I mark 1C when I start to hear several beans cracking for a few seconds.
My bad. I was reading FC temp from bean probe, not IBTS. Big difference.
OK, now that I had time to look at it properly, the only other thing that comes to mind is that you’re fighting the development phase too much and maybe hindering it. Underdevelopment could result in what you’re describing. Although the bean probe says differently, you have under 5°C on your delta temperature for almost 24% development according to the IBTS. Try keeping the P5 going and don’t drop to P4 when FC starts. You could also delay your F5 until after FC. Also, maybe change to IBTS readings in RoasTime settings if you’re roasting smaller batches. The bean probe is good from 800g upwards.
Thanks for the tips. I’m going to try a few more batches tomorrow (after I re clean the sensors) and use your ideas of delaying the P4 drop/F5. I did try the coffee again today and while a little better tasting, still nowhere near where I’d like it. Practice, practice…
If that is the case, what should FC temp be with the IBTS?
Just a follow up here. I roasted a couple batches of Nicaraguan and Kenyan a few days ago and used a higher PH temp in both (230 and 250). Also had a an ending temp (IBTS) of 210 and 212. Grassy, underdeveloped flavors are gone. Whew! I still have a ways to go with nailing down everything, but it’s like night and day with just these changes. Thanks for the help and maybe this can help others.
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Grass can be good. It is just a flavor.
Do you mind if I try one of your roast profiles? I’ll see if my machine can replicate similar flavors.
Flavors expressed on my machine are usually grassy if light, or dull and earthy if roasted darker.
I am testing how my machine behaves in relation to other machines. It does not matter if it gets the same result, it is seeing how big a deviation there is.
It helps also to see how your airflow measures too, and what kind of power you bullet is pulling, but I don’t expect you to put in any of that work.
Just asking if you can share one of your favorite roasts, so that I can compare with an ideal, rather than a random roast with no flavor notes or concept behind it.
Again, you are mistaken.
I am not interested in roasting theory, I am simply comparing machines.
From reading this forum, I get the sense that there are two main types of Bullet roasters:
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The ones that like fruity and flavorful natural coffees
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The ones that like a traditional dark 2nd Crack coffee
I was quite surprised how 2nd crack appears to taste sweeter on the Bullet that it would on a gas machine. My assumption is that because the Bullet may roast less even, there is an element of medium roast within the 2nd crack profile on the Bullet.
But I cannot really say, because I have had machine issues and I don’t know what is specific to my machine and what is specific to the Bullet design.
Swapping two parts got my machine closer to good operation, but something’s are still off, and my rear chaff filter has warped again. Which seems to mess up my airflow.
I am trying to figure out where my machine is behaving differently.
I’ll be buying roasted beans from another Bullet user soon, but they roast naturals, so I have to figure out how to get roasted washed beans from them.
There aren’t any people on this forum that post regularly that live close enough for me to try out their machine to see if their machine is any better or not. But for now, I am just looking for people on this forum that are willing to exchange roasting parameters and notes and even possibly ship beans back and forth.
So far, I have not been able to get smooth profile curves with washed coffees, like the nice curves we see on coffee mind. I there are times when adding a flick in development tastes better than a coffee mind curve. the coffemind curves taste of defect when I use them. Sometimes burnt, sometimes grassy, sometimes baked.
Moving over to see the airflow temperature helps me avoid baking at least. I noticed my airflow temperature can drop while the IBTS is still rising.
There are certainly factors like bad beans and even a muddy character can come from some grinders. I feel like the Baratza Encore leans more into the earthy flavors than a nicely aligned EK with nice burrs might. So, one certainly can’t blame everything on the roasting machine.
Currently, on my machine, I get pretty good results just leaving the setting at P9 right through FC and then dial back after that. But it runs the risk of irregular burn marks or oily beans. But I thought it was funny that P9 all the way made better espresso than a coffeemind curve on my machine. Something has to be wrong there. And that is not my opinion, that was in a blind taste test with a pro. Haha.
So, i tend to believe I have a machine with some bad tolerance somewhere and that ends up causing some issue with heat transfer.
That all being said, I learn a lot by things going wrong, more than I do from everything going well. So perhaps I make the most of a bad situation. However, it has caused me to lose way too much money, and I need to move on. I just keep reading this forum and people seem to be roasting up good stuff and I want to believe I can make the bullet work too. And I am too poor to change my system right now.
Support didn’t believe me at first, but we fixed something eventually. Took a long long time, but eventually we improve things, but never fixed it.
Is the Bullet just bad at washed coffees and medium roasts? I never get “silky” or “caramelized”. I get steamed, grass, herbal, earthy (and sweet earthy), burnt, char. Car tire.
Some of the best I have had were a nice interplay of brown sugar and sweet citrus grass. It just didn’t brew in drip machines, so I decided against focusing on those profiles. I liked it, until my machine airflow got worse. Eventually swapping out the rear chaff container helped with clarity and sweetness, but then that one warped and my roasts got earthy again. So why does my chaff container warp with normal use? Apparently no one else has reported warping. I believe it messes with the airflow and therefore the roasting.
But what do I know. Right? I’m just looking for an easy fix, right?
Yes, I believe there is some physical issue, but how or what is unclear.
What has been useful is learning what other people’s results are and seeing how my machine behaves.
I started a thread about best default recipes, and realized my induction board was overheating and made roasting larger batches difficult, and that helped me find out I needed to fix that. However, it took other proof to convince anyone else though. So it was still months before a fix was possible.
I was having a lot of problems till I tried a pre-soak here’s a link to a thread that solve my problems the name of the persons whose procedure I used is quartzglen.— Drum Speed in relation to batch weight? - #11 by kitti ---- After getting roast batches coming out good I just wrote a program and use variations of it for different beans.
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That is good to hear!
I’ve had some partial success with heat soak.
How is it changing the flavor or feel of your coffees? What is your ideal coffee?
It stop all the Tipping and scorching I get a nice even color now. I keep the green weight between 500 and 650 find it works best. I roast very light usually drop before the end of first crack. I like too taste the flavors of The Bean not the roast. Ethiopian is my go-to, but the last bag I bought was washed Colombian some of the most forgiving coffee I’ve ever roasted. I drink 2 cappuccinos 19 - 20 gram shots every morning.
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I looked up you last Colombian coffee roast, and that is definitely different from others. I’ll have to give that a go. I like the aggressive approach.
Hi Philip, do you mind sharing some of your roast recipes for washed Ethiopian and natural Ethiopian beans? I roast Ethiopian mainly and am still experimenting with soak. My batch size is usually 300g and I only soak for max of 30secs.
Would love to compare notes with your best roast recipes or profiles for Ethiopian beans
You should be able to get any of my roast and recipes off of roast world by looking up my name. All my recent Ethiopian roasts have been natural beans. I seem to do better with 450 G to 650g when I roast. I could not recommend any of my roasts before I started using a soak. If you see an e in the title then it’s Ethiopian and the 5-minute roast is when I lost power.
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