That’s exactly how I scientifically arrived at my usual 650g. 
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Exactly. Hence my 550 gm batch size… I bought a bigger can! 
[AirSAcape]
Bruce
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+1 for the Airscape canister, it works quite well.
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hi
I took the latest SCA foundation virtual class for the Bullet - overall i found the class very useful, practical and informative- id highly rate attending for those either newer to roasting or who have not done any training before.
Prework:
The pre-work was very useful as it went through fundamentals in a nice simplistic way, backed up with visuals, evidence and science. The tests were also useful as helped to benchmark understanding and highlighted if worth spending more time on a certain area.
Class:
Overall the class was very useful, informative, friendly and helped with really getting to understand the basics behind roasting, also how to use the bullet. The principles can be easily translated across to other machines - at the same time really helped me to understand how to use the machine. There were people from all across the world and was great to meet people from other countries, understand their needs/similar issues and learn together. The first half of the class was a lot of background theory, context, also going through some of the pre-work to ensure a solid foundations. there were quite a few breaks and opportunities throughout to ask questions and clarify learning. Second half was more practical where we each roasted a couple of 1kg batches to get an idea of how the machine performs compared to a known baseline allio roaster and others in the class. Mine was slightly faster (i think the filter wasnt too clean! ) so had to adjust roast to compensate.
Key learnings for me:
- basically i have been making loads of mistakes (not having a set end temp/colour in mind, too many in flight roast changes, trying to copy others roasts, looking at RoR too much etc)
- roast colour is key
- start with a reference roast and plan in fewer changes, change power and time in iterations
- a lot of what you read online can be misleading, stick to fundamentals
- learn your machine performance first, then select beans and plan for a flavour outcome
- use the tryer more towards end of roast and dont worry about RoR
- use the recipe function to plan and produce the roast so dont end up improvising mid roast
Since the course ive applied the principles to a couple of roasts and the results are sooo much better than before. e.g. managed to get a really good Ethiopian natural roast by designing a profile from scratch- whilst not perfect its got an amazing floral profile similar to what I once had from a reputable uk branded roaster , similarly a brazilian has a nice chocolatey edge to it , this one still requires some work to modulate profile to get different perspectives- certainly boosted my confidence!
Overall i highly rate this course as its based on science, practical and you can use the knowledge and principles/guardrails to develop many different types of coffees! Its completely changed my approach all for the better!
J
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@jamieg2w thanks for such a great writeup about that course. Sounds like this was a “live” course that you also have to roast during the course? Was this the course mentioned earlier on in this thread?
Refreshing to know!! Because when I started my journey on the Bullet most of what I read here is all about the RoR and Rao’s methods. I had taken a 2-day roasting class many years ago (too long to remember when) on a 12kg Probat gas roaster and we didn’t spend much time dwelling on RoR but used sight, smell and sound so that’s what I have stuck with when I started roasting on the FreshRoast ST500 and now the Bullet.
As for copying others’ roasts, actually that’s what I did but I was very selective who I copied from as my reference roasts before I started to make my own tweaks But that said, after 1.5 yrs I’m finally adjusting the drum speed during drying phase to see what it does when used with my existing P and F setting during that phase.
hi yes we each had 5kg of own beans, i roasted around 3kg based on a standard profile that was iterated every time. Sight, sounds, smell, power, time and temperature were the key points we focused on.
Similarly I looked at Rao’s methods originally and have dropped them to focus on fundamentals, also avoid confusion and complexity (not saying they are not good, at my stage in learning they are not helpful for me)
Others roast profiles can be useful, as long as aware of the considerations (each bullet behaves slightly differently therefore dont go on time, power factor differences etc). From what we covered advice was to set drum speed and leave - other factors had bigger impacts and could end up going in circles J
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We have to keep in mind that Rao is consulting for commercial roasters using substantially different machines turning out batch sizes that dwarf what the Bullet does.
That said I applaud your focus on fundamentals. With that down to routine, tackling more complex variations will be much easier.
Bruce
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Thanks for posting🤘
I reserved and payed my spot for a live roasting class in Copenhagen at Coffee-mind this summer 
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d:
I am becoming a Morton disciple, the science makes sense. I am low on the Bullet learning curve so still have a lot to learn. Like you, the verdict is still out.
Just signed up for the June virtual course.
Gil
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Bit of a drag up from the past here, but I’m a raw beginner to roasting and have a new-to-me Bullet.
I’ve just mostly completed Morten’s e learning course, and am about to have a go at the first of the standard roast profile development roasts (the full flame to second crack).
I wondered whether anybody had some insights into Bullet settings for this? Obviously P9 (for full flame), and I’m assuming D9 (to reduce risk of scorching), but I’d be interested in thoughts on fan speed and charge temp. Morten doesn’t allude to these in the hands-on video. I’ve emailed him, but given the weekend and time difference (I’m in Australia), I’m not expecting a quick response.
Tagging @krame for your question. He also did a lot of trying to follow Morten’s framework at the start of his journey on the Bullet. Maybe he has some tips.
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Heyo,
When I get a chance tonight I’ll look back at my notes.
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I’ve created a few recipes based on my (v 1.5) Bullet.
I use this one for lighter roasts, and fragile beans
Of course, your machine is probably different, and your tastes are probably different as well. But these may be a place to start
Keep in mind I am NOT a professional roaster, though I sometimes play one for friends.
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Thank you for your response. As per Morten’s course, this initial roast is less about the end product, and more about gaining an understanding of how the roaster performs ‘at full throttle’, so I can then glean an understanding of how to adjust parameters intelligently to achieve specific changes in subsequent roasts (that are more targeting specific FC times, Dev. times etc.).
Obviously I could trawl roast.world and get a pretty good idea of this, but I definitely see value in performing the exercise myself (especially as I have a fair stock of green that came with the roaster).
Very helpful to have your 1kg charge temp as a ballpark to begin with, though. Thanks!
Basically all of what you said is correct.
I followed his framework and I only have 2 or 3 temperature changes in my recipes.
Thanks Krame. I’m a little confused though, as I just did the 2nd crack, full flame roast, and with a 280c preheat, I didn’t get first crack until 10 mins (1kg beans, P9 D9 F4). Morton made it seem like it would be considerably faster than this. I made sure the Bullet had about a 35 minute preheat. Was my fan speed too high?
Yes. An F4 will take out your heat more than you think. (disclaimer I don’t roast using Morten’s framework). Try an F2 or F3 and see how fast that gets you to FC - just keep an eye on it though.
Thanks. That’s good to know.
Could also be a 120v vs 220v thing too