After 25 roasts I finally got one that looks okay. What do you guys think? The hardest part for me so far is having the momentum needed to get through the maillard phase in a reasonable time without going too fast through drying. Then slowing down at the right time so I don't carrying that momentum through 1C.

Your MET is very high. I've been advised to keep MET well under 600F to prevent damage to the roaster. I generally keep MET below 530F.

Also, your DE temp is somewhat high. I think a lot of people mark it at 300F rather than trying to eyeball the end of green and start of yellow.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate any help I can get. I was trying to keep my MET below 550f but my maillard stage was taking too long. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. What do you think about this roast?

The second graph is a roast I did on my Huky when I owned one a couple of years ago. I'm trying to achieve a short maillard like this.

The short spike in MET at charge was likely caused by increased air flow when you opened the bean chute. That suggests you probably need more air to carry the roast through to 1C.

Every Quest is different, but I usually warm up and charge with the fan at the lowest setting that makes it rotate, then increase fan speed at RoR peak and about a minute before DE. That tends to keep the RoR from declining too fast prior to Maillard.

Is the outer shell of your Quest insulated? If not, the drum may be losing heat. That's a common mod people do to Quest roasters.

Do you have an M3 or an M3s? If you have an M3, and the drum isn't perforated (another common mod), your airflow may be insufficient.

Today's roast went much better. I installed one of the thermocouples from Coffee Shrub for MET. Before I was using a fiberglass bead probe from Phidgets. Also I noticed a few roast back that my chaff tray wasn't closing all of the way. Today I slid it in and out and adjusted it a couple of times to get it to fit snuggly. I'm wondering if this was affecting my air flow. I was able to keep the MET less than 525f with no issues.

Robert, looks like a reasonable roast.

Are you sure dry end was at 300 or did you just choose to mark it that way?
Are you sure you like your coffee this dark? Maybe you do?
What if you dropped at end of FCs? I would suggest comparing and be kind to your taste buds. Let the differences soak in and see what you like best.

I marked end of drying at 300f based off your suggestion in an early post. It could have been later but I wasn't paying attention to color. Next roast I'll drop it as first crack is ending and see how it compares. Thanks for your feedback.

My bad if I you took it as absolute for your roaster. See what yours does. Mine is more about 305. Many beans hit about the same in a roaster. The reason I asked is your first phase looked a little short and middle a little long. But look and see. Glad you are open to trying a different development time and drop temp. Let us know.

Peppersass wrote:... then increase fan speed at RoR peak and about a minute before DE.

What size probes do you use? This has huge effect on the timing of this adjustment.