I did some experimenting with the Quest M3 today. The experiment, achieving the same profile two different ways. This isn't worth a new topic, but since it's using November's selection I thought this was a good place to post about it.

It was largely agreed that this coffee did well with a fast roast, preserving a lot of the sweetness and acidity.

The first roast used a Chris Schooley profile. I didn't follow it to a "T" but I used 7.5 power and minimum (4.5) fan till 6:00 185C, than hit it with full fan for 30secs, or about 10 secs into 1C. This allows a nice and gentle development phase. I lowered the heat a little at the height of 1C and used the fan to control the RoR for the rest of the roast.

Charge Weight 150g
Charge Temp 208
Turn Point 121C @ 1:30
Dry End 150C @ 3:23
1C 196C @ 6:23
E1C 210C @ 8:55
EoR 214C @ 9:39
Weight Lost 14.7%

This profile made the development time very easy to control. Using airflow to put the breaks on the roast is a great tip. Overall, this was really the first time it felt like I was controlling the roaster and not the other way around. I have to thank Tom and Will for the help and tips.




Roast 2 used my typical approach. No fan/bean chute open drying, max power and fan to just before onset of 1C. Play with heat and fan to try and maintain a good RoR till EoR. The charge temp was not high enough to hit the first milestone in time and created a domino effect from there. Despite my best effort, the development time went too fast. This typically happens to me for light roasts, but works well for darker ones. Interesting enough the weight lost was the same despite the longer roast and higher EoR temp. Not a success.

Charge Weight 150g
Charge Temp 217C
Turn Point 120C 1:34
Dry End 150C @ 4:14
1C 196C @ 8:28
E1C couldn't definitively call it
EoR 218C @ 10:54
Weight Lost 14.7%

Roast 1 in the background


I had two options for the third roast, lower the batch size or raise the charge temp. I went with the latter. It worked well. Lowering the batch size is probably the safer route, but oh well. I used less power and fan (70-80%) for the ramp to 1C. The full fan trick at the onset was used again. Once again, it allow for more control during development time. I over did it a bit. The temp completely stalled at 210, but had a nice RoR to that point. Kick starting the stall would have taken too long so I dropped it there.

Charge Weight 150g
Charge Temp 226C
Turn Point 128C 1:28
Dry End 150C @ 3:03 (I would have liked the extra 30 secs and a slightly lower charge temp is called for)
1C 196C @ 6:53
E1C 208ish @ 9:02
EoR 210C @ 9:48
Weight Lost 14%

Roast 1 in the background


Cupping Notes:

I wanted to compare these different roasting techniques, but I can't. While roast 1 and 3 had similar profiles, I've learned even the smallest changes can have big effects in the cup. Trying to draw any comparison wouldn't be fair or useful. I'll give it another go at some point, but it won't be able to be with this coffee.

Roast 1:

Post 24 hours:
The fragrance was supper powerful with fruit and floral. Nice syrupy sweet body. Blueberry that faded quite a bit as the cupped cooled. More spice notes came to the front as it opened up.

5 days:
The blueberry was almost gone. Maybe it had to do with the different brew preparation. I used an aeropress before and a nel drip at day 5. I use a higher brew temp for nel drip, so maybe that had an effect. Perhaps this coffee does better with a lower temp.

The fragrance was wood and a noticeable tobacco. These carried their way into the cup. I can't understand this because the roast profile wouldn't normally call for this. I didn't pick up on much sweetness till the cup cooled quite a bit. It's good, but I liked the coffee more a few days ago. I brewed a lot of this coffee and I wish I used more of it for espresso, which to me is where the coffee wins. The berry notes are more apparent in espresso.

Roast 3

Post 24 hours:
Quite a different cup than roast 1. Body is thinner and not as pleasing. Some harsh almost chlorine taste. Can't even get past that to pick up on anything else. Leaves a terrible linger. The 20 secs shorter drying phases or the BT not get high enough had a big effect. Maybe it was the higher MET or less airflow during drying. There are so many different variables that it'd be impossible to figure out what made this roast taste so different. But it is clear not enough harsher flavors were burned off.

Day 5: No detectable tobacco or wood notes in the fragrance. A lot of candy berry sweetness. I though things were not all lost for this roast... Unfortunately, the cup is still too harsh to be enjoyable. This roast was not developed enough. It went down the sink.

Good stuff. I'm going to look thru it closer when I re-approach this coffee. There's no problem in my mind popping new thoughts, comments or profiles into the threads. I still have plenty of the December bean and I'll be rattling on about that as well.

I look forward to reading your cupping results.