First roast questions

[Deric203]

Received my Behmor roaster from SM extremely fast. Ordered on Monday night, shipped on Tuesday and received on Thursday. Thanks to SM for my first positive experience with more to come.

First roast was with 4 ounces of Rwanda Nikanka Kinyaga. After watching a replay of "Dr. Josh's" Behmor Biology Class, I decided to use 1/4, P4, D profile. As I have never heard a 1st crack, much less a 2nd crack, i was a little confused on what was going on in that drum. At 9:40 into the roast cracks started. These cracks started rolling pretty good. Approximately a minute later all was quiet. I let the roast go for about two more minutes before chickening out and hitting cool. My intention was to stop at the beginning of 2nd crack but never heard it start.
I attempted a second roast with the intention of letting the roast continue longer with the hopes of hearing 2nd crack start. Again I chickened out and only let this roast go a very short time longer than the first roast.
The roasts looked almost identical. I wound up with a fairly dark roast when comparing it to the roast picture guide that was included with the Behmor. Smells like coffee and is now resting.
For all I know I could have missed a quiet 1st crack and went all the way through 2nd crack. No noticeable smoke (even though it was a small roast size) makes me believe that I did not get to 2nd crack.
Any ideas on my roast would be appreciated. Would love to have recommendations on a good starter bean and roast profile that will allow me to hear definite 1st crack with a break before a definite start to 2nd crack.
Never one to be without coffee, I have 8 lbs. to experiment on and another 10 lbs. on the way.

[Deric203]

Photo of first roast

coffee.JPG (96.07 KiB) Viewed 651 times

[Weyesa]

Guessing roast levels from a photograph is a dodgy business. Lighting varies, and this photo looks really exposed-- the white is positively glowing. Also, bean color is an imperfect measure of roast level. Having said that, my experience with Rwanda roasts (and wet process Africans, generally) is that color seems to be a pretty reliable indicator. You have a wet process African, so it should look pretty uniform after roasting past City level.

Caveats aside, here's what I see. You've got some chaff / silverskin hanging on. The color does not appear uniform from bean to bean. A few of the beans look mottled, or like they have light and dark spots. All of that adds up to a light roast to me-- City or (ugh) pre-city (i.e. not fully roasted and grassy tasting).

The fact that it smells roasted (like coffee) to you, is a good sign. Under roasted coffee has a vegetal or bready scent to it, in my experience. You might try breaking a bean in half or chewing one. If the color lightens inside the bean, or it tastes grassy-- you've probably under roasted this batch. Or, just wait until tomorrow, grind it up and brew it-- see how it tastes. If the grind looks really orange, or the brew tastes grassy, markedly sour or bitter, then you probably under roasted.

If it tastes like really good coffee, the you've nailed it.

[ChemEng]

Just yesterday I also roasted my first few batches in my Behmor--and from what I experienced compared to your description, you didn't get to second crack. I also have only about 5 total roasts under my belt (I burned up my popper) so I am a real newbie to this. During my first roast I missed the gap between 1C and 2C (I swear there was no gap--I never left the chair) and the roaster let me know I was into 2C, as there was smoke coming out--fortunately I didn't hit 3C (aka. FIRE!). I hit cool immediately and once the beans cooled they were very dark (almost black) and already a bit oily. Based on the photo, your beans are much lighter (I'll post a pic of my charbux later so you can see).

I hit 2C several times in the popper, just to learn what to look and listen for, and some beans that have hit 2C tend to have craters in them on the opposite side of the bean from the seam, at least in my experience (I'll post a pic of that too). So take a close look at your beans to look for serious bean damage. Keep in mind though, every bean is different. I roasted from two different countries (Panama and Brazil) and saw very different reactions.

I'll post more details about the roasts in a day or two, probably in a new thread, as I also need advice.

Good luck on your journey,
Robert in NJ

[Deric203]

Robert,
Thanks for the input. The coffee was terrible... Haha...The wife was my tester. She tried to not hurt my feelings. Said it was good. I asked her what she tasted and she said "grassy". All I could do is laugh and tell her to finish her "good" cup of coffee. Dumped mine out. haha...I now know what under roasted coffee tastes like and hope to never duplicate it.
Next batch was Columbia Dos Payasos De Tolima. Still chickened out before getting smoke. Wound up with a darker and more even roast. Got to hear second crack start before hitting cool. Coffee wound up excellent after resting a couple of days. My first drinkable home roast. Roasted 8 ounces on a one pound, P3, C setting. Will have to study this forum a lot more to start understanding the various profiles and their effects on the roast process.
Looking forward to an espresso roast where I actually get smoke. I guess we aren't real home roasters till we set off the smoke alarms.
Good coffee to you,
Deric

[ChemEng]

Deric,

If you want dark roasts I would suggest P1, but watch it carefully. When the Behmor folks said don't wander off during a roast, they meant it and keep a fire extinguisher handy--don't want to burn your place down.

My first roast was 1/2 P1A, with 3 oz of greens---and that is the one that I got smoke and missed the gap between 1C and 2C, and subsequently dark (almost black) oily beans. Don't know if they are any good--I originally bought a couple of pounds of cheap Panama Experiment Gone Awry to play around with (Tom @ SM said it was undrinkable) so I figured I would not be wasting any good, expensive coffee while I learned what 1C and 2C sounded like.

Welcome to the forum--there are a lot of very smart people here and they are more than willing to share their experiences and opinions. I also understand that there is a program out there called RoasterThing that a lot of people swear by (just search roasterthing and find a post by a guy named Ira. At the bottom of his post is usually a link to roasterthing (also known as BehmorThing in an earlier incarnation.))

I'll try to post photos soon.

[ChemEng]

Deric,

Here are the photos I mentioned.

The single bean picture is a typical bean that has gone through 2C (note the crater).

The group shot shows the first three roasts, side by side. 1st Roast is 3oz @ 1/2P1A Panama Gone Awry and came out dark and oily. 2nd Roast is 3oz @ 1/2P3C Panama Gone Awry and was stopped at beginning of 2C. 3rd Roast is 8oz @ 1P3C Brazilian No-Name-O stopped at beginning of 2C (I got nervous too!).

Hope this helps.

BTW, I have a hard and fast rule about milk--the date is "law".

Robert