Jisgren wrote:Costa Rican arrived yesterday so I will roast this weekend. Right now planning to do 450gm batches, drop-in around 220-230C with a target roast time of 10 min. ~90 sec development time.

Any other starting or roast planning suggestions?

220-230C on the pre-heat for 450g will work. 230 might be a little high. I've been starting with 235C on 600g Dry Processed Ethiopians (I find you need a higher PH for larger batch sizes) If the initial ROR is too high, try a 30-60second soak at P0-P2 or lower the PH to 215-220C.

Don't drop at solely a target time, drop at a target temp (I'd expect you hit FC at ~198-200C). It can be challenging to get to, say 205C, drop temp if you are at 1 deg ROR at the end of the roast. You'll sit there a lot longer than 90 seconds.. 90 seconds from 200 to 205 will taste, feel, & look a lot different than 90 seconds from 200 to 201.

Here's a first try, shooting for a medium roast. Unfortunately charging was not detected automatically, which took me 15 seconds to realize (hmmm, is that drum speed low??) and finally push PH to start recording the roast. So add 15 seconds to the times shown below.

https://roast.world/@bradm/roasts/tCnQCahh97VX6W1YrVMi2


The beans look pale yellowish at first, making the end of dry "when there are no more green beans" harder to call. They seemed to resist heat at first, then took off around the 6:00 mark. Very little chaff. FC was easy to hear, dropped 2:00 and 8C later. The beans look very uniform in the pan and have a great buttery smell. Weight loss 14.3% may be too high?

With 2 days rest the dry aroma has yellow cake batter, but that doesn't show up in the cup. Hot, the drip brew is moderately bitter, with dark chocolate, green apple, and some grape juice sweetness. Low acidity. Chocolate strengthens in finish. Overall this is a decent medium roast. Hoping bitterness smooths more with rest.

I picked up a couple of pounds last night when I got the new Kenyan offering though it won't arrive for a week or so. Comfort coffee is always nice.

Brad- your starting BT probe reading is pretty low. If I used a 410* IBTS PH it would tell me to charge at around BT 280* or so.

Preheating.

First roast. Very similar to BradM's roast. Targeting a ~10min roast so over shot a bit. Preheat was 230C. Coming form a HOTOP so a lot more variables to play with.

GC7 wrote:Brad- your starting BT probe reading is pretty low. If I used a 410* IBTS PH it would tell me to charge at around BT 280* or so.

Yes, the initial BT temperature looks very low because I missed recording the first 15 seconds or so of the roast, so the actual (rapidly decreasing) initial BT isn't shown. Rookie mistake, not noticing that the machine never announced "charge" and just kept preheating after I loaded the beans.

I just picked up a bullet a few weeks ago and figured I'd tag along here. Two roasts of the costa rica for me so far (both last weekend, been tasting this week). I'm coming from an FR800 (was deciding for myself between going for a decent from my elizabeth or a bullet from my fr800....i am so happy that I went with the bullet so far!):

Anyway, some habits from the FR800 that are not translating...I get way too 'steer' happy with the bullet trying to make lots of small adjustments late in the roast to get that nice curve...the coffee so far has been fantastic.

Here's roast 1

https://roast.world/@hercdeisel/roasts/ ... 0N-4-QZAxj



Here's roast 2

https://roast.world/@hercdeisel/roasts/ ... mNB_NLaoyR


I'm marking yellowing at 165 IBTS. It seems pretty accurate. I also agree with bradm's sentiment that these things feel like they absorb heat before they get going in terms of color change.

After roast 1, i really felt like the RoR was plateauing too much. I had had some success getting a more steadily descending RoR with another bean by lowering the charge and giving it more heat early one. That worked a bit here from moving to roast 2. Overall, roast 2 is notably darker with more roasty flavors than roast 1. Both have nice sweetness. The descriptor of 'crowd pleaser' from SM is spot on. Very chuggable coffee even without getting the roast dialed well. As espresso, the body has been nice with a bit of chocolatiness. As a shot I've found these roasts a bit boring though I have to say that somehow making milk drinks with these roasts brings out such a nice milk chocolate flavor that I could swear I'm drinking a hot chocolate.

As for the roasting...any advice to try to avoid that mid roast plateau? seems to start about 2-3min or so before first crack, just a bit after yellowing. I was thinking of charging at 205 and starting with 8 heat for a while before a big drop...down to 4 or lower a few min after yellowing. I'm trying to end the roast just under 5c/min at the RoR with a solid medium roast.

hercdeisel wrote:...any advice to try to avoid that mid roast plateau? seems to start about 2-3min or so before first crack, just a bit after yellowing. I was thinking of charging at 205 and starting with 8 heat for a while before a big drop...down to 4 or lower a few min after yellowing. I'm trying to end the roast just under 5c/min at the RoR with a solid medium roast.

Yes more early heat may help. I like the technique of starting with somewhat low power (P6 or P7) for the first minute, then increasing to P8 or even P9 for a while before ramping down. Thinking is that the first minute mini-soak allows the drum to cool a little, then adding power later maintains drum temperature during dry phase. Otherwise our relatively lightweight drum loses energy pretty quickly. This technique seems to help get a nice declining RoR going, and the higher power settings early give you more room to manage your later power cuts. Hope that makes sense.

I roasted up the Costa Rica Tarrazu Cafetales de Dota on Vetran's Day (11/11/21) and since I was basically out of the last roast of the Panama Elida Natural Catuai I started drinking it right away, a couple of times out in the back yard and at the fire pit with kalua which paired well.

This morning, given some more rest, I brewed up a pot and quite enjoyed it. Got the characteristic Costa Rica smell from the ground beans and flavor from the brew. So, I do this think where I roast my first 700 gram batch darker and my second 700 gram batch lighter and start drinking the darker batch first to allow the lighter roast time to age, so the CR was the darker roast, coming in at what I'd call a full-city roast. The second roast was about a 60/40 blend of Uganda Sipi Falls Natural with the last of my Panama Elida Natural Catuai, I whish that the RostTime software handled blends, but I notice that the latest versions allow you to make roasts private which is a good think for commercial roasters.

Preheat at 275 C (large batch size) and first crack at 211 C (which is normal for my roaster), a good roast with rich, strong flavors. It's been quite a while since I've had coffee from Costa Rica and I'm really enjoying this one, thanks for the recommendation.

https://roast.world/@yakster/roasts/ORd ... yS4wyf7PYn

Yummy bean. Not on a Bullet but first roast of the CR. Roasted yesterday but tasted and loved by a friend today in a cap. Smells great. I will try it tomorrow. Pretty standard starter roast for me with about 2min past FCs. Note how that is displayed in the most recent Artisan version on the graph. My curve is a bit jumpy but doesn't matter to me. I believe it is due to the drum not being flush with the front plate of the roaster. I am thinking this bean will have great body, mouthfeel and flavor for SO espresso, blended with a fruity Ethiopian or in a cap.