Roasting Light Coffee On The Gene Cafe

Roasting light coffee on the Gene Cafe has always been something not associated with this roaster. In today's video we talk about the challenges home coffee roaster people have with whatever type of coffee roasting machine they might be using. Each machine seems to have limitations of what typr of roast they are good at. We talk about how to get creative with our roasters to achieve our roasting goals. What type of questions do you have about home coffee roasting. Roasting light coffee on the Gene Cafe is possible and can produce some wonderful results.

Thank you to the Captains Coffee for letting me borrow his roaster and for donating some delicious Honduran coffee to roast and enjoy!

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Video Timeline
0:00 - Roasting Light Coffee On The Gene Cafe

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I roast coffee on my Mill City 500 gram commercial coffee roaster every week. I also use a Behmor and a hot air popcorn popper to roast some great coffee. Join me as we roast, brew and cup coffee every week at home.

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I am a coffee enthusiast who roasts coffee from home on my sample size commercial drum coffee roaster. Coffee has been in my life for over 40 years, whether I was selling it or roasting it, I want to share my passion with you.

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[TheCaptainsCoffee]

GREAT job Mike! Of all the attempts I've seen at light roasting on the Gene, this might be the best one I've seen! You nailed it in your intro: all roasters can do pretty much anything well, you just need to make some accommodations if you want to push the boundaries. You've provided an awesome sample profile here and I can't wait to experiment with it when we get our Gene Cafe back from you 🤣🤣. Don't rush, though, I want to see what else you can do with it! Quick note on the coffee: we've been roasting a lot of anaerobics lately and across the board they benefit SO MUCH from a lengthy rest time. They are tasting ok to great at about a week post roast, then suddenly at around 14 days they just blossom like a flower! Glad you liked this Honduras, it's been one of my favorites since we got it in 🥰

[lesakre]

Awhile back I asked you to try a Gene Cafe so we could benefit from your roasting expertise using this machine. I was tickled when you released your last episode with this machine. This episode is even better. It's such fun to see this machine in your hands because you have such an understanding of the process. For example, taking on a light roast and understanding the need to reduce the amount of beans in the batch, for starters. Your explanation of not only the "hows" but also the "whys" so enhances our understanding. Thanks for all of that. Side note: I believe the temp fluctuations you are seeing with this machine are simply the way the heating elements switch on and off. Search the web and you will find mods that have been used to work around this...mainly from the UK, I believe. (Yet another rabbit hole to explore ;)).

[paullehmor]

I just lifted the hood off my six years old Gene CBR-101 to do a visual inspection, and some cleaning. The machine measures temperature in the air flow. There is one sensor in the heater outlet (to the right), and one in the exhaust channel (to the left). I don't know how the two measurements are weighted, but it is clear that the actual bean temperature is not measured directly. Maybe it can be estimated from the difference between the left-right readings. The heater is either on or off. The fan is always running, at constant speed I believe. It spins up a little during the cooling phase though. So when you drop the temperature with the red knob, the heater goes off almost instantly. The air temperature drops only seconds later. What the temperature is inside the beans, and how quick it drops, we can only guess. To get a quick view of the parts I mentioned, check out images of the spare parts. It seems that most parts of the Gene can be replaced, which is nice.

[billgrubbs]

Love the video I had mine for about 20 years now and it still works great for me I like to do a longer roast on 9.5 oz I warm up to 390 just get the metal warmed up after the beans go in I set it to 300 for 3 minutes then raise it to 446 for 7 min then raise to 465 to 9 min then 482 til 1st crack for I hit cool down around 11:30 min. I have tried a lot of profiles and this one works best for me keep up making great videos thanks.

[jlantz]

Hi Mike. Really appreciate the way you emphasize principles (phase %, events, roast plan, color, etc) that are applicable to any roaster. I usually adjust weight based on the way the bean was processed. Dry and honey create more chaff, so I normally reduce the weight slightly. Do you think the reason you had temp variation was because of the reduced weight of this roast? Did you experience as large a variation when you roasted more bean weight last time?

[flipflopsleica]

Hi, What's the link for your IOS roasting app? Thank you

[danielcondon]

Hi Mike - great video, thanks a lot! I tried this profile on my GC and the results were really good. I'm having an issue with the machine/beans (Chiapas, Washed), where no matter what I do (change weight, start temp, time etc.) I end up with beans that don't shed their chaff. Any advice on what might be causing it/how to fix? Thanks, Daniel

[orojas]

Nice video, I tried but the result was medium roast, not light. What maybe I'm doing wrong? It was a Castillo anaerobic.

[cricocoo]

Hey Mike, interesting video, especially to give me a new way to look at roasting with the Gene Cafe. On the heating element, last week I did an experiment with an IR thermometer: in the heating phase it was a lot behind the GeneCafe measurements, but in the cooling phase it quickly became spot on, as in the same exact measurement between what Gene Cafe tells me, and what IR sensor says about external cassette temperature. In my interpretation, this implies that when heat element is off, what GeneCafe reports as temperature is a good proxy for the temperature inside of the cassette. I have now done a one off experiment with halting my roast mid roast and opening the cassette to get an IR measurement of the beans and that was 'only' 10 degrees higher than the externally measured cassette temperature. So there you go, you could probably quickly turn the temperature down, let the heating element switch of and get a better bean temperature measurement if you feel lost in your roast :)

[luigicollins]

Nice job Mike, getting the Gene Cafe to roast light. I know from experience how difficult it is to get a machine that does one thing fairly well to do something else well, too. But you pulled it off! I (and several others) will someday like seeing a video on getting the Behmor to consistently roast light. I got some light roasts on my Behmor, but they were difficult to get consistently.

[seejayfrujay]

My GC stays within 7-8 degrees of the setpoint as it cycles the heating element with the cover down. I would like to get a 240 VAC model. That is really the problem with ALL electric home roasters in the USA--coffee roasters require a lot of power for heat. 120 VAC @ 15 amps is just baby getting the beer. When I first got mine, I couldn't help but notice that the GC did twice as much beans in twice the time of my old Fresh Roast. I have to reduce the charge weight to that of the FR in order to get a good light roast--around 120 grams. I can get a very good city/+ roast with 210g of washed beans to first crack in 10 minutes. So yes, absolutely the only way to get a good light roast with this machine is to back off on charge weight.

[ToddParker]

This is an excellent video. I have been roasting for years: popcorn popper, stir crazy, modded ronco, and now a behmor 1600+. the Behmor is about to go, temp surfing has become so ridiculous that the batches don't even finish. So I am in market for a new roaster. If I am being honest, I am frustrated with the market; I don't see anything I like. Couple reasons: I want a 1lb batch size potential which is why I got Behmor to begin with. I however want a modern roast, light and bright. I agree that knowing your roaster and having a roast plan to manipulate off of the roaster's natural abilities (so to speak) is important. Yet, correct me if I am wrong, an air roaster will still offer an easier (perhaps natural) way to roast light than a drum roaster, right? Tools are tools and we don't pound nails with a screw driver. I am asking strictly from a buying decision standpoint since that is the moment I am personally in. Then whatever I get I will learn so I can use the tool the way I want to use it. I don't know where a stir crazy fits in that regard. A lot of the air roasters are small batch sizes. So coming full circle you now know why I am frustrated. Past that it takes thousands to buy something that does everything I want and I cannot justify it. So, it seems you have multiple roasters and have tried many; do you have advice on the direction I should take? I was thinking low entry like the sweet Marias popper since I am not happy with anything...why pay more for something that falls short? I saw also there seems to be a new Kickstarter that has promise. I could also upgrade to a fresh roast but to not know if the extra hundreds is worth it in comparison to popper? Again my goal is light roasts to medium roasts. I accept begrudgingly that my batch sizes will be low since I can't afford an expensive machine. Anyone with any thoughts?

[Brooke-Eisen]

Can you please do a similar "how to" light roast for the Behmor? I'm a beginner struggling. I can only preheat to 250 before cut-off. And, even when in P5, temp B will automatically hold only up to 320. Then, at 7min exhaust fan, temp A will climb past 320. I cannot seem to get a good light roast and welcome any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

[KellyanneGill]

Hi Mike, I find doing a charge roast of 100grms for a new coffee and my standard charge temp is 200 degrees Celsius

[Restfulcooking]

Thank you so much for this video ! I just got a gene coffee and some green coffee to roast and I was just thinking how to roast profile for light roast. My problem as a noobie is hearing first crack .. cause most of time you hear the gene machine and most of time I just lower the time to late but this video is very helpful.

[dazpower]

I never hear first crack I have to go by smell and colour how are you hearing it

[dennisyorimoto]

Wow thank you for this video. I never thought about weight being a major factor for reaching targets. I was never able to roast light with my Gene Cafe. I also never thought of holding the 390 temp and then going straight up to 482. I’m interested in trying it out.

[ProduceDLT]

Awesome video! Which home roaster would you say is the best to do light roasts on? Something like a kaffelogic with fast temperature changes and easy profiling?

[dennisyorimoto]

Any suggestions for a roast profile for Geisha coffees on the Gene Cafe? Would it be the same as this video?

[naif]

Hey Mike, great video I’ll definitely try it. I have noticed that changing weight makes much more of an impact than heat. I thought of doing this to do a light roast but I wasn’t sure how much to reduce my temperature, this video will give me a great guide. I tried the profile of your last video and got similar results, I was able to pick up fruity notes but was slightly muted and had a little more roast flavour than I would have wanted. It was great nonetheless and I am excited to try this. Thanks again and keep up the good work!