Our roasting community here in Denmark have been exploring a new approach on the Bullet R1 roaster.
15 of us were on a roasting course with Michael de Renouard from The Factory Roast Lab Copenhagen. He is a roasting consultant and travels the world teaching coffee roasting. At home in his own roastery, he is roasting on a Loring. He roast quite light.
Michael got one of our Bullet to try it out. He thought it did well; no burned or smoked taste in the beans. The roaster do well in getting the beans heated quickly. He likes the seperate control of heat and airflow.
He found that you could start out with high heat without the beans got scorched/burned. Preheat 200°C for a 700 grams batch and then P8 – leaving room to step up to P9 at then end of the ROR peak.
Note: This was for high density beans (high grown). Be aware that lower density beans, like brasil, need a lower preheat temperature. Steffen got a Costa Rica bean which gets burned if the preheat is more than 170°C.
The high heat makes a fast start on the roast. But if it doesn’t scorch the beans, then no problem. Michael also focus on the lenght of the phase from yellow until First Crack start. Here he aims for 3 minutes for this phase – and at the same time aim to bring ROR below 5 for the First Crack phase. To do this the heat must be turned down well before the start of FC.
Exploring the difference
Here Thomas Villars used the strategy on a etiopean bean. He thought it tasted better than earlier roasts of the same bean. Despite FC starts as early as 5:23 min.
New strategy:
In general a fast roast like this gives more “clarity” in the taste – and less body. Here the “middle phase” – from yellow to FC start – is 2:15 minutes long. It should give more body to prolong this phase.
Earlier Thomas roasted the same bean like this:
Update 2 months later:
Thomas has continued this new strategy. He like his coffees better now.
Comment from Therese
To me this approach gives a too thin and too acidic taste. I prefer more body and sweetness.
Also see Kenyans for a light roasts
Note: There are many approaches in coffee roasting. Don’t take this website as the only way to do it. Just take it as inspiration – and explore for your self what suits your taste.