Damn, and I thought I loved coffee. Love your setup and I can almost smell this picture mm~
What's your typical "baseline" roast process look like with the Gene? I have one too but I haven't spent a ton of time messing with it, living in a big city with access to a ton of great roasters makes it hard for me to justify the time in dialing in just to get inferior coffee in the cup. I'd love any tips or tricks that you've learned along the way!
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My "baseline" nowadays is:
- 180 for 3 minutes
- 235 to 245 until the beginning of first crack
- 220 until drop.
As a rule of thumb, I found that fruitier coffees benefit from a higher temp and therefore a quicker roast.
I drop anywhere from 30s to 1 min after the beginning of 1C.
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Compared to supermarket and most small scale roasters I've tried, orders of magnitude better. At least I can roast everything in my preferred light-to-medium range instead of finding that those "filter roast" beans are acrid charcoal. Nowadays I can even pull off a fruity acidic citrusy bean most of the time.
However I'm lucky to know a great, if slightly expensive and sometimes inconsistent, roaster a few towns over. So better... Maybe not. Cheaper, hell yes.
How’d you recommend starting to roast? I’m really considering it and I think your set up speaks to experience
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Truth is, I went straight for the Gene. The Behmor is also a popular option in entry-level coffee roasters.
Most places seem to recommend to start with a cheap popcorn machine or a heat gun and a dog bowl as a low-cost way to get you feet wet.
I was thinking of going straight for a Behmor so I’m glad to hear others have done the same!
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Yeah I've heard you can't go wrong with either option. I think I went for the Gene because it's much easier to find in Europe.
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Because why not? "it's gonna be a fun hobby", "my local roaster is too expensive, it will pay for itself in 3 years", "I wanna try beans I can't find at my local roaster's"...
Oh it wasn't a why bother question. I meant as in like guides or equipment you read up on before starting. It's sounds interesting to do
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Oh sorry for misunderstanding 😅
I watched a lot of videos to understand the basic principles, read a lot of forums and blog posts about roasting and the gene in particular, completely fucked up my first 5 roasts, tried half a dozen "recipes" before finding something that works for me 😅