How to Highlight Sweetness in Coffee Roasting

Episode 37: Ever wondered about highlighting the sweetness in a coffee while you're roasting it? This week we respond to a question from a listener about profiling on the Gene Cafe roaster, slow roasting without "baking" the coffee beans, and more!
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[robertroth]

I always learn a thing or two from your videos. Thanks for posting and sharing.

[alonnegev]

I am glad the Gene roaster question popped up because my feeling is that Gene is a less common roaster on this channel and there is not a lot of information. I have been roasting with Gene for more than 10 years after popcorn machine, FR and hearthware roaster, and I believe I reached a 95% full proof method for my espresso coffees.
In general the method is to roast until first crack and then reduce the temp and let it run for a few minutes. The minutes in low temp depends on what kind of roast you want, light, med or dark. This process allows to work w/o time dependency because each bean can crack in a different time.
The sweetness you get from roasting very specific beans at medium roast. Not all beans have sweetness in them. Need to be careful that the sweetness doesn't turn into acidic so I will never try to extract sweetness from Ethiopian beans. For sweetness I use the following types - Uganda Bogisu, Cuba, Haiti, Some Mexico beans (don't remember which) .
In addition I blend the different types of characteristics separately, sweetness (from above examples), body (Indonesia like Java, Sumatra), crema (10% Robusta), etc .

Here's a real example. Batches should be 200-300 grams, not more .
I am in Europe so the values will be in the metric system:
200 gr - Uganda ( 7 Oz)
6 minutes 200 C (390 F)
raise temp to 240 C (464 F)
wait until 1st crack (should take between 3-6 minutes, depending on density, type of bean, room temperature)
lower temp to 220 C (428 F)
stop and cool after 3.8 minutes

200 gr Java - same as above
200 gr Brazil Burbon - I usually want Brazil to be lighter so I will stop the last stage at 3.5 minutes
60 gr Robusta - combine with the Java batch
etc.

One more caveat - Its hard to hear the 1st crack in gene roaster, so what I do is wrap the inside of the glass drum with a ceramic heat resistance cover. With this I can hear all cracks perfectly.
here a link to something similar -


I hope this helps the Gene community

[jerryhubbard]

With my FR, I like med to dark or dark roast coffee. I try to hit 16%-18% moisture loss most of the time. Usually cooling in my cool tray to make it quicker. I try to end the roast at or near 9 minutes. JH Coffee Lab Irmo South Carolina USA

[jerryhubbard]

I am not a professional coffee roaster but I have done a fair amount at my shop using the FR SR800 ext tube and Razzo chaff screen. Which roasting machine do you guys like. Drum or fluid bed?