Home coffee roasting is as easy as you want to make
it, or as exacting and technical as you care to be. Pay attention
to the process, especially toward the end of the roast where the coffee
rapidly reaches the palatable roast stages: City (medium), Full City,
Vienna, French (dark). The FreshRoast reaches these stages fast!
Coffee roasting produces a wonderful fragrance, unobtrusive
with lighter roasts but smokier if you roast dark. Operating any type
of stove hood fan helps if the smoke is too intense for you. You can
roast on a porch or near a partially open window weath er permitting.
But be aware that cold ambient temperatures might dramatically effect
the roast, and could make the roast stall completely.
Roasting produces chaff. Chaff is a fine skin that
detaches from the bean as your roast is agitated. Your roaster takes
care of chaff, but if you are careless, you may have to do some sweeping.
Empty the chaff collector between every roast and brush it out to
get perfectly consistent results.
UPDATE 9/30/08 - The new shipment of roasters that arrived this month seem to be running hotter than before - that is what we gather from customers and our own tests on a couple of machines here. Roast times are faster - which is not exactly a good thing - not if it gets too fast. But the roasts are even - you may just want to rest the beans longer post-roast. I have noted the new roast times and other pointers below. - Maria
Never leave the room while you are roasting coffee, even though the roaster
has a timer/cooling cycle.
Built-up coffee oils in the roaster are of no real consequence until
they impede visibility or become a fire hazard. (In fact, a professional
drum roaster requires hours of roasting initially to properly "season"
the drum.) Do not clean your roaster too often... but do remove
all the chaff from the top between every roast and SOAK THE ENTIRE CHAFF
COLLECTOR ASSEMBLY IN DEGREASER PERIODICALLY TO REMOVE BUILT UP OILS- REDUCED
AIR FLOW CAN OVER HEAT ANY ROASTER AND KILL IT.
Batch size is critical in any roast process: if the amount of coffee you
put into the roaster varies, the roast will vary too. Smaller batch takes
longer to roast, larger batch can roast faster (opposite of what you might
think...) Ideally, it is best to roast by weight, not volume. (If you want
to roast by weight, we offer an accurate digital Salter brand scale for
this purpose). But following these instructions for batch size by volume
works just fine : the ideal FreshRoast Plus batch size is 2 rounded 43 cc
scoops which equals .14 Lb.. or 2.25 ounces or 64 grams.
The FreshRoast instructions are adequate. Read them. This "tip sheet"
is not meant to replace their instructions.
In my tests a setting of "4.5" produces a City (medium), "5"
is a City+ roast, and "5.5" to "6" produces a Full City (dark-medium)
roast - up to the start of second crack. "6.5" is a Vienna or light French roast. Expect
the first
crack to
start around 4 or so and finish about 5 or so. Expect the second
crack
to start around 6 minutes. (Note that these times vary by coffee, and by
voltage). 6 minutes is a good starting
point, but be aware that dry-process coffee, which has more chaff, raises
the heat of the roaster and takes as much as 1 minute less to roast! By
the way, "Espresso" is not a specific degree of roast . I prefer
blends for espresso roasted at 6 on the FreshRoast and allowed to
rest 48 hours in an airtight mason jar. Roast times are dependent
on your line voltage, so you will need to experiment to establish the
exact roast settings that work for you. Changing to a different plug
on a different circuit can effect roast times too. Also, consecutive roasts
without letting the roaster cool to room temperature will speed up and/or
make roasts turn out a bit darker. IF THIS IS TOO DARK - the first thing to do is to stop the roast earlier. You can also try reducing the size of the batch - we used 1.5 scoops and it was Full City on a 8 min setting. IF THIS IS NOT DARK ENOUGH - you can
first try using more coffee- 2.5 scoops. If this still does not work
- there is a modification for the fan speed you can try if you want -
that page is here.
No home roaster is designed to roast continuously! Wait for the machine
to cool before doing another batch
I prefer to dump the coffee into a stainless mesh colander after the cooling
cycle completes, just to get the coffee away from the warm metal/glass surfaces.
When the coffee is room temp. I transfer it to canning jars. Coffee is better
after 12 hours of "resting", which allows the CO2 to de-gas from
the coffee. It is at its flavor peak at 12-72 hours. When you open the jar,
you will know what I mean!
FreshRoast has a manufacturer's warranty and Registration Form is available
at http://www.freshbeansinc.com. Call them directly at 805-501-7731 phone or email <skales@mwutah.com> if you ever have a mechanical problem with the roaster,
or need parts like the glass roast chambers.
NOTE ON ALL AIR ROASTERS: All air roasters use the beans to trap
the hot air, so while it may seem counterintuitive, more beans will actually
roast darker and less beans lighter. A too small batch may mean that the
hot air blows past the beans and does not roast them at all.
All the roasters can be sensitive to fluctuations in the power supply,
so it can be helpful to check the voltage available at a the outlet you
are using if possible. Also, do no use the roaster with an extension
cord if possible, this can reduce the voltage available. Do not use a GFIC
(an outlet with a reset button) or a circuit with a dimmer switch on it
- these can creat line noise that the machines are sensitive to.
No home roaster is designed to do serial batches!
All home roasters need to cool before roasting another batch. This also
improves consistency. Wait 20 minutes or longer - is the roaster feels cool
to the touch - then if is safe to run another batch.
Here is a picture of the correct batch capacity in
the glass roast chamber of the FreshRoast. Note how this amount of coffee
is MUCH lower than the "Fill To" band on the roaster!!! (On
the Freshroast Plus 8 the "Fill To" text was removed - good
riddance because it caused confusion...)
Here is a picture of a 1/2 cup scoop filled filled
with coffee to about 1/4 inch below the rim. Tim at Freshroast prefers
that you use the 43cc scoop that comes with the roaster though. You
use 2 rounded 43cc scoops per batch!
******Please note: These times are approximate - voltage, ambient temperature and the coffee itself will make your results vary - sometimes substantially! The Fresh Roast + 8 in its current version (circa Sept 2008)
a setting of about 4.5 produces
a City (medium), 5 is
a City+ roast, and 5.5 or 6 produces a Full City (dark-medium) roast. 6 to 6.5 is
a Vienna or light French roast. Expect the first crack to start
around 4 and finish about 4.5 or so. Expect the second crack to
start around 6 minutes. *****
City Roast - about 4.5 minutes
City+ Roast - about 5 minutes
Full City Roast - about 5.5 to 6 minutes
Vienna/Light French Roast - about 6.5 minutes
French Roast - about 7 minutes
Notes on these pictures: All these were taken
with my Nikon camera the exact same distance away, but I had trouble
with low lighting and used a fill-in flash, which makes some pictures
have more highlights/glare. It makes all the roasts look lighter
and more red-yellow color saturated than they would if you where
standing right beside me looking at the coffee samples at the time.
The fresh roasted coffee would look much darker to your naked eye. The coffee
is Organic/FT Guatemala Huehuetenango from the Asobagri Co-op, 2002
- it roasted a bit more uneven - other coffees may appear more even..
In a nutshell, here is the roasting process you will
be observing:
For the first minute the bean remains greenish, then
turn lighter and emit a grassy smell.
The beans start to steam as their internal water content
dissipates.
The steam becomes fragrant. Soon you will hear the "first
crack," an audible cracking sound as the real roasting starts to occur:
sugars begin to caramelize, bound-up water escapes, the structure of
the bean breaks down and oils migrate from their little pockets outward.
After the first crack, the roast can be considered
complete any time according to your taste. The cracking is an audible
cue, and, along with sight and smell, tells you what stage the roast
is at.
Caramelization continues, oils migrate, and the bean
expands in size as the roast becomes dark.
At this point a "second crack" can be heard, often
more volatile than the first. Small pieces of the bean are sometimes
blown away like shrapnel! It can be more difficult to hear than the
first crack though.
As the roast becomes very dark, the smoke is more pungent
(oils burn against the hot surfaces of the roast chamber) as sugars
burn completely, and the bean structure breaks down more and more.
Eventually, the sugars burn completely, and the roast
will only result in thin-bodied cup of "charcoal water."
My Freshroast Doesn't Roast Dark Enough!
First ... have you tried increasing the batch
size? Try 2.5 level scoops, and set the timer to 8 minutes. As long as
the coffee agitates after the first 20 seconds or so, and develops
fairly evenly in color*, there is nothing wrong with increasing the
batch size. What this does, essentially, is trap more heat in the roast
chamber because it is more difficult for the hot air to exit the roaster.
It effectively raises the roast temperature across the board.
*Wet-processed coffees will roast to more
even color that dry-processed, some, like Yemen and Harar should never
be expected to roast to an even color. Even roast color is not a determinate
of roast quality! We don't cup coffee with our eyes...
Check out this photo comparison:
If this doesn't work, consider a couple other things: low ambient temperature
affects the roast. If you are roasting in your garage in a Minnesota winter,
you will have problems no matter what. Move your roasting operation to a
warmer location in the house. Secondly, use of extention cords lowers voltage
to the roaster. Third, try a different outlet ... some outlets/circuits will
have lower voltage due to the distance from the supply box, and other appliances
running on them.
Now, time for surgery: In less than 5 minutes, you can alter the
fan speed on the Freshroast.
A slower fan speed will result in a darker roast, because the machine won't
be blowing as much heat out of the roaster, essentially. It might mean that
you have to cut back slightly on the batch size, because a lower fan speed
will mean less bean agitation. But if you make this adjustment and still
see good bean movement at the start of the roast, and if the roast color
in the early stages (yellow, light brown) is even on a good wet-processed
coffee, then no need to reduce batch size. Anyway, here are the easy
instructions for adjusting fan speed on a Freshroast. (You can
also use this to increase fan speed slightly!)
Yikes! My Freshroast Roasts Too Dark!
We have from time to time, and especially since the September 2008 shipment, heard from folks where the roaster is too hot, roasting too dark. In this case, the first thing to do is stop the roast early - at whatever the desired degree of roast.
You also want to consider the opposite of the things mentioned above - a high ambient temperature, higher than usual voltage, chaff or roast oils blocking up the chaff collector. If it is hot where you are roasting, consider roasting at a different time of day (or if doing multiple batches, let the roaster cool longer between batches). If you suspect high voltage, try using a different outlet in your house, or use an extension cord between the roaster and the outlet. If you have had the roaster a while, make sure that coffee oils have not blocked up the top screens on the chaff collector - also, consider opening up the base, and cleaning the slit-like openings that let air in to cool the base. Finally, try using less coffee, like 1.5 scoops. I know this is not ideal if you have limited time to roast and/or use a lot of coffee.
City Roast - about 4.5 minutes
