[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino /img/forum/go_quote.gif thanks for the review/update! i figured there'd be a learning curve with the behmor...i'll be sure to use some of my cheaper stash if/when i get a behmor. are you able to use it indoors? i have to roast out on the patio with the iroast2 b/c of its noise and smoke...it'd be nice to roast indoors, especially in the phoenix summer. how long does a typical roast take? i usually stop my roasts at the first sign of the 2nd crack, which at the moment is somewhere around 8 minutes at the roast profile i'm using (and it's 100+ degrees outside). when you're finally able to get a decent roast, let us know how it tastes. oh - my iroast2 seemed fine yesterday.

You sound like you're following pretty much the same plan I follow for most of my roasts in the i-Roast, allowing for differences in ambient humidity and temperature.

The Behmor seems completely different. It was quite a learning curve to start, but now it's starting to make sense. For a roast taken to FC or FC+, smoke should not be a problem, as far as I can tell so far. I would still recommend locating the roaster near your exhaust hood in the kitchen because there is still some oder, and if you go too far, there WILL be smoke! The noise is delightfully not an issue, the Behmor is blissfully quiet.

I'll have a better understanding of this critter as I use it more, but for now I'm keeping my roastery in the garage, mostly because of the chaff and the location of my shop vac mounted on the wall right next to the workbench and roaster. The temperature outside today is currently 66F. .

I see it's 102F down your way right now... Oh, the roast process takes about 10-14 minutes and about another 10 minutes for the cool down cycle.

The roast timer tops out at about 23 minutes using the coolest roast profile, and it takes about half that time so far, using the roast profiles I've played with.

 

[kwkarth]

BTW, I've now gone through all the cheap green coffee I had, so next comes the more expensive stuff.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif BTW, I've now gone through all the cheap green coffee I had, so next comes the more expensive stuff.

what origin are you using that produces so much chaff? my ethiopian origins usually produce the most chaff, while the island origins (mostly puerto rican) have very little. i'm working through some sumatra tangse rhino that also produces very little chaff...

btw, i've been buying my beans from green coffee buying club and have been pretty pleased...have you tried them?

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino /img/forum/go_quote.gif what origin are you using that produces so much chaff? my ethiopian origins usually produce the most chaff, while the island origins (mostly puerto rican) have very little. i'm working through some sumatra tangse rhino that also produces very little chaff... btw, i've been buying my beans from green coffee buying club and have been pretty pleased...have you tried them?

The cheap stuff that I have been playing with actually produces very little chaff, but any of my dry processed coffees make tons of chaff, so much so that it chokes the i-roast completely and I have to stop it half way through the roast and empty the chaff. I haven't tried roasting any dry process coffees in the Behmor yet. I haven't done any business with greencoffeebuyingclub yet, but I may give them a try after I work through the 20+ pounds of green coffee I have on hand now. I have purchased pretty much all of my green coffee from coffeebeancoral.com or sweetmarias.com. They have both been exceptional to deal with. I think I prefer Sweet Marias because they're much more active on their web site. They post cupping reviews and roasting recommendations for all of their coffees, and they do extensive testing and reporting on all the roasters they sell. It represents 100s and 100s of hours of work and it makes my enjoyment of the hobby much, much better.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif The cheap stuff that I have been playing with actually produces very little chaff, but any of my dry processed coffees make tons of chaff, so much so that it chokes the i-roast completely and I have to stop it half way through the roast and empty the chaff. I haven't tried roasting any dry process coffees in the Behmor yet. I haven't done any business with greencoffeebuyingclub yet, but I may give them a try after I work through the 20+ pounds of green coffee I have on hand now. I have purchased pretty much all of my green coffee from coffeebeancoral.com or sweetmarias.com. They have both been exceptional to deal with. I think I prefer Sweet Marias because they're much more active on their web site. They post cupping reviews and roasting recommendations for all of their coffees, and they do extensive testing and reporting on all the roasters they sell. It represents 100s and 100s of hours of work and it makes my enjoyment of the hobby much, much better.

yeah, most of the ethiopian varieties (like harrar) are dry-processed so they have a lot of chaff...and i agree with you about sweet maria's. tons of great info there...best starting place for anyone interested in home roasting.

 

[kwkarth]

Did I mention efficiency?

Both of the i-Roasts that I have each consume about ≈1200-1300W.
The Behmor consumes ≤920W at full power. Not bad eh?

 

[diogenes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino /img/forum/go_quote.gif btw, i've been buying my beans from green coffee buying club and have been pretty pleased...have you tried them?

When the club formed there was some nastiness involved that keeps me away from them.
However, due to my current location etc, I am taking part in the Sweet Maria’s coffee club. There are few other sources of green coffee beans that I have had satisfactory or better transactions with, e.g., Green Coffee Beans | Home Roasting Supplies, U-Roast-Em .

 

[john_jcb]

I have been roasting espresso blends from Sweet Marias lately and have enjoyed them very much. I actually like the iroast 2 as far as quantity is concerned. Mostly I am the only one drinking coffee and I go through a batch every few days. When I have a day or so remaining I roast some more so it is always fresh. The espresso seems to be better if ground after a day or so of resting.

 

[kugino]

kwkarth, give us an update on the behmor. how have your roasts been?

i've had quite an interesting week with coffee...finding coffee borer larvae in my stash of puerto rico (now i know where the moths were coming from) but also successfully obtaining some panama esmeralda gesha auction lot beans as well as one of my all-time favorites, kenya gethumbwini peaberry...mmm.

 

[kwkarth]

Ah, yes... The Behmor... I am still trying to calibrate myself to the vastly different roasting experience that it presents relative to the iRoast.

I love the fact that I can roast a full pound at a time! I have not gotten the "perfect" roast yet. Most of my roasts have been a little bit lighter than optimum, but I can tell you it is a lot easier to obtain a good light roast with the Behmor than it was from the iRoast.

Random notes:
The overall Behmor roaster exhibits much, much better heat distribution throughout the bean than does the iRoast, yet, is easily fast enough to showcase the brightness in the varietal character of Central & South American beans.

One of the dry processed beans that gave me a lot of excessive chaff trouble in the iRoast at only 6 OZ at a time, went through the Behmor at a full pound with no problems at all.

I did find that most of my peaberry coffees were too small to roast with the stock Behmor drum, as the smaller beans fell through the grid. I ordered the small grid drum and it works perfectly with all of my smaller bean coffees.

With roasting a pound at a time, and only the wife and I drinking one cup a day, my iterative cycle is fairly slow... One roast a week. At this rate, the Behmor should last about a hundred years.

 

[kugino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ah, yes... The Behmor... I am still trying to calibrate myself to the vastly different roasting experience that it presents relative to the iRoast. I love the fact that I can roast a full pound at a time! I have not gotten the "perfect" roast yet. Most of my roasts have been a little bit lighter than optimum, but I can tell you it is a lot easier to obtain a good light roast with the Behmor than it was from the iRoast. Random notes: The overall Behmor roaster exhibits much, much better heat distribution throughout the bean than does the iRoast, yet, is easily fast enough to showcase the brightness in the varietal character of Central & South American beans. One of the dry processed beans that gave me a lot of excessive chaff trouble in the iRoast at only 6 OZ at a time, went through the Behmor at a full pound with no problems at all. I did find that most of my peaberry coffees were too small to roast with the stock Behmor drum, as the smaller beans fell through the grid. I ordered the small grid drum and it works perfectly with all of my smaller bean coffees. With roasting a pound at a time, and only the wife and I drinking one cup a day, my iterative cycle is fairly slow... One roast a week. At this rate, the Behmor should last about a hundred years.

i've been reading a few coffee threads where behmor owners discuss how to dial in roasts for a particular bean...sounds complicated, but i like that one is able to do it during the roast, unlike the iroast, where one only has control of the cool cycle during the roast.

are you able to roast indoors without much smoke? i'd love to be able to do that...i think you mentioned that there is very little smoke as long as you don't roast too dark, right?

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kugino /img/forum/go_quote.gif i've been reading a few coffee threads where behmor owners discuss how to dial in roasts for a particular bean...sounds complicated, but i like that one is able to do it during the roast, unlike the iroast, where one only has control of the cool cycle during the roast. are you able to roast indoors without much smoke? i'd love to be able to do that...i think you mentioned that there is very little smoke as long as you don't roast too dark, right?

The smoke control on the Behmor is most impressive as is its quietness. On both of those counts, it would do very well to roast on the kitchen counter, near an exhaust fan, IF you roast too dark. However...

It's quite impressive to me to be able to roast an entire pound of coffee to perfection without one whisp of smoke being created!

I like to open the door while the machine is in its cooling cycle. Cool down is much more rapid that way. The downside of this is chaff blowing out of the roaster. I have a big shop vac on the wall which is very convenient for me to eliminate the chaff problem.

If you use the Behmor in the way in which it was intended, that is, with the door closed until it's done cooling, chaff would NOT be an issue, but you'll want a good vac to clean out the chaff between roasts.

My only issue at this point with the roaster is getting a darker, but not too dark roast with a full 16oz. of green beans. The timer needs another minute as far as I can tell. I would also like to be able to control the heat manually, in other words, it would be really neat to have a full manual mode on the roaster. I would use that mode all the time if it were there.

 

[blubliss]

Wow, I just found this thread and am glad to find a hidden gem of knowledge about espresso in the Head-Fi community.

I just moved from the Rancilio duo to this:

La Spaziale Vivaldi II Single Group Dual Boiler

and this:

MACAP M4 Stepless Adjustment Espresso Grinder

and I have a Hottop Roaster.

We (me and the 10-15 guys who use the machine) are very happy with them. Our shots are consistently great now. It was a little more difficult with the Rancilio.

We get our green beans wholesale from Royal Coffee and it only costs about $2.75 a pound but you have to buy 130 lbs. That lasts us like 6 months. We just got an awesome Ethiopian bean.

Just thought I would say hi.

 

[david21]

Vietnamese coffee press/filter is all I need

I'm addicted to the Vietnamese ice coffee!

Cookware - Single Cup Vietnamese Coffee Maker

 

[iakonafuji]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blubliss /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, I just found this thread and am glad to find a hidden gem of knowledge about espresso in the Head-Fi community. I just moved from the Rancilio duo to this: La Spaziale Vivaldi II Single Group Dual Boiler and this: MACAP M4 Stepless Adjustment Espresso Grinder and I have a Hottop Roaster. We (me and the 10-15 guys who use the machine) are very happy with them. Our shots are consistently great now. It was a little more difficult with the Rancilio. We get our green beans wholesale from Royal Coffee and it only costs about $2.75 a pound but you have to buy 130 lbs. That lasts us like 6 months. We just got an awesome Ethiopian bean. Just thought I would say hi.

I sure hope the 10-15 guys you share this with care for their machines just as much as you do! I'd hate for one of them to be reckless and not maintain it when it is due