# Reconciling roasting and espresso dialling



## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

One of the best things I've found about roasting is the variety.

Every roast is different for me, especially as I do a dog bowl style roast.
I also buy around 3-4kg of different beans at a time.

I can normally get a certain degree of consistency based on colour and timings but there is always variation.

I am only roasting in 300-400g batches as anything more and the roast becomes erratic.

I have never been much into espresso but with the arrival of my new machine I'm trying to dial in espresso and really enjoying it. But because every roast is different I'm wasting a lot of coffee!

How do you guys do it? Just roast one bean over and over and get consistency that way? I know another roaster who does this, found the bean he liked and stuck with it.


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## CJV8 (Apr 8, 2019)

It depends, roasting for friends and family I usually stick to the same beans and profiles but for my self I like to play around with different beans, and also different profiles with the same bean.

I'm sure at some point I'll narrow my preferences down a bit but there's so much choice out there it's great to experiment.


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## ArisP (Dec 17, 2019)

Is the waste you are describing the outcome of you trying to dial grind size for shot time?

To a certain extent, if that's the issue, then grind size guesstimating comes with practice. It also helps if you stick with similar levels of roast, even if you change bean origin.


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## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

ArisP said:


> Is the waste you are describing the outcome of you trying to dial grind size for shot time?
> 
> To a certain extent, if that's the issue, then grind size guesstimating comes with practice. It also helps if you stick with similar levels of roast, even if you change bean origin.


 Yeh. I am fine if I stick to my usual medium dark. But I've been playing with lighter roasts and it's all over the place!

I think for now I'm going to just stick to a single bean. (although I've currently got 3 different KG bags on the way, doh!)


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## ArisP (Dec 17, 2019)

TomHughes said:


> Yeh. I am fine if I stick to my usual medium dark. But I've been playing with lighter roasts and it's all over the place!
> 
> I think for now I'm going to just stick to a single bean. (although I've currently got 3 different KG bags on the way, doh!)


 Whenever I had to make large adjustments, I literally did that, rather than trying to fine tune. Since every grinder is different I can't provide settings, but for example I know the range that my SJ has for very dark roasts (Starbucks) all the way to very light, and so I always try to overshoot a little and then work my way back.


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