Not sure how many "stock" SR800 owners are out there, but I'm now learning that roasting takes more experience and expertise than I originally thought. I"m finding it difficult to develop the roast in my SR800 so that flavours are balanced. So I'm wondering if this thread might help people with the stock unit learn how to develop a roast..

So some things I need to learn are (I use 100g charges):

a) how long to dry the beans.. what cues does one look for? what heat/fan/time to people use? (I use F:H:T 9:3:3:00) Am also trying to learn the aromas of each stage.
b) after drying, do you need to give the beans a ton of heat? So should one change to a much lower fan and higher heat .. (7:9: ?)
c) should one be adding heat every few minutes (by turning fan down as you can't increase heat).. or maybe in b) crank fan down to 5 and then turn fan up throughout roast.

Seems from some of the Mill City videos that you should be decreasing the heat from dry-end --> FC to develop the flavours better.

Certainly I've had great looking color in my beans, and very bad taste.. So any suggestions in how to improve the quality of the roast would be much appreciated.

Now the Razzo tubes look great, but they make the roaster a different beast.. so am wondering if this thread can help those with the stock setup.

Hi bluenoser,
I can't address your roaster specific questions, but since Im new to home roasting myself, may I jump in here with a few questions to you? Understanding your results better may help me learn something too as you hopefully get some competent assistance from the crowd here.

You say the beans look good, but don't taste to your liking.
1. Can you describe the greens used, roast level achieved, time after roast date consumed, how the drink was prepared and tasting results over time?

Your roaster process seems very complex, I look forward to hearing the recommendations.

Also, some of your questions were answered in a generic way on a thread I started recently regarding my beginning home roasting experience. First home roast experience with Hive Roaster

Bluenoser wrote:Not sure how many "stock" SR800 owners are out there, but I'm now learning that roasting takes more experience and expertise than I originally thought. I"m finding it difficult to develop the roast in my SR800 so that flavours are balanced. So I'm wondering if this thread might help people with the stock unit learn how to develop a roast..

So some things I need to learn are (I use 100g charges):

a) how long to dry the beans.. what cues does one look for? what heat/fan/time to people use? (I use F:H:T 9:3:3:00) Am also trying to learn the aromas of each stage.
b) after drying, do you need to give the beans a ton of heat? So should one change to a much lower fan and higher heat .. (7:9: ?)
c) should one be adding heat every few minutes (by turning fan down as you can't increase heat).. or maybe in b) crank fan down to 5 and then turn fan up throughout roast.

Seems from some of the Mill City videos that you should be decreasing the heat from dry-end --> FC to develop the flavours better.

Certainly I've had great looking color in my beans, and very bad taste.. So any suggestions in how to improve the quality of the roast would be much appreciated.

Now the Razzo tubes look great, but they make the roaster a different beast.. so am wondering if this thread can help those with the stock setup.

Mine isn't stock- 12" Razzo tube- and I'm a novice, with only three roasts under my belt where I followed the Razzo instructions of gradually turning the heat up. Next time I'm going to try the home roasting master's method, though I'm not sure this would still be his advice:



One challenge is just knowing how those temps relate to the temp readout on the SR800. So I think I'm already going to buy some Phidget temp sensors.

MNate wrote: So I think I'm already going to buy some Phidget temp sensors.

It would be really great if someone documented the mounting aspect.
You could buy a 1048 alone with a TC or get a vinthub and RTD or TC. Adding the VintHub would allow you to record ambient temp, humidity and barometer with two other sensors.
Brewzologist seems to have a nice set up.

I will give some of my first weeks experience..

When I bought the roaster in Canada, I got 500g of 3 each of the better greens they sold; from Brazil, SO, fermented natural .. one from Columbia - washed, blend of 20 farms, caramel/orange/honey and El Salvador Bourbon, Natural SO. I've been watching the Mill City vids and trying to adapt.. It seems like there are 3 stages..

Now this is a fluid bed roaster and the Mill City vids are all about drums and pre-heating and the initial turn-around which I don't think fluid bed roasters exhibit. I don't think one should pre-heat fluid bed roasters.. but not sure. I haven't been pre-heating mine.

A) drying.. so here I generally use fan 9, heat 4 for about 2-3 minutes.. I try to let aroma be my guide. Dry until the grassiness smell disappears.. I also look at color change to full yellow

There is a temp probe below the bean chamber. It would be measuring a combination of the chamber temp and the air temp. I find it is about 40F higher than the bean temp I see in most profile curves.

Drying is usually done by about 350F on this probe..

B) there is a development phase from drying to first crack and it seems like this can be rather quick.. so maybe 2-4 minutes. Here I plan to experiment with fan of 6-7 and leave heat on 9. The lower fan is necessary to get enough heat into the chamber. If the fan is left at 9 the roast proceeds too slowly.. (Here a Razzo chamber seems to help). I think I've been moving into 1C too slowly by setting to F:H 9:9 for a minute then 8:9 for a minute or two and finally 7:9 to get more heat.

I found 1C usually happens about 440F in my unit. I found that the videos seems to indicate to note first crack by 3 fast cracks.. not one or two cracks by outliers.

C) The final development Happens after 1C and is where fruit notes are More developed but not extinguished by the darker chocolate flavors I hope to develop. I have been increasing heat here and I think I need to reduce heat. So my plans are to try maybe increasing the fan from the previous stage so both fan and heat are at 9. Leave this for up to 2 min.

So That's my new strategy. I prefer some distinct chocolate notes without any char or significant burnt taste. On one roast, I thought I was into 1st crack, when it was 2nd crack and these little bits went flying off. Found they were parts of the bean shell and are common roast defects in too much heat after 2C. This roast tasted burnt. I threw it out

I now find that it is really important to take good notes on each roast and then cup a few days after to see how it tastes. I use 100g water to 6g of beans. I've been lazy, thinking I could just make an espresso and I'd taste the result there.. but cupping is much more accurate at detecting flavors, as it is a very consistent extraction method.

But for drinking purposes, I am using these beans in straight espresso and in 6oz cappuccino. These are my two drinks. I don't drink filter.

So far, I've roasted the Brazil bean good enough to use in Both. I am struggling with the Columbia. I'm just starting to roast the El Salvador. All 3 beans are quite different in taste.

I only charge 100g.. so I can have lots of trials. This doesn't appear to be too little for this stock roaster. It's lots of fun.. but I also was pretty naive at roasting. My friend and I were cupping about 5 roast attempts and included a cup from a good roaster (49th parallel).. What a difference. I have a whole new appreciation for good roasters. Watching the Mill City vids.. I see there is much experimenting and tasting one needs to do.. actually a lot of work.. To see if your technique worked.. and you need a plan.. Just putting in beans and turning on the dials is going no-where fast.. grin..

Rustic39 wrote:Hi bluenoser,
I can't address your roaster specific questions, but since Im new to home roasting myself, may I jump in here with a few questions to you? Understanding your results better may help me learn something too as you hopefully get some competent assistance from the crowd here.

You say the beans look good, but don't taste to your liking.
1. Can you describe the greens used, roast level achieved, time after roast date consumed, how the drink was prepared and tasting results over time?

Your roaster process seems very complex, I look forward to hearing the recommendations.

Also, some of your questions were answered in a generic way on a thread I started recently regarding my beginning home roasting experience. First home roast experience with Hive Roaster

Thanks for the reply.. I'll look in the hive link.. I looked at the hive but I didn't have an easy setup here.. and it looked like a bit more work than twiddling with knobs.. grin..

The roast level I am looking for is about medium, to medium dark. For espresso. I consume the roast starting with the 3rd day after roast. I found on the Brazil roast that it tasted a little grassy earlier and then magically that grassiness seemed to disappear on days 4-7. I have a bunch of beans from some roasters within a few hours of me, but their espresso roasts are dark and taste much to burnt to me.. I'm looking for a strong, dark taste, but not burnt.. one of those things hard to explain, but I know it when I taste it.. .. Since I like milk drinks.. it needs some chocolate notes and then it tastes heavenly with good micro-foam.

Any progress on determining mounting locations for RTDs?