Has anyone used the recipe time function during a roast. I was creating a recipe & pit in a 30 second soak for the beans. I set P0 at charge but left the fan at F2. Set the time @ 30 sec to bring the power back to P7. I am still tweaking & haven’t run the recipe yet. Will this work or am I missing something.
This is how I do a “soak” in a recipe: (this is for a 1Kilo roast)
For the preheat, I have values set at 536F, P7, F2, and D9
After adding the beans, The Bullet continues with the settings from the Preheat.
The bullet watches the temperature and the time. When the temperature reaches 199F or above AND The time is more than 1 minute, then the power will increase to P9
All of the rest of the rungs in the ladder after that must have a longer cycle time that 1.05 minutes. (The minimum cycle time can’t be smaller than 5 seconds.
All of the rest of the rungs in the ladder for the above recipe are the same. (1:05). This makes the rest of the roast totally temperature based.
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That makes sense. The yellowing, is that automatically marked after the 1:05 in the roast.
No, The yellowing will be marked after 331F is reached and the time is later than 1:05.
So: Any roasting parameters (Power, Fan, Drum speed) after 1 minute and 5 seconds will be determined by temperature. All of the subsequent rungs in the ladder of my recipe are set to 1:05 time.
A person could set the time as a factor for other rungs if they wanted to.
As an example: The roast goes through a lot of rungs of the ladder, but I want to make sure that I drop the beans after 10 minutes. I could have a rung on the ladder that has a condition of >= to 400F. If I were to reach reach 400F at 8:00 minutes, the power would continue to to roast the beans until the 10:00 minute mark is met. By then however the beans would be severley over roasted.
The only thing that I use the time condition for is the “soak”. After that everything is based upon temperature.
I just left the temp out of the reply. I understand the principal just have to digest it. I had problemt with two Ethiopian roasts. One I got bust & dumped the beans @ 221C & the other @ 215C. Both were in a rolling crack but I don.t know which one. It sounded like 1st crack but roasting 350g I thought it should have completed.the 215C was a much more aeromatic roast.but I dumped both roasts during whatever crack it was. Anyhow that is why I was working on a recipe. I have 6lbs of ethiopian ordered from Sweet Marias & am currently out of Ethiopian. Again thanks I have high expectations.
I also had some facing on the second roast. That is a first. I wonder if the D9 drum speed with the 350g charge could have caused it.
350g is a pretty small charge. I reduce most of my parameters for small batches.
Agree with @billc on reducing parameters esp PH temp when the batch size is small. My experience with Ethiopian is that they also tend to roast “fast” - i.e. getting to FC a little sooner than other beans I roast, even at 1kg batches using the same roasting plan.
Did you ever have trouble going straight into 2nd crack. I suspect that it could have. Seemed like 1st crack was long for a rolling crack but it sound about the same as 1st crack.
I normally roast 400g to 500g. I blend my coffees post roast so its hard to use it up. When I get the blends dialed in I may switch to pre roast.
No because I don’t roast Ethiopians to 2nd crack - my drop temp for 1kg is between 425 and 435F using the BT probe. The crackling of the 1st can last a little long esp if the beans are “fresh”.
I roasted on a Hottop for approx 10 yrs. Lots of 240g roasts. Never tried to go into 2nd crack but would sometimes drift in when attempting to stretch development. I have read some roasters comments about their roast going from 1st crack into 2nd crack with no gap. I don’t think that’s what happened to me but it seemed like a really long rolling 1st crack. You mentioned using the bean probe. Is that just what your used to, do you prefer it or use both probes. I have been pretty mych ignoring the bean probe but that may be a mistake. Appreciate your input
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I transitioned over from the FreshRoast SR500 to the Bullet so a lot of learning for me at the time.
I occasionally will roast into SC when requested by one of my friends who like it dark. But I don’t wait until end of SC. I told my friend I won’t go there with the beans I get 
I only use the bean probe when I roast 900g to 1100g batches. At first when I started to roast 1kg batches I was solely going by the IBTS reading and I was finding the beans ended up darker than I wanted because I was shooting for IBTS of 430F which meant the beans probe temps were more like 440F range. For the 1kg batches I will switch to use the readings of the BT once I hit FC - at that point the beans have expanded enough that there is a lot of contact with the BT and to me it seems more accurate - I was consistently getting my medium dark roast. I was getting less “burnt” beans this way. When I preheat for large batch I set the PH temp to 572 or above, and make sure the BT also reaches and stabilize at around 400F before I charge the beans. This BT at 400F was a temp that stuck with me when I took a 2-day roasting class on a 12kg gas-fired Probat that only had a bean probe and the instructor said usually a 400F PH is the sweet spot (his thinking at least) - I leaned on that.
All that said… for my 1 lb / 500g batches I solely use the IBTS - there’s just not enough bean mass at that batch size to get a good reading IMHO.
I may be one of the few who don’t use the recipe feature as I will adjust based on what is happening to the beans during the roast, but I have a plan for the intended steps.
I will say that I find it “easier” to roast at larger batches. When I started to roast on the Bullet I was using 350g batches too in order to learn the machine and the RT software - some bad roasts and some decent ones but once I dared to roast 1-lb at a time it got better then I started looking into 1-kg batches. Let’s just say it was a huge change from the SR500 even with the extension tube! 
Long response to your question but this is my approach. I’m not a professional roaster but I do sell my beans to friends who want them - my “side hustle”.
On the “really long rolling 1st crack” yes that can happen with some beans, not all. For me the Sumatra and Bali can go on a while.
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Good information from my perception. I thinks it always helps to see how people form their opinions. I have been using the recipe feature more to slow things down for me & still be able to make changes. Once I get used to it I don’t think roasting manually is that difficult. I also have an SR800 still in the box. I bought it because it might give some different roasts to blend but one thing at a time. Thanks a lot for the info. Oh another one more thing. I just roasted some Sumatra Mandeling 450g that seemed aromatic. I found them in a storage tub & they are probably 10 yrs old. We’ll see how they taste.
You’re welcome!
Wow! I’d be curious if it held up.
Happy Roasting
Oh thats not all: Both of these bags are vacuum sealed in the same storage tub. If nothing else I can use them for practice roasts to get more used to the roaster. About 7 yrs ago I had eye surgery was caretaking for my mother for 4-5 years. Did not roast during that time. Had a roof leak while I was away & while everything was moved around the coffee got displaced. Anyway thats how I ended up with 10 yr old coffee.
10 lbs of Costa Rican La Minita Tarrazu
10 lbs Kenya AA Mugaya Auction lot
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I can sympathize with all of the that… personal injury, care taking a parent, roof + windows leak (luckily not severe but had to be fixed)
Keep us posted on how it turned out. As you say, worse case those other 20lbs is good for practicing.
I transitioned from a HotTop with Artisan. Micro-roasters (in my opinion) are much more sensitive to roasting variables.
I pretty much share @blacklabs procedures except I use Recipes.
On many of my larger batch size roasts, I will change from using the IBTS graph line to the Bean Probe graph linewhen the Bean Probe graph line crosses the IBTS and ends up on top and make roast parameter decisions based on the BT.
Mine was the 2K model. Not able to use any roasting software. Could save 3 roasts although 99% of the time I used the same & just varied when I pulled the roast. I stiil had to adjust fan & heat
I have been dabbling with your profiling & so far so good. I added the P0 as a step because it kept the preheat power setting in. So far I have two profiles & am still tinkering with them. I need to double my coffee consumption so I can do more roasting.
Or give it away 
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Might make my neighbors mad. It might be like you did this to me. I have offered but no takers yet.