While not needed, you can pick up a bucket cooler (hooked up to a shop vac) from U-Roast-Em on Ebay and the price will be below $100. If you are handy, you can make one for less than $25.
Also, i understand that you can profile the roast manually, but is this something that can be set or programed?
No. Unlike the IRoast2 where a profile can be set and programmed, every roast on the Gene must be set manually. Having used both machines, I find this no big deal.
Once you have your temp and time worked out, is this a machine that you can walk away from, or do you truely need to baby sit it during the roast?
Thanks!
I would never walk away from an appliance in my kitchen that is roasting a combustible to 471 degrees.
To my knowledge, the factory options are still vaporware at this time. The bean coolers folks are using are homebuilt. As an aside, I have found that opening the hood and using a small fan substantially speeds the cooldown cycle within the drum. I'd advise you to experiment around on this one.
You do not actually program the GC, you set a temperature and a time. You can then adjust temperature and time on the fly during the roast to produce profiles. The real key is to build your profile around the occurance of first crack. This means you really can't walk away during the roast - a bad idea anyway with this roaster or any other that I have ever used.
GC had an external cooler at the SCAA show in Charlotte NC this past April. It had a $100 price tag, I can't say that I have seen it advertised anywhere. As other have said you could build your own cooler for much less. The GC cooler was real nice looking.
mdreuben Senior Member Joined: 20 Oct 2002 Posts: 188 Location: Cleveland Expertise: Professional
Espresso: La Spazialle VII, Electra... Grinder: Mahlkonig K 30 ES Vac Pot: Yama Drip: Say No To Drip! Use the Eva... Roaster: Sonofresco, Gene Cafe,...
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 4:29am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
TheArtfuldodger Said:
GC had an external cooler at the SCAA show in Charlotte NC this past April. It had a $100 price tag, I can't say that I have seen it advertised anywhere. As other have said you could build your own cooler for much less. The GC cooler was real nice looking.
I'd be very interested in a better cooler. I've been very happy with my GC roasts, but you do have to predict the "float" of the longer cool down. Does anyone know the status of the GC cooldown unit?
Stumpknocker Senior Member Joined: 13 Jun 2006 Posts: 53 Location: St Simons Island Ga Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Drip: Bunn Roaster: Gene Cafe
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 7:15am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
I have had a Gene for about 6 months and love it. I have tried about every combination I can come up with and based on a couple of other articles about roasting profiles here is what I am doing. In looking at the way the Gene operates I think you can add heat faster than the beans can absorb it. It makes for a quick roast but I don't know if that gives the best results. I am currently using the following profile which I think gives great results. This having been said I would also state that what I have worked at is getting the maximum out of a lighter roast. I do not care for the taste of darker roasts. So I am currently working on the following profile which I think gives the beans a chance to absorb the heat generated by the Gene at a rate the beans are capable of rather than ramping the temperature up as fast as the machine is capable of. In other words the Gene can produce heat faster than the beans and chamber are capable of absorbing. Here is the profile.
4 min 250 4 min 350 4 min 420 Ramp the temp setting up to 482 and at start of first crack(about 3 to 4 min) then 3 min at 440 I then terminate the roast cycle manually, spritz with water and cool using a hair dryer. If you try this profile note that the temperature generated by the machine is held in place for about a min at the end of each phase other than the initial 4 min warm up.
With Columbian, Mexican and Kenya AA this profle works perfectly for the roast and taste I am after.
Incidently in talking with Jeff at Freshbeans he recommended for those of us who do not use the cool cycle to replace the cylinder after dumping the beans and let the machine finish the cool cycle prior to doing the next roast.
somnusmd Senior Member Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Ventura, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: La Spaziale S1 Grinder: Mazzer Mini Roaster: Gene Cafe
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 10:06am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
Picked up my GCR from SweetMarias in person when I was up in the bay area for Thanksgiving. Roasted The Liquid Amber Blend last night. The machine is much quieter than my I-Roast, very well built. I think that I stopped the roast too soon because I had been hearing about the long cooling and was trying to anticipate the roast, allowing for a few more minutes of roasting during cooling.
That said the roast turned out very well. I did it near a window with a fan at the window and it seemed to do a reasonable job with smoke. I used to roast outside with the I-Roast, maybe I will do that with this one as well. When I hit the cool cycle I moved the fan to blow on the unit. Since there is a gap in the protector screen I think that I saw a drop in temp right away. I also tried it with the plastic cover lifted and that seemed to work well also. Maybe this is why my beans did not coast into City+ as I intended!
I am very interested to hear how people are adjusting the roast profile. With the I-roast and the Vivace beans I could never differentiate between 1st and 2nd crack, I just roasted until the first signs of oil showed on the beans, then after cooling the oil would be gone, and still in the bean.
I will try with this one as well, I made 250gm so I have to drink it or give it away. It will take me longer to experiment given the higher capacity, so maybe I will just have to give beans away so I can play.
CoffeeBird Senior Member Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 8 Location: SF, CA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: La Pavoni Professional Grinder: Mazzer Mini Vac Pot: Bodum Electric Santos Roaster: Gene Cafe
Posted Fri Dec 8, 2006, 5:08pm Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
Steve, I shot the movie with my digital camera and edited with Apple iMovie. The pictures are just screen grabs from the movie. I posted the review on hubpages.com because they have a really good editor that makes it easy to create web content. And yes, the digital thermometer is AWESOME. It's very handy for checking the temperature of the roast chamber during roasting (as well as checking the temperature of a million other things). As for cooling..... I've had a big breakthrough with the GC roaster since I wrote last. At the end of your roast, if you hold down the red button for more than 2 seconds, it will abort the entire cycle. The chamber will zero itself with the handle in the upright position. If you have a decent pair of gloves, you can pull the chamber out (watch out because it is HOT) and dump the beans. The roaster fan will continue to blow until it reaches some sort of safe temperature. I've taken a rather large piece of plywood (which the roaster sits on) and cut a 10" round hole in it. I drop a steel collander into the hole and it holds itself in place and leaves the bottom of the collander open. Underneath the hanging collander, I place a small desk fan and point it directly at the bottom of the collander. So after the abort, I dump the hot and popping beans into the collander and turn the fan on high. Since the fan is blowing from underneath the collander, it helps blow extra chaff up and away from the beans. I take a wooden spoon (or my hand) and stir the beans to help cool and blow off more chaff. I can cool a 300 gram (pre-roast weight) batch at around 450 degrees, down to room temp in about 30-45 seconds with this method. Compare that to 3-6 minutes using the standard cooling cycle! This speedy cooling allows you to roast to nearly an exact point. There is no need to guess how much more cooking will happen during the normal GC roaster cooling cycle. I'll try to take some pictures (and maybe video) during my next roast and post them. I roasted several batches like this just before thanksgiving and the results were MUCH better than anything I had ever roasted before.
Posted Sat Mar 10, 2007, 6:37am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
. I have
Stumpknocker Said:
I have had a Gene for about 6 months and love it. I have tried about every combination I can come up with and based on a couple of other articles about roasting profiles here is what I am doing. In looking at the way the Gene operates I think you can add heat faster than the beans can absorb it. It makes for a quick roast but I don't know if that gives the best results. I am currently using the following profile which I think gives great results. This having been said I would also state that what I have worked at is getting the maximum out of a lighter roast. I do not care for the taste of darker roasts. So I am currently working on the following profile which I think gives the beans a chance to absorb the heat generated by the Gene at a rate the beans are capable of rather than ramping the temperature up as fast as the machine is capable of. In other words the Gene can produce heat faster than the beans and chamber are capable of absorbing. Here is the profile.
4 min 250 4 min 350 4 min 420 Ramp the temp setting up to 482 and at start of first crack(about 3 to 4 min) then 3 min at 440 I then terminate the roast cycle manually, spritz with water and cool using a hair dryer. If you try this profile note that the temperature generated by the machine is held in place for about a min at the end of each phase other than the initial 4 min warm up.
With Columbian, Mexican and Kenya AA this profle works perfectly for the roast and taste I am after.
Incidently in talking with Jeff at Freshbeans he recommended for those of us who do not use the cool cycle to replace the cylinder after dumping the beans and let the machine finish the cool cycle prior to doing the next roast.
Hi I have some questions to ask please. You say, "I then terminate the roast cycle manually, spritz with water and cool using a hair dryer". Can you please, explain? I am entirely new in the home rosting process and I am afraid to do experiments, with some danger. I have read that if we push the button some 3-5 secs, the GC will end all the cycle and will abort the beans. Some guy from the other hand, wrote that it is dangerous. Is this pushing of the knob, your "terminate the roast manually" writing? And you say "spritz with water ". Can you please, explain what do you mean? Do you spritz the beans in the collander? I bought a cooling pan http://www.u-roast-em.com/cooling-pan.html without the vac, so as to use mine. I don"t know if I use the 100 degrees aborting ability of the GC and then use this cooler, or I terminate the roasting pushing the button for 3-5 secs, and then use it. And something else. You say, " Incidently in talking with Jeff at Freshbeans he recommended for those of us who do not use the cool cycle to replace the cylinder after dumping the beans and let the machine finish the cool cycle prior to doing the next roast" How will you do it, while the machine has already stopped? What exactly would we do? Thanks in advance, Regards, Theodore.
PS. Is it possible, to be informed by e-mail. when new answers arrive? If it is, can you please, tell me how?
Posted Sat Mar 10, 2007, 8:34am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe - First Impressions Discussion
Theodore,
First, please accept my apology for not responding sooner to the question you left on my blog. In the future, please feel free to email me directly and if I can help, I certainly will.
If you have already purchased the personal cooling pan, then I really wouldn't worry about adding the step of spritzing with water. Keep things as simple as possible while you are learning and focus on learning the roasting behavior of the beans and the roaster. The system you have should more than adequately cool the beans rather quickly. Spritzing means to mist the beans with water which will immediately evaporate and thereby remove some of the heat from the bean.
I cool my roasts external to the Gene Cafe with a Wearever Cushionaire Pizza Pan atop the back of a fan and draw the air down through the beans which is similar to the setup that you have. When the beans reach the point where I want to stop the roasting, I press and hold the red button until the Gene Cafe beeps and an "E" appears on the display. The roaster will finish a revolution or so and stop. I dump the beans on the cooling pan and return to the Gene Cafe. If I am finished with roasting, I put the drum back in the roaster, turn the blue dial clockwise (how much does not matter) and press the blue button twice. This will start the Gene Cafe cooling cycle; just let it run until it is finished and unplug it until the next time you want to use it. I unplug it so that it doesn't get zapped with possible voltage spikes; sure, I could buy equipment to protect it, but it is cheaper and easier to unplug it.
If I am not finished roasting, then this is what I do because I roast a lot of coffee; I get all of my batches ready ahead of time. I dump the beans to be cooled, place the drum in the stand (always use the stand), pour in the next batch, close the drum, put it back in the Gene Cafe and start the next roasting cycle immediately so I lose as little heat as possible. This is called the continuous roasting method and it is covered in the Gene Cafe Manual (in my manual, it is on page 12).
In general, I always use the continuous roasting method because I almost never roast only one batch of coffee, but I always run it through the cooling cycle when I am finished. I have roasted as many as 19 consecutive batches using the continuous roasting method and tomorrow the Gene Cafe will be roasting over 10 pounds of coffee. In the six months that I have had my Gene Cafe, it has roasted 329 batches and over 175 pounds of coffee and those numbers will go up tomorrow.
One tip, do get a replacement rubber piece for the chaff wipe and keep it as a spare. All of the heat will make it brittle and it will eventually need to be replaced; the rubber piece was replaced on mine last week because it broke and I was very glad I had a spare on hand. You cannot use the Gene Cafe without it because it will probably just break the glass of the drum. I got the replacement part from Tim Skaling a call at FreshBeans, Inc. They do the U.S. service on the Gene Cafes (don't know if this helps you in Greece though); really nice guy too.
Freshroast Contact Information: Tim Skaling Phone: 435-940-1616 Fax: 435-940-1964 Email: skales@tfb.com www.freshbeansinc.com alternate #s: 435-940-1616 888-757-2326 Fresh Beans, Inc. 6436 Business Park Loop Unit G, Park City, Utah 84098 Shipping Address: Fresh Beans Inc. PO Box 982410 Park City, Utah 84098
You can certainly be emailed when someone posts to any thread, but you have to have posted to the thread. This is why you will see some posts that simply read "Bump". After you have typed your reply to the post, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and place a click on the box next to "Email Notification: Sends you an email if someone replies to this post."
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