1st Corretto Roast

[smokeydeck]

Hi everyone,

managed my first roast tonight...300g sumatra fair trade organic.

after replacing the plastic stirring arm with a homemade stainless job i thought it was clear sailing...300g of brazilian blue and the bm cuts out at 8min due to overheating. removed the beans to hand-stir to completion but my heatgun wouldnt restart for about 2 more minutes. I eventually got somewhere between FC and SC but I have no idea how long it took or how cool the beans got during the delay...well see tomorrow if theyre any good.

after that I disconnected the thermostat only to find out that it wont work without it. reconnected and then moved the sensor away from the basket.

started on my 300g of sumatran...all good for about 12 min...then the stirring arm stops. the bm has a 45 min dough cycle and it stopped at about 31 min???? no temp alarm? just stopped. I backed off the heat and quickly reset the dough cycle...lost about 10-15 seconds and then she started back up again.
reached SC at about 18 min (I think FC was at 14 min).

Any thoughts on why the bm stops mid-cycle?
How do my times sound?

Cheers,

Kit

[GregJW]

Re: 1st Corretto Roast

Hey Kit,

Sounds like youre having a few problems getting going with your Corretto. Im not an expert (switched from popper roasting at X-mas), but (when you get your BM sorted):

- 14 mins to first crack is a bit long (generally) and a further 4 mins to second a bit short.

- Try for about 10 mins to FC - maybe get the HG down closer to the beans - and then pull it back to ease the temp increase so that SC takes another 6 mins (thats about 4 deg increase per minute up to SC).

I think Ive been lucky with the Breville BB250 - unmodified dough cycle (except for 3 min warm-up) is great. What have you got? Are you using a multi-meter. Makes it easier to keep control of the temps (ie 195 FC; 220 SC).

Keep at it. Hope you work your gear out.

Greg

[smokeydeck]

Re: 1st Corretto Roast

thanks Greg,

the coffee was awful...600g in the bin. will have to get a meter and watch the temps.

not sure what Im going to do about the dough cycle stopping after 13 minutes? will have to try and bypass the system.

[greenman]

Re: 1st Corretto Roast

Ive talked to a couple of people who have bypassed the timing in their BM machines so that they switch on and off without any timers, thermostats etc.
My Breville is good, after 5 mins of knead cycle it runs for ages without any drama.