So I just finished up my first roast. It's going to be hard to wait. At least it should be easier than waiting for beer to ferment.

I'm roasting in a bread machine with a heat gun (had both of them already). The only modification I've made was to drill a hole in to insert my digital thermometer. I tried to insert the thermometer low enough to be in the beans and in just far enough not to get agitated by the stirrer. It still gets pushed out and I have to keep nudging it back in, I'll have to rig something for next time. I'm thinking this setup isn't giving me very accurate readings as the temp would fall quickly if I moved my heat gun around. Would a flexible probe placed on the bottom give me better readings?

Second I ended my roast when I began to hear loud popping and my thermometer reading about 450. This was about 12 minutes in. Is it possible I completely missed the first crack?

Thanks!

BetaLactam wrote:So I just finished up my first roast. It's going to be hard to wait. At least it should be easier than waiting for beer to ferment.

HAhahaha, I have zero patience which is why I never started brewing beer.

450 sounds kind of hot but maybe that was getting more environmental temps rather than bean temps.

If it was loud, it was probably 1st crack, and your 12 minutes sounds good.

I agree 450 was likely environment and not bean temp. How do they look? The beans that is? Compare to online images.

Try listening to YouTube videos of roasts to hear the difference between 1st crack and second.

Also, I highly recommend making an over-roast. Try taking a roast that you don't have to drink into 2 crack so you get an idea of the timing and gap between the 2 as well as the sound.

Have fun! I love to home roast.... It's addicting

BetaLactam wrote:So I just finished up my first roast...

Second I ended my roast when I began to hear loud popping and my thermometer reading about 450. This was about 12 minutes in. Is it possible I completely missed the first crack?

Thanks!

1st crack sounds like popcorn popping whereas second is more like loud Rice Crispies crackling. Once you find a roast where you clearly hear both cracks, you will never confuse the two.

Welcome to roasting!

Note that you may kill your thermometer with the heat. I did. Thermocouples can take the heat much better.

So, from the sound of it, I'm thinking I pulled my roast right after 1st crack. Any chance these beans are tasty?

I'll likely be buying a thermocouple now. Advice on placement in my bread machine? I've read that a few degrees at the end of a roast can make a big difference. This would mean accurate temps are a big deal. I'm having a hard time imagining getting that accurate a reading.

At 12 minutes into the roast, you missed the first crack. Heat gun roasting in an open bread maker will take some time to get right. I doubt that your thermometer is going to do you much good. Rely on timing, stirring, and keeping your heat gun oriented in such a way as to evenly heat the beans.

The second crack occurs at over 450F, so I think your probe is close. With the open container concept though, I doubt it is telling you the internal temperature of the beans. Trust the force Luke. Let your eyes and ears guide you.

Last winter I designed a 1/2 pound stainless steel drum coffee roaster. I set the roaster over a Coleman propane camp stove, and spin it until I am done.

At first I put the camp stove on high (10,000 BTU'S) and punished those coffee beans in six minutes. I got first and second altogether. My next roast, I reduced the heat to half at 4 minutes into the roast, then low at the first crack. This gave me a 12 minute roast with a 2 1/2 minute first crack, about a 20 pause after the first crack, and then I let the second crack get fully involved for 30 seconds. I call it a medium roast, with no oil popping. I guess according to Maria's chart below it would be a Full City + roast.

This is the best explanation I have ever seen:
https://www.sweetmarias.com/library/con ... gree-roast

Good luck

BetaLactam wrote:Would a flexible probe placed on the bottom give me better readings?

Second I ended my roast when I began to hear loud popping and my thermometer reading about 450. This was about 12 minutes in. Is it possible I completely missed the first crack?

I'm guessing you heard 1st crack, which is generally louder. I seriously doubt you would have heard second crack and NOT heard first crack. If you stopped roasting as you began hearing first crack, you under roasted.

the_trystero wrote:HAhahaha, I have zero patience which is why I never started brewing beer.

Then don't try wine! I won't know how 2013 turned out for at least another 6 months. My longest beers (Westleveren clones, sour beers) take less than 4 months to know how they turned out.

ripcityman wrote:At 12 minutes into the roast, you missed the first crack.
...
I doubt that your thermometer is going to do you much good. Rely on timing, stirring, and keeping your heat gun oriented in such a way as to evenly heat the beans.

Wrong and wrong.

If he is using a 1500 degree heat it is entirely possible that the first crack and second crack are fused together into one. I know I could do it if I tried. A heat gun is loud, so he missed something. At 12 minutes into the roast with say what 200/300 grams of beans? He missed something. Have another beer man.

So you're saying it took 12 minutes to reach first, but by then the rate of rise accelerated so much it blew right past first into second? So he cranked up the heat at some point towards the end? The OP didn't say anything to suggest such a thing.

You're continuing to make assumptions stated as fact. They are opinions, and you should frame them that way.