# green beans



## david123

Hi, I am new to this forum and would like to say hello

I was just wondering if anybody could help me. I am just about to branch out into roasting my own beans and am looking at the "Gene Cafe" roaster.

My main question is green beans, at the moment I am buying a mix of Expresso roasted beans labled Barcelona and continental. I suspect it may just be a expresso bean roasted in diffrent ways. To be honest I havent a clue where to start. Perhaps I should try a selection of beans and play arond with that.

Any advice would be greatfully accepted.

I probably have a month or two stock to get through before moving over to roasting.

David


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## MikeHag

How many kilos of beans per week are you going through? The Gene Cafe is not large... it will only give you 190g of roasted beans per 15-20min roast cycle (including cooling). You would potentially be spending a lot of time watching the roasting chamber rotate.


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## david123

MikeHag said:


> How many kilos of beans per week are you going through? The Gene Cafe is not large... it will only give you 190g of roasted beans per 15-20min roast cycle (including cooling). You would potentially be spending a lot of time watching the roasting chamber rotate.


Hi Mike

I should have said in my post, it is for home use only. as there are only the two of us it wont be a lot. I guess we get through about 10 oz per week.

David


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## fatboyslim

I'm starting to want a gene cafe. Mike how easy is it to keep track of temperature and make adjustments during the roast? Also consistency?

David, Has Bean sell 2kg green bean with a great selection and lots of info about each one, Bella Barista sell much bigger quantities of green bean, not sure how much info about farm etc.


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## david123

Hi fatboyslim

Good idea about the selection from Has Bean, it is probably the route I should take. Thanks for the imput


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## MikeHag

The Gene Cafe is simply amazing for home roasting, in my experience. The last batch I roasted, a Nicaragua Pacamara from Finca Santa Maura, made the best espresso I've had in my life, bar none. The process is really quite simple, and although the best way is to learn and understand what is actually happening to the beans during the roasting process (so you can then make your own adjustments), it is possible to just follow someone elses roast procedure/profile and achieve decent results. Like all home roasters, the Gene Cafe doesn't have good cooling capabilities, so I dump mine into an external cooling bin with an inbuild electric fan. Cooling is important, so if you're considering a home roaster, also look into how you will cool them.

The Gene has two buttons, one controls the time... but basically you just set it to keep roasting until you hit stop. The second button controls the target temperature within the chamber, and the chamber temperature will gradually rise towards the target. You can increase or decrease this at any point. Because it is a small chamber, it is very responsive.

One of the variables to get right is the weight of green beans used, as this affects roast time, evenness etc.

The roaster comes with great instructions from Bella Barista, and Sweet Marias website has great stuff too. I also have a zip file with roast profiles from Eddie Dove in the US, which helps with deciding how to roast particular beans if you've never roasted them before.


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## wastedhours

Only 190g per batch? The chamber allows up to 300-330g, doesn't it? 85% yield etc, surely a standard bag is approachable - or best results means not putting too much in? Or different yield amount?


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## MikeHag

As far as I've seen nobody puts the maximum 300g in there. 250g of green is the most I've heard of anyone using successfully. I typically use 227g, which tends to result in around 190g of roasted beans after loss of mass that happens during roasting. My target mass loss tends to be around 16.8%

It depends on the beans and how they were processed too.


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## david123

Thanks for that Mike, that has helped a lot.

Is there any chance of the zip file from Eddie Dove? Also thanks to everybody else tat has contributed to this thread.

David


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## MikeHag

david123 said:


> Thanks for that Mike, that has helped a lot.
> 
> Is there any chance of the zip file from Eddie Dove? Also thanks to everybody else tat has contributed to this thread.
> 
> David


https://www.box.com/s/lu84ynd0rfoitk5p744g


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## david123

Sorry for the delay in coming back to you.

Thanks for that

David


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## crankhouse

Just had confirmation from Steve @ HasBean that they're no longer offering their 5x2Kg greens selection which is disappointing. Used them previously and everything roasted up really well in my Gene. Am looking at CoffeeCompass and RedMonkey but both seem more expensive than the old Hasbean offer.


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## gfunk

£300+ for it and it doesn't include a cooling fan?!? Gah!

Still, very tempting...


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## Bean 'n' Gone

Hi,

I have been using the Gene Cafe for a while now and would recommend to anyone, its pretty easy to get a good roast from, but with practice, time and patience you can achieve an exceptional roast. Something to bear in mind is where and how you are going to direct the expelled air/smoke, wickes sell cheap ducting ( http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/713024 ). I also agree that although the manual says it will roast 300g, i think thats pushing it and never go over 250g for an even roast.

I started with the 10kg starter pack of green beans from Hasbean and its a shame they are not doing that at the moment, all their beans are available green as well as roasted and come with as much info about their background as possible, you just dont get such a good deal buying them individualy. Bella Barrista have a bulk deal every so often, i have had a couple of 20kg deals and all the beans have produced great coffee, the only downside is that they dont provide a great deal of info about them, but theres always google!!! I dont think they will be beaten for price unless you order 70kg bags from an importer.


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## david123

Thanks for that

I will keep nan eye out for the "Bella Barrista" deals. I must admit I love my roaster. I got my extracter tube from B&Q

Regards David


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## crankhouse

Hi Mike,

Just picked up this old thread and wondered if you remembered where you got the Pacamara's from ? They from Steve @hasbean ? Green prices seem to have increased over the last few months. Don't suppose you have any good sources outside the usual ones (BB and Hasbean) ?

cheers

dave



MikeHag said:


> The Gene Cafe is simply amazing for home roasting, in my experience. The last batch I roasted, a Nicaragua Pacamara from Finca Santa Maura, made the best espresso I've had in my life, bar none. The process is really quite simple, and although the best way is to learn and understand what is actually happening to the beans during the roasting process (so you can then make your own adjustments), it is possible to just follow someone elses roast procedure/profile and achieve decent results. Like all home roasters, the Gene Cafe doesn't have good cooling capabilities, so I dump mine into an external cooling bin with an inbuild electric fan. Cooling is important, so if you're considering a home roaster, also look into how you will cool them.
> 
> The Gene has two buttons, one controls the time... but basically you just set it to keep roasting until you hit stop. The second button controls the target temperature within the chamber, and the chamber temperature will gradually rise towards the target. You can increase or decrease this at any point. Because it is a small chamber, it is very responsive.
> 
> One of the variables to get right is the weight of green beans used, as this affects roast time, evenness etc.
> 
> The roaster comes with great instructions from Bella Barista, and Sweet Marias website has great stuff too. I also have a zip file with roast profiles from Eddie Dove in the US, which helps with deciding how to roast particular beans if you've never roasted them before.


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## funinacup

Mike doesn't use the forum anymore, but you can find him on twitter @HaggieBarista.

Michael

Fun in a Cup Coffee Training


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## 4085

I have been an ardent gene fan since Steve first brought them in with Hasbean. Like all things, your knowledge increases and I can be pretty consistent with mine. I do not find cooling a problem, remembering you can select either 60 or 100 c to cool to. I have modded my Gene though I do not often use it, which basically involves re-routing a cable and incorporating a dimmer switch, which allows you to alter the wattage at first crack to elongate the roast.

I buy the bulk bean purchase from BellaBarista and have not found better value than this yet. Everyone will tell you about their own kit which is not surprising really, but the nice thing about the gene is you can roast to your own desire, and not have to follow ready made patterns and curves. The more you do anything, the better you get at it so what seems foreign now will not be in time.


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