Hello,

This is my first post so thanks in advance and I'm excited to be a part of the community!

So here is what I'm trying to do. I recently purchased the new Behmor 1600AB (not much different than the Plus). After a week or so of roasting, I hated the fact that you had to stop the roast in order to stop the drum so I decided to add a toggle switch that turns the drum motor on and off. This allowed me to keep the burners on and limit the heat loss when I opened the door to put the beans in after the pre-heat.

I also found that, with this method, I could do a 1/2lb of beans on a 1lb setting and let the pre-heat cruise around 310 until it got past the 7:30 afterburner cycle before I even put the beans in so I don't have to radically compensate for the dip in heat loss. I found that on the 1lb setting with 1/2lb beans, I could get past the afterburner cycle and still get my beans to the start of 2C before the timer ran out, even without pushing the rosetta button.

So my question is this... if I am using this method, assuming that I am vacuuming out the chaff from the collector and the inside of the unit between each roast, is there a problem with tossing in a new batch immediately without running a cooling phase and a new pre-heat? It just seems like I generally start and end the roast at about the same B sensor heat level so what is the point of doing a full cooling cycle and new pre-heat?

Also, looking at my current method, does doing it this way with waiting till after the afterburner have a negative affect on the ROR? I don't have any thermocoupler mods on the unit to do any computer based data graphing yet so I don't really know other than time and sound what my beans are doing. What I can tell you is that with this method I can pretty consistently get a 1/2lb batch to 1C at around the 6:30 mark.

Jeff

I've been doing back to back roasts since I figured out how with zero issues, I've also, post modifications, accidentally preheated my Behmor to temperatures far past what a stock Behmor can ever reach with no evidence of anything that might indicate heat will ever be a problem.

Ira

http://www.roasterthing.com/FrankenBehmor

Thank you, Ira!

Time will tell with the batches I've done so far that are still degassing, but I am wondering if pre-heating and maintaining the B sensor heat at ~325 is speeding the drying stage too much. I'm consistently reaching 1C on a 1/2lb batch at around 6:30 which seems really early. I've also seen that, by the end of 1C when I pull it for cooling, the beans are already at about a Full City level which also seems rushed.

Any thoughts?

So after about 4 days of resting and degassing, I brewed up a cup and it tasted exactly like I thought it would. It had both smokey flavors as well as some sourness. Logically, it leads me to think that with 1C coming in at 6:30 on a 1/2lb roast and getting smokey flavors even though I'm dropping it quick into a vacuum bean cooler as soon as I hear 1C die down, I have too much momentum going into 1C and it's getting to a full city roast before the inside of the bean is fully developed.

Would this be an accurate assessment?

I try to keep my B sensor temp around 320 from start to finish and because I have a motor bypass switch and can keep the cycle and burners on when I put in the drum after pre-heat, I'm not getting much heat loss there. So should pre-heat to a lower temp and then let it rise gradually or should I start hot and then once I put the beans in, change to P3 or P4 to develop the drying phase at a lower temp?

jeffgerards wrote:I try to keep my B sensor temp around 320 from start to finish and because I have a motor bypass switch and can keep the cycle and burners on when I put in the drum after pre-heat, I'm not getting much heat loss there.

I don't know where you got this roasting strategy from, but it doesn't make any sense to me. I think you scorched your beans quite badly.

Coffee roasting is a Goldilocks process. Not too hot. Not too cool. You have to find the sweet spot.

I suggest you try the procedures described in this thread:

Behmor - Optimizing 1/4 Pound Roasts

It's a tricky process, but consistently produces great roasts. From there, you can try variations to see if you can improve on it.

Thank you David!

I got my initial protocol from one of the many YouTube videos and I think you're right about scorching them. I actually have your posted link bookmarked already and plan to follow that protocol when I roast again tomorrow. Have you experimented more with doing larger charge sizes?

You're welcome, Jeffrey.

I haven't tried larger charges because 1/4 pound is my preferred size based on how much coffee I drink. But if you scroll towards the end of the thread I shared with you, you'll see there's a similar protocol that uses 155 grams (about 1/3 pound).

Thank you! I'm still a novice with my behmor. Just did my 20th roast. But I'm starting to see a lot of consistency in my results and I feel like I'm getting closer to dialing things in and figuring out how this thing works and how I can get it to do what I want so I can learn how to alter my settings for different types of beans.

This community is great. I look forward to playing a more active role as I descend down the rabbit hole. haha.