# My Behmor Tips



## vintagecigarman

OK, I've been asking for a Home Roasters forum for long enough, so here goes with my first post on it.

I don't claim to be an expert, but I've used a Behmor for a couple of years and around 250+ roasts, so here's my own top tips - some are common sense, some are already in the owner's manual, but others are my personal opinion:

ARE YOU READY TO ROAST? If it all tastes just like coffee to you then there's little point in roasting your own. Your palate needs to be able to differentiate the various taste profiles before you embark on home roasting.

NEVER LEAVE A ROAST UNATTENDED. Home roasting is as safe as using any other domestic appliance, but beans are, eventually, inflammable, and they are being subjected to a lot of heat in a confined environment. I've experienced the drum snagging and ceasing to rotate in the middle of a roast with the elements full on. I've little doubt that had I not been on hand to stop the roast it could have ended up with some flames.

USE IN WELL VENTILATED AREAS. If you haven't roasted before you need to be aware that you get more aromas than the delightful smell of freshly roast coffee. I personally love all of them, but my experience is that wives/partners don't. And be aware that the Behmor suppresses smoke - it doesn't eliminate it. Don't operate a Behmor under a smoke alarm!

DOWNLOAD ROASTERTHING. Free from: http://www.roasterthing.com . Used to be called BehmorThing. You can use this simply as an inventory of your coffee, and as a record of your roasting, but it does so much more and is a very valuable tool to record your successful progress. It also gives you reminders when cleaning cycles are due.

FOLLOW THE CLEANING INSTRUCTIONS. Cleaning cycle after every five roasts, superclean when it is due. The manual recommends SimpleGreen and this is available in the UK, though the postage costs are a bummer. However, it comes as a concentrate, and I'm still on my first bottle, despite my wife also purloining it for some household cleaning. Despite your best efforts the chaff collector and drum will get a stain build up - but these soak off easily in a solution of Cafiza or other espresso detergent in a washing up bowl.

GET TO KNOW ONE BEAN. It's unlikely that once you start with a Behmor you'll be able to resist the urge to try every green bean you can lay your hands on. But after the initial rush it's worth getting to know one bean really well and how it responds to different roast profiles. The skills that you learn from this are readily transferrable to other beans.

HALF POUND IS BEST. Just my personal opinion, but I've always had the most success with half-pound roasts.

CHECK YOUR MAINS VOLTAGE. You set up you Behmor for your mains voltage when you first get it. But I've found that my mains voltage can vary anywhere between 235 and 245 on different days. The Behmor is highly voltage critical, and fluctuations in voltage supply influence the degree of roast. I bought a cheap energy meter from e-bay that plugs in between the socket and the Behmor and reads out the voltage. It doesn't correct or equalise the voltage, but at least it tells you, on a particular roast, how high or low the voltage is and makes you aware of whether the roasting time is going to be shorter or longer.

DO A PRE-WARM. Run the machine for a minute or two (no longer) on the base profile without the drum and then press Stop. Then load the drum in quickly. This does a lot to ensure consistency in the roast.

TRUST YOUR EXPERIENCE. The Behmor profiles are a good basic guide - but just a guide. Learn to think ahead - the roast doesn't stop as soon as the cooling cycle starts. Don't be afraid to jump in and initiate cooling earlier than the programme intends, or extend roast times.

COOL QUICKLY. If you can stand a bit of chaff flying around, try opening the door to the half-way detent a minute after the cooling cycle starts - helps reduce the heat in the beans faster and imho improves the roast quality.

COMPARE. It'll not be long before you think that your roasts are the dog's danglers. Are you right, or are you just getting used to your own style of roasting? Keep trying roasted beans from reliable commercial roasters to find out - much as it hurts you to buy beans roasted by anyone else!

Hope this helps someone - and even starts a bit of controversy?


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## ZosoOfZep

Thank for that I have been using a Behmor for about a year and I have never done a pre-warm. I am going to give it a try this weekend.

Cheers

Gary


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## vintagecigarman

Just remember that even after one minute there are hot bits inside the roaster! With a bit of care it's easy to slot in the drum without your hands contacting them.

I think that the pre-heat - and a knowledge of the fluctuations of the mains voltage have been the two most significant features of improving the quality of my roasts.


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## MikeHag

Just how much mess does home roasting make? Are we talking about something you can easily do in the kitchen, or is it a shed job?


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## lookseehear

I believe the Behmor can be done in the kitchen, however this is only for light roasts. Roasting dark produces a lot of smoke.

I know the Gene cafe has an extractor duct thing for tunnelling the smoke outside (if you're by a window), not sure if you can get a similar for the Behmor


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## vintagecigarman

I kicked off using the Behmor in the kitchen - put a board over the gas hob, switched on the extractor fan, and away I went. I didn't find the smoke or smell objectionable - but SWMBO reckoned that the smell from the roast, and a cigarette-smoke-like tar was clinging to the fabrics in the garden room which is open plan onto the kitchen, so I was banished to the garage.

In many ways the kitchen is probably the better environment for roasting as roasts in both the Behmor and the Gene are influenced by ambient temperature and humidity, which are probably more constant in the domestic environment than in a garage in the middle of winter. I've managed to overcome this partly by partitioning off a small room in the garage which I can heat in winter when necessary (it's shared with a pottery kiln so heat isn't always needed!) - but principally by pre- heating the roaster.

Short of building a ducted container to enclose it, I don't think that there's a suitable way of venting the Behmor like there is with the Gene - but the Behmor does suppress much more of the smoke than the Gene does.

Also worth considering is that to aid cooling in a Behmor it's good to be able to partially open the door during the cooling cycle. This results in a lot of chaff getting blown about - not ideal in your kitchen. You can leave the door sealed until the cycle stops - but I don't find the results as good. The other tip that I'd give is to have a vacuum handy when you open the door to suck up the chaff - much more effective than the brush that comes with the Behmor!


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## ZosoOfZep

I shall maybe use oven gloves.

Do you have a formula that you use to adjust the roast time depending on the under/over voltage.

Cheers

Gary


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## ZosoOfZep

MikeHag said:


> Just how much mess does home roasting make? Are we talking about something you can easily do in the kitchen, or is it a shed job?


The mess is contained within the roaster. The Behmor has a tray which collects most of the chaff, the rest I hoover up. It only takes a few seconds


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## vintagecigarman

I don't have a formula, just use the indication of voltage as a head's up on the likely time. I find that I invariably adjust the roast time, principally relying on sound.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk


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## MikeHag

As so many guys on here are into their AV equipment, I wonder whether something like this would help even out the current/voltage/whatever. I use a similar Monster product for my home entertainment system and maybe could use it for roasting?


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## vintagecigarman

It isn't really surge protection that is needed, Mike. What would be great is something that delivers a uniform output voltage regardless of how the mains voltage fluctuates. Such transformers are available, but from what I can discover they are prohibitively expensive.


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