favorite coffee bean and roast

[fastupslowdown]

I'm addicted to Kenyan coffee, either Peaberry or AA. What's your favorite? The high acid and nutty profile is a huge winner for me. -Mike G

Thought about it after my local market pulled a sneaky one and started substituting AB for AA and claiming they are the same.

[Too Tall]

Moca Java from Coffee bean corral. They nailed it.
Mocha Java Green Coffee Beans - Coffee Bean Corral

[Mark Kelly]

I recently reviewed my year's purchase of greens from my local supplier, something like 3/4 of it was Ethiopian, much of it from Limmu, so that must say something.

I roast this fairly dark, I like to control the roast post FC so I get around 5 minutes development before a final drop around 218 - 220.

[holliscx]

Kenya Nyeri, Tanzania Peaberry, and Ethiopia Chelbesa in that order

[mzilliox]

its always different. they are agricultural, so not all kenya are the same, etc etc.

Ethiopia Guji region beans have the right acidity and fruit for me most times.

a honey process Sumatra blew me away this year.

Honduran beans can have the perfect body and a delightful strawberry taste.

always roasted form light to medium, anything more and why waste your time buying flavor beans?

[davids]

My every day bean is George Howell Tarrazu.

Nutty, creamy smooth, and one of their least expensive beans.

[Mark Kelly]

always roasted form light to medium, anything more and why waste your time buying flavor beans?

I dunno, maybe I just prefer coffee that tastes like coffee.

[weavie]

I’ve been home roasting for six or seven years. I now have two Behmors, one is a year or two old, the other has a new motor and controller so I can use the C button and the “profile” buttons on both but times vary because the machines roast slower as they age.

Beans-wise: Yemen is a standard, Papua New Guinea and some Central American beans are also popular with us. Generally, we go for city to city+ and are drinking double shots made with a Duetto II and a naked triple basket.

Our general routine for the Behmor is:
- 16oz of green beans
- 2min P1 (warmup), stop then
- P1 and add all the time allowed to get to 20:30, set alarm on phone for 12mins
- at 7:00 to go hit start to clear the “safety” timeout thing, start listening for first crack
- 3:00 or 4:00 minutes after first crack go to P3 and keep hitting C every 3mins or so (you can keep these machines roasting forever this way but it will automatically start cooling at 330F)
- hit cool about ~10 seconds before you want to stop roasting.

The idea here is using P3 allows you to slide into second crack with a lot more control. I’ve tried using the D button to speed up the drum at the same time as P3 but it slows the roast too much for me.

This gives us a full bodied and well rounded espresso, Italian style. The beans are mostly milk chocolate or slightly darker in color.

With the C button and the P3 profile the roasts have gotten a lot more consistent and even if I make a mistake the result is a lot more drinkable than before those controls were available. I roast 32oz a week, I drink all my mistakes.

[Too Tall]

Excellent clues Weavie. I'm only now aware that I can swap programs during the roast. Same here, I drink my mistakes unless they are flat out burnt to a crips ;)

[weavie]

I’m curious how you get on with it. I try to keep the roast consistent and somewhat simple, the grind and extraction seem to have a lot more variables.

Two things I didn’t mention above - having a second machine is also a lifesaver when you sleep on the “safety” timeout, I’ve pulled a hot drum out and stuck it in the other machine to finish more than a few times and the beans weren’t that bad.
And, sometimes it just feels like things are taking too long so I’ll go back to P1 rather than sticking it out at P3.

I think the longest roast I’ve done is 32mins, first crack was about 20. It’s not a bad result but a shorter time between the end of first crack and the start of cooling is supposed to be better - I think I read 4-8 mins?

[mzilliox]

im pretty surprised at the length of some of your guys' roast times. coffee should not be roasted much longer than 18-20 mins. at that point you are baking and flattening flavor. im shoopting for 12-15 mins tops.

preheating the roaster for 2-3 mins helps shorten roasting times as does using less coffee. The behmor cant properly roast 1lb. Using the manual functions to keep the machine from dumping off heat when the fan kicks on also helps to not stall a roast, but i cant help but think some of these roasts mentioned are "stalling out". Behmor also mentions not to do dark dark roasts on their machine, FYI. if i take a roast even to second crack, the roaster will impart a "roasty flavor" to the next batch of coffee. this flavor is bitter and offensive, so if i do accidentally take a coffee this far, i make sure to clean the roaster with simple green and run it 3 times to remove the odor.

interesting how different we all are in our coffee needs. I started to roast specifically because i could not find coffee that i like to buy locally. folks here do dark roasting just fine, its the light stuff one cant find.

[Too Tall]

im pretty surprised at the length of some of your guys' roast times. coffee should not be roasted much longer than 18-20 mins. at that point you are baking and flattening flavor. im shoopting for 12-15 mins tops.

preheating the roaster for 2-3 mins helps shorten roasting times as does using less coffee. The behmor cant properly roast 1lb. Using the manual functions to keep the machine from dumping off heat when the fan kicks on also helps to not stall a roast, but i cant help but think some of these roasts mentioned are "stalling out". Behmor also mentions not to do dark dark roasts on their machine, FYI. if i take a roast even to second crack, the roaster will impart a "roasty flavor" to the next batch of coffee. this flavor is bitter and offensive, so if i do accidentally take a coffee this far, i make sure to clean the roaster with simple green and run it 3 times to remove the odor.

interesting how different we all are in our coffee needs. I started to roast specifically because i could not find coffee that i like to buy locally. folks here do dark roasting just fine, its the light stuff one cant find.

Matt, those are good points I'll take to heart. I'm guilty of not pre-heating long enough.

[Mark Kelly]

im pretty surprised at the length of some of your guys' roast times. coffee should not be roasted much longer than 18-20 mins. at that point you are baking and flattening flavor. im shoopting for 12-15 mins tops.

Although you and I disagree about many things relating to coffee, I decided to try your idea and increase the heat gain in the early part of the roast. I reduced the time for phase 1 (60^o to 180^o from 10 - 11 minutes to about 8. I left phases 2 and 3 the same.

I am most impressed with the improvement in flavour, thank you.

[weavie]

I’m curious how you get on with it. I try to keep the roast consistent and somewhat simple, the grind and extraction seem to have a lot more variables.

Two things I didn’t mention above - having a second machine is also a lifesaver when you sleep on the “safety” timeout, I’ve pulled a hot drum out and stuck it in the other machine to finish more than a few times and the beans weren’t that bad.
And, sometimes it just feels like things are taking too long so I’ll go back to P1 rather than sticking it out at P3.

I think the longest roast I’ve done is 32mins, first crack was about 20. It’s not a bad result but a shorter time between the end of first crack and the start of cooling is supposed to be better - I think I read 4-8 mins?

I've been fiddling with my roast recipe for single origin espresso and have settled on the following, if anyone tries it please let me know what you think.
This is on the Behmor with the updated panel that allows for programmable settings, two drum speeds and the C button for adding time.

15oz beans
2min on the 1 (1lb/P5 equivalent)
off/start
1lb, P4, + all the time allowed (24:30 I think)
Safety countdown will be at 11:00 to go
call first crack with first "set" of pops (so, after the outliers)
2min after first crack, P2 and D
3min later turn off roaster, dump beans into cooling tray, hit cool on roaster

For example: if you call first crack at 15min, hit P2 and D at 17min and pull the beans at 20min

This gets me a solid full city to full city+ and has been very consistent across beans from Central America, Yemen and Indonesia.

Same recipe but 2min after first crack for City+ and 3:30 after first crack for denser beans and/or darker full city+

(My cooling tray is a stainless colander sitting in a 5gal bucket that has a shop-vac hose inserted into the side. With stirring, the beans are cool within 2min.)

* I've decided pulling the beans and cooling them is a huge part of getting better results. It's been a huge improvement in flavor and consistency for me.

[Too Tall]

Weavie, that is nearly the same as what I'm doing with the exception I keep adding time until I am positive 1st crack is 100% done and start to see a wee too much smoke than straight into a wire sieve and I toss them in the air (outside) until the chaff is gone. Getting outstanding roasts. Agreed, getting the beans cool as fast as possible is key.