MNate wrote:You know... with a traditional roaster I might agree with the buy one type and learn the ins and outs of your roaster and how to roast. But with an automatic I wonder if it's not better to roast a wide variety and see what the roaster does best with its set profiles. Idk. But if you can't vary the profile much, how many iterations can you try with 20 pounds?

I almost bought one today...

So far, I think that the real strength of the Ikawa Home is their supplied greens and profiles.

I haven't had good results yet with my own greens and a similar source Ikawa profile or the Ikawa generic profile. Granted though, I have only tried 6 roasts so far this way, so maybe getting a lot of one type of bean might not be a bad approach to learn the roaster. Mostly, I am getting roasty/bitter flavors which I like to avoid. Not sure if drying time is too quick or some other issue. What I have appreciated, is that it seems like it will take a lot more trial and error to roast well outside of Ikawa's supplied greens. That wasn't quite what I expected (but probably should have). Is anyone getting better results with their own greens?

For those that are thinking about this, this weekend all purchases at their store should get you 20% back in store credit for future purchases, or that's what todays email claimed. It is using English weekend hours so don't wait till the last minute as they are 5-8 hours ahead.

Ira

I'm about to wake up at 4am pacific and grab one of them tonight.

I'm a bit bummed about this $30/mo app unlock but perhaps I won't need or want it at first. TBD.

In hindsight, I kind of wish I'd have bought one of the original V2 releases which seem to have come with better accessories and perks.

Oh well. Very excited nonetheless!

Quick PSA - deals are live and look pretty good. I think the early adopters may be able to double dip (at this moment).

Picked up 1000g more of the Guat and added the same amount of the Nicaraguan. I was able to double dip. Nice!

Update:

I have now roasted at least once all of the included Ikawa greens (Zambia Isanya, Ethiopia Buie Bora, Ethiopia Dumerso, Guatemala Blue Ayarza, and Mexico Huatusco). Most are still resting and were 75 gram batches. Roast consistency was excellent without any obvious defects to my eye, maybe one or two under-roasted beans, but easy to pick out. We will see how everything tastes (and how often Ikawa rotates greens), but for this application it works well.

In terms of durability, the Ikawa Pro says the motor has a 10,000 hour duty life, which for a home user like me is way beyond what I would need. Anyone know if the home unit has a similar duty life?

I did some more testing with some Nicarauga greens I had and the generic profile. Although the roast had some defects (some mild tipping to my eye), the taste was overall very pleasing. I am hoping that if I lower the max inlet temperature or slow the initial ramp up I can avoid this defect. Having access to the advanced editor seems like it could be necessary to optimize roasting your own greens. But much more experimenting is needed. Once everyone has had a chance to use the roaster, would be fun to choose a green bean similar to the Bullet roast along thread and everyone see if we can learn together.

I've found that more rest is worsening the beans when the drink is hot, but mostly pleasant when at room temp. My best drinks are 1-3 days post roast. But...

I also realized a few days ago that many of you are probably drinking espresso, and I'm mostly doing pour over. A short rest Guatemala shot gushed through my espresso basket, yet required a very fine grind for my v60.

It's so interesting that store bought coffee has such a different grind setting than the Ikawa fresh roasts. I'm sure there's a rational explanation I'll stumble onto soon enough.

In the last year or so I realized that I was resting coffees too little. I am buying coffee from respectable Singapore and AU roasters like ONA, Proud Mary etc, even some Gardelli beans from time to time. ALL of them taste much better (to me) after AT LEAST 10 days after roast, most of them primed at 14-17 days post roast.