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Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts!

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  • Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts!

    Hey Guys and Gals,

    Ive been using my Gene Cafe successfully for about 6 to 12 months now. Ive always been pleased with how nice and even the roasts in this machine are.

    However, all of a sudden Ive started having problems. In the past 3 weeks, I havent been able to produce one successful roast. Ive tried different beans, different days and no luck. Instead of the beautiful, smooth and consistent roasts I was getting, the beens are coming out all mottled - some with chaff still on. Some beans are burnt/scorched in places and under roasted in other. Overall the beans look very dry and unappealing!

    As far as I can see, Im not doing anything significantly different with regard to roasting profile. Perhaps theres something wrong with the machine?


    Have attached some pics of:
    (1) Brazllian Yellow Burbon... 19 mins at 222 deg
    (2) My own home blend... 19 Mins at 225 deg



  • #2
    Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

    home blend...

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    • #3
      Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

      Brazil bourbon

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      • #4
        Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

        they do look a but odd. perhaps the air inlet underneath the roaster is blocked by something, or the filter needs a clean. Has the roast time changed? are you roasting outside when its really cold?

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        • #5
          Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

          Hi Jazzy boy - given that youve had the gene for approx. 12 months without a prob Im sure you know what youre doing by now!.

          If you are putting a maximum of 300gm in, then it really does look like you need the gene doctor. Why dont you ask 2mcm for some advice?

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          • #6
            Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

            Hi Darren,

            I suggest you do check for any blockages. It might be a good idea to open it up and see if there is anything to shake out.

            Then- can you turn it on from cold- we need to know how long it takes to come to 250 deg C.

            Serge of GoBarista is our resident Gene specialist...

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

              Thanks for the suggestions, Chris

              (1) Opened up the machine.. all neat and tidy in there. No obvious blockages.

              (2) Ran the machine on empty and it took 7mins (pretty much exactly) to reach 250deg... temp then jumped back immediately to 246 and worked its way back up to 250... and then kept jumping back.

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              • #8
                Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

                Originally posted by jazzy_boy link=1185859625/0#6 date=1185872562
                Thanks for the suggestions, Chris

                (1) Opened up the machine.. all neat and tidy in there. No obvious blockages.

                (2) Ran the machine on empty and it took 7mins (pretty much exactly) to reach 250deg... temp then jumped back immediately to 246 and worked its way back up to 250... and then kept jumping back.
                Sounds normal to me....I suggest you bump your roast temp to 232 dec C and see how things go...

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

                  Dont know anything about the Gene Cafe, just trying to offer some ideas:

                  * Beans ~ could they have gotten wet, have you moved them recently?
                  * Weight ~ could your scales be wrong/broken, or do you use volume, could it have changed?
                  * Settings ~ could degrees C be changed to degrees F (I have no idea but thinking out loud)
                  * Location ~ have you changed the location of the roaster (perhaps their is more or less air flow around it?)

                  Probably of no help, but you never know... :-/

                  Can you measure the temperature with another thermometer/thermocouple?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

                    WOW! If I payed the price for a gene Id be spewin. My pan roasts look similar to this on a bad to satisfactory session. So yeah.. Id be speaking to the people I purchased it off if I were you (after you give it a good look over first though!)
                    Sorry I wasnt any help, just wanted to say that Id be crackin if I were you (hah.. lame pun I know)...
                    R

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                    • #11
                      Re: Pls Help! Whats my roaster doing?

                      Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming!

                      Just to clear things up a bit... there have been no significant changes that I can account for. The green beans I bought in bulk and have been using for some time now. They are stored in a cool/dark/dry location in a cupboard. I am using the same roasting profile (222 degrees for 19 minutes) that I have always used. I haven’t moved the machine or done anything different from normal.

                      This is not just an issue of under or over-roasted. As you can see from the pictures I posted, there is something significantly wrong with the roast. The roast is not even.. the beans are dry and have a wilted or strange texture from normal. Also, on each single bean there are parts where the bean is burnt/scorched and parts where it is under-roasted. Strange!

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                      • #12
                        Re: Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts

                        Out of interest j_b,

                        What batch size are you running with?

                        Mal.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts

                          Hey Mal... Roasting 300g of green beans which I weigh on electronic scales.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts

                            Looks to me like perhaps the beans arent being properly agitated in the drum during roasting. Is it possible that the little gate near the exit is sticking and not swinging freely back and forth? I can imagine that might reduce the bean mixing as well as chaff removal, which could give the uneven and chaff-y (is that a word?) roast you seem to have.

                            Just a thought.

                            Cheers,

                            Dennis

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                            • #15
                              Re: Pls Help! GeneCafe suddenly doing weird roasts

                              Im no GC expert j_b,

                              But what Lennier suggests sounds reasonable. You might like to try just reducing your roast batch size a little too and see what that does for the process, say down to 250g while keeping other factors the same (the old "one thing at a time" philosophy)....

                              Mal.

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