non use of the “A” button. That temp of the afterburner is what I use to determine if I am getting close to auto shut off. I found that if I go higher the 415 my roast will shut off and my roast is ruined. I just wonder why you never mention it regarding your BehMor roasts? Thanks so much for what you do! Frank T
Hi Frank. Yea, probably referencing the "exhaust" A Button would have been helpful but honestly I never used it in the past. I found the "B" button to do the job. I can see why you would find it helpful. I think the important point for me is we have at least one reference we can use. The exhaust number kind of goes out the window when the fan turns on doesn't it? Not sure how that all fits into the equation. I think on some models it turns on automatically, the AB model maybe? Or maybe they all turn on automatically but depending on the model they turn on a different temps???
I'm glad you are finding my videos helpful. That coffee I roasted on the video was probably my best and I'm including all of the roasts I did on my drum roaster you see in the background. Yum...
Hi Mike! These videos are amazing! I just stumbled on your channel, and I'm hooked.
I've been roasting with a Behmor 1600+ for almost 7 years. I log everything to help with consistency (temp with the B button and marking the times as colors change and 1st crack happens). I never knew about the percentages. This is gold!
Should the percentages be more or less the same regardless of origin? I'm thinking yes since you didn't mention an origin. :)
I've struggled to capture the ever-elusive fruity Ethiopian Natural. My idea of a "light" roast might not actually be light. 😂
The last Ethiopian roast I did was Drying: 44.9% - Browning: 45.8% - Development: 10.1%... those are WAY off! So now I have something to work towards. Thanks for all of this!
The first change I will make is going back to roasting 12oz at a time instead of 16oz. I think that should even things out and shorted the roast times.
Once I get the drying and browning percentages closer to what they should be, the main thing I'll want to play around with to get the fruity light roast is the development time, correct?
I'm so excited... thanks again! 😎☕
Hi Chris, thanks for watching my video. I was roasting an El Salvador natural in this video. There are quite a variable that cause me to change my recipe. Batch size, process type, bean size, density, and my end goal for a roast color (temperature) and flavor profile all cause me to make adjustments to my times and temps.
The phase percentages are helpful and the context of your total roast time can make for some fun experiments changing the browning and development phases.
Your time to first crack as well as how long you roast after first crack is helpful for.
I could go on but in short, you should be changing up your phase percentages (times and temps) with different types of coffees as mentioned earlier.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Sounds good! This video was a great spring board to get me into the deeper end of the roasting pool.
Hi, Ive had a Behmor 1600 plus for about 6-7 years and its finally carked itself, so Im looking at your video as Im thinking of buying the new Bm 2020 SR Plus.
AS a side note, what I did with my BM 1600+ was when Id finished roasting and hit cool, I'd rush it outside, opened the door completely and used my Makita 18V blower to speed up the cooling to preserve the yummy flavours. Your thoughts? DB from NZ
Hey David. Thanks for watching. The blower sounds like a cool idea. I'm assuming you are roasting outside. Are you happy with your roast quality and quantity with the Behmor?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab No I roast inside, then wisk it outside once cooling mode is activated. Not totally happy with roasts, after watching your video, I think Im roasting too lower temperature, I was roasting on P5 , I think I'll try P3 and P2 ands see what happens
David, I roast in the manual mode on the Behmor. This provides more control. So, in the manual mode, P5 is 100% power, P4 is 75%, P3 is 50%, P2 is 25% and P1 is 0%.
I’m using the Behnor as well
Thanks for watching Oscar. How do you like your Behmor?
Thanks a ton for this video!
It gives me a baseline anchor with which to refine my roasting technique. By taking notes as you have instructed, one thing I've noticed with my model (the newer one, black color) is that on P5 the temp automatically lowers once it gets above 250 degrees and will then moderate btw 212-225.
I am still trying to determine at what point I should mark my beans at the dry phase...
Hi Jason, thanks for watching my videos. So the Behmor 2000 AB ( all black) manual says to get to the manual mode you Begin a roast (Weight - desired, then Press Start), once a roast has begun at any point press either P1 - P5 to go into Manual mode.
Are you really in the manual mode?
If yes, and your roster won’t go any higher temp then 225 there is a problem . You should contact Behmor. Are you really in the manual mode?
On a separate note, you might want to consider the 1/2 lb batch size so you can have faster roast than a 1 lb.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yes, I have been pressing 1 lb button, start, then P5. I figured the machine was just regulating temp so as not to get too hot and cause a shutoff. I do notice the heating elements regularly cycling off and on during a roast, I can hear a click every time it happens.
@@Durkur_Owl Interesting. I don't own an AB so I can't really offer more help other than to say 250 is way to low of a shutoff and i don't think that is what is happening. When you oveheat past the max the roaster stops roasting. At least that is what happens on older units. Did you say the highest temp you can see is 250? maybe you are pressing the exhaust temp "A" and not the "B" button for the bean temp??? Those would give you different readings.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I have only been pressing the B button for temp readings. For my last 3 roasts, the highest temp each time has been 253 exactly (used manual mode, 1lb, P5). I am not using an extension cord.
Maybe they erred on the side of caution for the new model? It'd be interesting to know what other users of this model are reporting on chamber temps in manual mode.
Yea, I would reach out to Behmor for support. Something isn't right. You should be able to reach at least 300 degrees.
I have the Behmor 1600 AB. I've been trying to perfect the Finca La Maria Geisha Natural, using P1 to P4 at smell of bread to P3 at first crack. Having inconsistent results, so now I'll try using the temps as a guide. Any suggestions for this Colombian Geisha?
You might want to watch the behmor espresso I did as well. It shows me using the temp readings. Just another reference for you before you roast on the behmore using temps.
With the Gesha, I’m assuming you won’t want to roast too dark. Double pre- warm your behmor with the drum out and loaded and the chaff tray in the roaster. Stuck to the p5 100% power until just before the 320 degree b temp then slowly let your temps decline so your around 285 at drop. The fan will kick on at 5 min so kick up the power at 4:50 so you don’t loose your heat. You may need to monitor power and toggle after the 5 minute mark.
Are you monitoring phase times? Remember to end your roast a little early and cool the beans quick.
Hope that helps. Let me know what happens.
Hey Mike great vid. Have you still got a copy of this method written down? i am trying to makes notes and timing to replicate the method i just don't want to miss anything!
Nothing written down Andrew, sorry about that. I would suggest watching my other behmore videos. I have them in a playlist here th-cam.com/play/PLe757VIiQrPb3aXj2kNhI67dlDYkJrHMi.html
You will start to get the idea of how I roast with the behmore as I talk through each roast.
I have asked this same question of another seasoned home roaster. I’d like some input from a few of you. Question. If you roast a certain variety bean, say Mexican Chiapas from a certain farm one year’s batch. Then buy the same variety from same farm a year later, so different harvest…would it be possible using the same recipe for the same roaster possibly result in a different outcome? I’ve always wondered that but have not had the opportunity to do a comparison.
Hi Lori. The Short answer is yes with some exceptions. Assuming the roast is the exact same and the only variable is the seed from year to year, Yes, you can experience different results. The reason is because coffee is an agricultural product and the environmental conditions will have a great impact on the way the plant grows. Water, temperature, altitude, nutrients, disease, overall soil conditions, shade, sun and other factors play a roll in how that seed grows inside the coffee cherry. That is one reason why the exact same coffee variety can be grown in two different places and taste different. So, if temperatures are not as cool from one season to the next, that can impact the coffee. More dense coffees usually experience cooler moist temps grown at high altitudes. But if there is a temperature difference or the rain is different from one year to the next, this can impact the way the seed grows and the resulting flavors. Then there is how the coffee is processed. If the fermentation process is different from one year to the next that can also be a factor. I guess even the way the coffee is packaged and how the environment while being exported can play a roll in flavor. Then there are two big variables left. The roaster and the barista. You mentioned using the same recipe (assuming on your behmor) but even that is difficult to replicate exactly. Power fluctuations, ambient room temperature, and even the condition of your roaster can impact the roast somewhat. Lastly and a biggie is the barista. This person is the last in the "chain of custody" of a coffee seed. How this person brews the coffee will greatly impact the flavor profile of your coffee. You can have all things remain exactly the same but it can greatly be influenced by the barista.
Now, if you roast darker, you have a much greater chance to experience consistency. That is how Starbucks does it. Even though they buy their coffee from different farms, even regions, their roasting process basically removes most of the origin and simply tastes like a dark roasted coffee with very little defining characteristics as far as flavor goes. At least that is how I see it.
One more thing. I can't tell you how many coffees I roasted on the Behmor that i absolutely loved. One was a Sulawesi Bone Bone coffee that every once in a while I will find, buy and roast. It has a big body, hempy rustic vibe with wonderful sweetness. There is even a little bit of fruit in the cup. Roasting it to a medium dark brings out a milk chocolate note that is really enjoyable. Hmm, anyway, i've been chasing that experience for a long time but can't seem to capture it. The couple of times I have bought the beans it has been close, but not the same.
Hope that helps.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Wow, sooo interesting! When I started my home roasting journey (with a little popcorn air popper) I found it frustrating doing tiny tiny batches. That lasted about a month before we found out about the Behmor. The outcomes were decent though which surprised me. What started it? A friend of mine at work was following a truck carrying burlapped bags of beans to deliver to local roasters in Arkansas. The back door rolled open and out came some bags of raw coffee beans all over the road. Truck pulls over and driver proceeds to stand and ponder over his predicament. My friend pulls up and asks if he can help. Drivers says sure and ends up my friend got to bring home about 50 pounds of raw (mystery coffee). Lol My coffee loving friend never roasted coffee before but that didn’t stop him from putting some beans on a cookie sheet and enveloping his kitchen with smoking beans from his oven. His poor wife! Haha He brought some to work and oh my, it was horrid. He gave me about a cup of raw beans which I took home and did a little research. Put some in my air popper and voila! I roasted my first beans. Then came the Behmor. Long story but that’s how my coffee roasting began.
I think what you said about all the conditions being so ever changing is spot on. One could app,y it to anything grown in the ground. Even if you took two coffee plant seedlings from the same parent plant and grew one in water and one in soil, they won’t have the same taste because of their beginnings. Change the soil, another variation. Change the altitude and climate, another variation. All from the same parent plant. Isn’t nature wonderful?!
That is just one reason why the coffee roasting and drinking experience is so special. Thanks for sharing. Great story!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Absolutely! 😁☕️
I'm currently roasting with a Behmor 1600, but saving for a Hottop.
Hi NY Buckeye. Thanks for watching my video. The Behmor is a great roaster. Do you have the original 1600 or the plus? Moving to the Hottop will be exciting and challenging. Which Hottop are you saving for? Using logging software like Artisan will give you good data so you can really see what is going on with your roast profile.
Hey Mike, great content as always. This gives more ideas for me to work with as a Behmor user. A couple things I noted with your approach and how it differs from mine. My machine is an original 1600 with upgraded components (PCB, panel, drum motor) that match the 2000AB, so it may just come down to a difference in machines.
1. Obviously, the Behmor has a slow beginning ramp even with preheating, but 6+ minutes to yellow seems a bit long. Granted, yellow is hard to call in the Behmor, and I normally roast washed coffees, but most of my roasts are usually full yellow by 4 or 5 minutes, depending on my preheat temp.
2. I noticed that you only record B temps. I always understood that, once the fan and afterburner kick on, the A temps become more useful, even if only as an indicator of the general progression of temperature. Is there a reason you stick only to B temps?
3. I use the same batch size as you do here (225g, normally), but I hit first crack by 7-9 minutes into most roasts, even with stretching out browning prior to first crack (by going to P4 when I see tanning/browning). Is my heat too aggressive? Do I need to dial it back sooner?
Thanks again for all you do!
Hi Dustin, Thanks for sharing the info. Someone else asked about the "A" button as well. I just never used it. That is the "exhause temp" right? I thought the A temp was the one that was influenced by the fan. IDK, I always used the "B" temp for my roasts. In all honesty, the behmor temps readings are not that great. When it's all over, it comes down to what we taste in the cup and i'm confident that how much time we spend in each phase will influence that.
Regarding your roasts, 4 or 5 minutes to dry on the behmor is really good. What type of coffee is it? You mentioned a washed coffee but is it a low or high density coffee? That can influence the heat transfer as a lower density bean will roast quicker.
Have you broken your roast phases down into percentages? The times you shared are fairly broad so I can't really offer an answer until I get a sense of you times. Then we can talk about your heat application. Are you writing down your times and temps? If not, give it a try because there will be that golden roast and you will want to be able to repeat it.
Also, have you noticed any roasting defects? Look carefully at the beans after roasting. Do you see any tipping or scorching? I doubt you will on the Behmor but it is possible.
Lastly, what type of roast are you trying to achieve? light, medium, dark etc...
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yeah, A is the exhaust temperature. I’m with you on temp readings- neither A nor B really correlate to bean temps, so I really only watch the B temp in the first half of the roast to make sure I don’t get the overheat error. But I know for those who do record temps, they’ll look to the A temp once the fan kicks on. I usually go by aight and smell and will record the major events like color change and aroma change, and the times for them.
Lately, I’ve been roasting two washed Central American coffees - a Mexico Oaxaca and a Guatemala Huehue, both from Sweet Maria’s. The Mexico is a little less dense, but both coffees are fairly high elevations according to SM’s notes.
Just as a general note: I always roast in manual mode starting at P5, then will go to P3 at rolling first crack. I will also go to P4 at tan/brown depending on the coffee. Based on the notes from my last couple roasts - with the Guatemala, my times and percentages were as follows with a preheat of 200 on the B temp. Total roast time of 9:45; yellow at 4:15 (44%), mid-phase from 4:15 to 7:00 (28%); first crack started at 7:00 and ended at 8:50 (25%). I let it go at P3 until 9:45 when I ended the roast and cooled the beans outside the roaster. First crack actually came quicker than I anticipated, but I still was pleased with how the cup tasted - some brown sugar with a brisk acidity and some hints of apple. I made a note to myself to do a lower preheat and try to stretch out the mid-phase for the next roast.
The Mexico was similar but at a lower preheat temp (180). I also took it a little darker than I had intended to, but flavor wise it still turned out really good. Very nutty with some chocolate tones and really nice body. I did notice what looked like tipping on a few beans with this roast as well.
Overall, I usually aim for solid medium roast territory with most Centrals. I like the balance those coffees offer and really enjoy them with some development after first crack to bring our body and sweetness, although I’ve still had really good ones cooled right at the end of first crack. Usually I’ll try small batches of a coffee before I figure out what roast level is really what I’m looking for.
Sorry the novel. Thanks for all your help!
Dustin, that was a great response. You have a good understanding of what you are doing and I am glad it is working well for you. I would back off on the heat after dry to stretch out the middle phase. You recognized this as a possible tweak. "First crack actually came quicker than I anticipated, but I still was pleased with how the cup tasted - some brown sugar with a brisk acidity and some hints of apple." That "brisk" acidity was maybe a tartness? That is a sign of a middle phase that you could go a little longer with. That will also help slow down the overall roast. Honestly, you might want to even use a slightly lower charge temp to lengthen the dry phase a little. Just my opinion, your totally aware of the events, color, smell and heat management. Maybe consider how you want to change your percentages to modulate your flavor profile. Nice Job!
@@dg10890 Hey Dustin, thanks so much for your reply. It seems we roast very similarly so I am encouraged hearing your results. I have many questions similar to yours. Please see my comment to Mike's post above where I ask a question on something I am thinking of trying for a roast. Please give comments if you care to. Also, do you do anything special with drum speed during your roasts?
Can the Behmor be used for use at a cafe. And roast 3kg a day
Not practical or recommended but yes it is possible.
I can tell you have a wealth of knowledge to share but you might want to consider your video editing process. 8 minutes before the action begins and an ad break on top of it is just too long, in my opinion, to ask a viewer to wait. I really do appreciate you sharing your experience with us. I just got an older ( 1600 ) Behmor and the upgrade kit just arrived yesterday. Thanks again.
Thank you very much for your comment and for watching my video. I really do appreciate it. For that video I let TH-cam pick where to place it. Sorry about that. I will try and change that in my TH-cam account. I think their system probably detected the change in the scene when the roast began and used that as the place to break.
Your going to love the behmor. It can roast some really good coffee.
I just realized you were talking about my Poll request and subscribe section..... Yea, you're right. It was too early in the video. I should have placed it more towards the end. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Mike, thanks for the great videos. I've tried Maria's and Burman but not Coffee Coral, do you have any experience with them? thanks, Bill
I have purchased some coffee from Coffee Bean Corral with no problems. They are a popular supplier. My only suggestion is to look at the harvest dates and other details when shopping from ANY coffee greens supplier.
Hello, I am using Behmor 2000 SR Plus for a year. I wonder if this roaster can produce coffee beans for an espresso machine. So far I use Hario V 60, Aero Press, etc, but no espresso. Thank you for your videos! Pavel
Hello Pavel. You are asking if the Behmor can roast for espresso? Yes 👍 I plan on doing a behmor espresso video soon. If you would, please share a little more clearly what you mean when you say coffee beans for espresso. What would the coffee taste like? What would the roast look like?
Please share?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hello and thanks for a quick reply. Forgive me my English, I will try to clarify the question: I have heard that for espresso you need to roast the coffee differently, at a higher temperature. So I'm asking if the Behmor can provide such roasting, or if the temperature in it is too low for espresso. Someone claims that they roast coffee for espresso at a temperature maybe 100 degrees higher than the Behmor's maximum. Thank you so much for the reply! Pavel
@@pavelkaiser6787 Thank you for clarifying. Your English is great. I asked for clarification because this topic is controversial and I wanted to understand better your question. The Behmor can roast great coffee used for espresso.
So, I need to clarify that roasting for espresso is not really that different from roasting any coffee. Let me explain. Espresso is not a roast. It is not a roast level. Espresso is a brew method. You can use any coffee you like and brew for espresso. Now that I have made those statements, let's talk about what an espresso should taste like because that is ultimately what this comes down to. I would like you to think about this. Do you like your espresso bitter, sweet, fruity, earthy? Because of the espresso brew method, you are experiencing a highly extracted roast. Whatever that roast profile you created taste like in a cup of coffee, it will be magnified and more intense. So, if you are going really dark, your roast will most likely be towards the bitter side of the flavor wheel. When brewing that in the espresso machine, how do you make that cup smooth and sweet?
So, my opinion is you roast your coffee with intent to roast for espresso and this may mean you change your profile to reduce acidity, add sweetness and then taste the result in your espresso. What do you think about my answer? Does that make sense to you?
I interviewed Rob Hoos, who is an expert roaster, trainer, barista and he has written a book called "modulating the flavor profile of coffee". I asked Rob about how to roast espresso on a Behmor. He shared his recipe here - th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html
I plan on doing a behmor roast for espresso in the coming weeks. I hope my answer has been helpful. Ask more about this if you need to. Thanks - Mike
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to answer my questions! I was under the misconception that for espresso you need to roast the coffee in a completely different way and Behmor is not suitable for that. I am very glad that this is not the case. I will look forward to more videos and THANK YOU again! Pavel
No problem Pavel. Be sure to watch that short video part th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html that shares a espresso recipe on the behmor. You can experiment using that if you like.
I do not own any roaster. I basically throw coffee into a sauspan or pot and constantly stir with a wooden spatula. Is there a way I can improve my results with this crude set up?
Kpomo Bespoke, roasting coffee involves temperature over time. So, even the most crude setup potentially can give you some good results. There are several variables that can influence your results.
1. Quality coffee - I'm roasting specialty grade arabica coffee.
2. Good agitation of the beans so they don't get scorched/burned and result in a fairly even roast
3. A roasting profile that will maximize flavor. My coffee essentials playlist talks about this
4. Using your senses for color, smell and bean texture while roasting
5. Practice
This video shows me roasting with a special roaster that works like a small pan with a lid. It is a better option, but none the less, pretty basic over a flame. th-cam.com/video/H5c7W78o8JI/w-d-xo.html The results are really good.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thank you. Will go and check out that video. I have seen all you'be said about roasting profile earlier. Planned to incorporate that into my next batch. I roast enough to last me one week with each batch. Still have my last bath. Will keep practicing and will let you know the results in comments under the video you recommended. Thanks again.
Hottop, just bought a Huky, but still setting it up and haven’t had a chance to roast on it yet.
Hi Mike. Thanks for watching. Let me know how the Huky works for you compared to your hottop.!
Hi Mike,I have a Behmor 2000ab and I preheat my insides as you do.After everything is in and I’m ready to roast at 000 time I’m at233degrees and by the 330 mark I’m at260 degrees..I stay at p5 and at the 530 mark I’m only doing253 while your at 315 degrees at the 530 mark.It seemed to stop heating along the way and I’m not sure what happened.Do you know what I possibly could have done.? Maybe I was in auto mode.
Hi Joe, TH-cam seems to think some of your text has links so it went into the "hold for review" area. Sorry for the late reply. Yea, you must have been in the Auto Mode or the AB has different restrictions. Be sure to hit the p5 button to start the manual mode.
Newbie Question: I'm currently using an AirFryer to roast my coffee, well actually I've halted all attempts at roasting until I can purchase an actual roaster. I'm now wondering though if I need to purchase a roast or will my air fryer actually do what I'm needing. Here is what I thought and what are your thoughts? My air fryer has a rotating fry basket that I lined with screen door mesh to keep the beans from falling out. The Air Fryer maxes out at 400F degrees and I thought the temps were too low, but as I watch your videos about the Behmor, you're never even hitting 400 degrees which makes me wonder if I just need to stick with my Air Fryer and change my temps around or something. Currently it takes me around 20 minutes to start reaching the color I like, light/medium roast; However, I don't ever hear any cracking and when I try to grind the beans they just lock up my grinder. It doesn't have any temp probes for me to confirm if 400 degrees is actually and consistently 400 degree, I HIGHLY doubt it, which is why I'm thinking I might need to get an actual roaster. Thoughts?
Hi Steven, unfortunately i do not have any experience roasting with an air fryer. 400 degree temps should do it. The beans sound like they are not fully roasted. There is a viewer (Jason) who uses an air fryer with great results. Look for the username @GoTellJesusSaves in the comments area of the video at this link: th-cam.com/video/cxEkrtmIXfY/w-d-xo.html . I'm sure he can give you some great advice to help with the air fryer.
I think I'm confusing 1st and 2nd crack in my behmor is the first crack very quite? I must be not even hearing it. Is it possible to get audio of the 1st crack?
FC could be quiet. For example, the Brazil natural I roasted recently had a really quiet crack. Another thought could be your temps are really high as you enter FC and it rolls into 2nd crack quickly and you don’t even know it? Are you roasting dark? Are you roasting in the manual mode or using a behmor P1 profile?
Does your Behmor 1600+ turn on the the after burner and A temp kick on so the B temp drops?
Hi Stanley, thanks for checking out my video. Yes, i'm pretty sure it does. Look at the temps I am writing down here th-cam.com/video/li_XZd1hrtI/w-d-xo.html and you will see on my charting the temp at five-thirty is higher than the temp at six minutes. I think this is influenced by the fan. I was looking at the behmor doc for the 1600+ and I couldn't find a reference to when/if it actually turns on at say 5 minutes or 7 minutes based on the load (1/2 lb or 1 lb). I think the newer model does that.
Great video again Mike, got alot from it
Excellent!
I'm roasting with the Behmor 1600+. One of the things I've done to cool the beans quicker is to open the Behmor all the way and use my leaf blower (I'm in the garage) on the beans while they continue to spin in the oven after I've hit the cool button. Is there such a thing to cool a bean too quickly? Is this a bad idea?
Hello Timothy. Thank you for watching and for your comment. No, you can never cool a bean too quickly. The idea is to stop the roasting development process fast. Coffee that cools down slowly is still roasting and developing. So, let's say you roasted a great roast. Everything was perfect. You are just about to hit the cool button because your coffee is the perfect color, it smells wonderful and the development time (time since first crack) is at the perfect level/percentage you want. Bam, you hit the cool and now it takes 1 minute to get from 385 on the "B" button down to 285. Your coffee is still in that hot roaster and still roasting, although at a slower rate. Now, when you finally take the beans out, wait a day or two or whatever, and brew the coffee, you realize it might be a tad darker than you wanted.
That is the scenario that plays out when you don't cool your beans quickly. One way to compensate for this additional roasting is to do what you have done (great idea by the way). It won't work for me because I am in the kitchen and my wife would not be happy. The other way is to end your roast a little earlier to factor in that additional time OR whatever the time would be to cool down your beans enough to hold.
How long are your roasts? How much coffee are you roasting per batch? How far do you take your roast after first crack?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I used to get very, very technical with my Behmor a few years ago, but I quickly burned out because I could never figure out how to get the RoR and Turning Point and everything just the way I wanted. I even used IR temp probes and all that jazz. So I got burned out and haven't returned until just a few weeks ago.
Your channel has given me so much instruction and hope in just the selection of videos I've watched already (thank you!). I ordered 3 5lb bags of different beans from SM and I'm gonna start out with the methodology from this video to try to lock down a recipe.
I think next time, instead of buying 3 5lb bags, I may just buy 1 20lb bag so I have more time to hone in the recipe and then benefit from it.
Generally - I like my roasts city-city+, roast about 12oz at a time, preheat until about 300F (now way too much I see), and roasts lasted about 12-15min (probably too long?). I feel like I am starting fresh, so I'll have better responses for you once my order comes in (hopefully within the next week).
Seriously, thanks for this channel and the wealth of information. You've given me renewed hope!
Hi, can you confirm it's the best home roasting coffe machine under 500$?
No. There are several really good roasters for under 500. It depends on your needs. How much coffee are you roasting at a time. How much coffee will you roast each week. Are you roasting dark? What type of coffee are you planning on roasting? Fresh Roast or the Behmor are good choices.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thank you for replay. I Will think to roast about 300g a weak. I like medium and light roast. I planning to roast mainly african's/fruits coffee.
Based on your roast type, I would consider a Fresh Roast. You would need to do 2 roasts to produce 300 grams. The Behmor is a great roaster but if you are going for light and fruity, it might be difficult to do that with the Behmor because of the longer roast times. This is my opinion, others may feel differently. I would highly reommend the extension tube to help you get good bean movement resulting in a more even roast.
I'm using behmor 2000ab roaster, unfortunately there is no enough experimental videos for that model yet!
Hello Amro, thank you for watching my video. The Behmor is a great roaster, the 1600 Plus, AB and AB Plus are all capable of manual roasting and this video was meant to display a manual roast that produces a great roast based on key roasting concepts related to roast phases (dry phase, browning phase, development phase). I'm glad you found my videos and hope you have great success roasting. There will be more Behmor videos in the future.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hi Amro. I also have a Behmor 2000 AB+ and have found the videos using a Behmor 1600 give very useful information that also applies to the 2000AB.
I bought a behmor 1600 in 2011 it lasted 10 years. I now have the 2000AB
Yea, my 1600 that I upgraded is still ticking as well. They are great little machines. Congrats on your new roaster!
Nice
Thanks for watching Arthur. Are you a behmor owner?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab I’m about to own a Behmor. I’ve roasted before with a fresh roast.
Ok, perhaps a silly question, but you said after the dry phase, “we want a descending rate of rise”. Is that meaning not a rise at all, but the temperature going down. Seems oxymoronic “descending rate of rise”.
It a silly question at all. Temperatures rise during the roast. Early in the roast the temperatures increase higher per minute, say 30 degrees per minute but at dry, we turn down the heat a little, causing temperatures to continue to increase, but at a lower rate, like 20 degrees per minute. Then at first crack, and beyond temperatures still increasing, but at a lower rate, like 10 degrees per minute.
This is the case for most roasters but not all. Which roaster are you using?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for the quick response. I have been using a SM Popper. I have done about 120 roasts on it with pretty good results. (Frustrated with the small batch size and the time it takes to roast a pound or two. Also, comparing roast levels from batch to batch in order to be able to combine them to have a decent amount to give to friends or simply combine for personal use was another issue with the Popper). Just this minute I ordered a Behmor 2000 AB Plus from Sweet Maria's. Looking forward to try my hand at it. Your videos have been an invaluable resource in my roasting journey. Thank you so very much for the time and effort you put into your channel.
I'm glad my videos have been helpful... Congratulations on your new Behmor....... I think it is a great roaster for the money. BUT..... It is one of those roasters where the temperature display and Rate of Rise don't work. Using the temperature display you will have two different temps to watch.... the "A" temp and the "B" temp. The "A" doesn't really work until your in the middle of the roast and that probe is measuring the temperature leaving the roaster. The "B" temp sensor is lower in the roasting chamber (I think) and it reads a lower temp. All in all, your focus will be event times. Your time to dry and your time to first crack will help you understand how much momentum your roast has.
Also, just because the roaster is "capable" of roasting 1 lb doesn't mean it will do it in a reasonable time. I usually roast 1/2 lb batches.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks again Mike. Yes,(due to your videos) I am aware of the two temp readings available on the Behmor. I figure having the ability to see and record a temp will be a benefit over the Popper. Also, with experience, I am hoping that I will learn to use the temp and how it relates to end results. About batch size, half a pound at a time will be a nice improvement over my Popper. Was planning on starting there anyway. That seems like enough to warrant trying to dial it in for espresso or sharing with friends.
Was it an espresso roast? Would it be different for the different brewing methods?
Hello Sergey, no, it was a medium roast. Yes, the profile I used could be different for espresso. That topic is really interesting. I know coffee shops who use the same roast profile for their single serve pour-overs as well as espresso. I know there are some who use a blend for their espresso and others yet who roast with a longer development time to tone down the acidity and balance the cup. So, unfortunately I don't have a simple answer and you ask 5 people and get 5 different answers.
I'm curious, what is your expectation for what an espresso roast means? I'm not trying to put you on the spot. In the past, I would have thought an espresso roast is darker. Because of this, I have been a little hesitant to put out a video on this topic. How have you understood this?
I did a video with Rob Hoos (author, consultant, master roaster) and asked what advice he would give to a Behmor person who wants to roast for Espresso? He gave his answer here:
th-cam.com/video/CyH7sDb556A/w-d-xo.html
On an old "automatic only" Behmor 1600 with no manual control, he uses this recipe:
114 grams of coffee using the 1/2 pound setting.
Press P2, B, +,+ and hit first crack in 9 minutes.
spend 2 minutes in development.
I have not tried this recipe because I don't drink espresso. Hope my reply has been helpful and thank you for watching my videos.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab agree in general. I’d expect espresso to be darker but miss the quantitive expression of the “darker” term. May be 1 min above what you did on the brink of the 2nd crack. Trouble with your technic is that the roast is not reaching 2nd crack at all . The RoR is such that we stall shy of 2nd crack. May be you need to pass the development phase surfing on on P3-P4
Thanks for your reply Sergey, Yes, many people agree that many people would expect espresso to be darker. Also, there are many people who do not think it should be darker, but more developed.
My roast I did was a "medium" roast level It barely finished first crack. It was a slow first crack because my ROR / heat application was fairly low at 50% (P3) which allowed the coffee to develop at a slower rate. I guess that is what i was trying to share in my previous post Sergey, espresso roasts can be a medium roast or a darker roast, it is up to the roastmaster what they are trying to create.
I interviewed a cafe owner and roaster a couple of months ago and asked if he does anything different with his roast for espresso. He said the roast level is the same BUT he uses a blend of different coffees to create a balanced pleasing espresso that had a blend of a guatemala huehue and an african coffee. Pretty interesting..... I have talked with many people about how they roast espresso and seem to get different views from them. There doesn't seem to be an agreement on how to roast for espresso.
Thank you again for your comments. I understand and appreciate your question and supporting comments. This could make for an interesting video in the future.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab yeah. Thanks for the link Btw and for the videos. Very useful. Though it took me few hours of watching and few pounds of very sour roasts to realize that you are probably not an espresso enthusiast :) Question: you mentioned “not darker, but more developed” roasts . How do you achieve more development without getting darker?
That’s the part that is really interesting. By lowering ROR at first crack. You can stretch out the development phase without real high bean temps. So I can get a fully developed 20% roast and drop under 400 degrees fahrenheit. It is important to enter first crack at a low enough ROR . You can see this on a roast I did here. th-cam.com/video/VTRrOfOqejo/w-d-xo.html and go to the 9 minute and 28 second in the video to see graph.
It seems that the B temp continues to rise all the way through your roast. My Behmor 1600+ activates the after burner and the A temp rises sharply well into the roast. This causes the B temp to drop significantly and slowly rise again while the A temp rises sharply at first than slowly later. How do you get a good ROR calc? Do you use A or B? Thanks
Stanley,as I mentioned in your previous question, the B temp did drop. Yes, I think it is the afterburner that does lower the temp. I know there are people who stop monitoring the b temp after the fan turns on. They then monitor the A temp. For me, I just stick with the B temp as my main point of reference for temperatures. Honestly, I think the Behmor temps are very unreliable as far as actual temps because there is this whole radiant heat factor that plays into what the beans are actually being exposed to. So, I reference the B temp and use it as a reference to overall temperature progress (is it climbing or dropping) as well as my limit before the safety shutdown kicks in.
As far as ROR and the Behmor go, that is tricky. I have briefly mentioned ROR with regards to the Behmor for a couple of reasons, mostly what I mentioned above. We really don't know exactly what is going on with temps unless we have a probe but even then, the radiant heat thing is a huge question mark in my mind. At least that is my opinion. For most of us who roast with a Behmor, I think the first and most important thing we can do to improve our cup is to first focus on basic roasting concepts, phase percentages and total roast time. Once we get those locked down we can try to improve ROR descent but logging software would be more helpful to figure that out during the roast. Think about it this way. The Behmor power levels are in 25% increments. I think we are hindered by the limitations of the machine. It would be like driving your car and constantly pumping the gas to control your speed. I get car sick when that happens by the way. hehe.
Share your thoughts.
@@VirtualCoffeeLab thanks! Your response is very helpful. I think I will concentrate on identifying the phases and decreasing power before the end of drying. I used 6.7 oz of beans in my last roast this used a total time of 12 min with a 210 preheat. I press the 1# for start eliminating the need to press the start to avoid shutdown. Thanks
@@stanleytroyer Yea, I like the 1 lb setting for extended time as well. Let me know how it goes.
Behmor 2000 AB Plus just ordered was using a gene cafe.
Congrats on the Behmor. There is a learning curve to every roaster and the Behmor has a few quirks but it can roast some really good coffee.
Great recipe, thank you! But consider putting on gloves and pulling the beans to cool externally. The Cool Cycle in the all-metal Behmor interior remains too hot for too long.
Yep, I’ve got gloves now. Thanks for your comment and for watching.
Mike this is the video I have been waiting for since I started viewing this channel! Seriously. We can now see an ACTUAL roast with real numbers, real times, and a view of real procedure in action. You asked to hear about how our Behmor roasting procedures and experiences might vary from yours, so I mention a few of my differences below. Following that is something I was wondering about if you care to comment on it.
I noticed as you described your roasting you referenced temperatures which I assume were always "B" (chamber) temperatures. Although I do record temperatures during roasting for graphing purposes, I never use any temperature values during roasting to determine anything - at all. Maybe I should start, but here's why I do not use them. On the Behmor, neither the "A" (exhaust) nor the "B" (chamber) temperatures are true bean temperatures. Those temperatures may somehow or sometimes behave like real bean temperature, but I haven't seen data from anyone to show any relationship. The B temp drops drastically when the afterburner vent fan turns on, totally ruining any ROR it may have been showing. But as I look at the rate of change curve for the A temperature, it does look somewhat like a real bean ROR curve. But since A is measuring the temperature of the afterburner vent air, I cannot say for sure it is the same as a real bean ROR curve. Also, A temperatures are useless until a little while after the afterburner vent fan turns on.
When terminating a roast, you seem to use the COOL button and open the door; I pull the drum and dump the beans into an external cooler. You mentioned that you thought your roast development may actually be continuing 15 seconds longer during cooling; when I used to cool that way, it seemed to me to be much longer than that since it terminates development fairly gradually.
On a typical roast, I do pre-heat and my phases run as follows. Dry Phase: 100% heat (P5), slow drum. Browning Phase: lower heat to 75% (P4), and set fast drum speed. Final Development Phase: lower heat to 50% (P3), pull drum and dump at proper DTR point. But it seems my Browning Phase times always come out fairly close to Dry Phase times and I would like to see them quite a bit less. What would you think if I changed to the following. Dry Phase: 100% heat (P5), fast drum. Browning Phase: 2 minutes into phase, lower heat to 75% (P4), and slow drum speed. Final Development Phase: lower heat to 50% (P3), pull drum and dump at proper DTR point. The main difference there is I swapped drum speeds and I kept the big heat on for two minutes into Brown. Any thoughts? I know, you're going to say, "Try it!"
Lou, your process is very similar to mine. To answer the question from your other comment re: drum speed, I usually either just leave it on high speed for the whole roast or will start slow and toggle to high speed once I'm past the drying phase to create some airflow and leave it there for the remainder of the roast. Sweet Maria's has a good article on their website about how roasting the same coffee with different drum speeds, specifically on the Behmor, can have a significant impact on flavor - roasts with the faster drum speed, in their opinion, were brighter and more complex, while the slower drum speeds had more body and sweetness. It seems like there's no hard and fast rules with drum speed in the Behmor; toggling between the low and high speeds are about the only semblance of airflow we have on that roaster, and I would think that controlling the heat would affect flavor more than anything.
For your recommended changes, I'm going to pull a Mike and say, "Try it!" ;) Fast drum speed with full power would, hypothetically, shorten your dry phase and give you a little more liberty to stretch out or shorten your middle phase. I will try this on my next roast as well and see how it turns out. Thanks for the comments and the ideas!
Hi Lou, thanks for your message and apparently, your patience ! :-) Yea, "real times" is a key statement I would like to unpack as it relates to my total roast time and cooling. In my video, I hit the cool button at 12:15 and opened the door. So the real question might be, "when should I consider my roast ended on a Behmor?" On all other roasters we drop the beans and that is the point we end the roast even though the beans are "cooling". My statement about the additional 15 seconds was related to the roast calculation, not as much as how long before the beans would technically stop roasting... I agree that is would take longer for the beans to cool down without removing them and putting them into a cooling tray or something. That is part of why my roast development only displayed 14% rather than say 16 or 17 percent on my drum roaster. This makes for a very interesting conversation.
The purpose of my video was to show a 50/30/20 ish roast is possible on a Behmor AND that this phase percentage breakdown is a great goal to try. I didn't want to get lost in the ROR levels for the roast because I believe the phase percentages by default will make or break a roast. Once the phase percentages are consistently worked out, then the "roast operator" can moderate the energy to produce a consistent slope in the ROR, IF that is even possible on a Behmor because of that fan. Phase percentages are also critical to control the roast and not stall or fly in the phases. So, as far as I have determined, the first step in learning to roast is to keep it in control and use the phases as the "training wheels of roasting". I''ve talked about my issues with a squiggly line aka.. roller-coaster type ROR and have been thinking long and hard about the impact that has on my flavors. My is consistently very good with the occasional bad roast where everything falls apart. I had a chance to taste the Aida Battle coffee roasted by "Facsimile Coffee" (Ryan Brown & Scott Rao) with an excellent, repeatable ROR decent and there was clearly a difference in my roast compared to theirs. Many of the notes were the same but there was a "clarity" in the cup from Facsimile compared to my roasts. That is another conversation that will some day become a video when I'm comfortable enough to work all that out and make a conclusion. I need to improve my roasting skills more before that will happen.
As far as the "A" and "B" buttons providing temps, I have always used the "B" button. For those who switch to the "A" after the fan turns on, if that works for you, great! I'm not even sure exactly when my fan turns on. BUT, when the fan turns on, it does start to bring down the temps a little.
Go ahead and try the different power settings. You should find out on that first roast if those changes were worth. You might want to also look at your heat management on the Behmor like this. On your roast phase percentage for browning, watch your temps and try and keep them up near 295 - 305 on the "B" and then as you are comfortably moving through the browning start to lower your heat. You might even notice you have to lower your temp settings anyway because the "B" keeps creeping up. That is the sign the beans are beginning to give off heat. Looking back at my roast, I was still going back and forth between P5 and P4 to manage my heat from the later part of dry until I hit first crack onward, similar to both you and Dustin. As I have always said, this isn't the only way to roast. You have said in the past you are roasting some really good coffee so now your tweaking. That is a really good place to be. Nice Job Lou.
The drum speed thing is a personal preference. Lots of people don't change it. They turn it on full and then forget about it. I intentionally use it as a tool to "create" more air movement, like I would in a drum roaster, which creates the "Convection" heat to help speed up the roasting process. I need to get some oven type gloves with fingers so I can grab the drum and pull it out to cool right away. Just haven't done that yet.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion Lou. It has been fun to watch you learn, grow and roast some great coffee.
@Dustin Grooms , That's a good recommendation. I usually change the drum speed on my roasts as I near the end of the dry phase to help me finish my dry and also add "convection" type roasting to the roasting process. Yes, this will also help move the roast along and help with an even roast applied to the beans, not just "conduction" type heat transfer.. Can you send me a link to the article about the "Brighter", more complex taste because of the drum speed. I'm a little confused about that statement. That would mean that air roasters would roast brighter coffee? Hmmm, that's interesting. I see the body, sweetness, complexity and brightness as a result of the times spent in each phase along with the decending ROR. I could be wrong but it would make interesting reading.
Thanks for your comments and encouraging other roasters! That's cool!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Here is the article from Sweet Maria's. There is also a video embedded in the article where they talk about the results for the coffees roasted at different drum speeds. library.sweetmarias.com/behmor-plus-drum-speed-comparison/
@Dustin Grooms, thanks for the link. That article makes total sense even though it is missing the most important data. They said"
"The slow drum batch went into the cooling cycle after 11 minutes and 15 seconds. The fast drum batch started cooling at 10 minutes and 45 seconds."
Their conclusion was by using the faster drum speed, it shortened the roast times and ultimately caused a difference in the flavor profile. That makes sense. What they don't share is how the phase percentages changed. So, by using a faster drum speed, they state it pulls the greens higher up the back of the drum, exposing it to more heat, speeding up the roast. I believe the change in the speed also affected how much time was devoted to both the browning phase and development phase. The Behmor is a slow roasting machine and drawn out browning phases will cause the coffee to be less lively. The flavors will be more muted compared to a shorter time. There will be some who might misquote what I am trying to say here. A short browning phase isn't good. The flavors don't have enough time to compound/maillard reactions to create the flavors and complexity. A browning phase that is too long will mute the flavors and the sugars will move towards bitter notes. So there is a "Sweet Spot" for the browning phase percentage. And, in some sense the total time of the roast plays an overarching roll in the flavor profile as well.
So, my thoughts are the same, the drum helps speed up the roasting process by use of convection, although it makes sense that pulling the coffee up the drum to expose it to the heating elements would also speed up the roasting process. Thanks for that link. It was really helpful for me to understand why they would have thought that way.
I actually think you could reduce the dry time by reducing charge temp. That way you don’t have to drop to p4 for as long or at all.
Thanks for sharing. What preheat temp do you use for your Behmor ? Also, how much coffee are you roasting per batch and how long does it take for you to get to dry end?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Hi I roast 225g. My charge temp varies with the environment. Mostly roast outside. Varies from 130 to 200. If it is hot out I lower it so I can run p5 the whole time and not hit that 320 mark. Roasts generally are between 10 and 11 minutes. Use. 1lb, 18 minute timer. Fan kicks on at 10:25ish.
Thanks for sharing JM. I think the P5 full power for most of the roast is the big difference. The radiant heat from the Behmor elements is a big factor. I'm not a big fan of direct IR heat as this tends to roast from the outside in but with more intensity. That is why I prefer a higher charge temperature. Then I am able to use less power further in the roast. Doing that allows me to reduce my power and allow ample browning and development phases. I have experienced difficulty lowering my temps to extend these phases for good flavor development. I don't doubt you can use a lower charge temp but this is why I take the approach I do.
You must hold the record for a working Behmor.
Maybe so Jona but it sure has been a lot of fun roasting with it. Thanks for watching the video. Did you have a Behmor?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Have been looking at them for awhile, just haven’t seen enough long lasting reviews to make me want one yet. You might be changing my mind though.😊
@@jonahex8463 Hey Jona - I saw this post and figured I'd would chime in. So I checked - I bought my Behmor from Sweet Maria's on Feb 2012 and roast about 100 lbs per year. So they do last! This coming February will be 10 years and will have roasted about 1000lbs without fail and without a single glitch. If that doesn't help your decision making...
Having said that - the lack of "total" roast control has prompted me to buy a Hive Roaster a couple months ago and have been very happy with the coffee I have been drinking - might I say better than what I had on the Behmor. More work on the Hive - but more control and more engaging to roast & more fun.
Hope this helps.
@@TerryManitoba Thxs for the info Terry, sounds like your behmor has served you well! Glad to hear, I’m close to needing an upgrade here soon. It’s on my list.
At 13:08 you mention that you're backing the heat down to P4. Isn't this increasing the heat to P4?
Hi Greg, I was roasting in the "manual mode" so going from P5 (100% power in manual mode) down to P4 (75% power in manual mode) is what I was doing. The Behmor is kind of werid in that way. The Power/Profile buttons (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5) in the auto mode work differently in the manual mode. Hope that clears things up.
Thanks for watching my video and for your comment Greg. Happy Roasting!
My Behmore at7min has the exhauste fan comes my exhauste temp A STARTS TO RISE WHILE MYDRUM TEMP OR B STARTS DROPPINGFROM AROUND 305 to 185 and then stars to rise again I feel this distorts my final results Thanks
Hi Norman, thanks for watching my video and for being a subscriber to my channel. Yes, this is somewhat alarming and kind of confusing. There are ways around this issue. I have a playlist for my Behmor videos and I suggest you watch them as I touch on this issue when it happens. My last Behmor video goes into detail and verifies what is really happening temperature wise inside the roaster th-cam.com/video/jm5MsA8poJs/w-d-xo.html and I think this will help.
In short, the fan turns on at 5 minutes when roasting 1/2 pound or 7 minutes when roasting 1 pound setting. The fan event will happen with every roast. If you roast in the manual mode and preheat like I do, you will find you reach close to 320 degrees near the 5 minute mark when roasting 1/2 lb. The fan will kick on at 5 minutes. Around 15 seconds before this, make sure your power is set to P5 100% so when the fan kicks on you won't lose that much heat. Watch your temps, begin lowering your power to slow the roast during the middle phase (browning) and then at first crack you will want to toggle between P3 and P4 to keep your momentum going until you end your roast. My videos talk about heat management as well. Hopefully this will address your concern.
Are you referencing the A temperature during your roasts. Quite a few Behmor users rely on the A temp. I stay with my B temp all the way through the roast.
I use both a Behmor 1600 and a Fresh Roast 800
Thanks for watching AEM AZ. Which is your go-to roaster or do you prefer one for a particular coffee or roast style?
I use both regularly. though the fresh roast is a little bit easier because it’s easier to clean. I just ordered a new roasting chamber which is supposed to allow me to roast up to 12 ounces on the fresh roast and the Beamer is getting kind of old since it’s only a 1600 it doesn’t have all of the features of the newer versions
Currently using a Nesco Cr-04-13, and see that it has a recall notice. It has roasted nicely, but the interior is difficult to clean effectively, and it's hard to judge the roasting process. Regular Columbians seem to need a Dark roast followed by a couple of minutes of medium. Today the dark roast overroasted my beans though, so this process does seem unreliable. Decaf Colombian needs medium roast and needs to be stopped early. Again, it seemed to over-roast today. However, I was using the oven at the same time while the Nesco was sitting on the top of the range, so the extra heat from the oven may have been the cause of the overroasting. Because of the recall, I'm looking into upgrading to the Behmor.
Hi Larry, thanks for your comments and sharing your experience with the Nesco. The Behmor is a different animal than your air roaster so keep that in mind. It can produce some great coffee. After you have a few roasts under your belt with the Behmor, I suggest you watch the video again (if you want) as you will begin to pick-up some of the details of what I was doing with my roast and more importantly "why".
Congrats on the Behmor!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Thanks for your words of encouragement! I've been logging temperatures and times every 1/2 minute for my roasts so I can study what I have done and compare it. The Behmor is unique in that the B temperature is the oven temperature, not the bean temperature, which makes comparing profiles from drum roasters very difficult. If the Maillard is supposed to be happening from 300-350°F, caramelization closer to 400°F, first crack around 380-400°F, and 2nd crack 430-450°F, it is impossible to tell directly from the Behmor where you are at temperature-wise. Furthermore, roasting decaffeinated coffee is way different from regular coffees.
One thing I have noticed is that there IS value to recording the "A" temperature as it gives clues to the bean temperature. So far, whether it's a regular or decaf Columbian, once the "A" temperature reaches about 340°F it reaches 1st crack quite consistently. I know there are many other variables, but in all my roasts so far, but this temperature has been quite consistent. Second crack appears to happen quite consistently at around 355 to 360°F for the "A" temperature, with a few exceptions. However, all my bitter or ashy coffees reached above 360°F on the "A", while my sweeter coffees were dumped at or below 360°F. My main point is that that "A" temperature is valuable and should not be ignored on the Behmor.
As you said in your decaffeinated video, the drying phase is difficult to detect by colour, especially in a Behmor with the yellow lamp. Going by smell can be tricky because the Behmor doesn't turn the exhaust fan on until 6 minutes into the roast (13:00 roast profile). The only way to get an accurate sense of drying smells is by opening the door a crack periodically. I noticed that, with a charge temperature of 200°F the grassy smells were gone by the 4th minute. If you rely on the exhaust fan odors, you will be misled because the grassy odors will remain in the roaster until the exhaust fan removes them.
Still very much a newbie at roasting, but I think these points deserve more credit than I have seen in general.
As I'm learning how to roast on the Behmor, much of my focus has been on reproducing a profile rather than simply achieving a desired roast, although the two go hand in hand. Because the "A" and "B" temperatures are not bean temperatures, using these is still a little bit like flying in the dark. I have found a few guidelines that are helping though. First crack is said to occur at approximately 384F, and often occurs when the "A" temperature is approximately 330-340F. Second crack is said to occur at approximately 435F, and seems to occur when the "A" temperature is approximately 360F. So, I monitor my "A" temperature just as much as my "B" temperatures for my profile.
My current profile for my decaf starts with a 220F preheat and on the P2 profile. I let the temperature rise slowly through the drying phase. At about 5 minutes in, the fan turns on and I ramp up to P5 to achieve a "B" temperature of about 260F. I then start monitoring the "A" temperature. Once the "A" temperature reaches 300F, I allow it to rise slowly, switching to P3 for 30s, then P4, then back to P5 if my "B" temperature drops below 250F. Once my "A" temperature reaches 360F, 2nd crack is imminent. If I actually let it hit second crack, it will be bitter.
Notice my general profile I'm playing with is not "so many minutes on P5, then so many seconds on P4 etc. I'm watching both "B" and "A" . "B" reflects the heat I'm applying to the beans, "A" reflects what is happening to the beans. My general profile so far is to achieve an "A" temperature rise slowly from 300F to 360F. I know the Maillard reactions must be happening at the low end of this range, and the caramelization is above, near the 1st crack temperatures.
So, am I out to lunch with this approach? I still have yet to learn when drying ends, browning begins, and development begins. At least, for now, I'm not making undrinkable coffee (by my standards)!
Hi Larry, no you are not our to lunch. Everyone approaches their coffee roast differently. I'm glad you are closely monitoring temperatures. But, rather than focus on what you are or are not doing, It might be helpful to think about coffee roasting in the terms of time over temperature. A brief 1 minute summary of my roast philosophy can be see here in this video at 17:30. Each phase of roasting is important and monitoring times, temperatures and events will help us see what is happening to our roast. Changes to these times in each phase will influence the cup. We taste our coffee we roasted and see what we like or don't like. From there we make changes to our times and temps in the phases. This part of roasting is where I focus my attention. How much time I spend from dry end to first crack will influence flavor development. This means that marking dry end at the right time is important.
Longer roast times affect the flavor profile of your coffee. I'm curious how long it takes for you to roast the coffee using the heat settings you are using?
I appreciate you sharing your roasting journey Larry!
What is the term “soak?”
Hi Keegan, “soak” is a method where beans are exposed to a hot drum at charge with power set to zero for a short period of time. I learned this term from Mill City Coffee Roasters hen I attended roaster school. I do NOT recommend this technique with the Behmor or any other roaster unless it’s a drum roaster with lots of metal to maintain heat.
I use a bread machine. 680g approx 18min.
Thanks for sharing. Which bread machine are you using? are you able to control paddle speeds? Are you using a heatgun? How dark are you going? Are you please with your results?
Do you find the overall roasting time to be important or mainly the ratios of each phase? Ive read many times that the Behmor will "bake" your roast so try to keep it hot and short. I believe this bad advice has led me down a bad path of scortching my beans and ive been trying to correct ever since. Ive also had to replace my tirst Behmor and ive never gotten as good of results.
I think both total roast time and how
Much time you spend in the browning phase and development will greatly impact flavor results. As for behmore baking, my opinion is many Behmor users are roasting too much coffee per roast. Behmor markets their product as roasting up to1 lb of coffee. I would not roast more that 1/2 pound at a time.
What happened to your first Behmor?
@@VirtualCoffeeLab so roasting too big of batches makes the roasting time too long? What is the result of that? Just flat muted coffee?
The afterburner in my first unit failed. I replaced it once, but it may have happened again. I can't remember. But I do remember being unable to fix it again because the wiring was too short.
I remember getting better results with my first Behmor but part of me wonders if my standards have just gotten higher. Although I don't recall having scorching issues with my first roaster like I do now. I was also able to use the auto profiles more successfully in my first unit. I'm wondering if my original unit ran hotter and so to try to achieve that, I am relying on the manual mode, but going too hot.
Yes, batch size plays a huge roll in how fast you can roast on the Behmor. In this behmor video here th-cam.com/video/cxEkrtmIXfY/w-d-xo.html i reached dry at around four minutes, first crack around seven min and fifteen seconds and then dropped the coffee at eight min and thirty five seconds. There is no way to roast a pound of coffee in the Behmor in under 9 minutes. I had to roast less coffee.
One variable you might be experiencing is the power iteslf. If you are using an extension cord OR if the outlet itself has less voltage, this can impact the performance of the Behmor. Also, if the roaster is dirty (the sensors) this can affect roasting performance on the Behmor.
You could be outgrowing the roaster as well.....
@@VirtualCoffeeLab So is it important to have a shorter roast time? Does a shorter time equal better taste? In general, is there a target roast time for coffee?
Does the Behmor adjust power based on temp readings even in manual mode? I do try to keep it clean, but I admit I'm not as diligent as others.
I think I definitely have room for improvement with the Behmor. I've seen others (including yourself) achieve better results than me. I think in general I might be roasting too hot and not paying enough attention to the timing of the different phases.
Would you say that preheat temp and batch size are two of the biggest factors with the Behmor (considering they might set the pace for the roast)?
Thanks for your help! Your videos are super educational!
There is no optimal total roast time because there are so many variables including batch size, airflow, conductive heat transfer, bean size, process type, variatal and your style of roast. The same bean can have many different tastes based on how you roast it. My videos share my approach and the total roast time can vary from 7 minutes to 12 minutes based on the type of coffee, the roaster i am using and what kind of roast i am trying to achieve.
In my 3 tips for new home coffee roaster video I talk about a "starting point" for a roast. Based on the outcome of that roast you would make a single change at a time to see how that impacts the cup. In order to do that, we use different temperatures over time to craft our coffee. I hope that makes sense. Unfortunately roasting is a craft and there isn't a set "formula" for everyone. I think that learning the principles (my essentials playlist) will help your understanding of the roast process. Even though I am using different roasting devices when I roast, most of the principles apply to everyone.
Using a Behmoor 1600plus
Are you enjoyingthe Behmor Frank? Thanks for watching my video.
I can't say that I dislike it because I feel like I need more education to maximize it's capabilities. Your videos such as this have been helping me. I almost completely have been doing 1lb roasts. Now realizing that trying smaller batches may bring out some better flavors. Previously I had only been preheating for a minute and a half going by the manual. Now after watching a few of your videos I realize I can preheat longer. I am also learning from your instructional tips on the roast cycle that cooling fast is important. On my last batch I opened the door at cool down. I like the flavor of the roast I did, but am curious if I can make it better. I bought 25# of that bean so I can find that tasty cup. Contemplating some gloves to remove the drum so I can empty the beans.
My wife an I are regular coffee drinkers so we go through a lot of beans. Time during the week is busy so my desire is to roast larger batches so I only have to roast every other week. Hence, I have been considering a 1kg gas drum roaster.I can also see roasting for friends and family if I had that type of roaster. Much easier to do one batch after another. Not the case with the Behmoor.
In the beginning of using my Behmoor the only recording I had been doing was when 1C took place and then when I hit the cool button. With your education on the 50 30 20 roast cycle and what each cycle does has me looking deeper at the numbers and recording B temps every minute now. I am planning on doing 1/2 lb roasts for a few weeks and work the numbers. I have greatly benefitted from all the great comments in this video thread.
@@frankvoge1610 I'm glad my video's have been helpful!
I’ve been using Behmor for nearly 2 years but my coffee’s never been as good as on my FreshRoast. Help!
Hi Karen, these are two totally different roasters so the methods will be different. Are you happy with your fresh roast results? What Fresh Roast model do you have and how much coffee are you roasting per batch. Also, let me know the roast level and coffee origin you enjoy drinking.
With regards to the Behmor, what batch size did you select and how much coffee were you roasting per batch?
Behemor 1600 plus upgraded is what I use.
That is what I have too. I upgraded it when the upgrade panel was available. Thanks for sharing!
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new sup new bemor
Thanks for subscribing and congrats for your new Behmor. Be sure to check out the Behmor playlist as well as the coffee roasting essentials playlist
Coffee people love talking!
Thanks for watching CatLady. You have a Behmor? Be sure to checkout my Behmor playlist th-cam.com/play/PLe757VIiQrPb3aXj2kNhI67dlDYkJrHMi.html
@@VirtualCoffeeLab Yes, no more ghetto hot air corn popper for us! Thx, we will check out your other videos too. Cheers! ☕️
Behmor 2000ab
Thanks for watching Mirinda!
@@VirtualCoffeeLab this is one of my favorite channels you are an excellent teacher 😀
@@VirtualCoffeeLab i was always under the understanding from going out on forums that my naturals should not have a charge time before putting them in like i would with wet process. I have always roasted 100° chg incl drum then placed 1lb beans in (brazil natural) slow drum p5 to 1st crack then Increase drum speed lower p3 till end 1st crack then p2 thru dev till i removed at beep 5min. Deep peanut butter, sugar taste did this for 1yr then started encountering prob with machine. Returned machine after a very long and difficult time to get a new one. I can not seem to get my same profile back on my Brazil, i have switched to wet not sure if it's the beans this year but something has changed never use to get tipping and scorching at all.
Ok a little shocked on the outcome i have never charged to 210 it was a little challenging to write check temp watch progress and check time. Little more practice there. I still have some tipping and scorching but i used 1lb, the brazil dry process pedra branca expanded much nicer color much more uniform need to work better on the timing. Had to drop p4 7min when temp hit 303 increased again 8 min to p5 when after burner kicked on. Yellow started at 8:30 first crack 12:30 increased drum (maybe should have started this sooner) dropped p3.
14:30 min 282° dropped p2 at 15 cooled.
@@mirindal2106 Thanks for your message. First, you are roasting a dry process coffee, it is more prone to roast defects. Also, it is a brazil coffee which is likely a lower density bean and more prone to roast defects. I would suggest you use a lower charge temperature for prewarm like 150 degrees. Assuming you are roasting for fruit and origin tasting notes, my comments below may be helpful.
Looking at your phase times you roasted for a total of 870 seconds. I used the calculation method from the video to determine your roast phase percentages.
58.6% is Dry Phase
27.58% is Browning/Middle Phase
13.79% is Development Phase.
You need to shorten your dry phase, lengthen the browning phase a little. Depending on your roast style preference and how you cool you can adjust your development phase to be a little longer. It seems your roast starts out slow and then by the time you get to dry end it is moving too fast so you should adjust your heat to compensate and slow down the roast.
If you use a smaller batch size, you will be able to shorten your drying phase time. Please know the exhaust fan turns on a different times depending if you roast 1 lb or 1/2 lb.