sross Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2007 Posts: 37 Location: New Zealand Expertise: Just starting
Posted Mon Apr 28, 2008, 9:12pm Subject: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
I have my espresso making fairly fine tuned these days, so sick of paying 12-15NZ for a 250gm bag of beans I decided to try my hand at home roasting. I got a gene cafe roaster, and roasted my first batch almost 2 days ago. I have no idea what I'm doing but read many gene cafe user techniques. I had columbian green beans a 1kg bag that came with the machine. I put in 200gms and did a lowish temp dry out phase and then raised the temp till completion. I could hear no cracks but at 20mins the beans looked like typical commercial roasts i have so I stopped it then. Comparing my beans to 2 commercial roasts I could tell no difference of tone/color so figured I must be in the ballpark. The first thing I noticed was grinding my new roast in my mazzer mini, the grind came out without any clumps at all. I did my wdt, etc pulled the shot, it looked glorious. The result was one of the finer drinks I have made yet. I drank it 10mins ago and still have a delicious taste in my mouth. So.. I am looking forward to this new venture! The best part is I can reproduce this easily and tinker with maybe 1-2 minutes more roast time. Not to mention I am looking at about $3.50NZ per 250gms. This is great stuff :)
Posted Tue Apr 29, 2008, 5:19am Subject: Re: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
sross Said:
... I could hear no cracks but at 20mins the beans looked like typical commercial roasts i have so I stopped it then. Comparing my beans to 2 commercial roasts I could tell no difference of tone/color so figured I must be in the ballpark...This is great stuff :)
It is impossible for me to hear the cracks on my Gene (others might be able to). I am sure yours cracked. 20 minutes strikes me as a bit long on the Gene. You might want to step up the heat after the drying phase a bit. All beans are different and require their own profile but that seems a tad long on the Gene from my experience and taste.
Posted Tue Apr 29, 2008, 6:37am Subject: Re: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
Congratulations on discovering this new dimension of coffee! I too was getting inconsistent beans, especially from stores but also from specialty roasters who were falling on hard times and thus cutting corners. I've had the Gene for about 16 months now, and here are a few things I've learned:
For some reason, it is easier to hear second crack than first. First crack gets lost in the clacking of the beans against the glass and the cycling of the heater element. However, I've not had a time when I couldn't hear it distinctly, once I determined what to listen for. You might hear it easier by listening near the exhaust-- just don't burn your ear. Second crack is distinctive even if quiet, maybe because after the first crack expansion the beans are less like pebbles and more like wood chips against the glass.
I don't roast more than 225g (about a half-pound), maybe 230g to round out a pound bag. Any more than that and some of the beans don't really get circulated and tend to stay right near the heater output. This makes the beans closer to the element roast faster than those at the far end and an uneven roast.
The beans do much better with a warm-up, as you performed. I usually do about 5-7 minutes at 350F, just to the point where I see the color barely start to change. If I don't do the warm up, the flavors that come out are just not good. I used to do 9 minutes until they yellowed, but I get better flavor with a shorter warm-up, perhaps because they're not so baked. I am still experimenting to see how much shorter I should go. Unfortunately it takes the Gene a while to ramp up the temperature.
With my approach, first crack arrives at about 12-14 minutes, and second crack at about 17. I believe other roasting methods and machines are faster at getting to this point, and I wonder if the Gene suffers for it. But I still get good results this way, I just don't have anything to compare it to.
A point made by eodove in other posts: keep the air intake under the lower right corner clean. Use a small brush with bristles that will get in the grooves and move out any chaff or dust that gets sucked up against the screen. If you're having problems keeping the temp up, or if the temp goes down while the element is on, you probably have an air block. If it's clean and the temp is still going down, you probably have an undervoltage problem, but I haven't seen that personally.
Hope this is useful to you, and definitely you'll enjoy the results more than store-bought beans, if only for the satisfaction of doing it yourself. But I am able to get a consistently good, varied and interesting result for my everyday brew.
sross Senior Member Joined: 21 Jul 2007 Posts: 37 Location: New Zealand Expertise: Just starting
Posted Tue Apr 29, 2008, 12:44pm Subject: Re: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
I used this method I found online:
The technique suggested above is pretty good. I'm currently using this: a "drying phase" of 160C for about five minutes, then set to 228C and let it go to completion. This usually sees FC at about 13 minutes and SC at about 18. There are lots of suggestions out there, try and see what you like.
I stopped mine at 20mins. I guess over the next several weeks I'll experiment, but using 100% columbian green beans so far the drinks taste great just using the above.
Sc00bs Senior Member Joined: 3 Jan 2006 Posts: 4 Location: South Africa Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Incanto Sirius (saving for... Grinder: Saving for a Mazzer Mini
Posted Thu May 8, 2008, 8:55pm Subject: Re: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
I also use a Gene Cafe, have done about 300 roasts in it now, here are some of my observations:
A bit of smoke usually accompanies the crack, watch out for it, usually just as the crack starts, also, I find it useful to pre-heat the roaster for a bit (5min @ 150c), otherwise the 1st few minutes of the roast is just heating up the Gene Cafe. I also use the emergency stop and dumb my beans into a colander for cooling, the Gene Cafe takes for ever to cool down.
The process I follow is: - Preheat @ 150c for 5 minutes - Emergency stop, dump beans into roaster and start the machine again - Set temp for 240c, my roasts do no actually ever seem to get to this temp, not sure if it is just my roaster or if they are all like that, I am at 2nd crack before I get to 240c. - Depending on bean usually hit 1st crack at 13-16 minutes - 2nd Crack usually hits at between 18-20 minutes - I then emergency stop again, dump the beans into a colander for cooling, replace the empty roasting container, restart the process and then push button to start cooling process - When the temp reaches 150c, I repeat the whole process over again
*** Be very careful not to stop the cannister from turning or trying to remove it before it has stopped turning completely, this can damage the plastic gear in the machine and break it (I know this from personal experience :-) )
Dooglas Senior Member Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 403 Location: Portland, OR Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Expobar, La Pavoni Grinder: Ascaso, Solis Drip: Cuisinart CBC, Bodum press Roaster: GeneCafe, Caffe Rosto
Posted Sun May 11, 2008, 10:11am Subject: Re: I have seen the light! commercial roasters overrated??
Sc00bs Said:
The process I follow is: - Preheat @ 150c for 5 minutes - Emergency stop, dump beans into roaster and start the machine again - Set temp for 240c, my roasts do no actually ever seem to get to this temp, not sure if it is just my roaster or if they are all like that, I am at 2nd crack before I get to 240c. - Depending on bean usually hit 1st crack at 13-16 minutes - 2nd Crack usually hits at between 18-20 minutes - I then emergency stop again, dump the beans into a colander for cooling, replace the empty roasting container, restart the process and then push button to start cooling process
I presume you are using a 220/240V machine and I am unfamiliar with the differences in roast characteristics from my 120V machine. I am surprised at the 18-20 minute time to second crack though. Seems a bit long, especially as you preheat. I usually reach 2nd crack around 15-16 minutes.
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