hijack continued… (Hey Dan, my brother in audio, coffee, and in real life
)
Since I quit buying any roasted coffee last March and relied on roasting my own, I've also had similar learning curve problems. By June, I was pretty consistent. I had to learn how to listen for the 1st crack (1C), and that took two things. First I had to use a kitchen scale to weigh out the green coffee. Any other method of measuring the beans was too inconsistent. My Nesco roaster has a relatively puny 800 watt electrical heater and only two heat settings – ON and OFF. The rate at which it roasts beans varied greatly with the amount of beans I started with. With 113 grams (4 oz) everything worked well, but with 142 g (5 oz) the roast went too slowly. So I settled on 120 g (4¼ oz) and eliminated that variable. After that, I could learn when to expect 1C. That also took some practice, but the time into the roast when 1C started varied too much until I started using 120 g each time.
My roaster makes a fair amount of noise. Listening for 1C when you weren't quite sure what it sounded like or when it would happen was hard. Eventually I noticed that the roasting beans expanded by quite a lot in the minute or so before the onset of 1C. The Nesco roaster uses a glass cylinder to hold the beans, and it's easy to see the top of the bean bed rise by about an inch.
When you see that, it's crack time. With most coffees, when I hear the onset of 1C, I start a 2 minute timer, and when 2 minutes have passed, I hit the cool down button. I've gone as far as 2½ minutes but not further.
I suppose I should experiment to see just how long it takes to get into 2nd crack (2C), but I don't think I want to roast that dark. When I first started roasting, I was happy if I got a medium roast instead of light or dark! Then I learned how there about 4 levels of medium roast. I guess I get City or City+, but I'm not sure how much longer I'd have to roast to get Full City or FC+. The only way to learn is to make some smoke.
All this is academic because you use a different roaster, with its own quirks and traits that you had to learn. From pictures of the Behmor, I think seeing the beans expand may not be as easy. Getting good results from any roaster well requires that you get to know it.
The other roasting tip I learned is about line voltage. These electric heaters are voltage dependent. What is the AC voltage you have, and does it vary? I got an inexpensive
Kill A Watt meter and found that my voltage doesn't vary enough to be a problem. It usually reads 116-118 volts while the roaster is heating. Good, that's one more variable eliminated.
You mentioned cooling the roasted beans. The Nesco roaster has a 5 minute cool down cycle, but the cool down is slow. After about 2½ minutes of cooling, I stop the machine and dump the beans into a colander and sit it on top of the exhaust fan grille on my stove top. That cools the beans to room temperature in less than 2 minutes. Others have rigged fans or vacuum cleaners to pull air through a colander to cool the hot beans.
I've had at least 4 different Guatemalan beans since last spring and all were at least very good or excellent. So I can't go wrong with Guatemalan coffee. There are several coffee growing provinces, Antiqua and Huehuetenango are two with the most plantations, but I think there are other regions. I've also had similar very good experience with Costa Rican coffees.
I've tried other beans from Columbia, El Salvador and Ethiopia that were not bad, but not outstanding. I am open to try them again. Coffee is like grapes and wine making, each variety is different and they can vary each season.
The Kenyan coffee was the biggest surprise for me. It has strong flavor described as cherry, blackberry, or red wine-like. I found I can easily taste that if I let the cup cool some. Your mileage may vary, but I loved it. I have had Kenyan Nyeri AA Gatombaya and a Nyeri AA Tegu that were excellent. I recently ordered a Kenyan Nyeri AB Gatombaya from Sweet Marias, but haven't roasted it yet. Apparently the letters refer to bean size and not taste quality, but the AB beans did cost a lot less than the AA beans. I also had coffee from Rwanda which I thought was highly Kenyan-like and cost much less. When I roast the East African coffee, I find they go into 1C about 1 or 2 minutes earlier than most of the Central American coffees.
In the past, I found coffees from Panama Carmen Estate and Mexico Chiapas were very good, but I haven't seen them this year at Sweet Marias.
I'll keep my eyes open for coffee from Peru. I once read that Hawaiian coffee can be good, but the supply is small and the Japanese are fond of it and bid the price up more than it's worth. Your Kona contact sounds great.
All I know about roasting and green coffee varieties has come from reading at the
Sweet Marias (Oakland, CA) web site. The owner is very knowledgeable and very wordy (I think he drinks a lot of coffee), but I have gradually found that the info there is detailed and reliable. Their bean quality and freshness is excellent according to others who have tried other sources. I live in Maryland, but have always ordered green coffee from them. Shipping costs $9 for up to 20 lbs., so it pays to make larger orders. I'll look into Roastmasters. I see it's in Connecticut and shipping may be less.
