Coffee Roasting Methods Discussion

StillShaving said:

Nice looking roast @oakeshott. Looks like you are roasting indoors, do you find that your stovetop ventilation is strong enough? With your lighter roast I imagine it is not a problem but I am curious if you ever go into second crack with your pan roasts.

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StillShaving said:

Not sure how many members use the RoasterThing software to help manage their roasts or green coffee inventory.

But beyond the roast tracking software some might be interested in the hardware modifications. Ira has posted about his heavily modified Behmor called "FrankenBehmor" here. Providing some ideas for fellow Behmor users.

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Leatherneck said:

I think so. It's a Plus model.

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Sullybob said:

Interesting. I wonder if the remote for the roaster will have more controls that what is shown on that remote. Or if you will use your smart phone to program the roaster. Maybe this will give Behmor users more data while they roast, like chamber temp.

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StillShaving said:

I was wondering the same thing. It would be nice if Mr. Behm incorporated feedback from others (including ecosystem supporters like Ira@BehmorThing) to support some type of bean temperature probe and/or some chamber temperature feedback, so that the user has better control over the roast.

With this new software controlled roaster, it should open up the possibility for lots of fine tuned profiles. Add some audio sensors to detect 1st and 2nd crack, temperature sensors to help control the heater, user submitted & cloud hosted roast profiles to guide the roast (rated by the roasting community), everything could be automated without having to ever suffer through a bad roast or a learning curve.

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StillShaving said:

I was wondering the same thing. It would be nice if Mr. Behm incorporated feedback from others (including ecosystem supporters like Ira@BehmorThing) to support some type of bean temperature probe and/or some chamber temperature feedback, so that the user has better control over the roast.

With this new software controlled roaster, it should open up the possibility for lots of fine tuned profiles. Add some audio sensors to detect 1st and 2nd crack, temperature sensors to help control the heater, user submitted & cloud hosted roast profiles to guide the roast (rated by the roasting community), everything could be automated without having to ever suffer through a bad roast or a learning curve.

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Sullybob said:

If the new roaster incorporated all of those things I think it would be a awesome. Chamber and bean temperature sensors and a display to show both would be a huge improvement, add fine tune temp control and I think the Behmor would be a game changer for home roasting. I've looked into getting a Hot Top, the main drawback is the half pound capacity because I would need to do four to 5 roasts per week. I have come to the conclusion that I'll need to upgrade from the Behmor to something that gives me more control eventually. I've read a few reviews on the new control panel and so far it looks promising.

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jzuzphreek said:

Of course, a good entry-level roaster under $400 is still nice to have on the market too. I wonder how many of these great features could be implemented while keeping the price affordable to those on the bubble about entering the hobby.

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Sullybob said:

Maybe Behmor will offer several different levels of roasters with varying levels of controls. At least I hope so.

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yakster said:

I've got an old Behmor with the plus board, picked it up refurb from Chocolate Alchemy when they were selling Behmor roasters, a 2007 model that I started using in 2009 and I'm up around 500 roasts now. I upgraded to the Plus board last year (pre-order) and I think it's a great improvement in temperature control and the quality of the roasted coffee output.

Joe Behm has said multiple times that he designs his products to be upgradable, so these DADO controls should work with the existing models out on the market. I really appreciate that, for $50 I got a lot better performance out of my roaster and it came at a time when I was eyeballing an upgrade to a commercial 1# gas sample roaster that I really couldn't afford so it was great timing. If the DADO is backward compatible with the Behmor 1600s already shipped, I don't think you'll get chamber and bean temperature. The Plus board does give you access to two temperatures by button press, one on the side of the roaster and one in the exhaust that can be helpful, but I've been using thermocouples in my roaster and in the exhaust with RoasterThing so long that I haven't even looked at the Behmor temps. I'm also pretty used to controlling my roaster the way it is so I'm not sure I'll go for the DADO controls. It's nice to be able to roast without relying on a computer or phone, but once the new boards come out and I get more information on them I may change my mind. I'll be checking this out at the SCAA expo in Seattle in April for sure.

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SoundBrewer said:

My wife and I have been using a hot air popcorn popper for about a year now for our morning coffee. Just ordered a Behmor! Very excited for the UPS to pay us a visit next week

Thanks to everyone for all the great info that helped us make the decision.

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