Hi roasting forum. I started a thread Roasting Machine: Affordable, Capacious, Simple - Want All Three when I was looking for an "affordable, capacious, simple" roaster to start with.

Since then I have been given a Behmor, so that satisfies "affordable" and the little I know about this roaster suggests it is adequately "capacious" for me. So now we come to "simple" . . .

What and how would you all suggest for my first roast? Can I dispense with programming and just do it manually?

I am trying to produce a fairly dark roast that will pull with no fuss on my Elektra (typically 8-9 bar, 45 second, 20 g grounds, 40 g brew, while half-asleep).

I've been using a Behmor for the last couple of months and here's what I would suggest. Automatic rarely works to my satisfaction, and if you know what you're looking for, it's barely more work to do manual mode. For a darker roast, the most important things to keep track of is when did first crack, start, pick up, slow down, and stop. I count from first crack picking up to know when to end my roasts, and that seems like a decent way of keeping track of it. You could try the "rosetta stone" function on the roaster (Press C) when 1C begins and get an idea of how that works to know where to begin. Given that you want a darker roast profile, this may be perfect for you.

Let us know how it works out!

I would do auto roast and study the roaster for a few lbs. first.

I bought a Behmor about a month ago and am learning how to roast for the first time. My first suggestion is to do a few roasts using the preprogrammed profiles for the bean you're roasting to get familiar with the roaster's attributes and limitations. From there, you can improvise.

I've done a lot of websurfing to learn the tricks and techniques other people use with the Behmor. I think there's a consensus that the roaster really can't do 1 pound batches. The true limit, according to the comments, is somewhere between 8 to 12 ounces. Also, it's commonly stated that the Behmor is not very good at darker roasts. That said, none of this matters to me because I'm roasting 1/4 pound batches to medium roast levels.

The best write up of Behmor tricks and techniques that I've found is this one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/roasting/comme ... hmor_1600/

There are some interesting ideas in this write up that I'm going to try in the next month or 2.

Happy roasting!

One more suggestion -- Keep a log. Some of the metrics I plan on logging are:

Temperature - A & B at 60 second intervals
Profile strategy - before & after 1C
Time to 1C
Total roast time
Bean weight - before & after
Line voltage & amps with a Kill-A-Watt meter

By studying a record of my roasts, I'll try to see what worked and what didn't and, from that data, hopefully figure out why.

^^^^^type on

Hi,
I have been using the behmor for about ten years, weekly. I always use p1, add time to max, and load it with about 300 grams. I take it about 30 seconds into the second crack for a medium dark roast. I have gotten very tasty results. Note that I am using the older behmor where one can not extend the roast time so I go low on weight, listen for second crack and press cool when second crack is rolling. Have not messed around with other profiles but would be open to suggestions. Good luck