I-Coffee roasting experiences

[Mariner]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hi JB,
Havent roasted yet. Chores didnt get completed. I wont be roasting until tomorrow lunch time. I am going to roast the Peruvian. We are expecting a warm day with afternoon thunderstorms, I dont know how the humidity will effect it but I guess Ill just have to have a go. If I roast tomorrow morning then hopefully I can taste the fruits of my labour on monday morning....... I will try to post the times and some pics.
Regards, f.

[ganon5]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Id just like to add that as a complete roasting newbie, I was getting some pretty good results straight away. A few roasts in and Ive already gotten to know some of the finer points of the machine. It was really easy to learn!

Id recommend this machine to anyone starting out.

Only problem is I now have more good coffee than I can possibly drink! Time to start giving some away...

[Mariner]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Good day all,
Roasted 2 batches yesterday. Firstly, I roasted the Peruvian beans (that came with the roaster) from the house of desilva. I timed everything, noted ambient temp and humidity etc. needless to say that I watched the whole thing and found out the hard way what second crack sounds like.... However, the roast, although looking a little like Starbucks i am hoping it will still be ok. I will partake of its smokey goodness (or make a burnt offering) on Monday evening.

The second roast was (on advice) Ugandan. I was far more careful with this roast. My goodness it gave off some chaff!!! Anyway, I pulled it much earlier. The colour is really nice, and it smells good - doesnt look like Starbucks!

Cant wait to taste it.

[grantw]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Ive done about 20 roasts on the icoffee now, and after a few under roasted batches early on, Ive pretty much got the hang of it now.

I did a batch of Tanzania Kyaurinde earlier today and was stoked with the evenness of the roast - while the aroma post roast was wonderful.

[Mariner]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Ok, nearly 72 hrs since roasting my first beans in the iCoffee Roaster. I had my first double shot this morning.... THe results? Outstanding! I must admit though, that the roast got away on me and went into 2nd crack as i was trying to cool it down but, all in all the flavour is superb, the crema was a thick creamy dark caramel colour. Didnt have to grind as fine as i thought I would either. I do think that the flavour would have been better is I had pulled the roast maybe a minute earlier though. It seams a very fast process once the beans start to do their thing - certainly caught this newb CS off guard.

Hopefully the next batch will be even better. I am loving this roaster!

[Kafine]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Mariner, you are going to find that you learn the machine very quickly. I find that all beans no matter what variety roast in about the same time give or take a minute or two. I dont time mine anymore just watch and listen. The only thing i do make sure i do is cool as quickly as possible. One thing you will notice however is some beans require a much finer grind than others.

[John_Leddy]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hi Kafine,
Ive heard about grind requirements relative to bean types elsewhere, but am not sure what determines this procedure....do you have any suggestions on how to choose grind relative to bean types?

Thank you

JL

[Mariner]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

I dont time mine anymore just watch and listen. The only thing i do make sure i do is cool as quickly as possible.

Hi Kafine,
Thanks for the tip - this was a real issue when I pulled my first roast; 2nd crack had just started but continued for some time after I had started cooling the beans (using a collinder and the kitchen extraction fan on full) and was powerless to stop it. Quicker cooling would probably have been the key. The coffee, although only three days old and about a CS10, drinks very well - surprisingly so. It does cut through nicely in a milk coffee.

Regards, Mariner.

[Kafine]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

J L I just adjust to the flow for e.g. the KJM blend i roasted last week was about one mark finer than the Mexican i roasted the week earlier. My dose never varies after a year i have a very consistent technique. Each bean does require some adjustment as the beans age i.e. even on a day to day basis. I try for a 60 mil in 30 second pour from a double basket. I am happy with 25 to 30 seconds and find the results sweet within those times.

[John_Leddy]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Thanks Kafine,
Whilst I understand the day to day changes in roasted beans even say from 5-6 days through to 12 days ,I have never thought to play with grind adjustment, more so because I use aeropress.

I will try a couple of side by side tastings each day post 5-6 day roasts using a fine and medium grind to see what I can learn.

Thank you.

JL

[jaybee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Another top result for the iCoffee.

For me, overdone is any roast that has gone oily which means that you casn stray well into second crack and still get a great result. Either way, its difficult to be satisfied with anything less than home roasted once you catch the bug.

[Roz]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Has anyone roasted Yirg Special Prep in the I-Coffee? my roast a couple weeks ago of this a very weird mottled like appearance on the bean and the beans were very hard to hear the cracks so I tried to pull them on my best judgement from appearance which is hard because they looked different to commercial Yirg roasts I have bought.

Up  close the roast is noticable that the beans are mottled but with the flash and from a small distance they look normal, the beans were also hard and dense but definitely roasted to about the edge of second crack.

But the taste? well it was good, maybe not as good as Yirgs Ive had but it was even nice in milk smooth and chocolately but lacked a bit of kick that I like in milk drinks

[Kafine]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Roz,
I have had the same result with the Yirg it is very difficult to hear the cracks and seemed to take forever to roast. I have used it in a KJM blend and get a great result roasting it with other beans. I dont know why it does this however.

[sorrentina]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hello all- glad to see more happy roasters out there using the I-Coffee. Concerning Rozs question about the Yirg: in general the roaster does roast very evenly- however with uneven beans like the Yirg you do get a mottled appearance (I think with any roaster?). Following on from JayBees post a page or two back I tried partially pre-roasting beans like this to equalize the moisture content. The method I used was simple: I placed the (yirg) beans in the roaster and started to roast. However after just two minutes I stopped the roaster by pressing the power button once to initialize the cool cycle. I let the cool cycle run for around one minute to take any concentrated heat out of the base of the pan and then switched the machine off. I left the beans sitting in the roast chamber for around 10 minutes. After this time I could see some condensation on the glass dome- indicating that the pre-roast had forced the beans to release some of their water content.

I then roasted the beans as normal and did find that they roasted more evenly- and a little quicker. The end result was particularly good.. . I will definitely use this method again for unevenly graded beans- and also for mixed pre-roast bean blends.

[lemoo]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Yirg:

looks ugly green
looks ugly brown

tastes amazing either way

lol
that pretty much sums it up for me tbh