Ok...is it time?

[Tennessee Dave]

Seeking the advice of the home roasters here. Well I've been roasting now since the early part of the year utilizing the hot air popcorn popper starter kit that @Wicket bombed me with. Up until then I just bought my coffee (usually Starbucks) in whole bean format at the grocery store. I have had great success with the hot air popper and have really come to appreciate learning a bit about roasting and maintaining varietal taste characteristics of the bean. Starbucks no longer does it for me and though I like Counter Culture it's dang near cost prohibitive given the amount of coffee we consume here. So the question here now is it now time to move on to the Behmor 1600 plus? Results with the hot air popper have been excellent. The only down side with that system for me is that I can only roast 1/3 cup at a time. This takes 8 batches to roast a pound of coffee. By the time I let the popper cool a bit between batches it takes me upward to 2 hours to do a pound. We consume about 2 pounds per week so that is a 4 hour investment. Looking to save some time. So I guess I seek your advice regarding the learning curve on the Behmor and if I can expect similar roasting results as what I am getting from the popcorn popper. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this long post and for your responses.

 

[CaptainRon]

There's no learning curve really. It takes about 20 minutes to roast a pound of coffee, 13 minutes or so for the cool down cycle and another 5-10 minutes for cleanup.

You do have to make sure you attend the full roast cycle because there's a safety cutoff that you must watch for or the machine will timeout and ruin the batch as the machine will automatically go into cool down mode. I think the Behmor is painfully simple to use - at least it can be. Pick a weight (1/4, 1/2, 1 pound), pick a roast profile (P1 through P5), hit a, b, c or d based on the length of time you want and hit the start button. After 75% of the time is gone, watch for the clue to hit the start button again. Besides, that, you hit the "C" button when you hear the very first pop of first crack. From there you can let it run out and automatically go into the cool mode. Or if you want to stop the roast early, hit the cool button as early as you want.

I got the behmor for the same reason you're thinking about it and couldn't be happier - I now just always roast a pound at a time. It's saved lots of time and is very easy to use.

Good luck!

 

[Wicket]

There's no learning curve really. It takes about 20 minutes to roast a pound of coffee, 13 minutes or so for the cool down cycle and another 5-10 minutes for cleanup.

You do have to make sure you attend the full roast cycle because there's a safety cutoff that you must watch for or the machine will timeout and ruin the batch as the machine will automatically go into cool down mode. I think the Behmor is painfully simple to use - at least it can be. Pick a weight (1/4, 1/2, 1 pound), pick a roast profile (P1 through P5), hit a, b, c or d based on the length of time you want and hit the start button. After 75% of the time is gone, watch for the clue to hit the start button again. Besides, that, you hit the "C" button when you hear the very first pop of first crack. From there you can let it run out and automatically go into the cool mode. Or if you want to stop the roast early, hit the cool button as early as you want.

I got the behmor for the same reason you're thinking about it and couldn't be happier - I now just always roast a pound at a time. It's saved lots of time and is very easy to use.

Good luck!

I agree 100% with all of the above. If you can afford the Behmor its defiantly the way to go. I always roast by eye, sound and smells but you can do just as the Captain said and use the profiles. The only downside to me is the auto/safty shutoff you must be around when that comes up or the roast could end too soon.

 

[CaptainRon]

I agree 100% with all of the above. If you can afford the Behmor its defiantly the way to go. I always roast by eye, sound and smells but you can do just as the Captain said and use the profiles. The only downside to me is the auto/safty shutoff you must be around when that comes up or the roast could end too soon.

Yeah, that safety cutoff kinda stinks, but I get why it's there. Only lost two batches so far. Now I take a moment to do a quick calculation and start a countdown timer alarm for the 75% - haven't missed one since