Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

yeah ive got the behmor plus and i understand the power settings but there's no such thing as a manual timer program? right?

Not sure I understand what you mean? What do you want the manual timer program to do? There are only 3 directly controllable variables at play here (time, power, drum speed).

You can start from any of the profile settings and you can adjust the initial time remaining up and down in 15 sec increments.

EDIT: Do you mean that you want to just hit 'Start' and the roaster will run forever until you hit 'Stop' (or start celebrating Charcoal Tuesday?)

[askthecoffeeguy]

I think ive answered my own question: by dropping roast size down by 20g I find that there's plenty of time to play around with all the variables without having to worry about 'running out of time' - in some of my practice roasts i left the power drop at first crack for too long and accidentally stalled the roast - but pretty much figured my around that by dropping roast size, and by being more diligent with my 'coast' selection!

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

As the weather has got colder here (Canberra, and I roast in the morning), I've taken to Using 400g P2 B, but adding a minute to the timer before I start.

[Andy]

Yep, adjusting the starting weight is very important to keep a good base-line.

While you might take 20g out today, a colder day might be 50g and the middle of summer you would be adding 50g odd.

On all roasters from domestic to commercial the high volume of air drawn into the machine means that ambient temperature will always play a big part in what's going on at the bean. Failure to adjust to suit will always end in frustration. ;-)

[askthecoffeeguy]

Another thing I've found is that my digital scales were way out of whack - which means that my roast times were all over the place. Replaced them with some half decent kitchen scales and noticed an immediate improvement in my roasts

[smokey]

OT I know, but I couldn't find an "I love Andy" thread

I had an 'Error 5' on my Behmor. I called Andy and he had a free circuit board replacement at my doorstep within 2 days. How good is that?

Thanks Andy, you the best

[FineGrind]

I have a question for Behmor owners. Not sure if this has been addressed yet. How often do you all clean the two fans inside the Behmor. I have owned my roaster for a year, but have only done 23 roast cycles, which includes dry runs. I have not opened up the Behmor yet. I can't imagine that the fans would be dirty with that amount of use, but I would like to know what other people do. I personally think it is a great little roaster and I don't want to neglect my Behmor.

[javabeen]

I clean mine every 3 months and they need a clean by then as they accumulate quite a bit of gunk. That's roasting 2-3 times per week/about an hours roasting time.

[neofelis]

After speaking with Joe at MICE 2015, he urges everyone to open the unit up and clean the insides. He also said its VERY important to clean the sensors using simple green and doing dry burns as the sensor is only made out of nichrome wire?

Personally, I'm not comfortable opening up my Behmor but there are plenty of tutorials on Sweet Marias and other coffee websites regarding this procedure.

The best I can do is a dry burn and simple green

[barri]

I clean mine every 3 months and they need a clean by then as they accumulate quite a bit of gunk.

+1

Mine's in a dusty garage. I open it up and give it a vacuum and brush every few months. Its simple to do.

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

So, here's my latest tale......

About a month ago I noticed a large amount of smoke exiting my just over 1 yr-old Behmor from places that it shouldn't, generally soon after the start of first crack. Exhaust temp. would not rise above 54C until the cooling cycle. Dropped Andy a line and we correctly diagnosed a failed afterburner, and Andy kindly threw a replacement afterburner in with my next order. Got the afterburner working again with little fuss, but smoke problem persisted and between Andy and the nice people at Behmor (thanks Bob) we figured the control board (side printed circuit board) was cactus. Andy once more threw a replacement in with my regular bean order. Aside from one very annoying clip, the change-over was pretty simple. Roaster once more going like a train. Great service from Andy and the people at Behmor.

[FineGrind]

Have I broken my Behmor?

I have looked after my Behmor very carefully. I did two roasts the other day. They both turned out very wrong. The beans were no where near a very dark roast. But they had this strange insipid, acrid, baked taste to them. Sort of burnt even though they were the normal degree of colour that I roast to. Around full city. The roast settings were about the same as usual. Around 17 mins on P1, A, 400 grams. There are only two things that I can think of that might have happened. Prior to these two batches, I roasted some Columbian a month before that I accidentally took too far. It was around a french roast. A lot of smoke came out of the roaster. But the coffee tasted fine, just darker. And the other is that my green beans went through a hot summer and I have had them for probably around 10 months. I stored them in a cupboard in the cloth bags they come in from BeanBay, which is what I have read in terms of storage. But when I went to look at what stale green beans taste like, all I could see is that they just lose strength of flavour, they do not become something awful tasting. So, I am wondering if someone can help me out? Have I broken my Behmor by accidentally doing one single very dark roast? Do old green beans taste awful?
Thanks,
FG.

Oh, I should have mentioned too. The espresso came out unusually very thick. Almost like what happens when you use roasted coffee beans that are much too young, say 3 or four days old. But the beans were over 12 days post roast. Quite strange. How could that happen? They were the same beans I had been roasting prior to that and they have never come out that thick after 10 days post roast.

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Try the easy kills first. Try reducing the amount of beans that you put in for the 400g cycle (try 380g). I presume it is now colder that when you roasted a month ago?

How long to first crack? Similar to what you are used to? How long thereafter?

You don't say what the beans were that have turned out poorly. Were they 'hard' beans by any chance?

In terms of cleaning, have you taken the back / sides off and cleaned the fans / exhaust?

[FineGrind]

Yes the ambient temperature was probably around 10°C lower on the latest two roasts.
First crack was around 14 min, so around normal.
The beans were two different batches. One lot, Peru Ceja De Selva. The other, India Elephant Hills AA.
The inside of the machine was clean. I do a dry burn every fifth roast. At that time I clean the inside of the machine with simple green.
Prior to my last two roasts, I had not ever taken the side panel and back off to clean the fan, but I did that after my last two roasts and the dust was very, very minimal.

[ozscott]

I am tossing up as to whether to get this roaster. I still enjoy using my Corretto...where I can comfortably do 1kg lots with the lid on.

Can you reliably do 400g lots in this roaster and can you use a thermocouple and the CS software (or is that simply not required now?).

Cheers