Ok it's official. I'm going to be roasting on a Quest M3. This is going to be a Christmas present It's an awesome upgrade from my current P1, router spd controller, fluke (for BT). Now I've read about the benefits of real time BT/ MET plotting and I think most of you do this. I have no problem picking up an Amprobe and learning to use Artisan. My question is, as someone who is fairly new to roasting, is there more I can learn by just smelling, watching, hearing? Am I missing out on some of the fundamentals of drum roasting?

Good question! I've been using a Behmor 1600 since last xmas and am thinking of making the move to a huky (or usrc sample roaster if the bossman ever gives out Year End bonuses again...) within a year or two. Hearing some discussion on this would prove helpful to me as well before I go splurge on the techie side of roasting.

I would recommend ending roasts by smell. Normally, this is done by removing the tryer and sniffing. However, with the Quest, I use the exhaust gas to smell, since it uses small loads that don't overwhelm the nose, and since the tryer is very tiny. Try it both ways, and pick the one you like more. For light roasts, you are looking for an end to the acrid/acidic odors that start with the first crack. For medium roasts, caramel aromas. For dark roasts, bean dependent dry distillates.

I also regard reading the MET temperature as mandatory (much more so than bean temperature). You can smell and see the state of the bean. But if the drum/environmental temperature are too hot, you will end up scorching the beans; if it is too low, the roast will take too long and end up flat. There is no way you can sense the MET, so you need to measure it.

People who are into charting profiles believe aspects of the profile can be correlated to aspects of the taste in an almost 1:1 way. To them, this is the exciting leading edge of roasting and a developing science; to me it is just magical thinking (e.g like Renaissance Neoplatonism, where walnuts are good for the brain, because they look like brains). You should do your own blind cupping, and make up your own mind.