I thought it would be interesting to talk about some of our worst roasting sessions gone wrong, and the occasional time that the coffee is still drinkable, or downright good. My first major blunder happened a few nights ago and is worth mentioning.

I had just received EricS's new Alternate BT probe, that goes right thru one of the screws securing the sight glass on the Quest M3. I love using it, and it's certainly better for the Quest than the standard BT thermocouple location. I started with a simple washed Ethiopian. About 4 minutes into the drying phase I see the washer and the nut swimming along with my beans. I had about 2 seconds to decide how critical it was before the decision was made for me, the sight glass slipped out and into my tray, and I had to end the roast right as the beans were starting to turn a deep golden yellow.

I dropped and cooled them, and had to completely cool down the Quest so I could work on it and properly torque them back down (they've been fine since).

Anyways, it's shocking that the coffee wasn't ruined. I fired up the Quest at a higher temp to somewhat have it in a high energy phase for the ramp, then without thinking, charged the wrong damn beans. I put a fresh batch of Kenya Makwa AB in. So, now I have two weird coffees to test.

I brewed the Ethiopian today and thought it was an incredible cup of coffee. I haven't cupped it against the other proper roast that I did 30 minutes later, but it will be an interesting comparison.

What timing -

Just picked up a Behmor, and being a tech have a tendency to follow manuals. So did the initial 1/4# P1 run, with the predictable results. Dark yellow pretty much describes how they ended up. My second attempt was much better ignoring the manual and following advice found here and there. 1/2# beans, punched in 1#, P2, B, and then hit + 'till reaching max(22 minutes). Hit cool at 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, needed coffee, so dumped the previous batch into my trusty iRoast2 set to 420f and got them to about City +. Not great, but good in the cappuccinos we have each morning.

I've made a minor blunder here and there, but nothing like a few nights ago. I get everything set up and start preheating. In hindsight I realize the pre-heat was too quick, but at the time I was pre-occupied. No, excuse. Anyway, I glace over at Artisan and I notice I'm near my desired charge temp. I get my Panama Esmeralda Gesha ready and away they go down the chute. I note the high TP, but don't bat an eye... I realize something was off as the roast was approaching 130. Zero color change and a lack of steam that is always forming at this temp. I cut back on the fan thinking it is too powerful and blowing all the steam out the exhaust. I was really aware something was wrong at 150. I check my heat setting, looked at the elements. Looking at them was pointless b/c they don't glow at lower heat settings, but I was sure they had failed. Than it hit me, I had the TMD-56 set to F while experimenting with the Vacpot and didn't change it back. I cranked everything to 10 and let it ride till the end.

Expected baked and ashy coffee. Either turned up in the cup. I've obviously gotten much better results with this coffee, but at least it didn't end up in the trash.

Here is the comical Profile, with the Celsius switch .

The profiles shown below are my first and second roasts of Kenya Muthuthiini. The second one is the obvious disaster; it was interrupted by equipment failure -- the output receptacle of the router speed control melted. I reloaded and continued the roast, just to see what I would get. So that charge was double-roasted; the graph shows the 2 profiles spliced together. It did NOT produce a great cup. However, it is almost identical to the one with the "normal" profile. Roast 1 has a nice cherry fragrance and a light chocolate-hazelnut aroma. Roast 2 has the chocolate-hazelnut fragrance and aroma -- no cherry. Both have medium bright acidity but are otherwise pretty dull. Both are 150 gram charges, roasted in a West Bend Poppery.

cuppajoe, I also have a Behmor and there is very little found in the manual to help, I guess Behmor wants to protect us from burning down our house. I have found what works best for me is; use 1/2 pound of beans (227 grams), on 1#, P3, C total 21:30 minutes. I do not preheat.
If needed for 1#, drum with beans & chaff tray, (406 grams MAX), preheat 120seconds.
If doing so; once you hear the first crack, wait for pop #2, notice time, then deduct these times;

City / 2:30 to 2:45 minutes before pressing "cool".
City+ / 2:45 to 3:00
Full City / 3:00 to 3:15
Full City+ / 3:15 to 3:30 (for me this is best for espresso)
Vienna or Light French / 3:30 to 4:00 or more.
When 1 crack is over there will be a short spell of silence before 2 crack, sometimes not.

Do check and record your times adjust if needed for your Behmor.
A 12" fan on top, in fireplace to reduce smells, 4" to blow into beans when cooling.
Hope this works for you, Bozo