I'm soliciting all feedback from my forum brethren, for advice on my next batch going in tomorrow (Sunday) night after I get home from work.

I'm using an ingenious method of starting a thread tonight (also, shortly after getting off work) hoping that some of the greater wisdom on this forum will filter in throughout the evening and mostly the day Sunday, so I can successfully steer this interesting coffee to completion.

What interested me when I picked this coffee, was that it was described as a very complex coffee ( with a lot of sweetness) especially when kept at tamer levels of roast, like C+.

Sunday night will be my very first night getting to use my dual thermocouple setup on my Quest, so for the first time, I'll actually be able to accurately measure BT.

My learning method when it comes to roasting ( and most everything else in life) is when possible, KISS, keep it simple, stupid. So.... My highly regarded roasting coach Jim lays it out in plain English, to try to accomplish your goal in a 12 minute roast, with as an aggressive rise to 1C as possible ( or read that as fast rise) perhaps, then cut back temp and airflow to coast into the aroma and finish you're looking for.

I'm really not that experienced with stopping a roast at C+ only. That's my scary part. And I take pause, wondering if there's a precaution I need to take so as to not miss my mark and over shoot.

This will be only for drip/filter coffee. I have a little over 1.5 lbs, and I read that it does well with an extra day of rest, to bring out more of its complex fruitiness. I don't have any intentions of making an espresso roast out of this, but I'm sure I'll dial in one shot, just for the experience once it hits 36-48 hours post roast.

And now, this is the point where I shut up, quit typing and hope to read some valuable feedback/input from the rest of the forum. I'll be able to jump in and out of the thread tomorrow, as long as people don't wheeze too much at work

Thanks all.

You could start off with 3.5 - 4 minutes to 150 deg C, hit 1C (usually 193-199 deg C BT) in about 8-9 minutes and finish the roast another 3+ minutes after that for a final BT of 205-215 deg C.

Even if you try you will not be able to anticipate the heat development and hit the targets suggested above, but that might not be a bad thing, your accident could be much better than a standard profile like that above. Cup and see what you like / dislike about it.

I suggest doing a few roasts with some beans you have more quantity of first to get a base line of temps for end of drying phase, first and second crack. I also suggest roasting as you normally would with your senses and only record a few data points from the probes other wise you have a chance of only paying attention to data and not to the roasting.

Rob's point isn't falling on deaf ears, but I really want to get out of what I've been roasting lately. I haven't done a dialed in SO for drip or espresso since getting the Quest. They've all been blends. And although my last two batches ( while quite different) have both been great for espresso, the latest, being quite sweet and a very balanced fruity finish that lingers well.

I don't plan on roasting by temp only. I'm not going to just sit and document times and temps, but it's been hard for me to get the nose part of the equation dialed in. After the wet hay and the fresh toasted bread smells leading up to 1C, my ability to pick up anything "vinegar" or whatnot, is quite diminished. I might be in the minority here, and at some point down the line might change my approach, but I haven't found using the little tryer to be of much use, since I can clearly see the beans and their development thru the window. Pulling out a sample and giving them a sniff at certain points close to and beyond 1C hasn't given me much more feedback than what I see thru the window color wise. I hope that will change with experience with the quest

Experience and being able to link experience to what you are learning will be very valuable. I know just what you mean about getting the nose to be able to give you info about the roast process, it has taken me years of small roasts and tasting to reallly understand some of what Jim says. I also don't think my taste is any where close to Jim's and may never be. For example I have never tasted a 12 min roast out of a drum roaster that I like, but one thing is for sure, things I didn't like in the past I like now so a 12 min roast may be something I come to enjoy ( I have never had a roast from the quest ).

I have been working very hard to remember my humble beginnings of roasting and to retain that info, I worked hard and roasted hundreds of pounds of beans in 1/2lb batches to get what little I know. I see a ton of advice that says do this or do that but sometimes we forget if the person is new to roasting so many important steps in the roasting process because we have done it a hundred or more times for ourselves and those steps became second nature.

Honestly the advice I think is best for a newcomer to roasting is to roast with the same bean for 20lbs and exhaust the posiablitities of that bean with experimenting. I thought I had the roasting process very well figured out then I got a new machine, I did not have roasting figured out, I had the machine figured out. Take advice with a grain of salt, take profiles with a grain of salt and apply them to you own experience and you will roast coffee to taste the way you want it to.

Tom,

I don't see any specific questions here other than how not to overshoot C+. The trick there is to *really* kill the heat when first crack starts, because you want a good 3+ minutes post first crack at such a light roast (according to Boots and my experience). You can't do that too easily while not stalling, at least not without some practice.

The rest of your plan sounds right to me, namely following Jim's advice.

I'm not a newcomer to roasting, but a newcomer to this machine. Most of my nine years of roasting has been slowly creeping up the vines to better and better equipment. The fun and challenging aspect is; that now with manual control, I have to be much more cognizant of the process. Hence, my eyes are glued to what others are doing here, and what seems to be working for them.

Rama, the advice for approaching 1C is the exact kind of feedback I'm looking for, and any tips that might relate to this bean in particular.

Coming up, most of my coffee's I've done at home I'd say ended up more baked than roasted. I'm only now in the past 6 months at a point where I'm able to target certain aspects of the bean.

Gee whiz Tom with 9 years experience I should be asking you for advice!

Stopping a roast at city is easy, when first crack ends you are there. The hard part is getting the proper heat setting and air flow to give enough time for development so ending at city to city+. I like 3 min for brewed coffee no matter where I stop the roast. This is where a bean mass probe placed correctly to give consistent temps comes in handy and a bunch of practic to achieve heat levels so you can get through first crack in the time you want and end the roast where you want to at the degree of roast you want.

Yeah, but I started out with a popcorn manual popper with the whirly top rotating vanes and a thermometer drilled in thru the top. Then moved "up" to the Freshroast and made it thru college using that little darling, then moved on to the Behmor back in 09 maybe late 08, can't remember.

This is the first time I can actually fully control my variables, if you don't count how close to the flame I held my popcorn cooker