Behmor 1600 Plus - Tips, tricks, suggestions & insight

[pshankstar]

After a year of roasting on the Fresh Roast SR500, I think I will be upgrading to the behmor 1600 plus roaster. I figured I would start a thread on this roaster.

So with anyone who has a behmor 1600 plus, can you share any tips or tricks, suggestions and/or insight on this roaster? I know a few members here who have one, so I’ll tag you now so this new thread may pop up in your feed. Thanks in advance!

Here’s looking at @jimyson, @HarborTownBrewing, @Inkleg and @TallDan. Sorry if I’m missing anyone but these are the ones who come to mind.

 

[Red_Dog]

I have the 1600 it stays outside on a cabinet when the temperature is about 40' the unit shows an error and will not start. I almost panicked, found out it's lockout to keep from roasting to cool. Warm unit up and it works every time

 

[pshankstar]

I have the 1600 it stays outside on a cabinet when the temperature is about 40' the unit shows an error and will not start. I almost panicked, found out it's lockout to keep from roasting to cool. Warm unit up and it works every time

That’s good to know. Warm the unit up indoors and then it in the garage when it’s cooler outside. Thanks!

 

[TallDan]

Odd, i didn't see a notification of the mention, but stumbled on this thread anyway.

Mine lives in the kitchen. It really does not put out a lot of smoke, so running it under/near the kitchen vent hood (which vents outside) works for me. I've considered making a vent tube to go in the window like HarborTown has/had as well, which would reduce the smoke to near zero, i'd bet. When i used it outside in cool weather, it took noticeably longer to roast. Not sure if it was the outlet or the outside air, but either way, inside has worked better for me. I keep a mini shop-vac right by it to clean up the chaff and keep the kitchen relatively clean.

 

[Inkleg]

I have mine set up in a 3 season sunroom. I always open a window and have a fan running to vent the smoke. Even with their claimed "Smoke Suppression Technology" it will smoke up a room. It will do 1 pound batches, but I have found it works better for me to roast 226 gram batches. I roast a pound to a pound and a half each week.

I preheat the roaster by hitting 1/2 pound and let it run down to 10 minutes. This usually gets the temperature up to 129*, read by pushing the B button on the control panel. I haven't used the chaff trey in quite sometime as I don't cool the beans in the roaster (and I felt at least in my mind that the trey was robbing me of heat.) I now have a small 2 gallon vacuum to clean up chaff and a makeshift colander/cardboard box bean cooler I use with the vacuum to quickly cool the beans.

I'll post back in a bit with my process. My wife just ask if I'd give her a hand photographing a naked kitty. Sounds like fun, but I'm pretty sure this isn't going to go the way I want it to.

 

[ba-brewer]

I had one for a while did not use any of the fancy profiles or features just manually controlled power.
Been a little while since I used it but I think the process was something like this;
do the preheat thing
pull the basket and fill with bean using work gloves
set to 1lb but roast 1/2lb, this allowed me to get to start of 2nd crack in the 12min time frame
turn on fast spin
max time, max power
set a kitchen timer to signal me when it would starts doing the deadman testing
reduce power as the roast moved closer to first crack, did this at a fix time into roast I think
reduce some more when first crack started, had done the open door thing too some times
start cooling when done but pulled the basket and cooled roasted coffee with rapid cooler
I think I ran the cooling cycle for a few minutes with door closed then opened it to get to cool faster
I only cooled down until I could get it to run again not the hour or full time the instructions suggested.
I think it took about 15 minutes of cooling to be able to next batch.

 

[Inkleg]

Yep....not the kitty I was hoping for.

 

[pshankstar]

Anyone else? Bueller? Bueller?

@Inkleg, did you forget about circling back with some info after the photo shoot? [emoji6]
PS - That cat doesn’t look too impressed.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Odd, I didn't get tagged in this either.

The exhaust thing is a big one for me. Yes, the unit has "smoke suppression" but it's still going to generate smoke, especially above 1/2 lb loads. I roasted in a 3 or 4 seasons room with it without venting for a couple years and it was fine, but when I would roast more than a batch the smoke was mildly irritating so I hooked up the vent which I've mentioned before. I will say that this improved my roasting health dramatically, and I would recommend it if you are able to vent it somewhere. At a previous place I was able to use a vent fan above the unit and it worked good actually...I guess the point is you just have to try to move the smoke out a little bit.

My preferred charge is 8-12 oz, depending on my profile. With 8oz you can get pretty funky with your profiles while still being able to control the beans and preventing them getting away from you. It can be difficult to slow down the momentum of 12-16 oz of beans once they have absorbed a bunch of heat. Again though, that's true of any roaster.

Last thing I can think of for now: Preheating. It makes a big difference if you give the roaster a good preheat. I usually preheat mine for 1.5-2.5 mins before a roast, depending on ambient air temp, and this goes a long way in getting to 1C earlier.

 

[Inkleg]

I’ve not forgotten about this. It’s just been one of those weeks.

 

[BBBF]

I recently upgraded to a Huky 500, but I put my time in on the Behmor 1600+ (still have it and need to get it up on CL). Never roast a full pound and always roast on the 1 pound setting. I always preheated up to 180 before putting in the drum. If you want to roast in manual mode, keep an eye on the temperature and never let it get above 330. If you go above it, the Behmor will error out and shut down. Shutting down involves the drum stopping, but the heater is still hot and will likely start burning your beans. Even if you catch it in time, the roaster has to go through a cooling cycle before you can restart, so your roast is screwed no matter what. And the roaster takes too long to cool. You are better off getting the drum out of the roaster and putting it in front of a fan.

It's not a bad roaster. Makes some tasty coffee, but you just need to work around some of its "features."

 

[shelly_belly]

Curious, where does the chaff go with the Behmor? Does it remain in the drum during the roast?

 

[Red_Dog]

It stays in the tray below the drum just clean it each roast

 

[Inkleg]

A typical roast for me follows along these lines.
With the chaff trey out of the roaster (I've stopped using it) hit 1/2 pound and start. The roaster will start at 12 minutes. I preheat down to 10. While it is heating I weight out 220-235 grams beans and add to basket. I already have the coffee timing tool that a lot here use up on my phone.

At 10 (countdown time) minutes the roaster temp is up 130+.
I hit stop, put the basket in, hit 1 pound, start, P5, D and hit start on the phone timer.
This puts the roaster in manual mode. P5 is full power and D increases the drum speed.
From here I'll monitor the temperature by pressing the B button. Except for Ethiopians I don't have a standard profile I use.

I'll play around with the temperature. Most I'll let run up to 300* but never letting get over 320* or the roaster will shut down.
I'll control the temp by rotating between the different P buttons. At 10:30 countdown time the after burner kicks in and will drop the temp in the roaster so I try to make sure I'm on P5 (full power) when that happens. From there I continue to monitor temperature as first crack approaches. I usually try to be on the plus side of 300*. Start the first crack countdown on my phone and watch my temperature and development time.

When I'm ready to end the roast I'll put on a pair of leather work gloves, hit stop, open the door and vacuum the chaff in front of the basket, pull the basket and put in in my vegetable grill basket (more on this in a bit) and vacuum the rest of the chaff out of the roaster, close the door and hit COOL. (NOTE!: Hitting COOL with chaff in the roaster and opening the door WILL make a mess.)
I then dump my beans in my make shift colander/cardboard box fancy dancy bean chiller attach the vacuum hose and stir the beans with a wooden spoon until cool. I'll then take the beans outside and drop/toss between two wire mesh vegetable grill baskets (found in clearance at Wally World $5 for both) to remove the chaff.

 

[Inkleg]

This is my set up complete with Half Pint ready to get roasting and vacuum bean box.

 

[pshankstar]

Last night I gave the Behmor a whirl. Wow, what a difference between it and the Fresh Roast SR500! I did a small 1/4lbs roast like Behmore recommends but the beans didn't even hit first crack and had to be tossed. Later I decided to try it in manual mode. When first crack started it took off like a rocket. Using the coffee timer that @jimyson shared, I waited until the beans were about 15% developed. Then, I hit the cool button, put my gloves on and then turned it off (before the cooling cycle ended). Pulled the drum and placed the beans in a mesh basket working on cooling them as quickly as possible, even taking them outside (in the 20's) and placing them in a pot sitting in cold water. The beans came out way darker than I am use to and I feel as if they may have reached second crack or slightly further.

With that being said, once first crack starts do you usually kill the power or drop it down really low? Say P2 at 25% power? I did follow @Inkleg's process making sure it stays around 300 degrees or lower to make sure the Behmor wouldn't overheat and shut down.

This morning I didn't have enough beans left over to make a second pot of coffee. So I used the remainder of the beans I roasted last week with my FR SR 500 and then added some of the beans roasted last night with the Behmor. 30g from the FR and 20g from the Behmor. I poured a cup of coffee and it smells burnt like "Starbucks" (just my honest opinion) and tastes similar to their coffee too. So I do feel I did get into a Vienna roast (give or take) or something much darker than I am use to since I have been roasting. I know I will need to get use to the roaster and what not, but I wanted to share my first experience with it. I look forward to dialing in the process and will continue to post questions here. Thanks in advance!

 

[ba-brewer]

I would start dropping powering a bit ahead of when I would expect first crack I think I would drop to 75% then to 50% when first crack started. I normally roast up to the first crinkle of second crack or just before if I can I can time things right. Cutting back power too much too soon can stall a roast, but might not matter if you roast light. Also many people open the door briefly to dump some heat.

 

[jimyson]

@pshankstar

Here is my daily drinker roasting process.

Uganda Bugisu (sp)

-16oz charge
-I don’t use the chaff tray
-Heat unit to 200 on B temp which is usually around 3 minutes.
- Turn off and out beans in
- 1 lb, P5 manual, D for fast
-Roast full power
- Open the door halfway when the B temp gets to 318 until it knocks down a few degrees
- Rinse and repeat to keep B temp from overheating
- This bean hits FC after 13.5 minutes
- I keep on P5 manual as much as possible to get me to second crack and will open the door to keep temp down or toggle back and forth from P4 manual to P5 manual of things get so hot that the door trick won’t work.

This works for me. It gets very Smokey this way but I roast in my basement under a 6” inline air vent. Roast in the garage or outside if you need to.

 

[jimyson]

Then I cool with the door open and a fan in front. I vacuum prior to cooling to get as much as possible so I don’t make a huge mess

 

[pshankstar]

Thanks for the feedback guys! @jimyson, I’ll have to try your method in the garage where I don’t have to worry about the smoke as much. I don’t want to set off the smoke detectors at 11pm when the wife and kids are in bed.
I did another half pound roast last night with some Brazilian beans and I didn’t roast them like Starbucks. Hahaha
I’ll probably roast beans the next few nights to get use to the roaster.

 

[jimyson]

Those look great!

 

[Inkleg]

Good looking roast!
I wonder if the problem with your first batch was size. I tried a couple of 1/4 pound batches in the beginning, but was never happy with the results. For my 1/2 pound is my sweet spot and I only need a pound to get me through the week.

The more you roast the more in tune you’ll get with the machine. I’ve about worn my B button out from constantly checking the temperature. I control it mainly with just P5, 4 and 3. Don’t be worried about taking up in the 310° range just watch it close.

 

[jimyson]

I’ve about worn my B button out from constantly checking the temperature.

Don’t be worried about taking up in the 310° range just watch it close.

Yeah, the outer coating of my B button is jacked. I also will push my roast up to 325 when trying to hit second crack with a reasonable development time.

 

[BBBF]

Yeah, the outer coating of my B button is jacked. I also will push my roast up to 325 when trying to hit second crack with a reasonable development time.

My "B" also has some wear. I started using RoasterThing and tracking curves on my computer. You don't get anything super helpful like actual bean temps, but it was useful to try duplicating roasts and lets you lay off the Behmor temp button.

 

[pshankstar]

Does anyone use the automatic roasting settings on their Behmor? If so, do you have any tips or suggestions? Or do you stick with the manual mode only?

 

[TallDan]

Does anyone use the automatic roasting settings on their Behmor? If so, do you have any tips or suggestions? Or do you stick with the manual mode only?

I did for a few months when I first got it, but at this point have only used manual mode for years.

 

[pshankstar]

Does anyone have any “Roasting Profiles” they would like to share? For example do you roast African beans a certain way, Central & South American beans another way, and island beans (Sumatra, Papa New Guinea, Jamaican, etc) differently? If so, please share if you don’t mind. Thanks!

 

[Br3w4u]

I have been roasting my Honduras beans a half pound at a time on the 1 lb p5 setting until it gets to 300F then I switch to P3 and turn the drum speed to high. I usually stop the roast 30 seconds to 1 minute after 1st crack. It was something I read on sweet Maria’s and it’s been working well for me.