Sweet Maria's has a really good page on the roast curves using the Behmor profiles:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.behmor3...uality.php

I've also found their tip sheet to be really helpful when first starting out:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/Tip-Sheets_P...mor_SM.pdf

I've been pretty much manually stopping my roast with the Behmor and using the most gradual heat settings. My roast times can go to about 25 minutes for a good French leaving (depending on the beans) a 2-3minute gap between 1st and 2nd crack. 1st crack lasting about 2 minutes itself and I've never gotten to the end of 2nd, don't much like anything darker than a light french.

Anywho, the settings I tend to use the absolute most:
1lb (always under loading at 1/2lb.) // P5 // A // START // + until you can't add anymore time. I always hit COOL when I've reach my desired roast.

There is a HUGE difference in roast depending on when you add the time (before or after you hit START). SM has a section on that.

I have been using the Behmor about 2 years. Now, outside in the good weather. Lately, I have been experimenting with 12 oz. loads (1lb setting) P1 - A profile. 18-20 min for Full City+ (various espresso blends.)

When the beans start first crack I have been opening roaster door, about a minute, to lower temp and extend second crack to about 4 min. I also open door when I hit second crack to cool it faster. (because I am outside - smoke no problem.)

(I have not concluded this new approach is best.)

Howard

Skunkie wrote:Sweet Maria's has a really good page on the roast curves using the Behmor profiles:
http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.behmor3...uality.php

There is a HUGE difference in roast depending on when you add the time (before or after you hit START). SM has a section on that.

Just to be clear....unless Behmor has updated the controls on the roaster recently, the +/- buttons on the control panel only add or subtract time from the last leg of the selected profile regardless of WHEN the buttons are pushed. I think J. Behm clarified this on the coffeegeek website a while back and this functionality is consistent with my experience using the roaster. The info on the SM site appears to be out of date and it should be updated. Of course, roasting shorter or longer will have a HUGE difference in the roast but that's about all there is too it.

Pat

Phillip,

One way to get the Behmor (w/ mostly fixed profiles) to perform in a manner that approximates the more commonly used timing (e.g., 1 C around 10 to 12 minutes and 2C about 4 to 6 minutes later) would be to use the P2 setting (3 stage profile with heating at 100%, 70%, 100%) and select a bean load and roast time (A, B, C) to position the beginning of drop in heating at the end of 1C (i.e., 1C finishes, THEN the heat drops to avoid moving quickly into 2C). Given that 1C normally takes about 1.5 minutes, this translates to shooting for the start of 1C to occur at 10.5 minutes elapsed (1 lb P2 B profile drops the heating at 12:00 minutes elapsed) or start 1C at 11.5 minutes elapsed (1lb P2 C profile drops the heating at about 13:00 minutes elapsed). I recommend having the heat drop after 1C is mostly complete (this is different than the common wisdom) because from my experience the 70% heating on this roaster may not be sufficient to sustain 1C without stalling the roast. In most cases, you will stop the roast before the last 100% heating leg occurs so really this is a 2 stage profile with full heat through 1C and reduced heat until the end of the roast. You could experiment with some cautious door opening once 1C begins to try and slow the pace while the heater is on 100% which is more than is needed. A window of bean loads to start with would be in the range of 8 to 12 oz (i.e., approx 8 to 10 for "B" and 10 to 12 for "C" but YMMV).

Of course the timing of the roast given a fixed profile will change with all the other variables (bean type, power, ambient temp, humidity etc) and so getting consistent results with this approach can be frustrating to get the hang of but it can produce very good results if you nail it and over time its not that difficult. I find I get more consistent results on the timing consistency from batch to batch with pre-roast blended espresso blends as the effect of each bean origin on the timing of the roast is more muted with a blend relative to single origin batches. Thus, I can usually modify the blend somewhat to try different options without dramatically changing the roast time.

Good luck,
Pat

scrutinizer wrote:Phillip,

One way to get the Behmor (w/ mostly fixed profiles) to perform in a manner that approximates the more commonly used timing (e.g., 1 C around 10 to 12 minutes and 2C about 4 to 6 minutes later) would be to use the P2 setting (3 stage profile with heating at 100%, 70%, 100%) and select a bean load and roast time (A, B, C) to position the beginning of drop in heating at the end of 1C (i.e., 1C finishes, THEN the heat drops to avoid moving quickly into 2C). Given that 1C normally takes about 1.5 minutes, this translates to shooting for the start of 1C to occur at 10.5 minutes elapsed (1 lb P2 B profile drops the heating at 12:00 minutes elapsed) or start 1C at 11.5 minutes elapsed (1lb P2 C profile drops the heating at about 13:00 minutes elapsed).

This is what I followed for my second batch of 1/2# Monkey Blend. Tomorrow morning will be my first pulled shot of it. I ended up roasting for 14:30 on P2. One question that I'm sure has been asked a million times. Is 1C literally the first cracking? I've been counting my 1C, and 2C, as when they start to fire away - if you know statistics at all, in my head I think of it as less than one standard deviation away from the mean in a normal distribution.

Another thought - this isn't as difficult a learning curve as my Pavoni. It seems that it's pretty straightfoward to roast too lightly (the subject taste of this thread) or too darkly (haven't done that one yet), but just about anything in between has certainly been drinkable. I'm looking forward to finding one or two beans that I really enjoy from this 8 pound sampler pack, and then buying in bulk to really fine tune the characteristics. I guess this is much more like a coffee cupping than I had realized.

-phillip