Kens Espresso Fueled Ramblings

After roasting on the Gene Cafe for about 6 months now I think I have a good generic profile that works as a great starting point for most coffee beans.

I started out using a drying stage, about 5 minutes at 180, then ramp to full blast until 1st crack, then back of once 1st was rolling, useually landing me at around 16 min total roasting time.

This profile gave me a flat taste on most coffees, just generic “coffee” taste. Slow ramp to first crack washes out fruity tastes most, probably because these are the least dominant and easily lost.

What I have found works best on the Gene Cafe (Probably also on other roasters) :

(Please note that these temperatures are not bean mass temps.)

Fast ramp up to first crack, full speed ahead at 250C. should happen around 9 minutes.

As soon as first crack is rolling, back down to 230C to slow down the roast so it doesn’t run away from you. At first crack the beans actually starts to give of heat themselves, so if we do not slow them down you will get a runaway roast that often starts 2nd crack while 1st crack is stil going, very bean dependant. It is important that you don’t lose to much heat in 1st crack. First crack is when the sugars caremelize and loss of enough heat so that you stall 1st crack in this phase will impart a baked taste and ruin the roast.

This should get you to second crack at around 14-16 minutes with a constantly rising temperature. I find that if the temperature curve is allowed to fall at any point it dulls the flavours at best and at worst gives you a baked taste.

Please note that this is a general profile. The harder the bean (Higher grown, SHG/SHB etc..) the longer it should roast to maximize flavours.

I have also noted that is is a bad sign if you get tipping. Tipping is small pieces of the beans breaking of under 2nd crack. It means you went to fast into second crack and the roast will not be good. Shoot for no faster than 4 minutes from first to second crack and no longer than 6. Yes, this takes a lot of experimentation and times are very bean dependant so stick with a few beans, buy a ton of each and get to know them well. It’s amazing how much you can get out of a bean when you learn how to roast it. Knowing how to roast a bean perfectly means the difference from thinking “this coffe is bad” to “wow this is amazing” I think most people dismiss a coffee bean after roasting it a few time willy nilly and then move on to the next, constantly looking for something that they will probably only get by luck. When I started I tried a Harrar because I read about the blueberry notes, rosted it a couple times and didn’t taste anything. I roast the same bean now and with the right profile I get a facefull og berries. I don’t think this is because my palette is better now, my friends that still mostly drinks supermarket swill are noticing it to.

This is now my new generic Gene Cafe coffee roasting profile for most coffee beans and I am getting fruits, berry, jasmin, and other flavours from familiar beans that never showed these flavours before in the cup.