Still have no scale -- but I needed to roast some coffee, both for myself and for a friend. I did four loads, and split them between us. It ended up being a pretty good blend.
The 4 loads I did were a blend of the Mexico Malinal (MEX) and the remainder of the old GUA, Kenya (KEN), Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Sumatra (SUM). Each load was 3/4 cup, that seemed to work well.
| Sumatra | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:18 | 320 | 11:42 |
| 1st | 6:17 | 342 | 8:43 |
| 2nd | 9:28 | 388 | 5:32 |
| Finish | 11:05 | 408 | 3:55 |
| Gua/Mex Blend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:26 | 335 | 11:34 |
| 1st | 6:15 | 356 | 8:45 |
| 2nd | 8:41 | 383 | 6:19 |
| Finish | 10:02 | 385 | 4:58 |
| Papua New Guinea | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:17 | 331 | 11:43 |
| 1st | 6:29 | 345 | 8:31 |
| 2nd | 8:39 | 376 | 6:21 |
| Finish | 11:08 | 385 | 3:52 |
| Kenya AA | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | missed | ||
| 1st | 5:30 | 347 | 9:30 |
| 2nd | missed | ||
| Finish | 9:16 | 400 | 5:44 |
I roasted another load of the Panama, this time with no scale. I used about a cup of beans, which was too much. I didn't really track the roast, but there was not nearly enough bean circulation. I started it cooling at 11:00 minutes and 415°F.
Then I tasted it, and discovered which coffee it was that gave my coastal blend its faint, unpleasant grassiness. Not a big suprise, it was my chief suspect.
I roasted another load of the Ethiopia, this time with no scale. I have decided which scale I want, I'm going to order it from Sweet Maria's next time I order coffee.
Yellow at 3:28 and 306°F, 1st at 7:25 and 356°F, 2nd at 10:22 and 405°F, and finish at 11:28 and 420°F. On the countdown, that's 11:32, 7:35, 4:38, and 3:32. I took this load a little darker.
Still having no scale, I roasted another load of Brazil. This time I think I did a better job of gauging the amount by eye.
Yellow at 3:33 and 318°F, 1st at 7:37 and 336°F, 2nd at 9:38 and 395°F, and finish at 11:09 and 411°F. On the countdown, that's 11:27, 8:23, 5:22, and 3:51.
Well, I drop things sometimes. This day it was my scale. Alas, it had served me well, but is no more.
So, I did a load of Brazil, filling the little container by eye. Based on the way it zipped all over the place once the roasting started, I think it was a pretty light load -- though it could have been low-density beans, or a combination of the two.
Yellow at 3:25 and 307°F, 1st at 7:23 and 347°F, 2nd at 11:10 and 388°F, and finish at 12:38 and 400°F. On the countdown, that's 11:35, 7:37, 3:50, and 2:22.
It was really pretty and silvery. The progression really makes me think it was too light of a load, with most of the heat escaping out of the top. Also, it wasn't nearly as chaffy as a lot of the other coffees, which also led to more heat escaping at the end of the roast, thus slowing it down.
This was my first roast of the natural-process Ethiopia. The green had a wonderful, strong chocolate aroma.
Same profile, 150 grams. It roasted a bit unevenly.
Yellow at 3:47 and 320°F, 1st at 7:33 and 365°F, 2nd at 9:49 and 412°F, and finish at 10:42 and 423°F. On the countdown, that's 11:13, 7:27, 5:11 and 4:18. Yield was 117.3
This was another load of the Guatemala Peaberry. The last time I roasted this, it didn't really circulate very well, from a combination of the density of the beans and from the way round beans just don't catch the air the way ones with a flat side do.
So, in order to combat this, I used a smaller load size, 120 grams. It was still spready, but it did circulate much better. My yield was 95.7 grams.
I used the same profile, yellow at 3:11 and 316°F, 1st at 4:41 and 336°F, 2nd at 8:23 and 376°F, and finish at 9:58 and 383°F. On the countdown, that's 11:49, 10:19, 6:37, and 5:02. It came out nice and dark and oily.
This was 5 loads that I did for the annual trip to the coast.
I set up a new profile, saved in slot 2. 400°F for 4 minutes, 420°F for 3 minutes, 440°F for 3 minutes, 450°F for 3 minutes, and then 460°F for 2 minutes. I'm still trying to extend the first part of the roast, and I push it up at the end just as a failsafe to make sure I can push the roast to finish. I don't intend to actually go the full 15 minutes.
I also tried a new trick with these loads, which is to do the cooling cycle twice. After it's finished the first cooling cycle, I pull off the chaff collecter and vacuum it out. Then I put the chaff collect back on, and press Preset 1, Roast, and then Cool. The second cool cycle then has much better airflow, and cools the beans down quite nicely. I also think it helps the whole roaster cool down, which is nice for doing multiple loads in a day.
The 5 coffees I did were Mexico Malinal (MEX), Kenya (KEN), Papua New Guinea (PNG), El Salvador (SAL), and Guatemala (GUA). All 150 grams.
| Mexico | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:58 | 324 | 11:02 |
| 1st | 7:55 | 352 | 7:05 |
| 2nd | 10:12 | 356 | 4:48 |
| Finish | 12:01 | 360 | 2:59 |
| Yield | 124.6 | ||
| Kenya | |||
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:31 | 324 | 11:29 |
| 1st | 6:00 | 340 | 9:00 |
| 2nd | 9:15 | 380 | 5:45 |
| Finish | 10:18 | 383 | 4:42 |
| Yield | 122.4 | ||
| Papua New Guinea | |||
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:51 | 324 | 11:09 |
| 1st | 6:58 | 340 | 8:02 |
| 2nd | missed | ||
| Finish | 11:51 | 374 | 3:09 |
| Yield | 122.5 | ||
| El Salvadore | |||
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 4:02 | 327 | 10:58 |
| 1st | 7:42 | 356 | 7:18 |
| 2nd | 10:53 | 370 | 4:07 |
| Finish | 12:29 | 370 | 2:31 |
| Yield | 122 | ||
| Guatemala | |||
| Stage | Time | Temp°F | CD |
| Yellow | 3:42 | 320 | 11:18 |
| 1st | 7:14 | 350 | 7:46 |
| 2nd | 10:07 | 380 | 4:53 |
| Finish | 11:44 | 383 | 3:16 |
| Yield | 122.2 | ||
I didn't cup these separately, the blend had some unpleasant grassiness but decent body and a very nice nuttiness. All-around, a good cup.
This morning I cupped the last 4 loads, the ETH/KEN/GUA blend, the Guatemala Antigua Peaberry, the Panama Boquete, and the Sumatra Mandheling.
The Guatemala was the best cup on the table. Not a lot of acidity, but nice body and good flavor. The Panama had an unpleasant grassy acidity. The Sumatra had a bit of characteristic worminess, nice body, not a whole lot of the earthiness I look for. The blend had some decent acidity -- surprising given the age, I think it was the Kenya -- and a bit of worminess that was almost dirty, I think that was the Ethiopia based on what I recall from the last time I cupped it straight, years ago.
Since I gave the Guatemala, Panama, and Sumatra as a 3-part blend to a couple of friends prior to cupping it, I hope it worked out. None of them had the character I was hoping for, but together they should make a solid cup of coffee.
Going forward, the Guatemala should be good either straight or as part of the blend, the Sumatra I'll use to give body and complexity to blends, and the Panama I'm going to try to roast on a slower curve.
Today I did a load of the Sumatra, I'll be blending it with the loads I did yesterday to give to a friend.
Used the same profile, 150 grams. It was pretty spready, not surprising, and seemed to have a high moisture content, also not surprising. Yellow at 3:52 and 320°F, never had a good consensus for 1st, 2nd at 11:13 and 395°F, and finish at 12:19 and 437°F. That's 11:08, 3:47, and 2:41 on the countdown.
It really seemed to take off at the end. Afterwords, when I took apart the chaff collector, the screen was totally covered.
Yield was 113.7 grams.