Roasting help... last batch smells almost like fresh hay

#1: Post by **soundklinik** » July 28th, 2013, 9:29 am

I roast my beans on gas stove in a stovetop popcorn popper. (8oz/250g batches)

My Beans:
Tanzania AM Mringa Estate, R Brazil Daterra Sweet Yellow, Honduras SHG, Brazil Pulped natural
Cost Rica SHB Ojo de Agua, Papua New Guinea Sigru A, El Salvador SHG las Lajas, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua SHG, Indian monsoon Malabar, Guatemalan Pastoral Antiqua, Sumatra White Aceh...

My last batch of (Honduras SHG) beans after a day of resting and overnight in a jar smelled almost like (don't laugh) fresh hay in a field, almost "sharp" smell to it, faintly cafe...Any idea of what that type of smell means?
Taste-wise not too good, rather strong...In about a week, my beans start to have oil to come out on some see #14...
The bean color was about #13 on sweetmarias chart...
My question is: on resulting roast...Is it possible I bake them, instead of roast, or roast them too quick?
I get FC in 4-9 minutes. (extremes)
Which one of the above beans should I experiment on for espresso?
I am not new to roasting, I roasted about 50kg of beans 10 years ago, (living on a sailboat) darker roast#12-14. But then, I don't remember coffee smelling bad, or burnt.
Now I have a temp gauge, scales, timer and poor results...lol
Thanks for help.

#2: Post by **TomC** » July 28th, 2013, 10:06 am

Consider cutting the charge weight considerably. Grassy hay like notes along with anything that looks very dark often is a sign of poor development and likely too fast and uneven of a drying stage. The outside of the beans look finished long before the internal area gets developed out of the grassy stage. This can often happen from overloading the roaster. Cut the weight by about a 1/3'd to start and see if the same general method you used before helps. Try to keep the heat low for the intial phase a bit longer, to make sure they are completely dry throughout before you really kick it to them.

#3: Post by JK » July 28th, 2013, 10:15 am

You want your yellow stage to happen around 5-6 mins
1C around 9-11 mins

Try a longer roast and stop it right as 2C starts and se how it tastes 3 days later..

I let all my coffees rest at least three days..

#4: Post by **TomC** » July 28th, 2013, 10:21 am

One of the risks of letting a Poppery type stove top device take a coffee into second crack is it often blows thru that with little slowing, leading to too dark of a roast then intended. There's esentially no airflow thru them, and the massive amounts of heat have no place to go.

#5: Post by **Boldjava** » July 28th, 2013, 10:28 am

TomC wrote:Consider cutting the charge weight considerably. Grassy hay like notes along with anything that looks very dark often is a sign of poor development and likely too fast....

+1.

July 28th, 2013, 11:09 am

Thank you all for opinions, it seems that I roast waaaay too fast, one time I got FC in 4 minutes

The more I think about it and read your replies...I think I am torturing those poor beans, not roasting...

Now that I know, I hope my next batch will be better.
THANKS

July 31st, 2013, 9:48 am

Latest update...
I made 2 different roasts with less beans and lower heat. The beans now smell like coffee...no more sunny plains with drying grass...
It seems that there was too much heat in roaster...
Still it needs to be improved to have results I'm after...
cheers