FOSC or (Fear of Second Crack)

Roasting on the Bullet R1
1

I confess, I have a fear of second crack, or more accuratley knowing when second crack happens.

I have poor hearing due to many years in factories and have a hard time hearing first cracks and especially second cracks.

I use a mini voice amplifier that I got on Amazon.

I added a piece of silicon tubing and tapered the end to fit in the trier opening.

image
image972×805 101 KB

image
image879×1054 91.3 KB

This works well. I can easily hear first crack now.

My problem or fear comes from knowing when second crack is happening, or is about to happen.

Many of the vendors that I buy green coffee from will offer roasting hints and tips that usually say something like: “I am especially fond of this one at Full City+, taking it 10 seconds into the second cracks”

Or: “My sweet spot is to give it about 45-60 seconds of slow heat past the ending of the 1st cracks”

I have been reluctant to risk a 1000g roast on guessing when second crack is going to happen.

So being OCD, I created a Recipe for a 300g roast that will give me a baseline for any of my beans after running this recipe on them. When running this recipe, I don’t make any changes to the roast parameters.

Then, of course, I had to create a spreadsheet so that I can see at a glance when different milestones have been reached.

image
image1756×755 51.8 KB

And because I am OCD^2 (OCD squared), I am planning on removing samples with the trier and build a mini bean cooler. (I already have an extra 24v computer fan and a 24 volt power supply and will use a mini strainer to quickly cool the beans) then I will grind and measure the color.

After I have that information, I will be able to create a recipe where I can anticpate when a temperature/color has been reached and then just adjust the roast speed by power or fan for development.

Basically, I am reducing the variables.

I am not brewing anything from the milestone roasts. I am going darker than I prefer: well into rolling second cracks. AND, I can really hear the second cracks now and know what to listen for.

I am sacrificing 300g of beans.

If anyone is interested in the spreadsheet, here ia a link that should allow you to download it to your computer.

10 Likes
2

:nerd_face: So you to do this @billc Your sharing your creative solutions with the rest of us is what makes this community engaging (for me at least). :smiley:

5 Likes