My Behmor experience, one year on.

[Dimal]

Indeed 'bb'...

It's a lot of fun and very engaging...

Mal.

[badbudgie]

How good are these things ! Just finished my 4th roast in one and am so happy with this roaster. Beats fiddling around with the poppers thats for sure. :-)

[MrFreddofrog]

Andy, that advice is gold. You should include that with every Behmor you sell. Seriously. If you want me to make up a simple flyer happy to do it, for free of course. That saves people trawling through forums, assuming they even use forums in the first place.

Dimal, $30-40 is almost half the price I'm paying so yeah still pretty darn good. But that said, the service I get locally is amazing so I don't mind paying more, but only to a point....

[Dimal]

Try $22.50 in BeanBay... before Christmas (best guess).
100mm x 4mm.

Yep, hard to beat 'bulk buy' prices coupled with Andy's CS discount factor....

$30-40 is still not bad for one-off buys though...

Mal.

[Andy]

I'm pretty sure their success is more related to having a talented commercial roasting father to mentor them than what roaster they are using.

...that's funnier than you realise if you saw how little information I give the kids...

The extent of the "mentoring" and "contribution" was posted many times on this site in the roasting threads. I tell everyone the same thing I told the kids, difference between telling big people and my kids is the kids actually listen and don't try and over complicate it.

350g of beans.
Press: [400] [P1] [Start]
When you hear first crack hit P2 manual (25%)
Just before you think it's roasted enough press [Cool]

If it's the middle of winter and the ambient air is cold then substitute P2 manual for P3 manual.

This is the same technique I use on the Behmor roaster when doing demos at trade shows. Simple, successful, repeatable. Hardly mentoring, but it does work well as a starting point for just about any arabica bean, make adjustments to the process to suit TASTE.

Every year (and again this year) the Behmor wins most of the home roasting medals because in a blind taste test... it wins.

(semi) computer control is about ensuring consistency.

No, it's about thinking you are ensuring consistency because you have a graph to prove it. In actual fact I bet your coffee will taste different when the environmental differences are high enough. Yes, you will produce the same graph but not the same flavour.

but I need some custom ones, different lengths, leads, connectors etc,

Good luck. My supplier won't even reply to a query for less than US$2000 and would laugh at an order for a handful. Sorry.

[MrFreddofrog]

...My kids winning multiple roasting medals over the years shows that. They don't use a computer, they just watch what's going on!

Andy, I think you're being modest and underestimating your contribution to their success. We all have Behmors but don't all win awards so I'm pretty sure their success is more related to having a talented commercial roasting father to mentor them than what roaster they are using.

Question though, are they sticking to the standard profiles to win awards, or is there some manual intervention involved?

Btw (semi) computer control is about ensuring consistency. I can now reproduce the same profiles repeatedly with almost no effort. The only intervention is to record FC and SC. After every roast the program gets tweaked to make it even better. And should I have the need, I could easily train someone with no experience to produce the exact same roasts which I think is kinda cool.

BTW #2, thanks for the BeanBay link, that's even cheaper but I need some custom ones, different lengths, leads, connectors etc, it's for a friend's Diedrich though we're not 100% if they need replacing yet. Don't suppose you want to tell me the supplier or alternatively, I'm happy to discuss the specs with you and you can contact the supplier.

[Andy]

...Behmor does what its meant to do straight out of the box and does it very well in my opinion. I wouldn't want people considering home roasting with the Behmor put off because you need to tinker with it, put probes in it, hook it up to the computer etc if you aren't this way inclined.

I agree, you can get great results from the roaster exactly as it stands. My kids winning multiple roasting medals over the years shows that. They don't use a computer, they just watch what's going on!

...in actual fact, it has been moving from store bought beans to home roasted that has made the biggest difference. So far I have roasted eight different single origin espresso and ALL have tasted better than the one I was buying. And by the way, the difference in price between roasted and green beans means that the Behmor will have paid for itself in a couple more months. And the garage smells great!

Nice. Enjoy the hobby and the results in the cup!

...3-4.5mm x 100m probe with flexible cable will run at between AUD $30-40 plus delivery over here...

That's cheap. I was paying at least twice that. Who is that from? I may be needing some more very shortly.

Try $22.50 in BeanBay... before Christmas (best guess).
100mm x 4mm.
CoffeeSnobs - BeanBay - Other Stuff - Spare Thermocouple Probe Stainless Braid 100mm

[Dimal]

That's cheap. I was paying at least twice that. Who is that from? I may be needing some more very shortly.

This is the company I've dealt with over the years...
https://www.tcdirect.net.au/Default....artment_id=190

Additional Info:-
"TC Direct is the distribution division of the TC group who specialise in temperature sensing, measurement, control and calibration. TC has operating and manufacturing sites in Australia, the US, the UK and across Europe.

The company has grown dramatically since its incorporation in 1973, and the group has achieved ISO 9001 registration and boasts an in-house UKAS accredited calibration laboratory."

Mal.

[MrFreddofrog]

A standard MIMS (insulated) 3-4.5mm x 100m probe with flexible cable will run at between AUD $30-40 plus delivery over here Leroy.
Probably best to see if you can locate a supplier over there mate. You need to search for Type 'K' MIMS probes including flex cable...

Mal.

That's cheap. I was paying at least twice that. Who is that from? I may be needing some more very shortly.

[LeroyC]

A standard MIMS (insulated) 3-4.5mm x 100m probe with flexible cable will run at between AUD $30-40 plus delivery over here Leroy.
Probably best to see if you can locate a supplier over there mate. You need to search for Type 'K' MIMS probes including flex cable...

Mal.

Thanks for the tip Mal.

[Dimal]

What's the cost of these custom probes?

A standard MIMS (insulated) 3-4.5mm x 100m probe with flexible cable will run at between AUD $30-40 plus delivery over here Leroy.
Probably best to see if you can locate a supplier over there mate. You need to search for Type 'K' MIMS probes including flex cable...

Mal.

[artman]

Ah ok, mine is the old multimeter style.

It's been fine so far. It's quite well supported by the stainless strip so it's really just the tip but I haven't noticed anything so far. It's also showing no signs of wear on the cable insulation where it rubs on the corner of the spindle.

My setup was only meant to be temporary but it works very well so I have left it as is!

Cheers

[LeroyC]

Do it. It's only a hole which you could fill up with a rivet later if you really wanted to. I don't know how people roast manually without it. All this talk about waiting x seconds after FC and then pressing rosetta bla bla hurts my head. Just tell me the bean temp and ROR and we'll go from there.

If Andy still doesn't have a long probe I know a mob in Perth who can make custom thermocouples if you are interested. They have already made a few for fellow Behmorer's so they are familiar with the intended application.

What's the cost of these custom probes?

[LeroyC]

My Behmor experience, one year on.

The bean temp in the Behmor is probably most useful I would have thought?

If yours is the CS data logger the bead thermocouple came with it (as well as the stainless one).

Cheers

As I'm in NZ I bought my Heatsnob on the Heatsnob website and it only came with the 1" stainless probe.
Are you just using the bead thermocouple as it is out of the box from Andy? He says on Beanbay it's not really up to handling the impact of being a bean probe so I'm wondering if it needs further modding. Although they're only $6.50 so I suppose you could just replace it as needed.

[artman]

The bean temp in the Behmor is probably most useful I would have thought?

If yours is the CS data logger the bead thermocouple came with it (as well as the stainless one).

Cheers