Coffee Mind eLearning from Aillio

Roasting on the Bullet R1
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In the last Aillio Newsletter, there was the offer for a free e-learning class from Coffee Mind, taught by Morten Münchow. I eagerly signed up for this class, because even though I have been roasting coffee for over 20 years (as a hobbyist - I am no pro) I am always eager to learn more.

(a quick background - I started roasting on a fluidized bed roaster I bought from Sweet Marias when they were still in Cincinnati, The Fresh Roast, maybe? Can’t quite remember. When that burned out from overuse, I bought an Alpenrost drum roaster. Then a Hottop. Then another Hottop, now the Bullet. I have been roasting pretty much by the seat of my pants, turning green beans brown by sight, scent, and sound. But the Bullet gave me something else. Data)

I listened to all the classes, and took all the quizzes, and learned a completely new way to roast.

When I first got the Bullet, I used the Rao method of always making sure the ROR was dropping, and using 20% dev time to get to the drop.

It was an easy way to manage a roast, and it always came out pretty good.

Listening to Morten, and then looking at his charts (He used Principle Components Analysis! WOW! Real Triangular Tests! SCIENCE!) I realized there was so much I did not know about turning those green beans brown.

So now I am two roasts into the Morten Method, lets call it. VERY programmatic, I would say quantitative, not qualitative (you can find my recipes over on RoasTime), and quite a bit longer and slower than I am used to.

The verdict? Still out. The first I tried really was fantastic, but I have a new grinder, so that may be part of the results. I will roast for another several pounds and see what I conclude. But watching time and power verses ROR and Dev% makes for a different experience.

I’ll be curious if anyone else is heading down this path.

But a big “Thank You” to Aillio for making me look at things a little differently.

d

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Just started watching the series. definitely interested to learn more and I do appreciate the science/data driven education.

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I completed the course too and now I have a better idea of what to do knowing that the most important factors are the quality of the beans,Time to first crack, and Development time.
I completed my first roast using Morton’s parameters and it turned out good. It should be a good base to use for future roasts and I can apply modifications to obtain different flavor profiles.

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How do you sign up for it ?

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There was a link in the last Aillio newsletter. You can see it here.

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Details are in the latest issue of the Aillio Newsletter. If not subscribed, the sign up link and archive of past issues can be found here.

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awesome thanks both!

funny to notice that the dude is like 10 kilometers from my workplace…

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You should go see him and send back a report!

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Is the e-learning course an “on demand” course? I went to the site but it wasn’t clear, but it looks like it is “on demand” as compared to the other one which is a live event later this month… Is my understanding correct?

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It is on demand and I’ve been able to review sections after completing the course.

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Thanks @keward !!

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I just tried signing up but received this error to the coupon code: “Sorry, this coupon is not applicable to selected products.“

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Never mind! I registered an account and the order went through successfully.

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Side note, there is one of the videos where he is heavily searching for his words with a lot of “hum” that I had to watch five times, because I would always fall asleep. :wink:

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I have also started Morten’s course, and am excited to learn using his scientific method. I have over 100 roasts on the Bullet, and I always roast light. Embarrassingly, I did the first exercise twice (full flame to 2nd crack), but was unable to tell where FC ended and SC began. They just flowed together. FWIW I was using Ethiopia Sidamo Durato Bombe G1 Natural beans. The second time around I listened intently for a change in cadence and sound quality, but still couldn’t detect any. Is there any advice you may have? I’m inclined to just proceed with the rest of the course, but it bothers me that I can’t figure this out.

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My experience is that cracking is very bean dependent. I think that the Colombians and Central Americans have very distinct cracks, others (like your Ethiopians) less so.

The best way I have heard the description is that first crack is like popcorn second crack is like Rice Crispies. Not sure that helps. I would go ahead with the course. I use P8/F2/D6 to 150 C, then P6/F3/D6 to 190, then P5/F4/D6 to 3 minutes past first crack.

I will be modifying that, but so far so good.

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If you already have 100 roasts under your belt, I would just skip the “learn to know your roaster part”.

So far this course is very interesting. I would assume Morten is considered a heretic by “The old guard”? He sorta kinda invalidates all they’re saying, especially this incessant RoR focus…

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Thanks, that does help! I’ve definitely heard SC when I had my Behmor, but since getting the Bullet I’ve been chasing blueberry flavors, and therefore been roasting light. Are the settings you cited for 1 kg?

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Point taken about skipping the roaster part, but it makes me feel incompetent to have been unable to discern end of FC and beginning of SC. I may try this one more time with a smaller quantity of a different bean, if nothing else, just for my bruised ego.

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I always roast 440g in (usually 381 to 385 out) mainly because that is what fits in my coffee cannister!

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