Would flavor improve upgrading from Behmor?

Discuss roast levels and profiles for espresso, equipment for roasting coffee.
Micahdesign
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#1: Post by Micahdesign »

I've used a Behmor for about 5 years now, family loves my coffee but I always feel there's a lot lacking in flavors compared to professional roasts. Of course flying blind and inconsistency is also frustrating.

I was looking at the Bullet as an upgrade but want to hear some personal opinions did you get better flavors after upgrading, or is it mostly about consistency, control and batch sizes people upgrade? If you have/had a Behmor or similar are you able to roast the flavors you want or will it always taste inadequate because it's not a drum or professional machine?

Thanks!

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yakster
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#2: Post by yakster »

I noticed an improvement in flavor, and of course an improvement in the batch size (I like to do 700 gram batches) when I upgraded from my Behmor to my Bullet. There was quite a learning curve going from the Behmor to the Bullet so it took me a while to learn how to roast for my tastes on my Bullet.

I attribute the increase in flavor to having more headroom (ability to increase the heat for a given batch) and more control and telemetry for heat and fan on the Bullet. Being able to pre-heat the bullet to your drop temp (which takes at least 20 minutes) and drop in the beans probably helps as well as the ability to dump the roasted beans into the cooling tray, cooling them much faster than in the Behmor.
-Chris

LMWDP # 272

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Brewzologist
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#3: Post by Brewzologist »

I went from a Behmor to a gas drum roaster, and agree with everything Chris said. There will be a steep learning curve going from a Behmor, but it's also how you'll get to higher quality and better tasting roasts.

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mkane
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#4: Post by mkane »

We had two Behmors. Sold them both and bought a gas unit. Cussed and swore for at least 800 roast's that I didn't keep just one. Almost got the Whirley pop back out, built a Turbo oven roaster for backup.

The gas roaster is more controllable. If you do take the plunge buy Rao's latest book. It will save lots of time.

Micahdesign (original poster)
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#5: Post by Micahdesign (original poster) »

Thanks all, good to know it may be worth upgrading for better coffee, I'm just not sure if I'm ready for the steep learning curve. Is the Bullet ability to run others roast profiles overrated? I was excited thinking it would get the settings close for a decent starting point.

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mkane
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#6: Post by mkane »

Get Scotts book and the learning curve should be about 1/4 of the time I spent trying to figure it out, maybe even less. Once you can get to a declining R0R on a regular basic then you can play if you so choose.

Help here will be sporadic but it will come. I had lots of help from a certain person but being thick headed it took forever to sink in. I still browse the book on a daily basis.

Micahdesign (original poster)
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#7: Post by Micahdesign (original poster) »

I do have Rao's book and have read a ton about roasting, temps, RoR and such but a lot of that info just doesn't work on the Behmor so I may be ahead of the curve a bit.

I'm looking to get a used Bullet V1 but now I'm not sure if it's just worth spending more for Version 2 with the improved infrared sensor and bean temp. Does anyone have an opinion on the V1 vs V2?

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yakster
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#8: Post by yakster »

I got the first batch of US V1.5, I believe with the IBTS and I think the IR sensor does help a lot with roast consistency. I have a Variac on my outlet to make sure that I'm getting 120 V to the Bullet when I roast (same Variac I used with my Behmor) but if I understand correctly with the new V2 Induction board this shouldn't be an issue.

I suppose you might be able to pick up the V1 and upgrade it.
-Chris

LMWDP # 272

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yakster
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#9: Post by yakster »

Early reviews on the Ikawa P100 make it sound like the built in profiles make it easy to get started roasting without much learning curve. Still early days, but it'll be interesting to follow the reviews on this roaster.
-Chris

LMWDP # 272

beanman
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#10: Post by beanman »

The Behmor is a nice roaster. I used one for about 10 years, and felt I was roasting pretty good coffee. My opinion is it was better than most whole bean purchased in a grocery store.
February 2021 I upgraded to a Buckeye BC-2. Great roaster. I feel my coffee improved dramatically. But as mkane said,there's still lots to learn.
If you get a Bullet, here's some advice that I gleaned from this forum, and from some specific members here:
- Buy a bunch of one kind of beans, and only use that while you learn (I got 40 pounds) and only roast that bean until they're gone
- Select one charge weight and stick with it during that learning time with those beans
- Limit changing your variables (charge temp, heat settings, air flow changes, etc)
On my BC-2, I got 40 lbs of a Guatemalan from Sweet Maria's, use a 600 gram charge weight, preheat to 450F, charge at 400F, and have only made small changes to the starting gas setting used after the turning point. I've always used "3" setting for airflow.
I threw away the first 3 batches. And I've been drinking my roasts ever since. Espresso shots, drip, french press, moka - it all works.
Could my roasts be better? 100% positive they can be. But limiting the variables with the new roaster allowed me to get drinkable pretty quick.
Its fun, and minimizing variable changes will help you transition quickly to good and better coffee.

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