Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

[rev210]

To add some further feedback to the thread.

I have just ordered the plus , after owning the first version for years (I ordered one when they first came out). Replacing, as the original suffered from being destroyed accidentally when moving house.
I absolutely punished the unit and it never had an issue.

These are excellent devices for small batch roasting. To answer the questions in a nutshell , you are looking at a device that is very capable of producing coffee that is as good as it is possible to achieve with any roasting technology. As with the Golden bean example, my kids can roast fantastic coffee with this and the youngest is under 10.

Like most things in life , effort in / results out. But, to be honest roasting coffee is to cooking , one step above toast making or frying an egg. People may be rubbish at both those and still be ok at roasting coffee because the love of coffee motivates you more.

[neofelis]

Thanks for all your help and support!!! What a great community of people!

On friday I received my roaster, along came some peru AAA beans which sound great for me as I specifically go for coffee with coco / chocolate notes. After reading all the manuals I was ready to start my first roast after the initial dry burn.

Not long after I was on par with most other people.. I burnt my first roast lol, P1 is far too aggressive. So I tossed them and started on P2. I got some pretty good results and its not that much different from using a popcorn machine It just enables you to roast 4x as much.

By this stage I could easily justify the money spent. I did some research and my peru beans were on par with everyone elses, very very bitter as they need to rest for 7 - 9 days.

I then roasted 400g Tanzania Machare Estate and that wasnt as consistent, but im sure these will still taste great but next time maybe I need to put less in as some looked like a CS8, some CS9 and maybe some CS10

Next up was 150g Nicaragua Dipilto Typica these are by far my favourite beans but now im completely out of them. They came out very consistant and tasted great.

Fastway forgot one of my packages so I have another 7.5kg of beans coming today.

The only problem is, this machine DOES set all my smoke alarms off, so get prepared for that. Maybe I have cheap shitty smoke alarms so it may not happen with them all.

Overall, what a simple machine to use and what a time saver compared to using a popper. The ability to achieve longer, slower roasts too is fantastic! The possibilities seem endless.

the bottom line is: you might be a skeptical about these like I was but once you get one you'll thank yourself.

Everything I mentioned here is 100% unbiased and accurate. I simply say it as it is.

Thanks everyone for there help I appreciate it!!

And yes raven, ecigs

[Ravenscroft]

Glad it all worked Neo.

Nothing like a good coffee and a vape, DIY all the way.

RC

[neofelis]

Thanks RC it's good to see some other vapers around here! We should make a vape thread!!!

[Ravenscroft]

Probably not the right place Neo but keep us informed about the new roaster.

I have a different set up so will keep out now, but am still interested in this thread.

I try to learn from everywhere.

[J_Hutt]

What the consensus on the effect of drum speed? An earlier post suggested the faster speed slows down the bean temp RoR due to increased airflow, tumbling etc - which would lead to it being useful just after 1c to extend that period? However I have noticed that the beans ride up the drum slightly higher when rotating faster, so I imagine this would expose more of them to the radiant heat albeit for a shorter time.

After about 10 roasts and various combinations of use, I am still undecided as to the effect of drum speed. In truth, I would probably prefer not to use it as I figure the faster the motor runs/works, the more wear and higher rate of failure.

[bodyboardingbum]

Well all i can say is it was like Christmas this morning when the postman arrived with my delivery! 10kg greens + Behmor1600.
Unboxed, read through all instructions, and the cheat-sheet from Andy, and started the burn-in process.

Decided that the Peru seemed like a solid first choice as it seems to be a popular bean, and one which is being mentioned in this thread a reasonable amount. From what i read, 100g @ P1 Auto like the instructions recommend is way too powerful, my experience probably tends to agree. I have never roasted before, and never experienced the sound of "first crack" or "second crack".

My first roast was as follows:

100gm Peru Ceja de Selva AAA
P2 Profile + B (as suggested in the instructions, which i think was my downfall!)

Hit a rolling first crack with ~3mins 20s to go, full first crack by 2m 45s (really does sound like popcorn!)

*Nervously waited as the timer ticked down... *

Heard 2nd crack with 1min 20s remaining (really does sound like rice bubbles!)
Panicked a little as i know 2nd-crack is dark, and manually hit the cool button with 1min 9s remaining.

I think i might've burnt it a little... and from what i've been reading this Peru is probably best just before 2nd crack? Although, i haven't got one of the CS Cards with roast depth scales to find an actual number, here's a photo compared to some local commercial roasted beans i've got at the moment, i called "Black Diamond" which i think is from Brazil (from memory!). Commercial beans are on the left, mine are on the right.

[SniffCoffee]

These are the best roaster ever!!
Everyone has to get one!!

They are easy to use, 3 kids under 13 won the home roasting category of the Golden Bean 2 years running using the Behmor so all questions of ease of use, quality of output and blind unbiased judging should be answered right there.

Andy, without revealing the secret of your kids' success, which profile did they use / weight / time?

Sniff

[bodyboardingbum]

2nd Roasting Attempt with the new Behmor 1600 Plus.

100gm Peru Ceja de Selva AAA
P2 Profile

1C started at with ~1min 45s, full crack ~1min 15s
2C not quite started, although borderline with ~15s remaining.
Manually hit the cool button just before 2C started and here's the result.

Pictures attached; my beans on the right, commercial on the left.

So to achieve the same result i could minus ~15s from the default P2 profile before i start, and i should get repeatable results? Of course, pending how it goes in the cup in a few days time.

[Andy]

Andy, without revealing the secret of your kids' success, which profile did they use / weight / time?

No secrets... search/google is your friend.

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/general-co...-settings.html
Ironically, the very same bean is going to be in this months BeanBay green release... (this week)

I think the girls did similar profiles but they 'aint here to ask.

[Andy]

So to achieve the same result i could...

Why would you want the same as someone else?

Don't get hung-up on colour, get hung-up on taste and what you can do to change it.
Roast at a couple of different roast depths, taste them and develop your own profiles and preferences that suit you EXACTLY.

...that's the real beauty of home roasting.

[bodyboardingbum]

Couldn't agree more, Andy.
However my approach instead of flying blind was to get a similar colour depth to my current commercial bean and see how the taste compares. Gives me some more stability in my mind, otherwise i would get lost! (It's all in my head, i know!)

Hopefully it's a good base point, and eagerly awaiting to see how they taste

[Andy]

Sure, but understand you are comparing to a different bean, different roaster, different goal....
...you will do far better and cause less confusion in your journey by "cutting your own path" instead.

[marcism]

Anyone put their CS meter into the new Behmor yet and recorded some roasts with the new manual control? Would love to see some curves!

[javabeen]

Yes I have, and the curve is not useful as its just measuring the temp off the elements as they switch on and off.

I find it is only useful for recording milestones such as first and second crack that I can then use for subsequent roasts of the same bean.

Here are some profiles of Colombian beans I roasted. Batch 2 and 3 lines are identical except for the end/pull times. How's that for consistency in the Behmor?