IRoast Roasting Profiles??

[TimA]

Dear All

Ive recently bought the new I Roast and must say that after only 4 roasts im getting a bit frustrated as all of them so fare have turned out over roasted.

Was wondering if anyone else had this machine and was willing to share experiences/tips and successful roast profiles. Tim

[Andy]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Hmmm.... there are a few people getting good results from these roasters. So I expect someone will lend you hand soon.

Are you adding the right amount of beans in each time?

I would suggest picking one single origin bean and tweaking the roast. Take notes along the way and make small adjustments.

Remember that you can "bale out" of the roast by switching to the cool cycle early if it looks like its going to get too dark on auto.

I bought one for review but have been away and thus not used it yet. Ill let you know how I go.

[TimA]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Hmmm.... there are a few people getting good results from these roasters.  So I expect someone will lend you hand soon.

Are you adding the right amount of beans in each time?

I would suggest picking one single origin bean and tweaking the roast.  Take notes along the way and make small adjustments.

Remember that you can "bale out" of the roast by switching to the cool cycle early if it looks like its going to get too dark on auto.

I bought one for review but have been away and thus not used it yet.  Ill let you know how I go.

Im using 140 -150gm of Brazilian each time. The last profile i set was:

176 - 2.5 mins
204 - 3 mins
220 - 3 mins

The beans reached a rapid 2nd crack at 5mins - 214 C. At which point i hit the cool down. Way too quick for my liking!

[Andy]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

and what sort of ambient air temperature was it when you roasted?

ie: Darwin and Hobart will be very different beasts for profiling a fluid bed roaster!

[Boris]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Dont forget Chilly Canberra. Im still using the HG method and its taking an extra 2 minutes to get to the right smell/colour.

[TimA]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

In chilly Canberra Im roasting indoors under the rangehood. So the air temp is appoximatly 21. Tim

[coffee_nuts]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Im using this combo depending on the bean and temp
180 @ 2.10
238 @ 2.10
242 @ 2.15 + up to 20 seconds @ 16c depending on temp in Sydney
Last roast at 24c with Brazil cerrado just into 2nd crack at the time above and temp no added time

[benipk]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Your roast times look incredibly fast...... Have you tried roasting the beans over ~10-15 minutes? The analogy being like a meat roast - longer roasts at slightly lower temperatures can bring out more subtle flavours, and fast roasts at high temperatures may mean your beans are not roasted all the way through. Bear in mind though that there is a "cook" temperature for the beans, and if you dont reach that it wont matter how long you roast as theyll never "crack" properly.

Im using a 10kg Gas fired roaster, regardless of the amount being roasted whether its 8kg or 300g the total roasting time should be about the same.

Ben Ipkendanz

[coffee_nuts]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

I have been playing with the roasting times and have found this not to bad. I found some suggestions from this web site www.sweetmarias.com/Hearthware_I_Roast_Tests.html (hope its ok to refer to this web site on cs ) and the fluid bed roasters are a quicker roasting as to the longer drawn out roast of the barrel roasters :-?

[wattgn]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Im not sure the roast time determines a good or a bad roast and I definitely dont think a short roast such as 5 - 6 minutes would result in the bean not being cooked through.

I have done the same bean in a hottop for 18 minutes and the same bean in 5.5 minutes in a popper and sometimes the popper batch can come out better.

I really dont think it matters much although I agree that it will change the flavour profile. There could be a 100 different profiles that you could cook a bean to and you may find with a similar endpoint, that most will be good.

Grant

[wattgn]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Ben:

I just replied to your volunteering to host the cafe day idea on the Perth Cafe Day thread.

What sort of roaster do you have? I saw it was a 10kg, let me guess, a Toper or a Has Garanti? Computer controlled or not?

It is funny that a Hottop for $1000 is microprocessor controlled but these guys charge like $15,000 extra for it on a bigger roaster. It seems out of proportion to the rest of the equipment.

By the way, a number of professional roasters are using the Hottop for sample roasts. It is a good way of checking blends etc. Mind you if you have a 10kg roaster then you must at least use a popper for testing?

Having a popper and the Hottop has been interesting for doing comparisons for sure.

Regards,
Grant

[TimA]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Just wonding if anyone has been able set this machine for times in exceeding 6mins without burning the beans. Mine seems to burn all beans Ive tried on both presets - and setting the roasting profile seems to make little or no difference at all!

[AndyCJ]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

How many roasts have you done Tim?  6 minutes is lightening I gotta think!  Right to 2nd crack?  Oil on the beans too?? I can do 150g in the popper and its 10 or so minutes? Can you stretch out the intervals and lower the temps?

[coffee_nuts]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Just wonding if anyone has been able set this machine for times in exceeding 6mins without burning the beans. Mine seems to burn all beans Ive tried on both presets - and setting the roasting profile seems to make little or no difference at all!

I dont use the pre-sets at all as turns the beans to a black mess, hear are some I am using at the moment
180 @2.10
200 @3.00
240 @2.00

180 @2.30
238 @2.10
242 @2.15

All depending on ambient temp ect and how much time between roasts.

[luca]

Re: IRoast Roasting Profiles??

Hi Guys,

Andy was kind enough to lend me an I-Roast a few weeks ago after Malt changed ownership. This is the first time that Ive ever roasted, and Ive got to say that the I-roast has impressed me (in relation to all the other pre-made homeroasters, which seem to either be a sorry or needlessly expensive bunch). Very even roasts and the profile thingamothing seems to be quite neat. The only problem is that I cant hear the cracks at all, so Im more or less forced to go by colour and look at the extent to which the crinkles in the beans even out. The cooling cycle is impressive.

So far, Ive worked out that, although the manual recommends about 150g, I get more even results at 140 or so g, depending on the bean. (ie. malabar will always be an exception!) Im a noob to roasting, so evenness impresses me!

Ive used a few different roast profiles, starting off by adapting Toms Full City + roast from Sweet Marias. Like with espresso, though, I think that its important to have as few variables as possible, so I think that Ill be sticking with small variations of the following:

7:00 at 202C
3:00 at 230C
2:00 at 244C

Note that this is what I set, but I look at the beans and stop the roast early. For example, today I stopped the Peru Kontiki at 11:40 total roast time.

Initially I was gunning for a darker roast viz the atomica that Im used to, but I decided that I should stick to something with more origin characteristics! (Andrew and I once had a huge debate about whether it actually mattered what beans atomica uses, given that its so dark that youd only expect roast characteristics)

Mark D (triclops on coffeegeek) is using an I-roast as a sample roaster at his new cafe. He has jammed a temp probe in it and has spliced in a variable resistor so that he can make adjustments on the fly. Ill grill him a bit about his setup next time Im in there and maybe snap a few photos.

Hope that helps,

Luca