@mscali

Have you written down any of your adjustments from the past roast (i,e charge, drop, gas, drum speed, and air)? Also, you can either make your last profile public or take a screen shot and place it within the forum. This will help folks see where you started, your dry, mid, and development phases as well. I have a MCR-1 as well and I had a huge learning curve coming from a Behmor.

That is a good suggestion, thanks. Here are my two latest tries. The first (RP15), I actually liked the after-taste a lot, but the forward flavor was almost non-existent. Not sure if that makes sense. The second (RP17), just seemed overcooked and no real nuance to the bean's flavor. Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated!

ROAST – RP-15 MJS Brazil Coffee

(Brazil – Campo das Vertentes Fazenda do Cruzeiro)

1.

Preheat at 1.2KPA at Med Fan (45)

2.

Set Heat to 1.4KPA

3.

Set Fan at 45

4.

Charge at 380 degrees (on upheat)

5.

Lower Gas to .7 KPA – at TP -252 degrees; Approx 1:48 mins

6.

Increase Fan to 50 – at TP -252 degrees; Approx 1:48 mins

7.

Mark Green/Yellow – 291 degrees; Approx 3:41 mins

8.

Lower Gas to .6KPA – 346 degrees; Approx 6:30 mins

9.

Lower Gas to .4KPA – 368 degrees; Approx 8:00 mins

10.

Mark First Crack – 366 degrees; Approx 8:19

11.

Lower Gas to .2 KPA – 380.8 degrees; Approx 10:30 mins

12.

Drop 11:30

ROAST – RP-17 MJS Brazil Coffee

(Brazil – Campo das Vertentes Fazenda do Cruzeiro)

1.

Preheat at 1.2KPA at Med Fan (45)

2.

Set Heat to 1.4KPA

3.

Set Fan at 45

4.

Charge at 380 degrees (on upheat)

5.

Lower Gas to 1.1 KPA – at TP -252 degrees; Approx 1:48 mins

6.

Increase Fan to 50 – at TP -252 degrees; Approx 1:48 mins

7.

Mark Green/Yellow – 291 degrees; Approx 3:41 mins

9.

Mark First Crack – 373 degrees; Approx 8:06 mins

10.

Lower Gas to .8KPA – at 9:00 mins; Approx 384 degrees; Approx 9:00 mins

12.

Drop 10:45 mins; Approx 400 degrees

@mscali

Definitely a newbie as well at this but I'll give it a shot based on responses and things I have learned so far.

What are you charging on, the PID temp or other probe reading? I assume you are doing full batches, and it looks as you are not doing a soak. What is your warmup process and RoR? My initial take is you are speeding through drying phase, and you don't have enough energy to take you through the roasts to your desired point/roast time. If you are not doing a soak, you may be unevenly heating the bean at the start. I notice your turning point temp (252 seems high); a soak should bring that down. Another observation is where you are calling green to yellow (usually ~300+) nothing that changes much unless your future adjustments are based on timing after that mark but it would probably extend your dry time phase a little. MC has some good videos I have watched and will probably rewatch as I am having some issues, but I think I am narrowing down what they are. Below is the link if you haven't seen them.

https://millcityroasters.com/pages/coffee-education-video-reading-l...#beginners

This is very helpful, thank you!! I was using the PID temp for charging, set to 410 and dropping at 380. I need to research "soak", not totally familiar. Thanks again.

There is more than one way to approach roasting, and often the machine size/type can make a difference. So while we're roasting on a 2kg and 10kg machines, many of the generalities will be the same.

First, I would recommend that you follow a low/medium/high fan profile across your drying/maillard/development steps respectively. Again, it's not a fixed rule, but it's fairly standard and is the baseline for starting to work through just about any coffee profile.

Next, I'd recommend decreasing the amount of time you spend in the drying phase by keeping your gas up until G/Y transition. The drying phase should not be overly long, really no more than between 40%-50% of your total time on the high side depending on your finish temp. So inversely, your gas is going to follow a high/medium/low setting during drying/maillard/development, and play with your charge temp to start with the highest temp you can, while aiming for a turning point temperature between 180F and 200F.

Speaking of soak, this can be a helpful method to balance a high charge temp and high initial gas with a small batch on roasters like the 1kg and 2kg. You will turn off gas before charging, then wait 30-90 seconds before reigniting. It's not any more of a hard-fast rule than anything else, but if you're seeing your dry time accelerate too much, this can ease that a bit.

Try these steps and see if it helps. Long percentages of time in drying can dull a coffee, muddying the profile. Likewise, speeding through maillard or not rolling off through your development can toss some of the more mellow notes out of your roast.

Mike, you should be able to make that profile public and share the link.

That would be a lot more potentially useful than posting the notes.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. Very kind of each of you for taking the time. What a cool community. I am going to go through each comment and do as suggested. I think I am also going to look to do the MCR class this winter. I've got lots to learn!! Again, many thanks.

You will not regret the Roasting 101 class. It has been a tremendous help to me. Worth every penny, plus you get to meet the MCR team and they rock!

@mscali

Curious if any of your changes provided a better roast? If so, mind sharing what you changed?