Evening HB Crew, got a few roasts in on my new USRC and looking for any comments and had a few questions.
This was 5th roast on the new machine and 2nd where I tried to control the roast to my normal targets. First 3 roasts where just seasoning the drum and headed for the garden.

These were some single origin Colombian seasoning greens, so the beans probably not ideal but just looking to get close while learning the new controls.

Beans in 300g out 252.5g 15.8% moisture loss
drop temp 330, fan just above minimum
preheat and charge at 1.6" H2O (my roaster is NG and set per USRC to max at about 3.4" H2O)
dry end 4:48, gas increased to 2.0" H2O, fan increased to 30% approx
@ 7:17 gas down to 1.8" ( a little behind on keeping the RoR decreasing
@ 7:44 gas down to 1.4"
FC start at 8:03 365.5 BT
@8:34 gas down to 1.0"
@9:42 FCe
@9:44 Fan to 60% approx
@10:25 gas down 0.8"
drop 11:29 (Visual C+ approach FC

Ok question, I know probes are different and so are roasters but I seem to be hitting FC early, temp and time wise on the USRC. I say this because on my stock quest M3 DE was at 300 BT and FCs was ~390BT, now on the USRC DE is still ~300BT but FCs is coming at 365BT. Is this more likely roaster / probe difference or me driving more heat faster into the beans via higher drum thermal mass on the USRC?
My plan is to attempt to drop the heat a little more around 330BT and see if I can push FCs up a little higher. Maybe this is a silly question, I'm just hoping for some opinions, and trying to avoid chasing down a dead end.

On the upside, the new USRC is awesome, the level of control over the roast is incredible.

It will be easier to get a steadily declining ROR if you charge hotter but keep your gas settings lower. I haven't been able to do many roasts since switching to NG (see my other thread), but the ones I did I started between 375F - 400F with the gas initially set at 1.2" or so. I especially wouldn't bother increasing gas at any point; just keep it steady until shortly before FC and then drop it down in stages to keep the decline moving steadily.

When I was getting used to my USRC, I also noted a lower FC temp. It could be some combination of more lag on this probe compared with your old one, or your old one wasn't buried as well in the bean mass. I typically record FC between 365F and 385F depending on the coffee and the profile I'm using.

YMMV, but I wouldn't run development as long or as hot unless I was doing a specially dark roast for espresso purposes. As an initial target, try shooting for 20F past FC-start-temp and development lasting no more than 25% of overall roast time.

great info, thanks Mark I will give that a go.

Yeah, that development phase I posted was beyond my norm. Thought I would let it run a little to see if / where 2C would show up, then decided nah.

Have logged approx. 300 roast on my USRC. On mine the norm is 1c - 386f | City - 401f | City + 410f | Full City - 421f | 2c - 429f

I have over 200 roasts on mine. I hit 1c at 365F - 375F. I am really surprised by your very low NG pressure. Mine is set up at 5" WC. I have 7" WC at the pipe and it is reduced to 5" WC at the roaster.

vberch wrote:I am really surprised by your very low NG pressure. Mine is set up at 5" WC. I have 7" WC at the pipe and it is reduced to 5" WC at the roaster.

I was surprised too, knowing you had previously posted your NG setup went to 5" WC. So I got USRC on the phone when I first fired it up and they confirmed 3.4" WC is correct for the burner in mine, and I have about 6.8" WC at the supply. Good news it seems to have plenty of power to rip through a roast. I have only gone to 2.4" and that was more than enough on a 330g charge.