Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

[Oli]

Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

Andy, good call about 40-degree Australia versus minus 5-degree Europe. Nevertheless I have found longer pre-heats very useful over here. As many other forum users (around the web) have said, I find 400g a little challenging to get right and overall think 200g is the ideal quantity with this roaster.

Kaboose: trust me, you're going to want to stop using the pre-set profiles and start using manual mode. Apart from all the controls it gives you, Manual mode allows you go get the beans to 1C faster. For me, this results in noticeably richer flavors

[Andy]

I have found longer pre-heats very useful over here. As many other forum users (around the web) have said

...and there is the problem. When you say "around the web" I assume mostly USA/Canadian sites and they are using a different roaster (with the same name) and a different voltage and require a different technique. Preheat in the roaster manual is mostly a USA work-around for low voltage problems they have in different areas. Users of 220/230/240 don't have to deal with the same voltage fluctuations of the 110/120 world.

Each year when Joseph Behm has come out for the Melbourne coffee show he is amazed at the profiles we can run and the lack of pre-heat even in cooler March weather. He has gone back to the USA with our techniques but they don't work the same over there. The roaster sold here is a different beast so please be wary of where your information comes from.

Regardless, if pre-heat is working for you then keep doing it but I would be surprised if you really need it to get the same results in the cup.

I did try my first ever roast though with 100g of beans... no coffee aroma ... I'm guessing I didn't roast long enough?

* I don't like the 100g roasts for learning (even though it says that in the manual), try 200g ones as the extra mass gives you more control and requires far less precision and will only cost you $1 more per roast.
* No aroma is normal for all roasters, the coffee will develop it's aroma over the next few days.
* Not long enough? TASTE is your key. 10% loss might be a technical indicator but taste is always king. If it tastes sour,farm,wheat then it was cooled too early, taste like BBQ then cooled too late.

Try the coffee today, again in a couple of days and another few days after that. Learning the rest time that suits you and that particular coffee is all part of the home roasting experience.

Take lots of notes. We all think we will remember the tweaks we made to each roast but by the time you have 4 or 5 different coffees with different rest-times in bags it's easy to forget and then chase your tail in circles.

[kaboose]

I'll have another try today with 200g, as soon as I get to the stage where its better than pre packed from the supermarket I'll find it a big step forward, looking forward to the results!

[Andy]

You will be way in front of the shelf beans in a handful of roasts.

Do one too light (sounds like you already have), do one too dark then enjoy the Goldilocks coffee on your 3rd roast.

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Just be careful who you open the front door to, though.

[LeroyC]

Kaboose: trust me, you're going to want to stop using the pre-set profiles and start using manual mode. Apart from all the controls it gives you, Manual mode allows you go get the beans to 1C faster. For me, this results in noticeably richer flavors

I disagree, unless you're using the 110v version. I've found that on the 220v version the auto profiles work really well, but the trick is to choose the right profile and batch size for each coffee. In saying that, at the very least I always use Andy's trick of reducing the heat at 1C and resetting the timer by pushing P2/3 and C.

[Oli]

Huh. Auto profiles gave me a less intense/bodied flavor when I first tried them. Perhaps I wasn't using the right one for the beans

[kaboose]

Very happy with the behmor after about 6 roasts, I still havent quite got that thick gloopy looking expresso extraction but the flavours are a whole lot better than before. One roast I think I went a bit too far as I saw a bean flash so stopped and cooled straight away, but after resting those beans for 5 days I noticed they looked a lot shinier/wetter so I imagine thats the sugars being released.

[coupe]

Hi Andy. I read that you send Behmor 1600 plus to Europe. Do you also ship to Turkey? If yes, i am ineterested on that roaster. Thanks.

[beanthere21]

Add another Behmor user to your list.

Mine arrived from CS yesterday and after forcing myself away from it all I can say is these things are really (seriously) great.

I recently got back into home roasting after a 7 year hiatus and it's been like greeting an old friend. Originally I used (persisted) with various methods like popcorn makers, dog bowl/heatgun and heatgun/breadmaker.

My interest piqued a few months ago when my wife offered me a rotisserie air roaster she never used. Results were good but unfortunately the plastic bushing stripped after about 3 roasts.

If I had my time over again I would have just bought a Behmor in the first place (if they were available in 2004).

Many thanks Andy for the quick service !! Very much appreciated.

[NmBeasy]

Hey,

Just wondering what's that max (g) you can roast in the new roaster?

[Andy]

Averages volumes are 350g - 450g
--- depending on beans and ambient temperature.

Some CS'rs swear by 500g but I think most would fall into the above ranges.

[artman]

I have done a 600g roast successfully in ambient temp of around 15 degrees, manual mode. Need to watch B2 temp as it gets high and can trigger an error.

Oddly, the bean temp roast profile looks essentially identical for a 400g or 600g roast.

Cheers

[matth3wh]

Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

Hi artman. Interested to know more.

Sounds like that is pushing the plus to the limits (?)

I'll have another go at a 650g SO roast and see what happens (Old BR+HG). Drum can only contain so much space especially with bean expansion [emoji3]

[artman]

Still heaps of room in the drum? What else would you like to know?
I have moved the wall sensor so it doesn't get hot and trigger the error code.

I keep it at 100% until 1C then go down to 75/50/25 to maintain a small ROR and cool / open door just prior or at start of 2C.

The 600g I did preheat (without the drum inside) for a few minutes but to be honest I don't think that makes too much difference.

Otherwise the roast appears as per normal.

I used to do 625g in my old corretto (quarter of green bean bag) and wanted to replicate in behmor.

What I should do is do a roast with a "standard" load of 300-400g and another of big 600+g batch and compare the taste of the beans (as well as BT roast profile).

Cheers