I started roasting last Christmas break (2016). First, a couple roasts in a cast iron pan, then perhaps a dozen roasts in a popper. And.. I was hooked. I wasn't quite ready yet to commit to a Quest or Huky, so I picked up a Kaldi Home (200g) drum roaster which I used on my gas cooktop for about nine months. I had it setup with BT and MET probes and hooked up to Artisan. It was a bit of an "adventure" getting to a declining RoR profile that tasted decent in the cup. Eventually I got tired of the lack of fan control, crude gas control, variable probe positioning, and generally unrepeatable profiles. And this brings me to today... a brand new (to me) Quest M3 Mk2.

Roaster config

• M3s-style drum (custom)
• Copper intake pipe mod
• BT and Exhaust Temp thermocouples
• Omega H802U
• Artisan logging

This is a log of my trials, tribulatations, and learnings (for the benefit of my own record as well as, hopefully, other new Quest M3 roasters).

My first two roasts were a bit of a disaster.

Roasts 001 & 002

Bean: Sweet Maria's Liquid Amber
Charge weight: 120g
Method: Charge at 400f, initial heat of 8a. I basically winged it, shooting for a declining RoR and fan increasing from zero to max through the roast.
Config: In these two roasts ET is actually MET (using the EricS probe/adapter through the top left screw for the charge chute). Also F3 means zero fan and F4 means minimum possible fan.
Result: Fail. RoR constant through dry and into Maillard. Basically stalled at FCs (not enough energy coming in, I guess) and tried to "save" it by increasing heat to get to some reasonable end temp. I tasted these 1 day post-roast as espresso and my standard 5-6oz cappuccino and they just weren't any good. Pretty flat.
Learnings: 120g on this roaster config is hard and twitchy.

Roast 003

Bean: Sweet Maria's Liquid Amber
Charge weight: 200g
Method: Charge at around 385f, initial heat of 9a and 0.5 fan. Gradually increase fan through the roast. Don't touch amps until just before FCs.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp (I have a thin probe through the bottom left hole for the charge chute and bent up so the tip is in the middle of the exhaust opening. F0 is now fan off. P9 = 9.0a, P8 = 8.0a, etc. F1 = 1.0 on the dial marker, F2 = 2.0 on the dial marker.
Result: Hooray! 3rd roast and a reasonable declining RoR with minimal changes to heat/fan. (The previous owner was kind enough to give me a bunch of pointers and hints on how to roast on this config which has greatly expedited my "ramping" up on this machine.) I tasted this roast morning (12 hours post-roast), again as espresso and cappuccino, and it was definitely better than the first two roasts. More complexity (less flat) and a bit sweeter. I'm about half way through my first 5lb bag of this bean and honestly I don't think I'm really a fan (I don't like the "pungency".)
Learnings: 200g is much less twitchy. In general I think this method and charge size works. I waited a bit too long to decrease heat and increase fan before FCs resulting in a a flat RoR through that time period. Next time decrease heat a bit more and a bit earlier.

Hi there Antonee!

about a year or so ago, I went through the same trials and tribulations on my Quest M3. It looks like your are definitely figuring it out.

A few things I have learned is that with all the different Quest revisions and variable factors, you cannot just copy someones power settings and expect the same result. You definitely have to learn how to drive your roaster and taste every roast to see where you can improve.

I suggest Sweet Marias New espresso blend over the Liquid amber. I like it for straight shots and its great with milk too. More chocolate and less pungent.


As you have learned it is important to keep your ROR declining without stalling out. This can be tricky because if you hit first crack too hard you can lose a lot of moment as when first crack is happening the beans are releasing the heat. I try to make sure to hold on to heat as i am entering first crack, and once it gets going, just back off a tiny bit. After first crack is finished, I try to drop heat very fast, and let the temp of the drum carry the roast to the first snap of second crack then I drop. Your main goals it prevent that "flick" of upward ROR after 1st crack. Figure out how that works for you. And, never let the roast sit at he same low ROR for a period of time.

Anyways, I am by no means a master, I still am having problems getting the best out of my roasts. As far as light roasts, Member Michael fabian has shared some of his light roasts with me and they are nearly perfect, Very inspiring. Keep working on it! and let us know what makes big differences for you.

here is a link I made about trouble shooting off flavors. its highly based off Roa's book and personal experience.

Troubleshooting roast off flavors guide

Hey Adam,

Appreciate the input and suggestions. I've been lusting after a Quest M3 for a long time now, reading everything I can about it on this forum. Believe it or not a lot of the information I've gathered has come from threads you have started and contributed to, so I have much to thank you for In fact, the thread you linked as well as your other thread Quest M3 guide and experiments I have read through more than once!

Fear not, I will without doubt be asking questions of you and other experience roasters here in the not too distant future. I'm curious if Michael Fabian roasts on a Quest as well?

Anthony

Roast 004

Bean: Burundi Kayanza SWP Decaf
Charge weight: 200g
Method: Charge at around 385f, initial heat of 9a and 0.5 fan. Gradually increase fan through the roast. Don't touch amps until just before FCs.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp.
Result: Profile looks good, though a bit of a flick at the end. In cup result TBD. (I will update this space once I've "cupped".)
Learnings: Probably need to handle the flick at the end.



I'm wondering if anyone has advise about how to handle the flick at the end when roasting for espresso and taking the roast close to (or even into) second crack? In this particular situation should I have perhaps dropped amps and/or increased fan just before the flick? It's also not clear to me how to know when to do this.

I roast with my fan maxed out the whole time on my Quest. Removes a variable

Thanks. I did see your posts on this topic on the thread Quest M3 guide and experiments. I will review and give this method a try (once I start running low on roasted beans!).

I've been drinking Roast 004 as lattes (1:3 milk ratio) for the past few days and honestly the roast was pretty bad even though the profile looked reasonable. Taste was kinda ashy, flat, and not particularly pleasant overall, though there was some nice chocolates in there. I think I took it too far with the 421f drop.

I just did a couple roasts dropping earlier (around 411f). I know I shouldn't be changing more than one variable at once but I also decreased my batch size from 200g to 160g in this highly experimental phase as I'd rather not be stuck drinking roasts for too long. With the smaller batch size I attempted to compensate by dropping the initial amps from 9a to 8a. This seemed to work ok.

Roast 005

Bean: Burundi Kayanza SWP Decaf
Charge weight: 160g
Method: Charge at around 360f, initial heat of 8a and 0.5 fan. Decrease heat to 7.0a and increase fan to 1.0 at first hint of FC. Adjust again a bit into FC. Drop somewhere around 410f.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp.
Result: Pulled this as cappuccinos on my Feldgrind and Caravel about 12 hours after roast. Honestly I wasn't able to dial it in right so I'm not really going to judge this one.
Learnings: Somehow amps decreased from 8a to 7.5a on their own. I didn't realize until quite far into the roast. Not sure what happened there but next time I will verify amps more frequently.



Bean: Burundi Kayanza SWP Decaf (100g), Rwanda Nyamasheke SWP Decaf (60g)
Charge weight: 160g
Method: Charge at around 370f, initial heat of 8a and 0.5 fan. Decrease heat to 6.5a and increase fan to 1.5 at first hint of FC. Drop somewhere around 410f.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp.
Result: Tasted as a cappuccino (1:3 milk ratio) right after roast (no patience to let it rest) and it came out super chocolately with tons of body and good sweetness. Pulled another couple cappuccinos the next day and day after and I'm finding it's rounding out (a good thing). I am getting a sour aftertaste that doesn't show up upfront. Need some help to debug.
Learnings: Bit of a bump in BT around FC.. need to learn how to control this better. Guessing I need to drop amps a bit earlier and fan a bit later.



[Update 01/09 - Added Results for both roasts.]

Note that I have updated the above post with results for roasts 005 and 006. For those roasts I am getting a a chocolate bomb as cappuccino but a sour aftertaste in my mouth after a few minutes. I don't get the sourness at all upfront. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what I can change or what the problem might be?

Yesterday was a disaster of a roasting session. I changed too many things: (1) slightly smaller batch at 150g and (2) higher initial airflow, and (3) different beans.

In both cases I think I had too little initial heat during dry resulting in low momentum coming into FC (which barely even happened) and too early drop. Both "cupped" super sour and underdeveloped. Visually this was obvious on Roast 008 but not on 007. Cracking a bean from Roast 007, the roast looked reasonably developed and cracked easily.

Roast 007

Bean: Rwanda Nyamasheke SWP Decaf
Charge weight: 150g
Method: Charge at around 370f, initial heat of 8a and 1.0 fan. Decrease heat to 6.5a 30 seconds before FC. Increase fan slightly at first hint of FC. Adjust again a bit into FC. Drop somewhere around 410f.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp.
Result: Pulled this as a cappuccino (I also took a sip of the espresso without milk). Super sour. Fail.
Learnings: Dropped too early. Too little momentum into FC. Next time I try higher initial airflow, use higher amps (say, 8.5a and 1.0f for this charge size).



Roast 008

Bean: Brazil Daterra Sweet Blue
Charge weight: 150g
Method: Charge at around 370f, initial heat of 8a and 1.0 fan. Decrease heat to 6.5a 30 seconds before FC. Increase fan slightly at first hint of FC. Adjust again a bit into FC. Drop somewhere around 410f.
Config: ET is Exhaust Temp.
Result: Pulled this as a cappuccino (I also took a sip of the espresso without milk). Super sour. Fail.
Learnings: Here I broke my plan and dropped amps a couple minutes into dry as I felt it was moving too fast. Big mistake as my momentum int FC was worse that roast 007. Dropped way earlier than I wanted as I ran completely out of momentum even after try to "save" it by adding amps.




For fun since both roasts were underdeveloped, I tried re-roasting them. Here are the graphs from those, again, just for fun. I pulled the Daterra as a cappuccino after and it was ashy and flat. Oh well.

Your RoR is looking a lot better since the first post. Have you read Scott Rao's book, btw? He has some guidelines which I think make a lot of sense. Have you tried roasting the same coffee differently and cupping the result?