PNG Mt Ambra A - need help with roast setting

[Jenn]

Hi,

I've recently received the PNG Mt Ambra A beans and am having real trouble getting a decent roast out of them. I've tried a. Aridity of settings and the best I've gotten is a light-medium roast. I've been roasting for over a year now and usually get awesome roasts. But this iS the first time with this one...

Has anyone roast the PNG Mt Ambra bean? Can anyone tell me a good setting?

Thanks in advance,
Jenn

[DesigningByCoffee]

Hi Jenn
We might need a little more info - are you roasting with a Behmor?
I've roasted the Mt Ambra - it roasts fairly easily, like most other beans (no dramatic changes in technique from what I've experienced). So not sure why it would behave differently for you - what beans have you been roasting?
Cheers Matt

[Jenn]

Sorry, yes I've been roasting with the behmor. I've roasted a variety of beans - Indian elephant shills, Brazil yellow bourbon, an Ethiopian one and few others I can't recall without looking. I like to get to a darker roast. I have no idea why mt Ambra isn't working for me. I just don't want to waste more beans trying the achieve my preferred level.

any suggestions on the profile, etc?

[Agrajag]

Also interested in this, I've been roasting it in a behmor and getting decent results but feel it might be able to get better. I've been doing preheat, 200g, P1 auto until 1C then 25% for 30 sec then 75% until the first few snaps of 2C. One thing I've found is that it seems to take a bit longer than my other beans to come good, maybe 6-7 days instead of 3-4 after roasting. I've been drinking it as espresso and flat white.

[sprezzatura]

I roasted Ambra quite cool actually. I think my last roast was 200g @ P5 but went P5 manual heat until first brown then P3 manual right before 1st crack.

[Dimal]

Something I've always found with beans from this area of PNG, is that you get a much better end result if you drop the batch a couple of degrees this side of 2nd-Crack, using a gentle roast profile. Nearly all of the coffee estates/co-ops in this valley are at the same altitude and experience pretty well identical weather conditions so even though terroir may vary from one place to another, bean hardness/density seems to be pretty constant.

So, gentle seems to be best and drop the batch this side of 2nd-Crack...

Mal.

[ElShauno]

Something I've always found with beans from this area of PNG, is that you get a much better end result if you drop the batch a couple of degrees this side of 2nd-Crack, using a gentle roast profile. Nearly all of the coffee estates/co-ops in this valley are at the same altitude and experience pretty well identical weather conditions so even though terroir may vary from one place to another, bean hardness/density seems to be pretty constant.

So, gentle seems to be best and drop the batch this side of 2nd-Crack...

Mal.

Great advice Mal - I tried this with my batch I received recently and it is lovely - sweet, caramel, hint of spice. In milk it it is quite distinct and seems to hit those lovely sweet notes that hipster cafes strive for but often fail to produce (ie, too sour). Nice alternative from my darker-roasted, cocoa-tasting South Americans.

Not sure how reliable the temp readings on the Behmor are but I pulled it as it ticked onto 180 degrees - normally I wait until SC and then hit cool and I've observed that at this stage it has often been on 181 for a while. Big difference, so will try this for some other island beans

[Dimal]

Sounds good mate...

Experimentation is the name of the game...

Mal.

[CafeLotta]

Something I've always found with beans from this area of PNG, is that you get a much better end result if you drop the batch a couple of degrees this side of 2nd-Crack, using a gentle roast profile. Nearly all of the coffee estates/co-ops in this valley are at the same altitude and experience pretty well identical weather conditions so even though terroir may vary from one place to another, bean hardness/density seems to be pretty constant.

So, gentle seems to be best and drop the batch this side of 2nd-Crack...

Mal.

Just about to have a crack at roasting this bean so well pleased that I came across this roasting advice. Cheers.

[CafeLotta]

Gave these beans a go today and thanks to Mal's suggestion, started with a gentle profile on the Behmor. First batch was 200gm using 200 P5 D +30secs (as per manual). Hit "C" at 1C to reset time to Rosetta Stone timing (added a small amount). At rolling 1C, manualy dropped element power using P4,P3,P2 etc. Got the feeling I should have gone P2 straight away but hit cool when 1C was over. Possibly a little late with maybe 1 or 2 signs of 2C during the start of cooling. Not a bad result but maybe a little hot around 1C.

Tried a second lot of 400gm on 400 P5 D +30secs. Similar to above but went straight to P2 power upon rolling 1C. May have let the temp drop a little low before hitting cool to avoid 2C. Color was a little more even than the 200gm lot. Even though roasting under the rangehood there's still an incredibly sweet roasting aroma lingering and hopefully an indicator of what's to come. Now that annoying wait.....

I think if I had let the P5 program fully control the element power on this bean at 1C, I would have scorched the beans. P4 on my Behmor would have been too hot and scorched the beans for sure I reckon.

[Dimal]

Will be interesting to read your thoughts when comparing taste between the two patches 'CL'...

Mal.

[CafeLotta]

Will be interesting to read your thoughts when comparing taste between the two patches 'CL'...

Mal.

Will be giving them a week undisturbed without even opening bag to sneak a look. I'll post once I get a chance to try both lots following that.

I was a little worried that they were getting a bit old as I'd forgotten I had them after purchasing back in March. During roasting they seemed to behave as expected so should be OK I hope. Both lots around 15% (one 15.1%) weight loss after roasting.

[CafeLotta]

Will be interesting to read your thoughts when comparing taste between the two batches 'CL'...

Mal.

Needed to rest both roasts for 2+ weeks. Had a taste after 1 week but found both to be unpleasantly bright. After 2 weeks I found the 200g roast with the higher heat post 1C a bit more balanced than the 400g with lower heat post 1C, which was somewhat unbalanced in flavor. Don't run temp probes or monitoring software so my observations are anecdotal rather than scientific.

In the third week I played around with brew temp and grind. 93C gave a flatter and less detailed flavor. This became alot more obvious as I experimented. I found with my setup, temps close to 95C gave a fuller flavor with both the roasts and had more impact than the difference between the 2 roasts which seemed to become less obvious as they aged (?).

At 95C or thereabouts, very fruity flavor with Dark chocolate. Not great on identifying flavors but do remember thinking melon at one point. When brewed with just a hint of bitterness I found for me it rounded out quite nicely. From memory at 97C there was too much bitterness.

I'll need to try a 400g roast with the same heat after 1C as the previous 200g and a 200g with less heat after 1C like the previous 400g. As I can't totally replicate roast profiles it will still be interesting to do a comparison to the earlier roasts.

[Dimal]

Great feedback CL...

Mal.

[CafeLotta]

Just wanted to add a word of caution with my previously mentioned Behmor settings of 400 P5 D +30secs in an earlier post here. This setting was mentioned in my original Behmor manual pre upgrading to a "Plus" front panel. I had also previously downloaded and printed the "Behmor 1600 Plus Features" sheet which described the new features of the Plus model. Since then there has been an update to this sheet which has added a caution about only using P4 & P5 in manual mode up until first crack then using P1, P2 or P3 to avoid scorching beans and overheating of the roaster sensors. See under "Manual Mode" in https://behmor.com/knowledge-base/be...shutoff-err-7/

Using 400 P5 D +30secs for a 400gm roast recently reminded me that even when using the P5 profile in program mode, you should also lower the power to P3 at first crack using manual mode and closely monitor the roast. As also mentioned in another thread, once you get to first crack using this profile on this bean (and probably others), things happen very quickly. This time I was using older beans which ran through to 2:00 min left on the clock when first crack began. I reset the "Rosetta Stone" timing using the "C" button which put the clock at 3:10. Keeping a close eye on things it became obvious temp needed to be dropped to avoid losing control of the roast. Spot on 15% weight loss with 400gm green to 340gm roasted.



If you use this profile keep a close watch especially approaching first crack and maybe go straight to P3 manual mode (1/2 power to elements) when first crack starts.