First Two HotTop B roasts....Results and Questions

[MobJackJaVA]

Here are the details:

250 Grams of Colombian Supremo. Dropped beans in at 166 Degrees and started timer (personal stopwatch). First Crack started at 390 degrees and remained active through about 405. My stopwatch read 14:32. First crack was rolling by 15:02. Second crack started around 410 degrees and 16:10 with only a thirty some second delay between first and second (is that normal?). I ejected at about 414 degrees (alarm sounded) and 16:20.

Beans have apprearance of city roast....although you'd think they should be full city. Only two or three beans had spots of oil on them and they didn't seem really shiny. Do you think that's due to bean quality?

Both roasts look similar.

Question: Should I drop beans in at the 166 degree prompt beeps, or should I wait until the temp is higher (someone mentioned 200 degree in another post?)

Question: When cupping tomorrow morning for a drip coffee maker, is there a standard unit of measure (grams) per ten cups of water? I'd like to use the same amount of coffee for every test cupping I do. Is there a standard amount out there before I make one up?

Question: If I add a bean thermometer would that Void my warranty?

Cheers....

[cafeIKE]

The point of Home Roasting is to experiment.

Taste the coffee, see what you think.
Roast some more, taste some more.

Many like to drop at 250 for a shorter roast.

I start with 70g for 10 "cups" in a Presto Scandi, but I have a different roaster, coffee, grinder, brewer, so again, experiment to see what tastes best.

[Randy G.]

It sounds like you used the default profile. Remember that you can adjust the power to the heating element as well as the fan speed during the roast to adjust the profile to whatever you like (within the roaster's design parameters, of course).

[MobJackJaVA]

Thanks for the input Ian. I agree that home roasting is all about personal taste. I was looking at it specifically from the industries point of view. People win contests because they have talented taste buds, so there must be a standard that is used to allow these individuals the ability to test their skills. Maybe not, it would just seem that way to me.

Randy, yes, I used the Auto setting to see what would happen. Well...it was the same thing that happend for everyone else. I'm planning on trying some of the profiles others have listed tomorrow. Hopefully that will slow the roast down some.

Thanks.....

[Cosmo]

Mob, if you look at (i think) the third page of the HT Programable thread, Cycling Craig posted a graph on how he was slowing down both his time to first and the interval between first and second. I have been playing around with his settings and am getting good results.
Mike

[MobJackJaVA]

Thanks for the direction Cosmo. I've already used Craigs roast and gotten mixed results. I did four roasts yesterday and used his profile as a base. After the first batch I started playing with the fan controls. My thought was that the fastest way to drop the bean temp is to increase the air flow. This did work, but what also happened was that the beans along the drum roasted faster, creating an even more uneven roast. So there has to be a middle ground, right? Well I tried and tried to mess with the fan controls but kept getting uneven roasts. As a result, the coffee brewed from these bean finishes bitter.

Does my logic about the fan control make sense? Why else would you need it if not to lower the bean temp and therefore extend your roasting time. My plan today is to lower the heating element more while increasing fan speed....then incrementally increasing the heat while decreasing the fan. I'll post to let you know what happens.

MJ

[Cosmo]

MJ, all I know for sure is I got lots to learn.

My take on the fan control, for what it's worth: I load my beans at around 200 degrees (HT readout) and the fan comes on at 75% auto for one minute at about 2 (?) minutes into the roast. Around 250 degrees, I turn on the fan 25% and leave it on until I get to first. My thought is that at 25% it acts sort of like a convection oven relying less on radiant heat. When first gets rolling, I push the fan to 100% and lower the heater to 20=30% to lengthen the interval between first and second. The higer fan speed, along with opening the bean chute allows for some heat to bleed off and slows the roast a bit. I am going back to 225 gm bean loads because I think I get more of a even roast that way.

The thing about all of this is, different bean varieties roast differently. As always, YMMV. Good luck, and please post whatever works for you.
Mike

[CyclingCraig]

Yeah..

I am not sure at all how the fan adjust the roasts, I am just as new to this you are.

The fan setting in the profile I posted are just letting the hottop do it's thing, I only adjusted the heater. I just wanted to adjust one thing at a time and the heater seemed like the right thing to try?!?!

My goal was to slow down my roasts, I was getting like 12 - 14 minute roasts. I was trying to get to the 18 minute time frame.

I actually roasted some SM's Monkey yesterday, took the roast to about 15 - 20 seconds into second crack. and total roast time was 18:15. I just used my AD-1 I posted and sat back. The only thing was first crack came about 30-40 seconds early and my heater stayed at 70% as first crack was underway. I "like" to knock down the heater to 30% AS SOON as 1st starts.(Don't know why, but I think I got the idea from Doug). But overall the roast looks really good.

The shots I have been pulling lately from this "base" profile I came to, have been really good, so I think I am going to stick with this for a little while?!?!

-Craig

[cafeIKE]

The HotTop has quite a bit of thermal inertia, so you need to anticipate the changes.

The graph here shows when I turn on the fan to about 40%*, about 380°F bean temperature.

The power is cut about 40% just before first crack and the fan on full once first crack is going.

Too much air too early gives the beans a strange metallic aroma and taste.

* 40% of full flow.

[Fullsack]

I've already used Craigs roast and gotten mixed results.

Craig and I are just getting started in the HotTop programming world, see this classic H-B thread on espresso profiling with posts by some of the most experienced contributors to Home Barista:

http://www.home-barista.com/forum...spresso-t3115.html