Behmor 1600 Profiles / Q&A / Tips & Tricks

[BoldJava]

Dave,

How much smaller are the screen openings?

I'm telling ya- it's not much if any- maybe I don't have the small screen after all?

 :icon_scratch:

Depends where you got it.  There was a thread over at CG <?> that one run was identical size and got shipped as different but were identical.  Measure and then call your customer service or shoot Joe an email.  There is a visible, discernable difference even by eyeball.  No need to measure.

B|Java

[dsil]

I bought my 1600 from Burman. I did order the small screen later, and it is just a bit smaller mesh, but it makes a huge difference. With the yemen, I pour in the greens and take it outside for a good shake and roll before putting it in the roaster. This seems to clear out 90% of the bits prior to the roast. -Doug

[Curtis]

I use the small screen for everything, and blow the excess chaffe out post cooling.  The small size eliminates a lot of the problem of smoke I got with the larger screen when running a bit into 2nd crack.  Keeps more chaffe off the bottom of the collector.  The Zambian t-berry is not safe to do in the Behmor as even with the smaller screen, too much gets through and sits in the chaffe collector for the entire roast cycle.  Yemen, mostly okay.

Curtis

[thejavaman]

Is that a lag you are getting on the P2 setting or is the roast actually stalling.  I would think that in P2 where the temperature goes down to 374* for 20% of the roast, it would be more of a stall between 1st and 2nd crack then a lag.  Just wondering...

kelppaddy

Sorry, I've been moving over the past couple of days and I didn't see this until now.  You pose a very good question, Rodney.  I actually wondered the same thing when I first started using that setting I mentioned.  I was concerned that I was "baking" the beans instead of roasting them.  However, after several taste tests (comparing that setting with other high heat settings) I concluded that the fairly long "stall" or "lag" between the end of the first crack and the start of the second crack didn't effect the taste of the beans.  And that, above anything else, is all I cared about.  The thing I really like about it is that I have a wide window of where I want to stop the roast between City, City+ and Full City.  Those are the only roast levels I use when evaluating a sample, so it has worked pretty well for me.

[mike]

Used the small screen on 1/2# of Yemen Sharsai using P3, C which gave a standard 14 min. roast.  Added 2min. to the roast at the end of the cycle, stopping at 15:26 with no sign of 2nd crack.  Good sweet cup and no problem with the small screen or the roast.  Next time I'll add the extra 2 min. somewhere in the middle of the roast and see what happens.  The more I use this roaster, the more I see it's versitality.  You can change the profile depending on when you add or subtract the time.

[thejavaman]

I've been having an issue with my Behmor recently where the roasting drum would stop rotating mid-roast for a few seconds at a time.  It is almost as if the motor quit for a few moments and then picked back up.  It happened a few times with no error message and then during my last roast the "Error 6" message came up.  Well, I emailed Behmor tech support (from the email address on this thread) and almost immediately, Joe Behm himself responded.  I've got to say that this is some of the best customer service that I have ever encountered!  I've got a new Behmor in the mail and I couldn't be happier!  Just thought I'd share that with everyone, as it was a very unique experience in this day and age.

[Monito]

I've been having an issue with my Behmor recently where the roasting drum would stop rotating mid-roast for a few seconds at a time.  It is almost as if the motor quit for a few moments and then picked back up.  It happened a few times with no error message and then during my last roast the "Error 6" message came up.  Well, I emailed Behmor tech support (from the email address on this thread) and almost immediately, Joe Behm himself responded.  I've got to say that this is some of the best customer service that I have ever encountered!  I've got a new Behmor in the mail and I couldn't be happier!  Just thought I'd share that with everyone, as it was a very unique experience in this day and age.

I love it...Customer service better business...  :icon_thumleft:

Monito

[bwilson]

The roasters have a new type of motor now.  IMO, it is even quieter than the first models off the line. 

[SamDiscusFlyer]

I use olive oil. It eliminates the squeak completely.

Just roasted the IMV recently distributed. 113grams, 1/4 lb, P2, B (9:30). I got a bit nervous with 1 min left as 1st didn't start. So I added 1 minute. But 27 sec later 1st started with 1 crack and then the dam broke. A very robust 1st crack. I ended the roast 48 sec into first for a total time of 9:45. First crack continued for another 30 secs or so into the cool cycle. The beans came out a very nice City and total weight of 99g. They already smell great.

Sam

[rfeuker]

I can't seem to get any beans to 2nd crack in my Behmor. 

I was roasting indoors all winter and wasn't concerned about 2nd crack since I wanted to avoid setting off the smoke alarm in my condo.  I've been roasting outdoors for the past few weeks and still don't get a 2nd crack. 

I usually roast 10 or 12 ounces and use the 1 pound setting; using P3 and P4 most often.  I start on the D setting (23 minutes) for the most part, and wind up addding 1 minute (all it will allow me) at the end waiting for the 2nd.  My voltage is good, 124 starting out and pretty consistently 118 during the roast.  All of my roasts (I've tried seven or eight diferent beans) come out City or City +; I'd love to get to Full City or +.

Any ideas?  Could my specific roaster not be generating sufficient heat?

[BoldJava]

I can't seem to get any beans to 2nd crack in my Behmor. 

I was roasting indoors all winter and wasn't concerned about 2nd crack since I wanted to avoid setting off the smoke alarm in my condo.  I've been roasting outdoors for the past few weeks and still don't get a 2nd crack. 

I usually roast 10 or 12 ounces and use the 1 pound setting; using P3 and P4 most often.  I start on the D setting (23 minutes) for the most part, and wind up addding 1 minute (all it will allow me) at the end waiting for the 2nd.  My voltage is good, 124 starting out and pretty consistently 118 during the roast.  All of my roasts (I've tried seven or eight diferent beans) come out City or City +; I'd love to get to Full City or +.

Any ideas?  Could my specific roaster not be generating sufficient heat?

EMail Joe.  With that size roast, you should be hitting Vienna.

B|Java

[SamDiscusFlyer]

Another Behmor user submitted this nice Behmor profiler for use in excel. I've added a legend and include a recent roast of Yemen Sanani Mocha I recently roasted. Enjoy.

Sam

[BoldJava]

I talked with Joe Behm at his booth in Minneapolis.  He leaves for China this week to discuss his machine with his engineering and manufacturing team. 

If you have been holding off, waiting for revisions, don't wait.  In my opinion, (not Joe's words), any revisions would be a good year out.  Why wait?  Buy.

B|Java

[John F]

BW is not impressed with the Behmor.

Honestly, this is the first negative I've read (that I can remember) about this roaster

There are some prior negative reviews (not many) but they flew into the face of what was a massive early adopter lovefest like none other.  I did a negative review and a well known guy on HB had an ongoing thread but the times were strange man....CG had something like 7 out of 10 posts in the roasting forum about loving the Behmor. Very unpopular position not to dig it and plus you were dissing the #1 roaster that is sweeping the roasting world. I also know of one magic tongue super taster guy that set out to review it and mysteriously never came back with anything...

With that I know everybody loves this thing and I do not think a few people not liking it matters to them or their roasting so....

Here are my initial thoughts about it from another forum in Jan.


Most people that have them seem to be very happy with these roasters.

I had a chance to test drive one for a few roasts and it's not for me in the current configuration.

If they do a few things to it it might be pretty interesting.

1) Digital temp probe/display.
2) True ability to profile a roast for time & temp.
3) Ability to cool much faster at conclusion of roast cycle.
4) I think (gut feeling) moving the drum away from the elements some and adding more potential would help with several things.
5) Ability to roast all sizes of beans...this one might have been corrected already.
6) Air flow control.

Ha! things that are good for any roaster.  Grin The issue I have with this one is that work arounds are harder/impossible to pull off.

Example, a roast has not made it to second crack yet and you want to go 4 snaps it. Time is running out so you add 30 seconds. As you look inside the chamber you notice the element turn off right then. ? after 30 seconds you decide to add more time but the machine says "No" and goes into auto cooling instead.

The work around we used was to use the highest heat profile with the max weight setting and longest roast time. Then we underdosed the drum and used the door open/close to try and control the temp and profile.    That seemed to work pretty good but presented 2 issues.

1) The elements seem to do there own thing. I'm not sure if it's temp related either and might be totally a timer issue so sometimes they are going out when you would rather have them come on.

2) After the testing session I learned that opening the door is a fire hazard for flying chaff. Ooops.

A final issue is cooling. Post roast we flung open the door and blew a fan in there to conclude the roast and cool asap. Many people report good results just waiting the x min. for the drum to cool on it's own or waiting 2 min. before opening the door but eh... I'd rather cool "now". The idea of cooling the chamber that quickly has not been directly answered yet as to the thermal stress caused to the elements and possibly the electronics so it may be cool and it might crack a quartz after 100 roasts. Undecided

So with hordes of early adopters loving these little roasters I think I'm one of only 4-5 people I've seen so far that isn't as ecstatic about it just yet. People do seem to love em' up. I don't own one and they do so take that for what it's worth.
 

John F

[thejavaman]

With that I know everybody loves this thing and I do not think a few people not liking it matters to them or their roasting so....

That pretty much sums up my position on the Behmor.  I like mine.  I know it's not perfect, but I don't expect it to be for the price.  Sure, there are many things that I would like to have on the roaster that aren't there.  Mainly the same issues John already pointed out:  a temp. display, the ability to profile a roast and a better way to cool the beans.  However, for my purposes, it's been a great little machine so far and the cup quality IMHO, is as good or better than many other home roasters on the market.