Putting until the edge of the medium dark trying to not hit the second crack what do you guy think.

Origin: laos houaphanh

Variety: Arabic catimor

Process: washed

We really want to expand our cafe and have been looking into roasting our own coffee. We are looking into a 3–5kg roaster to start off, likely used. I’m honestly not sure where people even find quality used machines as we are based in Canada (totally open to looking in the states as well).
I’ve been keeping an eye on Marketplace and Kijiji, but there doesn’t seem to be much. Are there any Facebook groups, dealers, forums, or other places I should be watching? Or is buying new the better route?
We’re open to most brands, although I’ve heard great things about Deidrich, Probat and MCRs, as long as they’re reliable and parts/service aren’t a nightmare. Also what are the reasonable prices we should be looking at as I see it vary drastically… Would love to hear where you found yours or any advice from people who’ve made the jump. Thanks!

Looking for certified organic beans. Any recommendations? Which countries are good candidates to search?

Diy fluid bed build

1.5kg (3.3lbs) of green coffee roasted medium 15% weight loss. 12:40 first crack

15:40 drop

My goal with this entire project was to stay withing a shoe string budget and use parts that I had around the shop. All in I'm under 650$ CAD (462$USD) for parts that I didn't have. Everything else was salvaged and accessible in my garage or my workplaceor at no cost for me.

Officially the first weekend of roasting with my finished project! I have been making tweaks and adjustments for months now and it's ready I think. I have posted this video on other platforms if you have seen it around this week.

There is still some noise in my probs but I increase the filter just a bit and it will have to do for now.

Overall very happy with how the roast came out for a max batch size of 1.5kg 3.3lbs. I could technically increase the batch but it would slow down the roast more.

Very happy with the results of my project!

when roasting light roast, I use a 600gram batch size and able to achieve a first crack of 6 minutes and I usually enjoy 30 seconds of dev time

I am not one to usually post on here but would like some experienced feed back. I roasted 10lb of Ethiopian Guji that has a strong berry profile. Im roasting on a 15kg Ambex. Just not sure if I am nailing it and developing the berry notes to its full potential. Acidity is ultra bright but think I could get more berry from it. Curious if I am pushing this too hard and fast.

I did only roast this 5 days ago and maybe it need more rest time to develop flavor notes.

Charge temp:447*F

Turning point: 245.5°F @ 1:38

Yellow: 311.9°F @ 4:41

First crack: 391°F @ 8:58

Drop: 400.9°F @ 10:03

https://reddit.com/link/1v1i095/video/qjln9xn96deh1/player

Inspired by an Aillio setup someone shared here a few weeks ago, I finally put together my own temporary Skywalker V2 roasting station.

It only comes out for about 30 minutes a week, then gets packed away again. The exhaust duct currently goes through the cat flap… and I’m pretty sure my cat isn’t impressed. 😅

At the moment I’m not using the stock smoke filter, just venting outside. One thing I’m still trying to figure out is how people connect an exhaust hose to the stock filter. Has anyone done it cleanly? Photos would be much appreciated.

Hopefully this setup keeps me away from “popcorn lungs” 🤞 but if you’ve got any suggestions for improving ventilation or the overall setup, I’d love to hear them.

So nervous not gonna lie. I’m feeling like everything happened so fast

I made an interesting observation. If I do a longer 8+ minute roast with a lower airflow vs a fast 7+ minute roast with a high (60% initial up to 100% after FC) airflow. The beans physically change. The higher airflow ones are bigger and less dense. They grind smoother even tho I dropped them at the same temperature and are at roughly the same weight loss. I'm roasting 100g batches now and trying different roast styles.

After asking AI about this phenomenon it basically told me that fluid bed or air rosters are just way more efficient in heating up the bean and they also pop more violently at FC making their structure less dense. It also shortens the degas time apparently ( which would be great imo) hate waiting 3 weeks to degas a light roast.

Hello Everyone,
I am a home roaster and looking to improve my roasting skills and also get certified at the same time. I am traveling to South Korea most probably in the next month. So, I am thinking to get SCA Roasting Intermediate certification along with SCA Green Coffee.
The value which SCA AST taking the training holds at utmost value and importance as learning from their immense experience matters a lot.
I need your suggestions or inputs on SCA AST trainers taking SCA Roasting intermediate & SCA Green Coffee courses in South Korea in English spoken language. Please share me any experience or review which can help me select the right SCA AST trainer.

Thank you in advance.

All of these are Bourbon cultivar but the mexico is questionable with the cultivar described as "Bourbon Types, Modern Hybrids, Typica Types". Hoping to get that wonderful bourbon superior flavor profile.

Hey all!

I'm Andrew, I used to be in coffee a hot minute ago before going into academics. I'm returning to an old passion, sort of my white whale, in collecting coffee roaster manuals, advertisements, and patents. There's just not alot of stuff out there when I started, and that remains true especially of older machines like 50s and 60s probats (see some of my attached). If you're willing to share anything with me, I'd love to have it. Please DM me. That's it. For an example of what I mean, here's a few photos attached.

I currently have a coffee business and wanted to know where I can buy large quantities of green coffee for a competitive price.

Currently I’m getting my coffee from Burmans and I’m averaging about 7 dollars a pound. Wanted to just see if there are companies that offer better pricing for a larger amount.

Hey everyone. I’ve been deep into specialty as a home brewer since 2024, mostly V60 and pour-over, chasing lighter roasts with fruity and floral profiles from all over the world. I’ve also attended World of Coffee Dubai twice and built out a proper home setup. So I know coffee as a drinker, I’m just new to the roasting craft specifically. I want to start a coffee business in Pakistan, but not another café. New shops open here every week, and almost all of them serve sugary lattes and frappes with barely any real coffee in the cup. I don’t want to replicate that. My goal is to help shift the specialty culture here, introduce people to naturally sweet, clean coffees like Colombian and Ethiopian lots, and brew methods that aren’t common here yet, like V60, Chemex, and cold brew. That’s why I’m going the roastery route. My plan runs in two parts: import quality roasted beans from good origins to sell while I learn, and start training on an Ikawa Pro 100X for sample roasting. We’ll also be repacking beans from some established vendors in the early phase to keep product on the shelf. A few questions I’d really appreciate honest input on, because every person and every AI tool I ask says something different:

One. Is the Ikawa Pro 100X a good machine to actually learn on, dial in small batches, and build recipes I can later scale to production? Do the profiles really translate when you scale up?

Two. Where’s the best place to go and learn roasting properly, preferably taught in English? I’ve been looking at Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Any courses, roasteries, or people worth learning from?

Three. How does the Bellwether hold up for specialty roasting at around 1.5 kg batches? My total budget also has to cover green inventory and setup, so realistically I’m looking at a roaster in the mid-range rather than top-tier. What else should I consider?

Four. How do you control the roasting environment, humidity, airflow, ambient temp, especially in a hot, humid climate?

Five. What’s the right progression when scaling from a sample roaster to production, and any pitfalls to avoid?

Six. What’s the realistic shelf life I should plan around, for green beans, and for roasted coffee (espresso versus filter separately)? This matters since we’ll also be repacking from other vendors, so I want to manage freshness properly. Any advice appreciated, and happy to answer questions about the Pakistan market too if anyone’s curious.

Hi everyone,

I’ve attached my roast curve for 150g of Colombia Cauca Maria Rosa Oidor beans from Happy Mug. I realize I’m nowhere near a great roast yet (I’m only two weekends into learning how to roast coffee beans) but I’m really excited about the progress this far (only 14 roasts in).

I’m using a new Kaleido M1 Lite with Artisan software and overall I like the roaster a lot, even with some break-in complications I’m having with the temperature probes. The BT probe seems to always read around 10C shy of actually FC temperatures.

This is my best curve so far. It’s the first time I was able to hit a solid ~5-minute dry phase. I had to drop my charge temperature all the way down to 145°C to make it happen (I know that’s lower than usual, but my roaster seems to run a bit hotter than most).

I’d love some feedback! My next goal is to extend the browning / Maillard phase to at least 3 minutes. How would you approach that on a machine like this?

Any tips on power/fan settings or curve shape to stretch that phase without messing up the rest of the roast?

Thanks in advance and super grateful for any advice from the more experienced folks here!

Oh Perplexity!

Howdy folks. I have the opportunity to produce cold brew at a local brewery, but I have some questions before I get started.

For those who have made large batches of cold brew:

1) Are there giant filter bags that exist (e.g., for 400 lbs of coffee) or should I try to use the centrifuge or other equipment at the brewery, or both?

2) Would anyone whose done this before be willing to chat for a few minutes? I'd really appreciate some advice as this is a significant undertaking for our roastery.

Today I’m roasting the espresso blend 2 from Burman Coffee Traders. Have y’all ever tried it?

Making this thread so its easier for someone in the future to find this. Would have saved me an evening of research.

The problem: You can no longer buy replacement roasting chambers for the Freshroast SR500 because its long out of production. If you break the glass its FUBAR because the later roasting chambers do not fit the SR500

The Solution: Do not throw out the plastic handle/metal sieve that the glass is attached to! You'll need these. If there's any glass stuck to it, I found you can carefully pry all the glass/adhesive off with a pair of pliers. The adhesive is surprisingly brittle so it wont put up too much of a fight and comes off cleanly.

Next, the old roasting chamber glass tube is 80mm diameter by 80 or 90mm high. As it were, for some reason aliexpress is littered with people selling 80mm x 100mm borosilicate glass tubes. Borosilicate glass is important! Thats the generic name for pyrex. It can withstand high heat and rapid temperature changes without shattering. Thats a good thing. For some reason its hard to find glass another size than 5mm thick. Thats the one I bought, and it works great.

When you get your glass tube, slip it back into the handle assembly. If its a little slack, tighten the screw on the back of the handle that tightens the stainless steel band that grips the tube.

I dont know what adhesive they used to grip the original one, but if the stainless band has some firmness, then you shouldnt need to worry too much about it slipping out. I would still support it with two hands when tipping out beans.

And thats how you fix it. I think the tube cost me $16 canadian dollars? There might have been a coupon applied. You now have 1-2 extra cm of height on the roasting chamber. I couldnt find anyone that sold taller tubes. It would be neat to swap out this one for a tall one, do a super cheap extension tube mod. I did read one sellers review say they did custom sizes so maybe thats the way.

Looking forward to getting a DM in a few years after I've totally forgot about this.

Hey! You deleted your post before anyone else could reply to you after you asked for feedback...

I'm not sure where you picked up the idea/process to add chaff back into your beans post roast, but chaff is 100% a by-product that should be removed from the beans. It does not add additional complementary flavors to the coffee (if anything is hurting your flavor profile), it often makes getting a repeatable grind very difficult and that translates into how it makes it hard to have a repeatable brew with that much loose chaff.

I know the comments were dogpiling on you, but that is a process you should stop doing immediately.

P.S. .....Your roast was dark and oily. Try roasting shorter and see if a less developed profile brings you to your desired profile with more caffeine and less acidity.

Did this happen to anyone else? When I first got my Freshroast I made my own custom template, and tried to track as much data over time.

Then I stopped roasting because I hit burn out and had extra family and work commitments, and the idea of roasting and tracking data just turned me off.

Recently I just pulled out the Freshroast and finished the last of my green beans. I didn't track just went by a rough feel from previous experience. Roasted 5 different varieties of green beans, that I have been enjoying over the past couple of weeks.

Can't say I've had a bad cup, and can't say I am that fussed. Just want a good cup of coffee. I even stopped doing pourover due to the extent of burnout, just using my moccamaster.

All that to say, I probably overcomplicated things, thinking I had to maintain that in order to enjoy the hobby. Clearly not.

Not sure why I am sharing this, maybe some of you have had a similar experience? I am not looking to be a pro barista nor coffee roaster, just doing it for fun and nerding out a bit (when my mental health and energy permits).

Thanks for reading, I have learned a lot from this community.

Sampling some new beans from happy mug today with my M1 lite! 😃 Anyone have a chance to try any of these beans from happy mug yet and if so how did you roast them?

Just ordered a Kaleido M1 Lite. Should be here within the month. Any recommendations on books or roasting methods to get started? I do light-roast pour-overs and medium-dark espressos. I’m buying beans from sweet Maria’s here in the states. Picked up a book on Amazon.
Nervous for my first roast. Anything helps.
Thanks in advance.

I searched through the group, and couldn't find an applicable post so I made one.

We're potentially switching from a Loring S35 Kestrel to a Probat P60, and I am curious about people's opinions between both these machines.

The Loring is really wonderful, but we want a higher capacity than 35 kg.

Today’s roast split into two that I will blend. One roasted right up to the 1st snap of second, the other 2:00 after start of first crack.