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Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

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Discussions > Coffee > Home Roast > Ran my first 2...

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dkoch
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 139
Location: Bloomington, MN
Expertise: I like coffee

Espresso: Gaggia Classic
Grinder: Capresso Infinity
Roaster: air poppers

Posted Tue Jun 23, 2009, 4:44pm
Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

34acd Said:

Electric appliances that heat up, particularly to 400° or so, have hard service. It may last for a number of years, it may last only one or two. I would never buy any heating appliance used unless I knew for sure that the heating elements had been replaced or it was dirt cheap. I had the heating element in two Alps go in less than a year and I have already replaced the afterburner (it's nothing but a wire heating coil) on my Behmor (sent by Bob Rodda at Behmor for no charge BTW— excellent Customer support with Behmor).

You're right doing dark roasts by timing the cracks (or by smell if you really have that skill). You can't tell easily by bean color on the Behmor and if you wait to see any oil during the roast, you're already in a dark French. I usually run my espresso roasts (typically 10 oz of dry processed Brazil and some highlight coffee) about 20 seconds into a full second crack. It gives me a Vienna or what some might call a Full City+ that shows a little bit of oil after a few days. I also open the door about 1 minute into cool-down (Pretty messy. I roast in the garage with a shop vac nearby) —never had a chaff fire, but I would never leave the machine until at least half the cooling cycle has been completed.

Posted June 23, 2009 link

Very well said....

"It gives me a Vienna or what some might call a Full City+ that shows a little bit of oil after a few days. "
EXACTLY my preferred roast level!!

dkoch
Senior Member

Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 139
Location: Bloomington, MN
Expertise: I like coffee

Espresso: Gaggia Classic
Grinder: Capresso Infinity
Roaster: air poppers

Posted Tue Jun 23, 2009, 4:47pm
Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

CraigA Said:

Chocolate Alchemy sells Behmor factory refurbs @ $199, but doesn't have them in stock at the moment.. They do have a waiting list though, so I'd phone & see.

Posted June 23, 2009 link

Thanks Craig!! Man, I love this forum!!

kimwroble
Senior Member

Joined: 19 Dec 2008
Posts: 132
Location: Earth
Expertise: I live coffee

Espresso: SILVIA pid
Grinder: ROCKY
Vac Pot: YAMA / Cory
Drip: MELITA DRIP
Roaster: BEHMOR

Posted Wed Jun 24, 2009, 6:09pm Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Why buy a refurb for $200 when a new one with 8# of coffee is $300... I even got the big and small grid drum for that too ....oh..even the shipping...I think they're still about that but that deal was 6mos ago.. I want to get another so I can do back to back roasts, and if one breaks down I'll still be in business. Kinda' like having 2 outboards on your boat.. Maybe those refurbs are completely rebuilt and all elements and wearable parts replaced... It is very posable to rebuild something better than new.. The new ones are made in china.. But hey..if you took all the "made in china" stuff out of any Home Depot or Wally World they'd be half empty..maybe more.. I real glad I found this site and then bought a Behmor 6mos ago and 135 roasts ago ..

tahoejoe
Senior Member

Joined: 9 Sep 2003
Posts: 314
Location: San Diego/ Incline Village Nv.
Expertise: I live coffee

Grinder: Solis Maestro
Roaster: Behmor 1600

Posted Wed Jun 24, 2009, 6:45pm Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Merely an FYI.. John (alchemist John of Chocolate Alchemy) lost his mother about 8 weeks ago and is back in his home state getting her personal effects taken care of, so it will likely be at least 2 weeks, possibly longer before he can get any roasters out.. Just wanted to let you know.. Joe

www.behmor.com

azerik
Senior Member

Joined: 6 Jun 2009
Posts: 148
Location: tempe
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Expobar Pulser, Cuisenart...
Grinder: Compak K6
Roaster: Bemhor

Posted Thu Jun 25, 2009, 8:04pm Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

So after 36 hours of rest I laid into the pulls this morning. Right off the bat the Peruvian Gold was something I could admire. In the cup as a straight shot it had a interesting taste to me, which was kind of lost in a latte. Wifey liked it a lot, could pick out the sweetness and other hidden flavors I thought would be lost in the latte. The Espresso Milano doesn't appear to have been roasted far enough into 2c, it's got quite a bit of acidity. Possibly after another day or two of rest it'll come alive, or I learned to push 2c. Creme seemed to go away after about 30 seconds. I'm enjoying the simplicity and quality I'm getting and fact I have super fresh beans.

Kelltech
Senior Member

Joined: 24 Nov 2008
Posts: 11
Location: St. Louis
Expertise: Pro Barista

Espresso: De Longhi
Grinder: Barista Burr & Virtuoso
Vac Pot: Bodum Santos
Drip: None
Roaster: Hearthware & Behmor

Posted Fri Jul 3, 2009, 2:10pm Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

This thread has been very helpful. I have been playing with my new Behmor for about a month now and I'm getting it's nuances and my roast desire to come together. So far I'm always roasting 1/2 lbs on the 1 lb setting and depending on the bean determines my setting. I have found P5 desirable for Sumatra Mandheling but not very good for the Latin American beans I've been roasting. For them and East African beans P1 A or B seems good, I've been roasting some Panama HB and Tanzania peaberry on that setting. I'm trying to understand the profile diagrams in the Behmor manual, it looks like P3 has a pretty consistent temperature range, but I haven't used P3 yet. I would love to get a temp reading on my roasts, what kind of probe or coupler would you guys recommend for me to use?

yakster
Senior Member

Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 207
Location: San Jose, CA
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: De Longhi
Grinder: Kyocera / Cuisinart
Vac Pot: Yama 8 / Cory Rod
Drip: CCD / Aeropress
Roaster: Behmor

Posted Fri Jul 3, 2009, 3:15pm
Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Kelltech Said:

I'm trying to understand the profile diagrams in the Behmor manual, it looks like P3 has a pretty consistent temperature range, but I haven't used P3 yet. I would love to get a temp reading on my roasts, what kind of probe or coupler would you guys recommend for me to use?

Posted July 3, 2009 link

Kelltech,

I bought a thermocouple (flexible wire) with temperature adapter from Fry's Electronics that I use with my existing voltmeter (since I have plenty of voltmeters around, I run a second meter to monitor the voltage drop during the roast) when I started roasting in hot air popcorn poppers and now I've got it taped to the ceiling of the Behmor to the right side of the light. This gives ET (Environmental Temp) but not a good idea of BT (Bean Temp) like I had when putting the probe right into the bean mass in the popper. Even still, I have logged the results with BehmorThing (www.extrasensory.com) and I think what I've learned, along with BehmorThing has helped me understand better how the Behmor works and to plan future roasts.

Here are three roasts, P1, P2, and P3 for comparison. You'll notice that the temp readings don't closely follow the profile diagrams. It takes a while for the heat to ramp up in the Behmor. Also, right before the Afterburner kicks on, the temp drops (at 7:30 minutes for 1# roasts) which is one reason I add a two minute pre-roast to move this dip closer to first crack. I haven't done any P4 or P5 roasts to be able to post or compare.

P1 (www.photobucket.com) Behmor P1 Roast of Kenya AA Mutwewathi Estate on 6/17/09. 1# P1 A 12.9 oz roast in Behmor with 2 minute pre-roast.

P2 (www.photobucket.com) Behmor P2 Roast of Rwanda Gkongoro Nyarusiza on 5/17/09. 1# P2 A 12.6 oz roast in Behmor with 2 minute pre-roast.

P3 (www.photobucket.com) Behmor P3 roast of Indonesian Sulawesi Toraja (Celebes Kalossi) - GR1 - 6/6/09. 1# P3 A 12.1 oz roast in Behmor with 2 minute pre-roast.

Regarding the thermocouple, there's probably cheaper, stand-alone thermocouples with built-in displays if you don't already have a voltmeter. Mine's a TPI A301 (www.tpi-store.com) and Sweet Maria has one with a built in display here (www.sweetmarias.com). You may not really need a thermocouple with the Behmor. Hopefully these graphs give you some idea that will prove helpful.

-Chris

Posted Fri Jul 3, 2009, 3:30pm Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Yakster, thank you for those diagrams and for the information. I didn't know the temp dropped with the afterburner, very good to know. I'm usually concerned about stalling my roast at the wrong time so that's helpful knowledge. One thing I don't understand is your mention of pre-roast; is that just adding time before you hit start?

yakster
Senior Member

Posted Sat Jul 4, 2009, 10:46am Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Kelltech, I had taken my thermocouple to work last week to determine if a +63 C reading on a new PCB was a software or hardware problem (it was software) and when I re-installed it, it snagged on my drum in the Behmor so I had to pull it out. I guess I hadn't put it back in the same spot as before. This gave me the opportunity to move the thermocouple and to get some more insights about the Behmor from what I was seeing with the thermocouple at the top of the Behmor. This time, I ran the wire under the chaff tray to the very back and bent it up so that the tip of the junction is about 3/4" below the bottom heating element about 2" to the right of the side of the Behmor. Things look VERY different now and I'm not seeing the big temp drop at 7:30 anymore, in fact it is a lot more stable. It looks like at 7:30, the heater stops the upward ramp and levels off. I'm now seeing a hump with an increase in temp, but I think this is due to the fans kicking on at 7:30. Before, I think the probe was pretty close to the airpath of the fans so I was seeing a lot of cooling. Also, the afterburner kicks in which adds some heat (I was able to notice a difference between top temp readings from when my afterburner wasn't working and when it was. I've uploaded my two latest roast profiles with the temp probe near the heater. This still doesn't give me a good reading on bean temp and I'm sure what's going on with the beans is somewhere between what I measure at the top and what I measure near the heater, but things look much different with these measurements. I did a 1# P1 B roast of 15.6 oz of Costa Rica Monte Crisol WP Decaf that I stopped after 15 minutes. Then I did a 1# P2 A roast of 12.9 oz of Rwanda Gkongoro Nyarusiza. I programmed the P2 second leg temp drop to occur at C1 (first crack) based on past roasts and was able to get the temp to drop within 15 seconds of C1 with a nice 3 minute spread between the end of C1 and the start of C2 (second crack). I hit cool with the first few snaps of C2. Regarding pre-roasting, this is a technique of starting the Behmor on a P1 or P3 profile (full heat or partial heat) and then hitting off before two minutes have elapsed to get more roast time on the beans, stretch out the ramp before the afterburner kicks in (from 7:30 to 9:30). After you've stopped the pre-roast, you quickly program in the roast profile and hit start again. This is an advanced technique and there's other threads here on CG that will give you more information. You may see more smoke before the afterburner kicks in and the Behmors will prevent you from restarting the roast if it reaches a certain temperature. Most Behmors seem to restart fine with up to a little over 2 minutes of pre-roast, but some may not restart and will force you to wait until the unit cools to start the roast. Ambient temp may also affect this. I've had pretty good luck with pre-roasting, but for high chaff or difficult beans, this may not be advised (I had a chaff fire and C1 running into C2 on a Guatemala Oriente Dry Process that went into French Roast instead of the target Full City that I might have done without a pre-roast. As always, don't walk away from the Behmor, especially if your doing pre-roasts, doing a 1# roast with much less then 1# so that you can monitor the roast and take appropriate action. P1 Roast (www.photobucket.com) P2 Roast (www.photobucket.com) The interesting thing here is that moving the thermocouple did nothing for my roasts, just changes my understanding and perception. This is all just a model to try and fine-tune your roast profile to get the best flavor in the cup, and the more I learn, the more I seem to need to know. On the other hand, I've heard many people don't sweat it and get great results without endless measurements and analysis, they just set up the basic profile and hit go. Either way, I've been very happy with my decision to upgrade from 4 oz roasts in a hot air popcorn popper to the Behmor based on the results in the cup and the excellent customer service that stands behind the product. (end rant :-) -Chris

yakster
Senior Member

Posted Sat Jul 4, 2009, 12:24pm
Subject: Re: Ran my first 2 Behmor roasts last night

Also, I may have left out some basic Behmor tricks. I recommend you search the forums on Behmor and read up on previous threads, but here's a couple of tricks.

Read the manual and updates on the Behmor site. (www.behmor.com/manual.html)
Forward think your roast and hit cool ahead of time as the beans will continue to roast through the beginning of the cooling cycle.
First roast a new bean at p1 to determine where C1 occurs, then you can plan a future P2 roast (of the same amount of beans) so that the second leg of the roast (where the temp drop occurs) happens at or slightly (30 seconds) before C1 so that you can extend the time between C1 and C2 and lead to development of the best roast flavors.
Roast the same amount of beans each time and pick a standard size. 10, 13, and to a lessor degree 16 oz are common because they're evenly divisible into a 5# bag of coffee so you won't end up with an odd sized batch at the end.
I've been culling my beans for defects pre-roast and looking for quakers post-roast to improve the coffee flavor. See the following sites for info on bean defects:

5. (With apologies to the American Hombrew Associaton): Relax, don't worry, have a home-roast.

-Chris

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