eg
Neophyte
Posts: 47 
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Post by eg on Jun 12, 2015 16:23:42 GMT -5
I am getting ready to try my 3rd batch - I ordered 5 pounds of Mexican Chiapas beans. I'm wondering, how do people initially test the roast of a batch of beans - do you roast a very small amount at different rates and then taste the un-processed roasted beans, before moving forward with roasting a full batch? Or would you roast and process a complete batch start to finish? Just curious if I can test a few ounces instead of a pound or more start to finish in order to hone in on the right roast time/temp.
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Post by crabloaf on Feb 18, 2020 18:06:17 GMT -5
Hi
I would love to hear an experienced answer to this too. Thank you
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Post by Chip on Feb 18, 2020 19:09:12 GMT -5
I would roast until cracking/popping occurs at first. Just a handful. Cool. Rest, taste. Then roast 2 minutes longer. Cool. Rest. Taste. And so on. You can also vary temp.
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Post by mark on Feb 18, 2020 23:40:34 GMT -5
When I'm doing trial roasts of new beans I always make chocolate from each roast and then compare the end result.
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Post by Ben on Feb 19, 2020 8:35:14 GMT -5
My initial test is to put a handful of beans on a sheet pan in a 300F oven. I then pull samples every couple minutes starting at the 10 minute mark. This is similar to what Chip suggests, with a couple differences. First, I'm not waiting for cracking to start before pulling samples as I've found that not every bean benefits from roasting until cracking. Second is that I wouldn't cool between roasting phases. I just do the roast all the way through, let all the beans cool completely and then taste all of them.
This test only gives me a starting point and an idea of what flavors may be possible. From this point, I start to do real roast tests where I experiment with different roasting curves. If the beans from these tests taste good I'll make them into chocolate.
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Post by crabloaf on Feb 19, 2020 18:59:54 GMT -5
Thanks Chip, Mark, Ben!
Ben,
Do you stir at all during those first 10 minutes? I think I’d do a quick stir each time I pulled samples beyond the 10 min mark.
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Post by Ben on Feb 20, 2020 8:14:39 GMT -5
Since it's just a handful of beans, there's plenty of space for airflow, so I don't worry about stirring. Just pulling the sheet pan out shuffles them around a bit, but I don't do any more than that. My goal is not to have perfectly roasted beans, but rather to just get a better idea of the flavors in the roasted beans at different levels.
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Post by crabloaf on Feb 20, 2020 15:32:55 GMT -5
Super.
Thanks Ben!
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Post by crabloaf on Feb 23, 2020 16:56:29 GMT -5
Well, I decided to try Ben's method and it was very interesting!
I roasted at 300F and pulled a few beans at 10 min, and then every 3 min after that up to 31 min. I also reduced the temp to 250 at the 17 min mark. I kept all of the beans separate and analyzed the smell, flavors, etc. I found some interesting things and hope it's ok that I share my findings and ask for any kind of feedback.
Guatemala Cahabon, 60-ish beans in a home kitchen oven on convection roast setting.
Start - 300F
Infrared temp of beans @16min - 284F (so turned oven temp to 250F); @19min - 297F; @22min - 288F; @25min - 281F; @28min - 277F; @31min - my thermometer was acting strange, so bad readings.
Because of so few beans, I expect this is why the temp of the beans got hot so quickly. Would it be better for the bean temp to be gradually increasing over time (say from 230 gradually up to 260)?
Thanks for your input
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Post by Ben on Feb 24, 2020 9:25:24 GMT -5
It would definitely be better for the bean temp to increase gradually so you can get a sample at different temps. The first sample you pulled was already a really dark roast, so anything after that is only going to be more roasted. Ideally, you'd get a good range of roasts from this process.
It may be that your oven is more powerful than mine, so you may just want to use a lower oven temp throughout.
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