I still like the Freshroast from time to time, to try out one small batch for a quick 1 pot brew. Everything is rather muted with regards to the uniqueness and flavor profiles, but when I was in college and just wanted fresh, non bitter, good tasting coffee, it did the job.

Very early Monday morning I set out to roast 3-150g batches of this Kenyan. It was exceedingly enjoyable using the thermocouples for the first time, compared to staring at an analogue thermometer, stuck in the middle of the roaster, measuring a close proximation of ET. I kept all three batches separate so I can see what my results are in comparison to my notes. Yes, after 9 years, I'm finally taking notes, not just winging it.

I was surprised how long it seemed to be taking to get up to 200 on the BT probe, set at 5 Amps with the fan off. After 20 minutes, I got restless, and cranked it up, and of course overshot to the mid 220's. Then, I killed the heat and opened the door till I got down to 200, and set it back to 5 Amps.

First lesson: That doesn't help a damn thing as far as consistent, well regulated heat. I dropped in and it took 9 minutes, 45 seconds just to get up to 165. The whole roast hit 1C at 13 minutes and was killed shortly thereafter with a BT of 197 at 1C. I'm not expecting much from this batch.

Second batch with a proper ( at least intentional) starting drop in temp of 205, still took 7.5 minutes to get to 165. 1C at 11:20 @ 198. Done at 12:30 with a final BT of 221

Third batch, I think I was learning that in order to get my dry down phase dialed in, I'd need to push harder than 5 Amps on my machine, so starting at 7, with a BT reading of 220, I was able to get to 165 at 4:50, with a 1C @ 7:45 leading to a nicer stretch time to finish, without going to far past C+ maybe FC.

I'll be cupping all of these Thursday, and primarily Friday, since I'm off then.

I had one tricky lesson. Found out one of my thermometers read out only up to 150C, so I need to order another one. They look identical, but one must have been the older monitor that has a much narrower band.

Cupping batch 2 today, and greatly let down by it. Tons of body, well balanced, but very muted, with no fruit notes standing out at all. It's at day 3, I'd expect it to be ready to peak no later than day 4. The funny thing was it pulled a very pleasant espresso shot this morning.

Maybe batch 3 with the longer stretch after 1C will show more fruit. I'm hoping...

I might look into insulating my drum. I need at least 6-7 amps at drop in, in order to be able to push thru the drying phase quicker. Taking 8.5-9 minutes just to hit 165BT seems odd.

One thought I had, was that I'm operating under the assumption that the thermocouples are already properly calibrated. I'm about 80 feet above sea level, so I suppose boiling some water and dropping them in to verify temp would let me know. Does anyone know if this could potentially damage the thermocouple tips? I doubt it, but thought I should ask.

Boiling water will be close to 212 F, but "saturated steam" is better. Somewhere here there is a photo of EricS' set up for "calibrating" thermometers. As I recall, it is basically a covered pot that fills with steam. It is pretty unlikely that your thermocouples are significantly "off" but it might be your meter. If the steam bath doesn't show something close to 212 F (plus or minus a couple degrees), feel free to PM me if you want as I'm in San Francisco and have another meter (as well as a Thermapen) we could use to figure out what isn't quite right.

I love my thermapen! One of these days I'll get around to doing the styrofoam cup thing to verify brew head temps on my machine with it.

I guess I have a little homework assignment for tomorrow on my day off.

Basically a big let down, across the board for me. There's not one single stand alone attribute I can point to on this roast. I taste it, it tasted balanced. It has plenty of body, even when done via a careful Hario pour over, still no fruit at all. I wish I knew what I did wrong.

If the coffee tasted bad, I'd toss it and start over, but it's entirely drinkable, just unexciting. It pulls an espresso with some sweetness and a hint of malty chocolate stout. It doesn't improve as it cools off, it settles into a tobacco sharp vinegary sense.

Bought more Guatemala Geisha yesterday. Might take a stab at that. Might go with some Y. C. My palate is bored with my bright Salvadorian beans.

Now I can accurately measure ET. The first set-up I used maxed out. For some reason, I could monitor it in F, but not C. I might roast something again today and just build up some stock. I gotta have something to look forward to, since this batch was a bust brew wise.

Yeah, I had read various comments on the other Kenyan thread about lower(200C) BT drop in temps, vs higher (220C). I imagine if my M3 was insulated, that might have helped me get thru the dry down phase faster at at drop in of 200, but on all three batches I was looking at 8-9 minutes just to get there. I might go the route of insulating some day. It would stand to reason that over the life of the device, I'd consume less electricity, not that it was my number one priority, but it's not a bad thing either.

Something woke up today... It's odd. I figured if a coffee hadn't expressed it's flavor profile by day 4, then it was essentially a miss. But this morning I made my normal 500cc batch on my Technivorm and was very very surprised to finally find something unique and standing out. Even the coffee I brought with me to work ( pre-ground) in the Clever Dripper was phenomenal. No single fruit that stood out, but dark berries and almost a winey taste similar to a Yirg, that I found pleasant.

This is further reinforcement for me that I need to continue taking notes of the roasts in process and how they cup out during their peak period. I'm 1/3 of the way thru this batch of beans, and it just now today hit its stride.

TomC wrote:Something woke up today... dark berries and almost a winey taste

Now this is a flavor I love in a Kenyan. Some go so bright that the balance is way off for my taste - sounds like you hit a good profile here.