I’ve noticed my first crack temps are high compared to other Aillio bullet users and I tend to hit FC around 199-202°C with a 800g-1kg load.
Is this fairly normal on the bean temp probe?
IBTS I use more for when the bean is in first crack to control development and stop it from stalling the roast staying in positive numbers.
Would love to hear people’s thoughts on this and if there is something wrong with my bean probe.
I’ve roasted close to 1000kg of coffee on my Aillio and the machine is regularly cleaned with a purpose roaster cleaner.
I suspect there are IBTS calibration differences between Bullets. I see about 400°-401°F/204°-205°C for 1Cs. The number doesn’t matter. What does matters is repeatability. Yes it means you may have to adjust/tweak Recipes created on a different machine but that’s part of the ‘art’ of roasting.
I also suspect there is a similar difference between IBTS and the temp probe where you have 2 technologies at play: IR sensor vs. thermocouple (ignoring geometry differences based upon sensor location). Again I believe it doesn’t matter. What does matter is repeatability. The rest is all ‘art’- the subtle differences in roasting which yield either a pretty good roast result or a real winner… the ‘sweet spot’. There are some here who are indeed artists!
Bruce
Afterthought- for those of us in an uncontrolled temperature environment, ambients can definitely affect the roast results.
I can’t really see anything that could be wrong with your bean probe. The temperatures are what I get with bigger batches. For 500g it will be below 190C. If you want, next time you remove your face plate you could clean the bean probe too, if you haven’t already thought of that. You can see how it looks here.
I regularly roast 1kg batches most of my FC is around that temp you are hitting, and after FC the BT reading will be higher than IBTS reading. In my roasting of 1kg batches I switch to BT reading after FC to determine drop temp - I find this to be more accurate for the large batches.
