I have been roasting coffee for many years now starting with a Hot Air popper “Presto Pops lite” and then I invested in a Fresh Roast SR 540 with the Extension tube (the extension tube is a must for the SR-540 in my opinion). Overall, I have roasted coffee at the same speed i.e. <10 minutes and depending on how I felt that day I would roast to the end of First Crack or later for darker roasted coffee even to French or Italian roast after second crack. It is nice to roast small batches at a particular roast level so that you don’t have an entire pound of coffee to go through until you can buy some more. This timing has worked well for me over the years and with the Hot Air Popper, you don’t really have any choice because the only feedback you have is the two Crack stages and perhaps the color of the beans which is hard to check while roasting. With the Fresh roast you do have control over the Air speed, temperature and timer to work with and for feedback. This has been going very well and I have been roasting coffee still in 10 or less minutes. Generally I start the coffee at Fan speed 9 and temperature at 7 and once the beans begin to change color, around 3 minutes in, I lower the fan speed to 8 and watch the temperature rise and once it stabilizes, I again lower the fan speed to raise the temperature and repeat this process until the temperature reaches at lease 430 Degrees F and somewhere after that, the first crack will start as the temperature reaches somewhere near 440 to 450 Degrees F. For the most part I stop the roasting after a couple minutes at the end of first crack. For darker roasts I will at this point lower the fan speed again to at least 5 and raise the power until second crack starts and adjust accordingly. This all happens within the 10-minute window.
I have been concerned that roasting this fast may be rushing the beans and not letting them develop before and after first crack. I have been experimenting with roasting slower by starting at Fan speed 9, power 5. Then 3 minutes in I would start lowering the fan speed and/or raise the power slowly and watch the temperature raise slowly until it reaches first crack at about 440 degrees and more than 10 minutes in and then let first crack complete and wait a few minutes after this so the total time roasted is from 12 to 15 minutes. For darker roasts I let the temperature increase to more than 460-480 degrees F until the beans are at French or Italian roast and the beans are very dark to black and shiny at 15 to 18 minutes. Doing this does make a difference in City or Full city roast cup taste and sweetness over a less than 10-minute roast but does not really make a big difference at French or Italian roasts.
Having said all of this, the one significant advantage in home roasting small batches is that you are in complete control and can experiment to find what works best for you and produces a cup of coffee that you like and each of us can be different. There is no perfect recipe especially when roasting out side when the temperature in Texas is very hot in the summer and can be cooler 30-40 degrees in the winter. This ambient temperature will make you vary the process more than you think. In the end your coffee will most certainly be much better than any pre-roasted coffee you can buy.
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