Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 9:22am Subject: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
Now that they have been out for a while and people are doing some experimenting with profiles for the Gene Cafe, I thought we could log them in a thread for easier search and reference. It doesn't matter whether it is simple or complex, please just share what you have been doing and your results ... it may help someone else so include as much detail as you can.
To start, I will share my very simple "profile" that has afforded me a lot of great coffees, but has really made the Ethiopia Organic Idido Misty Valley DP (Sweet Maria's) shine. All of these roasts were done in a preheated Gene Cafe, with the temperature set to 456F for the duration of the roast and the coffee was cooled in the roaster. As soon as the roasting / cooling was completed, the next batch was started. While the next batch is getting started, I usually shake the beans between a bowl and colander that fit together, then pour between the two in front of a fan for more chaff removal. These roasts were also done inside the house so the ambient temperature would have been about 72F.
First roast was 2 batches of 232g each; first crack started at 11:45 and roasting was stopped at 15:00. Both batches were mixed together and this produced a brilliant Meyer Lemon flavor. I found this batch to be at its epitome at 5 days after the roast.
Second roast was 4 batches of 229g each; first crack started at 12:00 and roasting was stopped at 15:20. All batches were mixed together and this produced an intense blueberry aroma & flavor from whole bean to cooled cup. I am enjoying this one right now after letting the beans rest for 3 days.
Susanna Senior Member Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 70 Location: california Expertise: Just starting
Grinder: KitchenAid pro line Drip: Technivorm Roaster: Gene Cafe
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 11:36am Subject: Re: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
This sounds like a great idea. I don't have any to share right now as I think my Sidamo was just good luck and am still experimenting.
How much did you preheat your Gene? I don't think mine gets up to temp as fast as some. It takes it a good 10 min to get to 450 from a cold start. That is why I thought I should start it out high and then turn it back when it reaches the 450. Sometimes I have been just going back to 465 as it seems to fluctuate 3 or 4 degrees less.
I just set it for 5 minutes or so and let it do its thing (including cooling) while I am getting other things ready. I usually already have the first couple of batches measured so when it "beeps" for done, they go right in and get started.
Dooglas Senior Member Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 686 Location: Portland, OR Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Expobar HX, La Pavoni lever Grinder: Ascaso, Baratza Drip: Bonavita, Bodum press Roaster: GeneCafe, Behmor
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 1:07pm Subject: Re: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
Susanna Said:
How much did you preheat your Gene? I don't think mine gets up to temp as fast as some. It takes it a good 10 min to get to 450 from a cold start. That is why I thought I should start it out high and then turn it back when it reaches the 450. Sometimes I have been just going back to 465 as it seems to fluctuate 3 or 4 degrees less.
As others have noted in previous posts, the GC heating element basically operates in an on and off mode controlled by a thermal sensor. If you set it at 450 or set it at 482 it should actually reach a reading of 450 at the same time. Thats why most users have lit on settings around 455 to 465 to start and then adjust at first crack to lengthen the roast a bit. That pretty much describes what I do myself. The one truly different idea was posted recently by Stumpknocker. He suggests intentionally slowing the ramp up to first crack by using a series of intermediate temperature settings.
fredfal Senior Member Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 348 Location: Broadway, NC Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Brewtus II, Linea Grinder: Mazzer Mini E/B, WBC K10 Drip: Bodum pour-over Roaster: Behmor
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 4:21pm Subject: Re: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
Friday (2 days ago) I tried my first non-dark roast on my Gene.
I'm just now having a cup from the press pot and it's good. Different.
Bean: Brazil Fazenda Brauna Peaberry (250 grams) Profile: 420 to start, reduced to 300 at first crack (13.5 minutes), continued roast out to 24 minutes. No second crack.
temp profile: 1 - 235 2 - 309 3 - 356 4 - 388 5 - 413 6 - 413 8 - 422 until 13.5 when I reduced to 300 14 - 365 16 - 300 until 24 min
My resulting roast is best described as "medium" and had less weight loss than usual (12% versus my usual 15-17%).
The cup is lighter in color than usual (obviously) with less body and has a sweet, floral, slightly acidic taste. It's pretty good.
My usual profiles are:
465 for 16 minutes or so or 465 till first crack then 451 to 16 to 18 minutes.
Initially I was roasting mostly for espresso (to city+ or full city), but have been trying to work in some different profiles for the press pot (and after Chirstmas hopefully aerobie).
fredfal Senior Member Joined: 24 Jun 2005 Posts: 348 Location: Broadway, NC Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Brewtus II, Linea Grinder: Mazzer Mini E/B, WBC K10 Drip: Bodum pour-over Roaster: Behmor
Posted Sun Nov 26, 2006, 9:11pm Subject: Re: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
All this reading about roasting got me wanting to roast. So, I roasted.
I don't think I've seen much in these forums about roasting with a cooled-off roaster versus a roaster that's already heated up. Anyone have any opinion about this one way or the other? I do remember reading somewhere about letting Gene cool off between roasts.
This evening, I did three back-to-back, 250 gram roasts. My profile for all three was 465 degrees until the very beginning of second crack.
To try to keep the profile similar between the three roasts, I manually increased the temperature every minute to mirror the data I had taken during the first roast. It seemed to work, as I got first crack at about the same time as I usually do when I let the roaster cool off between roasts (around 12 minutes).
I'm not sure about the "stair stepping" that took place during the temperature increases. Instead of one steady increase, the roaster would reach its target temperature about 10 seconds prior to the minute being up and an increase to the next temp. I guess that's the extra thermal energy that the roaster has from the previous roast that allows the element to heat up more quickly.
Like I said, I don't know weather I'll get better results with a warmed up roaster and a quicker temp increase, or from a cooled off roaster, but I was successful at slowing the temp increase of the warm roaster.
Yemenman Senior Member Joined: 3 Apr 2006 Posts: 267 Location: Midwest Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Bialetti Moka Pot Grinder: Rocky Vac Pot: Yama 8 , Kona Drip: TV KBT741 MOKA MASTER CD Roaster: I ROAST GENE CAFE HOT TOP
Posted Mon Nov 27, 2006, 3:39pm Subject: Re: Gene Cafe Profiles and Results - Share Yours!
Susanna Said:
This sounds like a great idea. I don't have any to share right now as I think my Sidamo was just good luck and am still experimenting.
How much did you preheat your Gene? I don't think mine gets up to temp as fast as some. It takes it a good 10 min to get to 450 from a cold start. That is why I thought I should start it out high and then turn it back when it reaches the 450. Sometimes I have been just going back to 465 as it seems to fluctuate 3 or 4 degrees less.
I will check my ramping time next roast Susan but i think nine or ten minutes sounds about right or same as mine,the temp will drift a little once your set temp is reached there is a differential of a few degrees off time on the t-stat before the heat comes back on ,this is the clicking sound you hear after you reach set temp.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 