Thread subject: Homeroasters - Home Roasting Coffee Community :: Adventures in fluidbed roasting

Posted by allenb on 10/17/2023 1:53 PM
#20

Hi nickr. I'm still using the method but my Hearthware Gourmet hot air roaster died (blower wheel committed suicide) and was not the kind of fan that can be rebuilt. I've since made some mods to my old Freshroast and am using close to the same two step profile although the second phase temp is way different due to the Freshroast being able to pull off the Maillard and develpment phase at 480 F instead of 510 F and still hit end of a light roast at around 7 minutes. The roasts aren't quite as good as the Hearthware Gourmet was giving me but is close.
Since changing to the Freshroast roaster, I did a lot more experimentation with comparing complex multi staged ramps versus the 2 step and never found an improved cup with the multi stage.

Something I did find while roasting lots of different coffees since starting the thread is that there are green coffees out there that do not like a short 7 minute roast and exhibit woody/earthy or other under developed taints that are much less apparent when using a 10 minute or longer profile. Fortunately, it's only been maybe 10% of my green purchases so far.

An important thing to nail down when setting your 2nd stage temperature is that you end up with a high enough air temp so that the roast doesn't ever drop lower than around 8 F per minute from first crack onward or you will bake it and lose all the high notes. With the temp I'm now using, for a very light roast, the coffee never takes more than 1 1/2 minutes from start of first crack through end of roast.