Behmor 1600 Plus - Coffee Roaster

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Thanks Whatever. Was wondering what times do you or others have for larger batches. I don't think i'm baking? ...Opinions?...
I've done 20 or so batches at 450 grams and usually get around 385-390 grams. First crack at around 13:30 min - 15 min and remove when f.c. it ends. Roast times total 15 to 17 minutes depending on bean and f.c. I am yet to roast when its cooler. Ambient temps have been mid 20's C. I roast in manual and found a base profile that seems to work. I like the roast to appear dry with some texture still on the bean am guessing CS7 or CS8 and perhaps some spots of oil after week on some beans. I cut beans in half to check development or inner scorching. The roasts taste very nice. I might add i started roasting in December,a few months now, and nearly all I've learnt is from CoffeeSnobs.com.au so THANKYOU ALL. aldo.

Keep experimenting....you'll need to wind the payload back as the weather gets cooler, but it's fairly mild where you are so the difference may not be that big. Quite a seasonal difference roasting outdoors in Canberra.

[ironic]

400G Has worked very well for me, easy peasy, push 400 then start. The roaster defaults to P1, then push start again at 13 min 40, first crack usually happens at 13 to 14 min 30 seconds, at 1c press C and P2, and cool 2 to 3 minutes later. This formula has worked very well for easy to roast beans like Colombian V G Especial, Panama Rati Hartman Black Honey, PNG Mt Ambra A, Peru Even the Ethiopia Sidamo Ardi, and Ethiopia Biftu Gesha Sundried . Was assisting the cooling for a while, and in december a storm came suddenly and i had to move inside, and let the roaster time out after pressing C and P2, and the result was lovely coffee,
Agree to adjust to what works best for you.

[madaxle]

I roast regularly with 500g. Usually its P2 400G C which puts it up to 21:30. Usually get first crack with anywhere from 1-4mins remaining depending on type of bean. Press C @ 1st Crack and then drop the power between 25-50%. I try and watch carefully to pull just before 2nd crack and around the 209 degree mark. If it gets much higher i will go into a rolling 2nd crack which is still nice, just not as nice a just before where i may end up with a few snaps into 2nd crack.

I may give 450g a go....havent tried smaller batch in a while. Maybe that will taste a little different.

[azza2906]

So I have had my 1600+ for 2 years. I usually do the Barry O'Speedwagon 400g profile. Has worked well.

p5 -> 12 min
p4 -> 1C
p3 -> 2C

However, I started getting error 2 on every roast. This has varied from 4minutes into roast through to 1C

Read online it is due to too much heat, but it has never been an issue in the past. Some say that a good clean fixes it, followed by a burn off roast. So I did that, however in the burn off roast I got error 2 again. I am not sure when it happened as I walked away and came back to the error. With the burn off roast I pressed p5 manual after start to give it a good 'blast'.

This morning I had another idea to not press the p5 manual, and just pressed 200 then start. Strangely enough it finished the burn off roast.

So now I am a little confused. Do you think it is the manual mode p5 that is triggering too much heat and causing error 2? I don't really want to use the default profiles. I think I will need to experiment further without beans in and see if I can replicate the error.

Does anyone have any other ideas, or have experienced consistent error 2? I have cleaned the sensor area pretty well. At what B temp does the machine error 2?

[Andy]

Do you think it is the manual mode p5 that is triggering too much heat and causing error 2?

YES!

Err2 is too much heat on the right side wall. The number isn't important, it's a reading of the thermocouple on the circuit board side of the wall, you are simply applying too much heat and the roaster is protecting itself from you!

Lower your initial heat and it should be fine.

[artman]

As Andy said it’s getting too hot in the wall sensor reading. If you press B (pretty sure A is exhaust temp and B is wall temp - could be other way around) you will se the temp. Once it gets to 165 or 166 it will trigger the err2.

I did a post on it a year or so ago, Behmor max temp or something like that if you search for it, has all my findings there.

I’ll have to check my logs to see what the biggest batch I have roasted but from memory it’s over 500g.

Cheers

[bigdaddy]

OK, Here goes

As some of you folk know I recently got one of these roasters from Coughy...

Brand new to roasting apart some very little but successful pop corn machine roasting a few years back...

Got this baby home and decided I will try to learn with The Coffee Snobs WOW Decafe (Which was supplied long with some other beans)...Anyway, decided to learn on the decaf because there were a few hundred grams there and I wasn't really planning on drinking decaf coffee at this stage.

I tried using 100 grams lots...

First of try was on full auto at P5 and burnt the beans straight up...Second try was full auto on P4 same thing actually I didn't notice much difference actually...

Now I have watched a few YouTubes on roasting coffee on the Behmor so I gave the next try a go on manual, I set 100 grams on P5 and set the drum rotation to fast, but stuffed it up a bit by pressing the C button and setting the Rosetta stone timer into action...I did manage to save the roast (well maybe save it) by watching the beans and going to P1, just at the beginning of first crack then dropping the load out to cooling with my colander and stainless mixing bowl just at the beginning of first crack slow down...I noticed the beans still burnt a bit...

My second try in manual was nearly the same as above except at P4 and I didn't notice much difference in the way the bean looked.

So I cooled both these beans down to cool to touch at about 4 minutes and put them into some old mocna coffee jars.

I know you should rest the beans after they had been roasted but curiosity got the better of me so that afternoon I ground up 15 grams and put them though a syphon..Heck... I nearly threw up on the first mouthful ..... Now I know how to wreck a good syphon cup of coffee and why you should wait a while before using.

Well...I'm still curious and today was day 5 after roasting and the beans smell really good so I tried a pour over this morning and found it just palletable...Fruity hints were coming out, I knew it was coffee and there is not to much after taste..I reckon give it a couple more days and it should be even better.

Below are my roasts at manual on P4 AND P5 all drum speeds at max.

I have a couple of questions...Is this bean easily burnt? Is it a tricky bean to roast? Is 100 grams too small a batch? and to those who use it in the Behmor...What settings and weights do you use?

Cheers.

[WhatEverBeansNecessary]

Hi Bigdaddy,

I also roast the decaf WOW (unfortunately super sensitive to cafiene which limits me to only a ocuple of coffees a day in the morning). The decaf WOW is great as far as decaf goes, but really doesn't compare to a single oriign full strength of reasonable quantity. It's also a slightly difficult bean to roast as the first cracks are very quiet and hard to hear at times.

First, 100g is really too small for the behmor for any bean. I have never had a good 100g gram roast, so have since given up! 200g is okay, but 400g is the sweet spot. Sometimes I will go for 250g/350g/450g etc to suit the bean and shorten or extend the roast. The problem with small batch sizes is that it leaves so very little room for error, if you start realising you are running too hot in 100g it's too late, the thermal mass of the beans is so small that it's all over. Larger batches have a slower response time to heat output changes, which makes it easier to get a 'smooth' roast profile (I am making some huge generalisations/simplifications but the logic is there!)

For decaf WOW I would suggest maybe a 200g roast, P1 then straight to manual mode P4. Once you hit the first sounds of first crack which will be very quiet, you want to drop the heat to maybe P1/P2 - the beans will go exothermic and produce enough heat to keep raising the temp. Then hit your rosetta stone feature (C) and the double drum speed (D). Let it coat for a min or so and then maybe bump up to P3/P4.
I let the decaf go reasonably dark, so you start getting oil on the beans maybe 2-3 days post roast. I think they just taste better that way, but thats personal prefference.

My overall suggestion would be to get a washed, well graded, full strength single origin bean to practice with. There are a couple of columbians - particularly the volcan geleras on bean bay at the moment which is divine to learn with. It takes the heat pretty well and is great for filter or espresso. It's a nice fat, juicy, well graded bean so you wont get the inconsistencies that you might with a natural processed - not as well sorted bean like a yemen or ethiopian (again a huge generalisation!)

My basic 'go to' roast settings are 400g, P1 then about 7-9 min in, go to P4 (75% power) wait until you hear the first snaps of first crack and hit rosetta stone (C) and double drum (D), drop to P2 (25% power). Then after about 2 min, P4, then finally a good whack to P5 to finish off for the last minute. If you are going for a filter coffee maybe drop the roast 1 minute early and don't go to P4/P5 - just finish on P3 maybe.
I usually start there and tinker after tasting a few days later.

Hope this helps and good luck!

[bigdaddy]

Thanks WhatEverBeansNecessary,

That certainly does help...

It's 8 days since I roasted My WOW and today I ground up some of my 2nd batch and made a pour over..I tried it black and must say, I was pleasantly surprised. It actually tasted OK :0 I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 for taste (but that's to my taste)...I thought it was light and a bit fruity...Being decafe I don't think it tastes as good as the caffeinated coffee but it was still OK..I'm now enjoying the rest of it as a cappuccino.

My next roast will be with WOW decaf following WhatEverBeansNecessary advise...

Cheers.

[rusty888]

Finally got my roaster after fastway stuffed up pretty badly.

About to roast my first batch. 400g to start with. The start with 100g are only guidelines right [emoji849]

[rusty888]

First roast done. India elephant hills AA grade that came with the roaster. Thought I’d do them rather than the 20 odd kg I also bought with.

Manual mode 400grams in.

P5 and kept til the B measure (wall chamber) was hovering around 128. I thought I read but couldn’t find it in the above 200 posts I went looking that at 132 it errors. Is that correct.

First crack pressed C dropped to P3 then one minute later pressed cool then one minute later took beans out and started cooling by swapping between bowls.

Would love for some feedback on this as it’s my first roast on any equipment.

[artman]

Looks pretty good to me!

It might make more sense to leave the beans in the machine during cooling (perhaps opening the door if you want more rapid cooling) in the interests of easy repeatability. Change one variable at a time otherwise you wont know what change did what.

From memory the max b temp is 160 odd? There is a thread about behmor max temps here if you do a search with the correct info.

Lately I have been doing a lazy P1 auto then down to 25 or 50% at 1C and press C for auto cooling after 3m10s. The results have been very nice. Unless I have done something stupid (like not press th start button when the display flashes) all the roasts from the behmor have been great. Nifty little machine that can be left to own devices in auto or allow good tinkering if that tickles your fancy.

Cheers

Cheers

[WhatEverBeansNecessary]

Agree with Artman they look great!

First and foremost the best measure for a sucess of a roast is how it tastes in the cup. I have had some horrible looking roasts that look incredibly uneven that taste amazing in the cup.

Agree with Artman about the cooling cycle in the machine. Behmor used a lot of science to get the whole process right. I open the door and blast a fan in there to cool it extra quick.

The Elephant hills is a super easy bean to roast, so it's great to learn on. Not too much chaff, nice loud first crack and can take quite a bit of heat before burning or giving the undesireable ashy flavours. I would think about stretching out the first crack phase a little more, maybe to 2 minutes or longer? - but it does depend on your brew method, in general espresso is darker and pour over lighter. Maybe try dropping to P1/P2 for a bit first and then back up to P3/P4 for a little bit.
The beans look a little uneven - some lighter and some darker. I find if you use the D button after first crack for double drum speed you get a more even roast.

But for a first roast of any kind, they are amazing! My first roast I think you could have used as charcoal on the BBQ. Great stuff.

[rusty888]

thanks artman and whateverbeans. I must say my partner said I looked like a little kid just camping a chair infront of the roaster.

Artman, I agree once I pulled it out I realised that was probably a mistake and opening the door will probably be a better idea and less mess. I'll go searching again for that thread as I wasnt sure if 100% power would max out it and stop with an overheat error message.

Whateverbeans, I think perhaps a small fan would be good but perhaps I will try with just the door open. The beans are for espresso but prefer lighter roasts over darker ones so wanted to ensure I didnt go to far over first crack. Great tip about the drum speed and I can see now about light and dark beans. It was all overwhelming once first crack started but I guess it will take time.

Now to wait the 5 or so days to try them.

[WhatEverBeansNecessary]

Nice one.

In general I found the bests roasts I have done occur when you get a nice easy roll of first crack. Like a couple of pops every second or so, rather than sounding like rice bubbles in milk or like popping candy. Usually a good sign you have got to a good temp without burning the hell out of it.