Coffee: we drink it or we get angry.

The two Behmor Brazens that I’ve owned have not seemed to have had this issue.

 

Ended up getting a Cuisnart from Costco because it was on sale so price was right. Picked this because of Costco's return policy, if it doesn't do a good job, then easy to return. Its a Christmas present to me, so can't use it for 10 more days.

My other coffee news is I've decided to start roasting again. Its been about 10 years since I retired, but want to try again. Learning how Artisan works, then need to put something together. Want to use the PID function on Artisan, and interface to an ESP then will measure temps and control the heater.

Randy

 

Okay, question for the masses regarding brew times.

As I go through the Onyx advent calendars, I'm noticing what I've seen in the past...with the same grind size and identical technique, two different beans will take vastly different brew times.

With some of these, I'm down around 2:30. Others are taking as long as 3:30. 2:30 to 3:00 is my ideal, but I'm noticing some of these coffees that take longer are not tasting over-extracted or problematic in any way.

Any idea what feature it is in the beans that causes this? It is the variety of bean? If so, do we know which beans specifically tend to take longer than others?

 

Cool, that makes sense. It also explains why bumping the grind size up a couple of notches doesn't really accomplish a lot. Those fines are still in there slowing things down.

Like I said, it hasn't had a negative impact, but I've always found it interesting.

Thanks!

 

thank you for confirming what i've been suspecting

 

Recently re-bought from a roaster I have liked in the past and the beans have just been "ok".

Luckily, this has been balanced out by a wonderful local coffee shop and their source for beans.

A couple of shoutouts for standouts...
Bay Area spot Lookout Coffee.
Their bean source Passenger Coffee.

Have had great Kenyan (one washed and one natural) as well as Colombian Divino Nino Gesha at Lookout. Bought a small lot of the Colombian Gesha to test my home ratios and process. Will be buying some Kenyans from Passenger later.

For me this is really educational. I can enjoy what I consider to be an incredible pourover cup made for me at Lookout and then see how close I can get to those cups at home.

 

I have enjoyed beans from Passenger in the past. Ethiopian Ganale Dulacha natural reserve. I agree they are a quality roaster.

 

I happened to see this post the other day at HB
https://www.home-barista.com/coffees/coffee-roaster-review-tiered-list-t84645.html

Whoever did the actual review also thought highly of Passenger. I hadn't heard of them before seeing this post

 

I see the Danny Moreno coffee listed on the Sey website. I'm drinking the same beans right now, but from Onyx.

It's interesting to me to see how the same beans by different roasters are listed with pretty uniquely different flavor profiles.

 

I’ve been thinking about posting a list of good roasters from around the US. I’ve tried so many.

 

Ooooh what roaster did you end up getting? [EDIT: nevermind, i mis-read that as you bought a roaster, not bought from a roaster.]

I had an Ailio Bullet a few years back that I sold and now regret. I went through the progression of Poppery 2 --> Behmor --> Hottop --> Aillio Bullet and felt like I could never get that same level of brightness as pro roasters until I went to the Aillio. Units like the Aillio or Huky just give you way more customization to let you really dial in the roast profiles.

With that said, I loved the Poppery results, just batch size was the big issue. I was roasting every other day pretty much.

Would love to see your list. I've been ordering from Onyx and West Oak mostly the past few years, but would love to give others a shot. My favorite roaster locally to me (States Coffee) is good, but a notch below the others.

 

I’ve roasted on a Poppery 1 and 2, Freshroast 8, whirlypop, SC/CO and Behmor. The SC/CO gave the best results by far because I controlled temps so closely and roasted to strict profiles. It teally did take the roasts to the next level. The Behmor was the most convenient but definitely did not have as good results. I haven’t tried the updated Behmor, only the original.

Here are some old pics of the SC/CO that I just happened to come across last week




man the glass really needed a cleaning when I took this one! I actually did clean it regularly with Simple Green.

 

That’s awesome. I never tried the Stir Crazy. Of all of my roasters, the Poppery was the most fun since you were right up close to the beans. I did all sorts of tricks to adjust the charge and roast times. I haven’t roasted in a few years but if I ever get back into it, i’d probably just keep it simple with something like that again instead of a big drum setup.

 

i did a lot of tricks too. It’s the only way! What that style of roasting really lacks is the ability to do a drying cycle first. That was thing about the full control of the SC/CO. The Behmor could do the drying cycle but then I felt like the ramp-up after was never quite right, not fast enough or hot enough or something. I wonder if the updated one is better in that regard. I know it has more control.