After looking at some of the profiles on here, as well as roast "checkpoints" from a local roaster's batches - I've recently started playing with shorter drying phases. Typically I was just over 5:00 for washed coffees, 5:30 or more for dry processed. The DP ethiopians have been quite spectacular; I've had ok to good results with the washed coffees.

Attached are pictures of two guatemalan roasts I did using more heat during dry phase. I THOUGHT these would cup quite well, but they both ended up being rather sour and overly acidic. My first roast attempt I struggled to get under 5:00 for some reason, I think I didn't use enough airflow. 2nd roast I got more around the dry phase time I wanted but both cupped fairly similar (poor). Do you guys have any advice? Did I back off too much when FC started? (wondering if I need to carry more energy through dev and have a higher ROR if I'm doing a roast where I hit FC around 8-8:30 and am targeting a city/city+ roast. Would love thoughts and advice or maybe some different things to try depending upon dry phase vs ramp vs dev. I'll refrain from asking 20 more questions lol....

FYI - charge weight - 350g
Roaster - Huky 500 perforated drum
I didn't mark it in artisan because I was trying to smell the beans with the trier and not mess with my computer - first crack ended around 2-2:15 minutes I think

sidenote - ignore the electrical noise I get during the first phase of the roast (thats a whole other story)

Thanks!
-Joe

I know this doesn't help you much, but I roasted 1000's of profiles on a Huky and struggled a LOT with underdeveloped coffee. It was the most frustrating part of that roaster. Roasting light-medium was always a challenge. I rarely have underdeveloped coffee on my North 1k.

Johnny, do you think that has to do with the larger mass of the North? That it is a better package for the heating you are doing inside it?

It's the only thing that I can think of. My roasting strategy hasn't changed 1 bit. If you're a great roaster on the Huky, I commend you, because I was not.

johnny4lsu wrote:If you're a great roaster on the Huky, I commend you

Me? HA ! !
But it's all I've got and all I'm gonna have, so it's just gonna have to do
Susan

One thing to think about is that faster and lighter roast styles often require adjustments to brewing technique. Have you tried your best to extract more from the coffee by some combination of finer grind/hotter water/longer contact time?

Assuming that you have exhausted those options, when I do faster roasts, I'll typically charge hot enough to do something more like 3/4/2:15 than 4/3/2:15, and that is because getting more heat into the center of the beans early on helps to even out development. It looks like you are starting cooler and keeping your ROR essentially flat for most of the roast, which will make it harder to fully develop the center of the bean. I assume that you chose this strategy because hotter charges will scorch; if not, you might see if you can get better development with a hotter charge. But this is all pretty speculative because I have never used a Huky, so maybe other Huky users can chime in to share faster profiles that have worked for them?

Finally, on the assumption that this is the hottest you can go without scorching, this exercise may illustrate the dangers of trying to mimic profiles developed on very different equipment, which may or may not be achievable in your own roaster. When I used a heat gun & bread machine roasting setup, I generally preferred slower profiles, and was more likely to prefer a slow start/fast finish style for many coffees. Now that I use a commercial drum roaster, I tend to prefer fast start/slow finish profiles and faster overall roast times. The primary factor that explains the switch in approach is that my USRC has a lot of thermal mass in its drum. What this means is that, for a given charge temperature, there is more heat energy stored in the drum that can be transferred to the beans. This lets me get higher initial RORs without having to charge at such a high temperature that I scorch the beans.

So the central lesson may be this: Don't worry to much about matching other people's profiles. Instead, just experiment with different approaches and choose what works for you and your equipment based on taste.

[quote="[creative nickname]" I assume that you chose this strategy because hotter charges will scorch; if not, you might see if you can get better development with a hotter charge. But this is all pretty speculative because I have never used a Huky, so maybe other Huky users can chime in to share faster profiles that have worked for them?.[/quote]

I don't know what drum the OP is using, but scorching has never seemed to be an issue at any charge temperature with the perforated drum. I think you're spot on about the higher charge temp, but there seems to be a large-ish contingent over at the Huky Forum who are fans of low charge temperatures. Maybe most or all of them have solid drums, which is probably/certainly an almost entirely different roaster than the one with the perforated drum.

The low mass of the Huky makes it a very different (read: "sensitive") creature, at least compared to e.g. a TJ-067. (OTOH, it's easy to dismantle the roaster and tuck it away in a cupboard or whatever, without breaking you back.)
It took me quite some time too, to get accustomed to the Huky and as I came from a GeneCafe, I really have nothing to compare with. I've done most of my roasting with a solid drum, which I find easier to get along with. I experimented for some 6 months with the perforated drum, but never got more than acceptable roasts with it. But on the other hand, I've changed my roasting strategy since changing back to the solid drum and I think that strategy would suit the perforated drum too. I'll see if I ever will make side by side comparisons with that new strategy, even though rebuilding the Huky is done in less than an hour (once it's cool... )
I've so far havn't had any problems with tipping/scorching and with my current strategy, charging very low I don't think it will ever happen for me with the Huky. Given the recommendations from Mr. Li, I'd say there should be no problems with charging at 250C/480F or more! It's nothing I'd ever do nowadays, but it's doable with dense beans.
On the Guat roasts, the way I think about it is that the actual length of the Drying Phase isn't that important, as long as it's not ridiculusly long (say 8 minutes or so...). What is much more important is to build up the momentum for the rest of the roast, i.e. to have the correct "speed" when going into the Maillard and development phases. This momentum is all set up during the drying phase and if you are going through the DryPh. too quick, you will probably also have too high speed at DE. I achieve this by charging rather low, with the solid drum I'd go for 150C300F for the 350g charge in the examples above. The most important part of this "strategy" is that it has given me consistency and consistently much better coffee.
What I think of the two Guat roasts is that you don't give the roast enough momentum, which is caused by (IMHO) a too high charge temp. With a 350g batch of beans I'd start with a charge point of 175C/350F, rendering a TP at around 80C/175F. That would help me to build that momentum I want for the rest of the roast. That will get me into the 5-6 minute range for the drying phase, but the roast is very easy to control from there. (That compared to a roast with a TP above boiling point, where I feel like I have to slow down (OK, hit the brakes...) almost from the start of the roast.)

Yes, I know that Susan don't agree with me on this, which is alright.

edtbjon wrote:What I think of the two Guat roasts is that you don't give the roast enough momentum, which is caused by (IMHO) a too high charge temp. With a 350g batch of beans I'd start with a charge point of 175C/350F, rendering a TP at around 80C/175F. That would help me to build that momentum I want for the rest of the roast. That will get me into the 5-6 minute range for the drying phase, but the roast is very easy to control from there.

The profiles you suggest may work very well for a Huky and the kind of coffee the OP is using, so please don't take this as a comment on that aspect of your post. But I think the portion I quoted is exactly backwards. High momentum = high ROR, and (presuming that other variables are held constant equal) high ROR will be associated with hotter charges and faster drying times, not the other way around.

SJM wrote:I don't know what drum the OP is using, but scorching has never seemed to be an issue at any charge temperature with the perforated drum. I think you're spot on about the higher charge temp, but there seems to be a large-ish contingent over at the Huky Forum who are fans of low charge temperatures. Maybe most or all of them have solid drums, which is probably/certainly an almost entirely different roaster than the one with the perforated drum.

Yeah a perforated drum takes the roaster even more towards a low-thermal-mass extreme, and having never used one my typical advice may be even less useful for that context.