# Cormorant Roast along - sort of...



## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi All

an attempt by myself to record one of my roasts using Artisan, a Mastech MS6514 and 2 K type thermocouples - and some screen capture software.

I was beset by some technicals - not least cos I'm a Windows numpty and my Mac laptop is tied down - so no loaded software other than work - thus using my daughters windows 8 machine.

It's a touch screen and somehow my sausage fingers didn't seem to register the dry end - was corrected post roast. I'm still learning this roaster - but loving it to bits to be honest. It's a bit addictive really..


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

interesting vid, I have to admit the first thing that came into my head was a Cormorant roasting an Ethiopian -im sure that should be the other way around...


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Ha ha...


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## mattpitts74 (Nov 22, 2012)

Thanks for sharing, how did it taste?


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Only roasted it this afternoon


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## iroko (Nov 9, 2012)

Thanks for vid, really looking forward to getting mine.


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## jt196 (Jan 4, 2012)

Looks like an interesting machine - very hands on coming from the GC. Excuse my ignorance @Beeroclock but wasn't the roast a little short? I'm coming from the Gene where I'm hitting FC at around 10-13:00.

Interesting all this terminology as well: BT, ET, Dry End. Will have to have a look at the software to learn a bit more as it's not something you see in basic web reading or even in Scott Rao's Home Roasting book.


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

jt196 said:


> Looks like an interesting machine - very hands on coming from the GC. Excuse my ignorance @Beeroclock but wasn't the roast a little short? I'm coming from the Gene where I'm hitting FC at around 10-13:00.
> 
> Interesting all this terminology as well: BT, ET, Dry End. Will have to have a look at the software to learn a bit more as it's not something you see in basic web reading or even in Scott Rao's Home Roasting book.


You think?









Pretty much spot on what I wanted for a 400g, charge in this roast I was coming in a bit hot into first crack to get a really defined start and finish to it. Though the flick at then end was not my intention. On a 500g roast, I like to hit FC between 9 and 10 mins and finish the roast between 12 and 13mins depending on what development time I'm aiming for.

Sorry but BT (bean temp) ET environment or exhaust temp and dry end are all terms used in roasting and pretty much essential to understand what's going on in your roast. May I suggest you have a look at the Mill City youtube video's - there's a lot of interesting info there.

The problem with the Gene is that it's pretty much impossible to really know what's going on with your roast - you have no ability to measure the ROR - unless you do this manually. It's probably why it takes people a long time to get half decent results. Scott Roa's main mantra is to try achieve a steady declining ROR (rate of rise) with a developement percentage of 20-25% - Very difficult to monitor this without digital thermocouples and data logging software such as Artisan.

Whilst I don't subscribe to every word Rao says - the above principle will get you a long way down the road to getting a good roast.

The Cormorant is an exceptionally versatile roaster - with complete control of heat and airflow - the use of IR burner makes it very efficient and the built in diffuser allows for a myriad of different profiles. Diffuser open drum speed set to 45rpm and it behaves a lot like a Diedrich Roaster i.e mainly conductive heating, close the diffuser and drum at 65 rpm it becomes a lot more convective.

Cheers Phil


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Beeroclock said:


> You think?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 @jt196

In my experience with the Gene a development percentage of 20-25% with give you a dry roast with the flavours muted. The total roast time in a gene will be longer than Rao advises and the time from the beans yellowing to hitting first crack will also be extended. Extending the end of the roast to hit a magic development percentage won't help you. You can extend first crack and end the roast very quickly for a light roast or you can go through in 1:00-1:30 and finish in another 00:30-1:00 for a medium-dark roast. I wouldn't generally want more than a 3 minute dev time in a gene, which might only be about 18% of the roast time, and typically I aimed for 2:30 from first crack to end of roast to get my best results. You might find a bean different to one I've ever had though.


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## jt196 (Jan 4, 2012)

Beeroclock said:


> You think?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well unfortunately I don't know enough to "think" very much at this point about roasting. I know the term ROR from reading Rao's book, but the other terms not so familiar with. Funnily enough I came across the Mill City video channel mentioned in one of the stateside coffee forums and had a look, looks remarkably detailed and in depth. If you've got any recommendations what to go through there that'd be great, there's a ton of content!


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## jt196 (Jan 4, 2012)

Rob1 said:


> @jt196
> 
> In my experience with the Gene a development percentage of 20-25% with give you a dry roast with the flavours muted. The total roast time in a gene will be longer than Rao advises and the time from the beans yellowing to hitting first crack will also be extended. Extending the end of the roast to hit a magic development percentage won't help you. You can extend first crack and end the roast very quickly for a light roast or you can go through in 1:00-1:30 and finish in another 00:30-1:00 for a medium-dark roast. I wouldn't generally want more than a 3 minute dev time in a gene, which might only be about 18% of the roast time, and typically I aimed for 2:30 from first crack to end of roast to get my best results. You might find a bean different to one I've ever had though.


So this fits into roughly what I've been doing with the Gene - 2:30 to 3mins after FC. Not come across the dev % before, more research needed then. So according to this, I need to put the Gene at full whack for the first 3/4 or so of the roast to achieve this higher percentage development time. Interesting. Will have a read/research. More to learn than I expected re the roasting.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

jt196 said:


> So according to this, I need to put the Gene at full whack for the first 3/4 or so of the roast to achieve this higher percentage development time.


If it won't improve the roast then don't do it. If you can't run at full power at the start without scorching the beans or uneven development then don't.


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## jt196 (Jan 4, 2012)

Rob1 said:


> If it won't improve the roast then don't do it. If you can't run at full power at the start without scorching the beans or uneven development then don't.


Not sure what you mean here Rob1, I've heard people running the Gene Cafe on full at the beginning, then lowering either after a certain amount of time, or FC. Are you saying you've tried this and it hasn't improved the roast and it has scorched beans? Or that you understand this to be the case for the Gene?


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## Batian (Oct 23, 2017)

If you have the instructions that came with a Bella Barista supplied Gene, (penned by Davecuk of this forum) the example roast profiles given provide a good starting point to gain experience and 'feel' for the machine.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

jt196 said:


> Not sure what you mean here Rob1, I've heard people running the Gene Cafe on full at the beginning, then lowering either after a certain amount of time, or FC. Are you saying you've tried this and it hasn't improved the roast and it has scorched beans? Or that you understand this to be the case for the Gene?


It can scorch the bean. I run it on full power until the beans hit 175c when roasting El Salvador Red Bourbon which is fine but it can scorch other beans. What I'm saying is hitting Rao's dev percent won't necessarily produce better results and you need to roast it within the limitations of the roaster according to what you're trying to achieve.. But this is a cormorant thread, not a gene thread, so best not derail it further. If you want to continue the discussion and get other people's input its probably best to contact a mod and have the last few posts split off into another thread.


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## jt196 (Jan 4, 2012)

Fair enough Rob - if I have any more questions I'll either ask for a split or make a new post.


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