Behmor Arrived!!!

[GilR]

My Behmor 1600 has arrived with India Elephant Hills beans.

The most I have ever roasted is a chicken!


Can somebody give me some advice on settings for the above coffee type to do my 1st test run?


Also is anybody able to recommend a good been or blend for espresso that is not too strong to the taste?


Thank you for your help


Gil

[dan77]

Indian Elephant Hills are a fairly mild bean IMO and before you start blending beans I'd recommend you roast Single Origin first and understand that. The manual is a good starting place and if you follow it you will learn quickly.

Try a small amount first up (100 -150g). Make sure you have scales to weigh the green beans.

Have fun and don't throw out your first batch if it tastes no good as it will take a few days to develop the flavour after roasting.

[GilR]

Thank you. Does IMO mean it needs to be blended with another type of bean?

Which single origin bean would be good for espresso and not to strong?

[dan77]

Sorry, IMO = In My Opinion

I drink espresso and find India Elephant Hills a good bean for espresso but everyone has different taste buds so your journey will be suck it and see. It isn't my favorite but my favorite won't be yours...

[GilR]

thank you Dan

[Steven222]

Got my Behmor today. It's got the look and feel of a quality product. Much bigger than I expected.

Just did first batch. 100g elephant hills using default settings.

there very little time between first and 2nd crack. Is this normal?


the manual said to wait 1 hour between roasts. Is this really necessary?

[koshari]

Our behmor arrived today as well. Given iam away for a few days the wife had the honor of first roasting.

[KarlBlack]

Mine arrived today also... woohoo.

Great service thanks Andy!

Have run 2 100 gram lots through it this arvo after the dry burn.
Worked really well.
Very simple to use when you follow the Quick Start guide and read the manual.

It is amazing the difference that 10 - 20 seconds can make in a roast.
1st load I wanted to be sure that it was into 1C before going into Rosetta setting(1:30 - I manually adjusted the time down to this), beans came out about CS 7-8. (I think)
2nd load went into 1C and tried hitting the C button instead of the manual adjustment. This set 1:45 on the clock instead of 1.30. These beans came out a touch lighter.

I couldn't tell the difference between 1C and 2C....or if there was some time between it.
Both tasted OK - straight out of the drum, and after admiring them, into the grinder!
Will leave them a few days now.
I normally don't get this bean as I found they were strong enough, usually only got for washed central american.. will plow though this 2.5 kg though just to get the hang of the roaster.
Am going to try the bean in each of the profiles and see what happens.

Very happy with the Behmor - good way to learn a heap at a great price.
Even got my 4 year old helping...but I've had her sniffing different coffee bags each time we got to a shop since she was 6 months. ha.

Next task is to install the temperature probe.

Cheers

Karl

[saraish]

Well, my new 1600 plus arrived yesterday, also with India Elephant Hills AA.

Followed the quick start guide (so 100g at P1), and hit rosetta stone on the first crack, which left 1.36 mins to go. I think i let that go for about 40 seconds when i thought i heard a change in crack sound, but i may have pulled the trigger too early. It came out relatively light compared to my Axil seasonal blend (although not super far off the color of the bigger beans in the blend). Since my Silvia is in for service and PID'ing, I'll be trying this as a pourover tomorrow or something. The beans ground fine in my mini-mill, and actually didn't smell too bad.

House is now filled with a popcorn/coffee aroma, so might do the next batch outside i think. No real smoke to speak of, and was fine underneath the range hood.

One question - the seal on the door along the top of the door doesn't seem flush, but wavy (think sin wave) - it didn't seem to let heat out or anything, but wondered if that was normal.

Will try another roast later on tonight to see whether i mistook the 2nd crack sound.

Cheers

[Javaphile]

One question - the seal on the door along the top of the door doesn't seem flush, but wavy (think sin wave) - it didn't seem to let heat out or anything, but wondered if that was normal.

Completely normal.


Java "Happy roasting!" phile

[Andy]

...a quick ramble to try and answer most of the questions in this thread...

Happy to see the roasters getting to people really fast, we ship the same day we receive the payment and then hope the couriers/contractors do their bit and get to you nice and fast.

For the most part, you guys will get better Behmor roasting tips from others on the site that are using it all the time. There are 1000's of CoffeeSnobs with Behmor roasters and 1000's of posts on the site talking about what they are doing.

Remembering that for 51 weeks of the year I roast on a commercial roaster... I do spend best part of a week roasting on the Behmor, mostly at trade shows (like MICE coming-up in March). When roasting demo roasts all day I like to use something like the Peru Ceja or the Indian Elephant as they are both mild coffees that work well through a range of roast depths and EVERY roast is a winner.

What I typically do for demos (talking, noisy environment, distracted and need to keep it simple) is:
[200g] [P1] [Start] and then when you hear the 4th or 5th bean crack then press P2 to put the elements on 25% heat, press cool at the first pops of 2nd crack.

Please remember, home roasting is a journey, you SHOULD experiment and find exactly what suits your taste and your brewing method and not what someone else said was good.

Where to roast? Personally I've always been an "on the veranda" home roaster. Chaff is good for the garden and small amounts of smoke that might appear blow away. I've never been one to roast indoors.

Rubber seal? Yeah, that's normal for it expand and contract depending on the heat. If it was rigid it would fracture with high temperature changes.

Colour? Thats a hard one. Use colour to guide you after you have tasted it. If your coffee tastes sour then it was too light, if it tastes like BBQ it as too dark. Keep a few beans from each of those roasts with a note of the flavours and then you can use them to judge colour during a roast. Try and find a sweet spot in between those two where it has balance and is awesome!

Take lots of note while roasting. Ambient temperature (cold /warm / hot day), which beans, which settings, which manual overrides during the roast etc. Scribble next to these notes how the coffee tasted. This is how you build a better understanding of what works and what doesn't for your taste.

...most of all...

Enjoy the journey!

[koshari]

ok, did my first 2 roasts (100 grams pregram) , the first one I was distracted by the postal contractor and missed the err 7 window resulting in an under roast, the second I hit the button and the roast continued to end of program.

looking at the beans the interupted ones look a lot more like the meduin roast i prefer odd ly enough, and the uninterrupted roast looks like it will be a bit smokey for my liking?

time and tasting will tell i suppose.

[Steven222]

Just tasted my first roast of elephant as a flat white.

It was great. Really great. Can't wait till morning...

Better than the best local coffee beans I can buy at $48/kg.

The scary thing is Indian elephant is not a coffee I would based on the description ( no mention of chocolate after taste
). There are so many coffee beans to test now.

My coffee journey started about 10 years ago with a stove top espresso pot. each purchase has resulted in better coffee. is the roaster going to be the end?

thanks andy for the input.

[KarlBlack]

Nice...it is fun isn't it.

Just completed 5th roast then.
First with the temperature probe installed.
Interesting to see the graph etc and see changes as goes through stages.

At first crack adjusted time down to 1.30.. but then gave it another 20 seconds or so to get to second crack then started the cool.

Keen to try them in the morning!

One question for other Behmor owners...When the power is on and unit isn't running, is it normal for a buzzing sound?
Not really loud but you sure know when it is on.

Cheers

Karl

[Andy]

Yeah the buzz is normal, plugged in and turned on the transformer still needs to supply low voltage to the front panel. It's not much wattage but it still need power there. Like your telly it will use power on standby so you should turn it off at the wall.