Author Topic: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?  (Read 5626 times)

Offline mp

  • Standard User
  • *****
  • Posts: 16800
  • Nothing like a nice shot!
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2010, 12:47:13 PM »
My first machine was the FR+8. It's been such a work-horse that I felt some loyalty and upgraded. I've Owned my SR500 for several weeks now and have tried the advice of SW, Burman, and the Fresh Roast manual.

I was using between 100-120 grams (less than the FR manual suggests), and I was having trouble with baking my beans--a few feeble cracks that passed for 1st crack, then a steady darkening, but falling short of 2nd crack. So my issue is keeping enough heat to keep the roast advancing.

I called Jim (?) at Fresh Roast to get his take on this. He suggested the following.

1. Using the full 4 measures of beans (43 cc apiece)
2. Dry my beans, which are pretty dense (Columbian BCT Supremo from Burman).
3. Use the following settings

Heat Fan Minutes
  L     H      2
  H     H      1
  H     (steadily reduce fan until as low as possible, while keeping beans moving)
I got a first crack at just before 6 minutes and kept going until I entered 2nd crack. It took almost 18 minutes. It may have something to do with my electrical current. Actually, this extended time is kind of refreshing my FR+8 always ran hot and I had to work to keep hard to extend my roast times.

Sounds like you may have gotten a good roast ... how did the beans taste?

 :)
1-Cnter, 2-Bean, 3-Skin, 4-Parchmnt, 5-Pect, 6-Pu
lp, 7-Ski

ecollier

  • Guest
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #16 on: May 01, 2010, 02:14:56 PM »
This was today. I'll give a rest and see how it turns out.

Offline mp

  • Standard User
  • *****
  • Posts: 16800
  • Nothing like a nice shot!
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #17 on: May 01, 2010, 03:01:46 PM »
This was today. I'll give a rest and see how it turns out.

Fair enough ... look forward to your evaluation.

 :)
1-Cnter, 2-Bean, 3-Skin, 4-Parchmnt, 5-Pect, 6-Pu
lp, 7-Ski

ecollier

  • Guest
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #18 on: May 05, 2010, 05:04:31 PM »
Re: the 18 minute roast on the SR500. It was one of the better batches I'd done; however, taking these Columbians to FC++ is not my preference. I could still taste some English walnut, but it was pretty much eclipsed by a kind of thin carbon taste. Not awful, but not great either.

Tried again today. 2 minute L heat, high fan (using the SM shake method); 1 minute H heat, high fan; every minute after I took the fan down a 1/4 notch until almost L fan. Hit first crack between 4-7 minutes. Stopped it just before 2nd crack.

The good news for me, is now I can see progression and have a baseline for experimenting. I'm sure other people's mileage will vary.

Offline mp

  • Standard User
  • *****
  • Posts: 16800
  • Nothing like a nice shot!
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #19 on: May 05, 2010, 05:39:25 PM »
Re: the 18 minute roast on the SR500. It was one of the better batches I'd done; however, taking these Columbians to FC++ is not my preference. I could still taste some English walnut, but it was pretty much eclipsed by a kind of thin carbon taste. Not awful, but not great either.

Tried again today. 2 minute L heat, high fan (using the SM shake method); 1 minute H heat, high fan; every minute after I took the fan down a 1/4 notch until almost L fan. Hit first crack between 4-7 minutes. Stopped it just before 2nd crack.

The good news for me, is now I can see progression and have a baseline for experimenting. I'm sure other people's mileage will vary.

That is great news.  My two big peeves regarding the Freshroast is the low fan speed and the one temperature setting ... it does not give you too many options.  Sounds like they have resolved those two problems.

 ;D
1-Cnter, 2-Bean, 3-Skin, 4-Parchmnt, 5-Pect, 6-Pu
lp, 7-Ski

ecollier

  • Guest
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2010, 11:49:47 AM »
Quote
That is great news.  My two big peeves regarding the Freshroast is the low fan speed and the one temperature setting ... it does not give you too many options.  Sounds like they have resolved those two problems.

Yeah, I know. Those were my issues with my FR+8. I had some shockingly fast roasts unless I cut the volume of beans by half and toyed with the cooling dial. Some of that was due to years of oil build-up in the chaff-catcher.

ecollier

  • Guest
Fresh Roast SR 500 - Use Sweet Maria's stir method at your peril
« Reply #21 on: July 29, 2010, 01:45:06 PM »
Had some issues with baking beans in my SR 500. Noticed that the digital display was getting brighter then dimmer, and the fan was as well. Turns out the the Sweet Maria's shake/stir method was allowing chaff on my countertop, which was quickly sucked into the vents at the bottom of my machine! When I opened it up, I poured several ounces of chaff out (mostly from my more "chaffy" Brazil roasts)!

The guys at Fresh Roast know what they are about. With a two minute drying time with Heat Low and Fan High, the roast comes out plenty even, even if your batch weights 130 grams or more. I suppose your mileage may vary. Just a heads up.


moreyr

  • Guest
Re: New Fresh Roast SR300 & SR500 Coffee Roasters?
« Reply #22 on: July 29, 2010, 06:26:59 PM »
ok, i got it back and i have started doing a bit of testing.  I am more then pleased.  Next week i will start giving some details and some nice bean shots while at work.

No fires,