Behmor 1600 Profiles / Q&A / Tips & Tricks

[bmock]

I just bought 5#'s of the Mexican Oaxaca and I was curious if anyone has roasted this bean in the behmor or a similar bean?

Been roasting since xmas have had some good and not so good roasts so far.

Thanks

Ben

[nwmarco]

Just thought I'd post a link to the latest manual revision v3.6

http://www.behmor.com/docs/Behmor_Manual_full_v3.6.pdf

Regards,
Marco in Seattle

Behmor 1600
Silvia w/PID
Rocky Doserless

[nwmarco]

Looking for comments on the control panel upgrade offered by Behmor for the 1600. Mine is 5 years old and still going strong. I am the only coffee drinker in my household (weird for Seattle, but there it is) so I only roast 2x per month.

Is the upgrade worth it? What do you like about it?

Thanks,
Marco in Seattle

[tjnamtiw]

I just bought 5#'s of the Mexican Oaxaca and I was curious if anyone has roasted this bean in the behmor or a similar bean?

Been roasting since xmas have had some good and not so good roasts so far.

Thanks

Ben

I've been roasting with my Behmor since they brought them out.  A couple of 'afterburners' and occasional disassembly and blowing it out has kept it running just fine.  IMHO don't rely on settings and times.  Just select the schedule you want (I've always used 1 and 1) and be there when it starts the first crack and be attentive to the start of the second crack.  Take it as far as you want and then hit cool.  Be aware that the roast will go for another minute or so before it starts really cooling.  Make sure the glass is clean before the roast so you can see the beans.  I usually roast 12 ounces on the 16 ounce setting to make sure I have enough extra time to add if I need it. 

[Intrepid510]

Looking for comments on the control panel upgrade offered by Behmor for the 1600. Mine is 5 years old and still going strong. I am the only coffee drinker in my household (weird for Seattle, but there it is) so I only roast 2x per month.

Is the upgrade worth it? What do you like about it?

Thanks,
Marco in Seattle

You know I made the upgrade and it's worth it, only fifty bucks and the hardest part is getting the case off.

With the upgrade if you are trying to strech out different phases of development you can which is nice and if you were like me and using profile two sometimes and your electrical draw drops you can compensate for that too.

[philme]

Hi All!

I wanted to share my experience so far with the Behmor 1600. I have only had the roaster a couple of months and have not learned the finer points of the profiles. I have also not ventured away from the Central American beans yet.

The roaster was mostly easy to set up, but the first time I did a dry run, the catch where the door swings open was hitting something on each rotation. A a good bend inwards on the catch solved that issue for good. Minor manufacturing QA issue, no biggie for me.

I always preheat the unit for 2 minutes before I start a roast. It just makes sense to warm it up a bit.

There is one glaring design omission with the Behmor - no alarm... but this is easily solved if you roast in your kitchen. I needed an alarm to let me know when the 30 second countdown begins when you need to prove to the Behmor that you are really there... I set a timer on my microwave (just a timer, it does not cook anything) to 13:30, which is 75% of the 18:00 profile time I use, and push the Start on the Behmor and the Start on the microwave timer as close to the same time as possible. Then I am free to go about my chores, putting away dishes, making a sandwich, etc. until the microwave tells me to push Start on the Behmor. Seems silly... I am sure a lawyer somewhere is laughing at me.

Anyway, the cup and a half of beans I am roasting (not weighing them yet... I should but need to get a scale) are done with first crack with about 3:00 left on the Behmor. From there I use my nose to tell me when to press cool.

One helpful tip I have learned... I leave the door closed to keep the chaff out of the house. Before I open the door, I turn on my vacuum... it's the "whole house" type which only has a suction tube and lots of power. I suck out all the chaff from the doorway and anything stuck to the cylinder. Then carefully remove the cylinder and vacuum it while rotating it slowly. All the chaff just comes through the mesh and there is no mess. I'm pretty happy with this. Only downside is I have to put away the vacuum hose, but I think it is better than having chaff everywhere.

So far, I am pretty happy but this is my first roaster, so I guess I ought to be... this is way better than the Costco roast coffee I was buying! Cheers!

[Ascholten]

I don't care how smart / slick / or clever you think you are, walking away from an active roaster is BAD news.  I've got a few fires under by belt to stand behind this because my dumb ass didn't learn the first time I set it on fire.  The Behmor is very good at keeping this contained but if you are worried about a little chaff in your house, wait until you fill it with the stench of burning beans from a black turd looking mound of coffee that will continue to smolder for 20 minutes after the machine went into it's fire shut down mode.

Seriously, some beans behave very differently and can go into 3rd crack much quicker than you ever anticipated and walking away from a roaster in action is just courting trouble.

Aaron

[philme]

FIRE~ this is a serious subject. I don't want to ignore it.

I've been very keen to the possibility of fire, but I don't think I have taken a roast too far past first crack yet. Has anyone experienced a fire in this unit prior to second crack?

I would hope that, like a fireplace chimney, regular cleaning can prevent buildups over time that could catch fire. So, assuming the unit is carefully kept free of chaff after each run, and that there is no large buildup of any residue inside, is it possible to torch your roast before (or right at) second crack in this unit?

FYI - with the very hot weather and my wife's nose, I have started to do roasts outside. I have it on a metal chair on the deck, right next to my gas BBQ grill which does see a fire every now and then.

[Ray Settanta]

I have taken my roasts up to and after second crack many times with no problems. Except for a couple of times when the beans had a slightly burnt taste.   But no fires. I clean the inside of the roaster every 4-6 roasts with Simple Green and vacuum the chaff out with a small shop vac after every roast. I also stand next to the roaster and watch the beans during every roast. That's probably why I had to replace the interior light bulb after only 6 months. I have lately been roasting 10 oz on the 1 lb setting.

[bwilson]

I make a habit of opening up the roaster during the cooling phase.  I've had many fires during this phase, door open or closed, and it can be any type of heavy or light chaff coffee bean.  I always make a point of standing by the roaster after the first 7 - 8 minutes.  My Behmor is a bit slow even with using a variac, but it is quite old as well.  I do not roast past the first outliers of 2nd crack and generally 2 minutes after the end of 1st so I'm there whether I need to be or not.  I roast in my garage, and my house smells anyway.  Love my coffee and do not take changes. 

[brianmch]

I do not roast past the first outliers of 2nd crack and generally 2 minutes after the end of 1st

What sort of temp setting and batch size are you using to go 2 minutes after the end of 1C to only barely get into 2C?

If I go more than 15 sec past the end of 1C I start getting far too much roast/carbon in the cup.  But I am also getting some grassy notes too suggesting I'm not going quite far enough past 1C.

[bwilson]

Hi brianmch - Sorry for the delay.  I roast 8oz using P1 on the 1lb setting.  My Behmor is 8 - 9 years old and has seen many better days.  I've cleaned out the innards and scrubbed the inner walls, chaff collector and drum.  It's just old.  Actually, the drum turner thingy just stopped turning.  I walked away and almost had a big fire cuz the beans did not get rotated.  Bad, bad, bad.  thought I did not have it seated correctly so tried it again.  Same thing.  So, I got a new Behmor 1600+.

Love it!

It is quieter, so quiet, and seems hotter.  Yes, now that I use the new one, 2nd crack comes on much more quickly.  Even when using P2.  I will try roasting 1/2 lb of Yemen on manual, 100% and once I hear the beginning of 1st C I'll knock it down to 75% to extend the roast.  The Yemen is best at F+ and so I want to get it there without it getting out of hand.

Carbon in the cup should only appear once 2nd crack has started in earnest.  I just roasted 1/2 lb of Bolivian and it did get out of hand.  2nd went on for 15 seconds and its kinda dark for me.  I usually shut things down when I hear 3-4 outlier snaps of 2nd.  The time to cool allows the roast to go on a bit more while not continuing the ramp up of heat.

It is a journey, and I don't get it right every time, but even love my mistakes.     

[jbot]

I've been happily using the Behmor almost since they came out.  I think I changed out the motor twice, otherwise all is well.  Ripped one section of the rubber seal around the door cleaning it but it just flaps back into place. 

I stopped playing around with settings and went with #1 P1 and usually stop a minute into first crack.  It seems to work for my taste buds.  Im roasting around 3/4 lb each time.  Of course would be nice to have a bigger machine when I want to roast more for friends but for the most part, I like this unit for its ease to use and predictable results.

[brianmch]

Haven't replied to the thread for a while. 

To bwilson: I don't ever get into 1c but find it can get over-roasty flavored by going 15 sec past the end of 1C that has been running 1:20 to 1:30.  I can avoid it by stopping the roast at 10 sec past the end of 1C. 

I'm getting a little better at stretching out 1C and got a super nice looking and very good tasting Rwanda yesterday. 

It's still taking 12:30 to get to 1C and not much I do can get it there any faster.  I know my development is too short but can't get to 1C any sooner with 330 gram batches.  I can do smaller ones but my time is finite.  If I pre-heat longer than 2 min/150-160 degrees I get heat related errors.  I lose 16 to 18 degrees (B temps) when the fan comes on at 10:30. 

Glad to hear your machine has been so solid JBot.  I'm not really in a hurry to move to a different machine but I do want to solve some of the above as I'm probably getting 78-80's on my 84 coffees. 

Maybe smaller batches will be my key. 

[Ascholten]

brian as the behmor ages, I find that sometimes even as little as 10 oz on the 1 lb setting is very controllable.  The heating elements get old, it wants to cycle more than you remember it cycling in the past etc, cut down a bit on the amount of coffee roasting at a time and it can help stretch out the machines usefullness over it's aging.

Aaron