Hey guys,
I only got into the whole home roasting thing relatively recently. Bought the mighty Behmor in Jan this year and I've been slowly experimenting and honing my skills continuously since then. Loving the Behmor. My process is to set the roaster up outside, add a 1/2 lb of beans, preheat for 2.15 and then start the roast proper. I then set my phone alarm for 5 mins and go to my office (about 6 steps away) and generally do some computer work. Nothing happens for the first 5 minutes anyway (usually!). My alarm then goes off and I go out and monitor the roast going into first crack, second crack etc. All good. Yeah, I know the instructions clearly state to monitor the roast at all times. Familiarity breeds contempt...
Well last night I hadn't hit the 5 minute mark and I heard some distinctive pops and cracks coming from the roaster. Hmmm. I leapt out of my seat and as I went outside I was greeted with a raging fire inside the roaster and a huge plume of smoke pouring out! Yikes!! I turned it off and instictively opened the door (despite a voice in the back of my head yelling from the manual "In case of fire do not open the door!"). Which made it flare up more, so I quickly closed it and realised at that point there wasn't a lot I could do besides wait for it to go out on its own. Not without destroying the roaster with a fire extinguisher/garden hose anyway. It's amazing how well coffee beans burn! The oil they produce really gets things going!
So what went wrong? I didn't close the door on the end of the drum properly that's what. Slowly but surely as the drum rotated the beans fell out and gathered at the rear of the roaster. In a heap on the heating elements!
I left it to cool and then emptied out 1/2 a lb of wasted Harrar. Sad face. The oily smoke has done a number on the roaster but I'm hoping that'll all clean off tonight. If the elements are still OK I'll then do a "dry roast" to try and remove any further traces of blackness from the rest of the machine. Poor thing - I always tried to keep it nice too...
Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes. Close your roasting drum properly!
Pete L
<I have a photo but can't make it upload to the forum>
I only got into the whole home roasting thing relatively recently. Bought the mighty Behmor in Jan this year and I've been slowly experimenting and honing my skills continuously since then. Loving the Behmor. My process is to set the roaster up outside, add a 1/2 lb of beans, preheat for 2.15 and then start the roast proper. I then set my phone alarm for 5 mins and go to my office (about 6 steps away) and generally do some computer work. Nothing happens for the first 5 minutes anyway (usually!). My alarm then goes off and I go out and monitor the roast going into first crack, second crack etc. All good. Yeah, I know the instructions clearly state to monitor the roast at all times. Familiarity breeds contempt...
Well last night I hadn't hit the 5 minute mark and I heard some distinctive pops and cracks coming from the roaster. Hmmm. I leapt out of my seat and as I went outside I was greeted with a raging fire inside the roaster and a huge plume of smoke pouring out! Yikes!! I turned it off and instictively opened the door (despite a voice in the back of my head yelling from the manual "In case of fire do not open the door!"). Which made it flare up more, so I quickly closed it and realised at that point there wasn't a lot I could do besides wait for it to go out on its own. Not without destroying the roaster with a fire extinguisher/garden hose anyway. It's amazing how well coffee beans burn! The oil they produce really gets things going!
So what went wrong? I didn't close the door on the end of the drum properly that's what. Slowly but surely as the drum rotated the beans fell out and gathered at the rear of the roaster. In a heap on the heating elements!
I left it to cool and then emptied out 1/2 a lb of wasted Harrar. Sad face. The oily smoke has done a number on the roaster but I'm hoping that'll all clean off tonight. If the elements are still OK I'll then do a "dry roast" to try and remove any further traces of blackness from the rest of the machine. Poor thing - I always tried to keep it nice too...

Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes. Close your roasting drum properly!
Pete L
<I have a photo but can't make it upload to the forum>



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