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Time is secondary. You don't want to go to long or short but you can adjust the heat mid roast for that. I normally start high heat till 1st crack then lower heat for a bit and if I feel its taking to long to reach 2nd crack I up the heat a bit again. My roasting sessions last about 12-15 minutes sometimes a bit less but almost never more. That is only the time spent over the heat though. Cooling takes a bit too. I try not to put them away till they are cool enough to hold bare handed since the second crack is an exothermic reaction.
 
Gotcha. I’ve been doing a few minutes on low until they start to turn yellow. Sounds like I can skip that part.
 
Kyle I agree on ramping up quickly and then slowing down after 1st crack to second. I have a temperature graph I watch. You never want to drop the bean temp just slow the ramp up.
A chart to help visualize:
stock-vector-coffee-roast-curve-464098091.jpg


Here is a graph showing the rise in heat. The red is a drum roaster and the purple is an air roaster. Both have a constant rise and then a slow down (without dropping!) towards 2nd crack. A drop in temp will cause a baked taste (sort of bready) to the beans.

Dave, Does your roaster have a bean temp sensor?
13648_roasting_chart.jpg


uacowboy said:
Cooling takes a bit too. I try not to put them away till they are cool enough to hold bare handed since the second crack is an exothermic reaction.
Click to expand...
I put them on a large cookie sheet (a large thin metal type) with a fan on them to stop the cooking.
 
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That colour chart is interesting. One of our favorite beans we buy is a blonde roast. According to that, to get a blonde roast you have to stop it prior to first crack.
 
Man, I’m not good at this and it seems pretty straight forward. Did another batch tonight and thought I went darker than before. I started right on high and went about 11 minutes. Nope. Looks exactly the same as last time.
So I did a 2nd batch. I used fewer beans. I’m doing it outside and it’s fairly cool, so I thought maybe they weren’t getting hot enough. This time I swear I hear lad 2nd crack. On high all the time and I turned the fan down lower to get more heat. I thought I had it this time. Looked darker and it was around 14 minutes.

They look the same!!!
3583
 
The right looks darker to me and once they are a solid brown they don't darken much more unless you start burning them. that said I haven't used one of those roasters so I can't help with that part
 
When you hit second crack it will keep crackling (think rice krispies) even after the heat is off until you actively start cooling them. If you shut it down and the noise stops you're not there. I have had times were a few beans hit first crack way later than most that can throw you.

Honestly I think what helped me most was the first batch I burned. It taught me a lot about all the various phases and what to watch for.
 
Ok, I’ll push the next one further. Again, it’s knowing how long that it’s taking that’s making feel like I’m going too far in the moment.
 
This has nothing to do with making coffee but more of drinking it. I have been listening to these short nutritional podcasts and lately I have been listening about Niacin, otherwise known as Vitamin B3. Your body uses it for a lot of different things. Anyway, in light roasted coffees or "American" roasted coffees the Niacin is really low. But the darker the roast the more Niacin in the coffee. Italian Roast Coffee will contain more Niacin as it is one of, if not the darkest of coffees. According to this PubMed Abstract, Synthesis and availability of niacin in roasted coffee, Italian Roast Coffee will have about 40 mg of Niacin for 100 grams of coffee ( I am assuming this would be the actual coffee bean and not just the liquid that we drink...but I am unsure). And that drinking it retains about 85% of the Niacin.

I honestly don't know how that translates into difference in ways of being prepared...drip vs. french press vs. pour over vs. espresso. But the big take away here is that you get some kind of value of niacin from coffee. A quick note...evidently because of the processes and methods in which coffee is decaffeinated, decaffeinated coffee has less Niacin than just a raw coffee bean.

Any way...just thought it was interesting.
 
Hmm, I think it’s similar to the 2nd one I did yesterday. I’m going to brew with it tomorrow.
 
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