Does anyone have great settings for a very small batch of 150g? I tried following the Sweet Maria’s videos for these batches, but mine is a V2, so using identical settings only yielded me scorched beans. I can’t seem to find a balance between charge temp, initial power setting, and the length of the roast. When I finally put my charge temp down to 382 (I think), it didn’t scorch my beans, but yielded me a 13 minute roast with first crack not happening until 411 degrees F on my IBTS readout. Any recommendations out there?
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Hey Dusty,
I haven’t personally used this profile but saw that Rob Hoos had a few 200g sample roasts on his profile. Have a peak, maybe it will help? Let me know how it goes.
Bryan
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Will check it out - thanks!
Just worked on building a sample roast profile for 150g batches. Just finished roasting, so haven’t tasted yet, but profile worked well and was consistent for 2 different beans.
Preheat 175 C. Start at P6 and reduce to P5 at 7:00 min. Start F2, reduce to F3 at YW (about 4:30 min), reduce to F4 at 8:15 (right about/before FC). D7 for entire roast. Built this as a recipe in RoastTime and just let it run each time.
Did 4 sample roasts for each bean, dropping at 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00 after FC.
Originally started with a preheat temp at 165C and tried a few working it up to the 175C. Would still consider moving it up even higher to get the roast to progress a little faster.
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Do you know if Rob roasts on an R1 or R2?
I will give it a shot on mine - thanks for the good info!
Any tasting feedback on those 150g batches?
I would say the recipe worked pretty well. Definitely want to try a slightly higher preheat (185C) and maybe work on another step or two down on the power as the roast progresses. Try harder to get the declining ROR, most of the profiles were too close to flat and hovering in the 7 ROR area for the last half of the roast. Maybe try getting individual recipes for light/medium/dark instead of just letting one set recipe run longer or shorter.
For specific tastes I initially thought the dark 2 samples I ran on both beans came out with better flavor profiles and I seemed to be able to scale this up and replicate it in 800g batches. Some of the shorter samples I thought came out very underdeveloped, cinnamon roast-like. However, my cupping skills may just not be the great. I just brewed some of these samples in a Kalita Wave yesterday and thought they had some good flavors and might have been nice to bring out in the larger batch. I follow the SCA protocol, and definitely can note the aromas on break, but flavors seems to be more elusive. Brewing 2-3 days after roast seems to give a clearer picture. Spoke with one professional roaster that says he doesn’t cup because it finds it worthless or misleading. He also waits a few days then brews how he would serve to see what it tastes like in the cup.
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Update to the sample roast experiment. Did some more 150 g samples for the first time since last. Modified from previous profile and took some theory cues from Cafe Imports sample roasting video (theirs is with Probat sample roaster, so just theory).
Because the bean pile is so small I would say the roast data on these is of marginal value, vague reference only. IBTS seems to read higher than actual and BT lower than actual. Attention was focused on making adjustments based on sensory cues and not RoasTime data.
Charge temp 200C for light sample, 190C for dark sample.
D7 for entire roast
Drop P3/F2
1:00 min P6
3:00 min F3
Slightly before YW P5
Shortly after YW F4
Roughly 90 sec prior FC P4
Hearing first pop before FC P3
F5 shortly after FC
F6 if needed (dark sample) to keep ROR coming down
Be careful with F5 step. If ROR data is accurate it can have a big cooling effect on some beans with small batch size and low power setting.
Did light and dark samples for a Mexican washed, Mexican natural and Guatemalan washed. Roasted until I saw the color and aroma I was looking for then dropped. Light samples dropped between 8:45-9:15 and dark samples dropped 11:00-11:30.
Cupped the following day and was very happy with the results. Light samples with stand out bright fruit notes, dark samples with nut, chocolate, deep fruit and spice notes. The Mexican natural was packed with flavors. Bright citrus on the light roast and deep rich berry fruit on the dark sample.
Roasting was done outdoors, no wind, temp about 90 F, humidity 10-15%. Greens have been stored inside for a couple of months since receiving.
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That is tremendously helpful info! I tried your profile and got what looks to be a great 150g roast out of a natural Ethiopian bean I’m trying out. I also noticed that there is nearly a 100 degree (sorry, I use Fahrenheit lol) difference between the bean probe and the IBTS sensor, so it is more of a multi-sensory experience to keep tabs on the roast than with larger batches. But it looks like the roast came out just fine. Much of my previous frustration also seemed to be due to a faulty bean probe sensor, which I just replaced (thanks Aillio!) and that really helped me avoid the frustrations of exploding and charred beans that I was getting before.
Great to hear its working for someone else as well, helps validate the profile. I started roasting using Fahrenheit but so many others were using Celsius it just seemed easier to use that. But I keep a conversion chart handy that I use constantly.
Brewing some of my sample batches this morning with Kalita and V60 and they are still tasting good so profile is holding up.
He uses a V2.
He’s doing a Bullet Roasting class in July, too. Looks interesting.
Bumming up an old thread as I was searching to see what’s the smallest batch size recommended for the Bullet (V2). Is 150g the smallest? Just trying to figure out how to do sample roasts.
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What a coincidence, I was also reading this old thread yesterday! I personally plan to do 200g batches.
I’ve seen videos of people doing 100g sample roasts and in all documentation I’ve found 100g is described as the lowest - so I’d say that’s the lowest batch size. Others might be able to comment on how practical 100g is as I’ve not roasted that myself. I would also recommend searching people’s profiles for 100g roasts.
I came across this post around Xmas when looking for a starting point for some sample roasting. In the end I created a very simple recipe that seems to work for me at 150G. Then I varied time after First Crack start to give me FC+30s, 1m, 1:30m etc and cupped these the day after.
I settled on FC+1:45 for this bean and then had to scale it up to 700G which I did manually trying to fixate on the correct RoR at each point until I had a usable profile. Seemed to work but then I am just a bloke that likes coffee.
Hope this helps!
According to the Specifications page in the on-line manual, minimum batch size is 200 gm. I doubt using a smaller batch is any risk to the roaster, but… ??
Bruce
I have found that very small bean masses are difficult to monitor. But 200+ grams seem to work well. Here is recipe driven roast for Kenya Ichamama peaberry that was very good. But I roast light…
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I have found the key is to use a high pre-heat. I load the beans *very quickly,*which avoids scorching. At least for me. Most people seem to avoid high pre heats, though.
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