I'm in the jungle so I am using a gas burner with a stainless steel pot and a wood stirrer. That's fine for me because hopefully it will become an art. I've been doing it for over a year now. I use color to determine my finishing point aiming for a full city or so. I am at this time roasting a combo of Honduran Capucas and Brazilian Cerrado at about 60/40 Capucas. The feedback I am looking for:

Yesterday did a 710 gram roast. It took me about 35 minutes to get there. Seems maybe too long. Roasting at too low temp or does it sound fair for about 1.5 lb. ? My yield was 603 gms so 603/710 or 85%.

Would one type bean roast faster so i.e. I should start the slower one first to get a head start ? Not really sure this is the case but maybe somebody has experience with this. I guess at 35 minutes I could do 2 separate roasts in about that same amount of time.

I thought a heavier tamp would slow the pour down but I am finding the opposite ?

I'm kind of stuck with using Capucas because of my freezer space, comes in 3.75 lb Nitro cans. Maybe there is another coffee that would be better than the Brazilian ??? I am doing about an 11% Indian Cherry Robusta aged for a month or more.

Can't think of any other questions at this time but I do reserve the right.

1) Blend the green beans then store for a week. This will equalize the moisture content and go a long way to evening out the roast.

2) Turn up the gas or get a lid. Roast should finish in less than 20 minutes.


Alan

If you get a lid, see if you can build stirring vanes on a rod that stick through the lid so that you can still agitate the beans, like a whirley pop, otherwise just up the gas.

I've usually seen manual roasters use a shallower pan rather than a pot like this over the flame and keeping stirring is the key to an even roast, but I'm not sure that a shallower pan is necessarily better, maybe the reduced surface area will keep the heat for the coffee.

If you can't roast a batch of coffee in a reasonable amount of time, try a smaller load of coffee beans next time.

I am using a glass lid and as a matter of fact the pot is from a GREAT. NORTHERN popper but after a year the gears don't work very well so I chose to stir, a hands on experience.

Anyways I'm asking is 35 minute roast of 1.5 lbs. BAD ? It tastes fine to me but I'm rather new. I don't mind that it takes long as long as I'm not detrementing the roast. Is that a word ??? 20 minutes I'd have to really jack the heat up but .... I try to roast enough to last me 2 weeks or so because it's a little hassle and production dragging all that stuff out and back in plus all the cleaning. So about 40 gms a day + robusta, 3 doubles.

Any comment on those 2 beans ? or that combo or ratio there of ?

How about my yield of 603 gms from 710, does that indicate where my temp is and where it should be ? I weighed them a few hours after the roast, where I then put in the fridge to cool. They were not hot or cold by that time.

Thanks

35 minutes is pretty long, it's worth trying more heat or less beans and compare the flavors.

When I go camping I roast over the campfire with an open grid popcorn popper, but only small batches.

Don't worry so much about the combo of beans. I don't want to sound cruel but if you're roasting them for 35 minutes, it won't matter what you use, it'll likely end up very much the same. That long of a roast and you're basically left with general "coffee" flavors. If it's to your liking, then ignore our advice. But if you're looking to capture more from the beans, you'd be well suited to roast faster. That will require a smaller batch, or if muscle power and endurance is a limiting factor, maybe you'll need a second hand to pitch in while you recover from the intensive stirring you'll HAVE to do when you increase the heat.

You're in the jungle, I'd be planting coffee left and right...but with that out of the way, I think you'd be better served by building a hand-crank lid:
https://www.sweetmarias.com/tradition

You can see both the drum design there, as well as basically the cast iron pot with a lid that cranks. A cast iron skillet holds heat better, and will let you roast a little faster if you pre-heat it.

If you can get it built, the hand-crank drum is kind of cool and you could use it over a propane burner.

Depending on how much will be permanently setup, you could also build a foot pedal to drive the hand-crank if you go with a drum so that you don't have to crank as much.

IMO with roasting you want to concentrate on what's happening with the beans as much as possible, and if you are stirring or cranking full-time, it's harder to do that, at least for me when I did the HG/DB (Heat Gun / Dog Bowl) method. Adding the bread machine to do stirring really helped improve roasts as I could monitor what was going on with the beans a lot easier.

Ok, I will do in 2 batches. I will mix both beans about a week ahead. I like my hand stir method because I get to see the beans. When I was using it with the popcorn stirrer, there was too much smoke to see in there.

So how long should 3/4 lb of beans to Full City take ?

bang4dabuck wrote:
So how long should 3/4 lb of beans to Full City take ?

You want to size the weight so that you can reach first crack in around 8-10m in my opinion. It all depends on your heat system and how fast it can evenly get there. If it's still too slow and you are getting an uneven roast or its taking too long, drop the charge weight.

I would recommend that you roast each origin separately and blend post roast.

I would also suggest that you stick to around 230 grams per roast/batch.

It will take a little more time to roast this way but you will end up with a more even roast and a better blend.