Behmor Plus - Roasting Approaches

[pyrmontboy200]

More research on this forum tells me to go slower in the dry phase for Brazils, so I took the basic outline of my successful roasts above, and reduced the heat early on leading to the following profile:

Roast run entirely in manual mode:

2 minute preheat on P1.

P4 to 8 minutes
P5 til FC @10:35, rolling at 11:15,
hit P1,D @ 11:15
P3 @ 11:45
cool @ 12:30

A few snaps of SC in the cool for maybe 10 seconds, it was trying to work up to consistent snaps, but never got there. Happy enough with that....

On inspection the roast looks pretty good. Some 'internal' tipping, not visible from the outside, so maybe still too much heat too early? Will have to experiment.

A preliminary cupping today reveals a very balanced cup that has good caramelisation, and little to no bitter tones. As my cupping is not the best I will wait for the ultimate acid test, a brew in the V60 at work this week before I declare success.

[pyrmontboy200]

All in all both the roasts above were very acceptable, they are incredibly sweet and true to their marketing name Toffee Cerrado. Lingering in the background of each cup was a little ashiness which I'm determined to get rid of. Some beans in the roast above exhibited centre line scorching. With the hypothesis of too much heat after end of drying to FC as causing this ashiness, I set about a new roast where I reduced heat post drying and made the time
back up before drying. This turned out to be a big mistake :

P5 manual until the 5:00 mark
P4 manual til FC @ 12:00.
P1 manual @ 12:05. P3 manual @ 12:25
Cool @ 14:30

The first thing I noticed with taking 75% power into first was a really flacid first crack, which never really got going, probably because I cut the heat too early.

There was no evidence of centre line charring, but still some internal scorching and ashiness. Cupping this I got that baked/under developed taste that I know so well. A week later and the beans still do not smell.

Conclusion, I should follow my taste buds and stick to the basic profiles above, with some slight tweaks on the drying phase, which I cover in the next post.

[pyrmontboy200]

Behmor Plus - Roasting Approaches

Ok so motivated by pcf's pointers above I have performed some repeat roasts on the same bean, Brazil Toffee Cerrado, experimenting, among other things with the duration time of the power cut post FC. My daughter keeps tearing up and drawing all over my roast notes, so I will log them here for my own benefit and anyone else who may be interested.

The first thing to note is that I am now able to control the entry into SC a lot more predictably, simply by using P3 manual after the power drop, as suggested above by pcf. The first thing I noticed with roast #1 below is this offish acidity in the background, and a slight lack of body given I had just touched SC. I'm no great cupper, and probably have the palate of a pig's ass, but I was able to tell this by comparing against roast #2 and also checking with my wife (unprompted!) who has a better palate than me. Researching this a bit further my hypothesis was a bit of a stall in the roast, and the post here Let's Talk About Roasting - Matt Perger has got me thinking about paying a lot more attention to the roast post FC to SC.


Roast #1 -200g - Double drum speed at FC
P4 manual
P5 manual @ 6:50
FC (consistent pops) @ 10:35
P1 @ 10:48
P3 @ 11:30
cool @ 12:52

One or two snaps of SC, could've missed them completely.
Notes: brown sugar, toffee like sweetness, some ashiness, slight background acidity which tastes out of place with this bean.

With the hypothesis of a bit of a stall in mind, I decided to shorten the power cut in Roast #2. Regarding the ashiness I thought this was due to overdrying, so I cranked up the drum speed the whole roast. This turned out to be a mistake, I think it made the problem worse.


Roast #2 - 200g

Double drum speed the whole way
P4- manual start
P5 @ 5:00
FC (consistent popping) @ 11:20
P1 manual @ 11:29
P3 manual @ 11:58
Cool @ 13:00
Several snaps of SC on cool, lasted for 5 seconds or so. Remove chaff tray and opened door on cool

Notes:

Gobfuls of brown sugar, toffee like sweetness, little acidity, great body, but a little more ashiness than above.

Next roast I will be trying to remove the ashiness, hope to report back on this success soon.

[moreCoffee]

Thanks pcf1978, this is good info. I see one key difference with your heat application and mine is you hit them a bit earlier, after dropping power at FC. Is this because your ET probes tell you the temp starts dropping at this point (FC+20 seconds) ?
Interesting that 50% is enough to get you to second in a reasonable timeframe, and this is a hard bean. Makes me think I should revise my ramp strategy between first and second for the Brazils.

Maybe 50% power is all you really need between FC and SC...

I've found if I drop to 0% for any longer than 20-30 seconds the exhaust temp and rate-of-rise starts to flat line and then you need to hit with a lot more power to reach 2C in the same amount of time, which can give you less control approaching 2C.

Some beans are far more aggressive at FC and can carry on to 2C very quickly, in this case I try and extend the time at 0% for a few extra seconds to provide better separation.

Obviously without a probe in the bean mass it's hard to know exactly what the bean is doing amongst all this.

If you decide to experiment, I'd be very interested in learn how you go!

[pyrmontboy200]

Thanks pcf1978, this is good info. I see one key difference with your heat application and mine is you hit them a bit earlier, after dropping power at FC. Is this because your ET probes tell you the temp starts dropping at this point (FC+20 seconds) ?
Interesting that 50% is enough to get you to second in a reasonable timeframe, and this is a hard bean. Makes me think I should revise my ramp strategy between first and second for the Brazils.

Maybe 50% power is all you really need between FC and SC...

[moreCoffee]

Great write-up pb200 and thanks for sharing your tips!
My experience with manual mode somewhat mirrors yours. Although, I haven't had a chance to play with drum speeds or cycle times yet.
Here's a recent snapshot of my general approach:

Guatemala Huehuetenango
300g charge
400g | P1 | Start
Straight into manual mode 100% power (P5) to start of rolling first crack.
Drop to 0% power (P1) for approx 20 seconds.
Back up to 50% power (P3) for approx 2 minutes.
Hit cool just before second crack.
First few snaps of second crack follow. After around 20 seconds, I usually open door and speed up cooling by removing chaff tray along with a blast with some cool air.

Completely unnecessary, but I have installed 2 bead probes to help diagnose and repeat roasts. One inside wall LHS and the other in the exhaust vent. Attached profile shows the above roast in action.

Cheers,
Pete

[DesigningByCoffee]

A very detailed review pb200 - should generate some great Behmor roasting discussion! Sounds like the new control panel is giving some great manual profiling options…
Cheers Matt

[pyrmontboy200]

I've read through some of the threads on Behmor plus in here and one thing I've noticed is a bit of a lack of thorough discussion on the manual mode, and techniques people are using to roast different varieties of beans. This panel update, going from the old 1600 to the plus, has been revolutionary for me, and wanted to share some of the things I've picked up, but also was hoping for others to throw a few ideas around to see other techniques being used. Anyway here goes:

I write ET generically for your measure of environment temperature, whether it be the Behmor thermistor or a thermocouple somewhere in the chamber.

I've been mainly focusing on trying to get Ethiopian DPs and Brazil pulped naturals down pat. I prefer roasts which are balanced in acidity, body and sweetness. I typically do 200g batches.

Ethiopian - dry processed:
Method:
P1-auto mode until FC. I hit D for double drum speed at FC. As FC really starts to get going, I hit P1-manual to cut the power, keep an eye on the ET to make sure not dropping. This gives me a good loud first crack, which I'm always searching for on the Behmor. FC for me typically occurs at around 9 to 10 mins for a 200g charge. FC typically runs at around 1:30 duration. After it fades I hit the beans for another 45secs to a minute at half heat (P3-manual) until end of roast (cool). Typically my ET is creeping up at this stage, although I have a suspicion I should hit them a bit harder, maybe P4-manual, and for a shorter time.

Brazils - pulped naturals
Method:
P4-manual mode (75% power) until bread baking smell, then P5-manual (100% power) until FC. Aim here is to go a bit easy early on to avoid tipping, but once drying phase is over get some momentum up before hitting FC. Once I hit FC I drop heat to P1-manual, hit D, when I hear the first few consistent pops of FC. I drop heat earlier then I do with the Eth DPs, because I've noticed the Brazils take off like a rocket if you heat too much during early FC. I let FC fizzle out, which is around ~1:30 mins duration, then add back P2-manual 30 seconds, P3-manual 30 seconds, and P4-manual 30 seconds, listening intently for any sounds of SC (and watching for smoke). At some point in this ramp I hit cool. One issue I have here is I can't seem to just butt up against SC (ie a few snaps and nothing else). Typically if I hear one snap of SC during the roast, I hear 15-20 seconds of SC snaps during the cool, and my roast is a bit darker then I'd like. I'd be keen to hear how others drive the Behmor to achieve this outcome - a roast delivering just a couple of snaps of SC.

General tips I’ve learnt along the way:
- Don’t add much (any?) heat during the start of FC or your roast will go off to the stratosphere
- For almost all roasts I hit D at FC to kickstart the exothermic, but I use slower drum speed for the beginning of the roast. Keeping it on double drum speed the whole roast led to too ‘bright’ tasting roasts.
- If you want to notch down a power level, say 100 to 75, the key sequence is P5, P1, P4. The elements have fixed cycle times which can lag this power change, P1 ensures power is cut straight away.
- Before hitting cool, hit P1 beforehand to turn off the heating element. This stops that extra little kick cool gives your roast, if the element is on.

Appreciate any input or discussion this post generates….