Hey there, happy to join this amazing community. Just couple of days ago I got my Bullet V2 roaster and I’ve just finished my 6th batch.
I am however getting strange roasting results and along with that I got a couple of questions. (I tried doing my research, but I didn’t manage to bring my roasts to satisfaction).
I am brewing natural Honduras blend beans growing at 1300m-1500m
I tried different batch sizes but generally 300-350g, tried also larger ones of 600g
I hear FC sound around Yellowing phase throughout the entire roast almost . And I know “rules” for both stages, yet I cant help it. I listened to samples of FC… rlly strange.
In my last roast that I did according to the above recipe, I couldn’t get my beans to reach temperature of 217C (IBTS reading). The RoR was just way too low and it would drag the roasting time too long. It’s true though, that my window was open, so the ambient temperature was around 15-18C. But could that be such a contributing factor?
Any ideas are welcome. Also, my IBTS and BT are quite different throughout the process.
Now thinking about it, if probe temp reading would be off, it would explain the issue, however, if I define yellowing phase as having no beans with any green color left in them, then that still happens around 6th minute, which according to your expected FC, is late, right? Or is my understanding of yellowing phase off?
There is no exact standard I know of in the Bullet community for calling yellow.
It is kind of up to you and how you think of the roast, and as long as you are consistent about it, then your data will be something you can use and reference.
I’ve suggested that aillio make their standard “yellow” phase criteria to help them with their data collection, but it probably doesn’t matter, as there will be trends enough.
Yeah that’s the same info I read in the forum threads. I cleaned the probe (which was pretty clean even before, but there was a bean stuck to it, not sure if that could cause the discrepancies). I doubt my cleaning will improve anything, but I’ll let you know.
I’ve often had beans get caught between the bean probe (BP) and the door hinge screw. I keep a tool handy to keep that clear between roasts, as it does throw off my BP readings a little. I keep meaning to find a bolt with a different head on it to avoid this.
Most people use IBTS for yellow and FC, but some will use BP for end temp, since it is showing where the beans have been, and the IBTS Shows where they are going, so to speak.
IBTS is also a lot more consistent for yellow and FC across batch sizes, so long as it is clean. So most people call markings by IBTS, for that reason.
One more thing I forgot to mention… my BT temperature, while preheating has rlly big issue getting over 100C, even if I set the IBTS preheat temperature to 250C. Isn’t that strange? I mean I know the probe measures temperature via contact, but still, seems strange. Or is that normal?
I mean I can see the red zone is way off, but not sure what I’ve done wrong. I just wanted to do the drop at ~217C, so had to drag it for that long. Maybe I got the FC wrong.
But it could be, that I didn’t do proper preheating? I reached 230C on the IBTS, but only around 140C on the BT. However, it’s been preheating for 15-20 mins. Is there any rule about this? I read somewhere it could easily preheat for 25 mins.
Preheating is complete when the Bullet says “Charge”. Of course you can wait longer, but I believe the bare minimum time to preheat should be until “Charge”.
I had the same feeling, that there was too much airflow.
I think you can still lower the airflow one setting overall.
The Bullet will get more consistent after more roasts.
It is also important to have really seasoned it with the 3-5 very dark roasts, otherwise the drum is not black enough, and the IBTS will not read correctly.
Along with everything else that was said, let me state clearly that what you’re hearing isn’t the FC. The FC, on this particular roast, happened around 6:45-6:50, most probably. Give or take 5-10 seconds. Now, the yellowing is when you can’t see any more green beans. It’s not just a little change in colour on some beans. The FC is when you hear pops similar to corn popping, but not when you hear 1 or 2, but when you hear them in succession. Browse the forum on how to hear FC better. Some raise the plug just a bit, some pull out the tryer and some use aids. The SC is more like snapping twigs, but I hope you won’t go that far with your roasts if you have quality coffee. You obviously ran into this with all the excitment possible, and I understand that. Now is the time to stop on a dime, so to speak, and do a lot of reading, watching and learning, before roasting again. I understand people don’t want to state the obvious for fear of other person taking it badly, but I sincerely want to help you. As jacob said, the drum must be seasoned well and there are instructions on how to do it properly on this forum. I don’t know if you’ve skipped the seasoning or simply didn’t connect the roaster to the software when you seasoned it the first time. Everything in life has a learning curve. This is not a plug and play machine. Please don’t get this the wrong way, I’m just trying to help, and you can’t help somebody if you don’t tell them what they’re doing wrong.
Thank you so much for all the effort you guys put into replying. You are totally right. I got the seasoning wrong, I “re-done it”, I cleaned the machine and did couple of more tests. My latest roasts are rlly good, except for 1 issue I still have and that is hearing the FC. I hear subtle cracking around 180 IBTS, but that is not it. Then I hear much stronger cracking around 200-205C (IBTS). I think I never got to SC as I usually drop at around 215C. Haven’t had the chance to listen to the SC during seasoning - I was busy with getting rid of all the smoke .
. And I know “rules” for both stages, yet I cant help it. I listened to samples of FC… rlly strange.
