Raost

[nrdlnd]

Hi @TheBean!
To be true I have never really liked this Brazilian. I have only tasted it as a Pourover (similar to V60). It was OK. I like East African beans better. I have tried a bean that I bought one year ago but almost have forgotten that I had. It's a Malawi Grade AAPlus Pamwamba. It's washed and I think around 1500m MASI. This time I worked from my last mod of the V4 profile and made some modifications especially for this bean. As it's a Grade AA Plus I think the beans are maybe too big for this profile and they may need a more gentle profile. Anyway it worked out rather well with modifications of the zones.
I then tried the original unmodified Raost profile on a bean that I mostly have for trying out new profiles and make the first modifications. It's a Yirong Yunnan Catimor washed and grown around 1500m. After modifications I tried the coffe after 2 days rest and to my surprise I did like it. It was quite different to the East Africans. Balanced acidity and sweetness and body but especially a chocolate aftertaste. There were also some earthy taste. I don't rate it as high as the Africans. It may work as espresso.
I'm rereading Scott Raos "Coffee Roasting - Best Practices" trying to learn the different phases of the roasting especially when the beans give out more or less moisture. A problem is that he refers to gas roasters and different gas settings. They are reacting much slower than the KL with it's logic but I've found that I can override the KL with zones. Sometimes I wish there were more zones than three.
Next time I think I will experiment with Damians D-light but I think I will have to lower the fan speed at the end of the roast as I'm not on 240V (I'm on 230V). But not too much as I think one of the clues with D-light is the high fan speed that evens out the ROR at the end of the roast. This profile is slower than the Raost and I think more gentle to the beans. This article is interesting: https://www.scottrao.com/blog/2018/2/24 ... -dont-know

[Geronimo]

I'm rereading Scott Raos "Coffee Roasting - Best Practices" trying to learn the different phases of the roasting especially when the beans give out more or less moisture. A problem is that he refers to gas roasters and different gas settings. They are reacting much slower than the KL with it's logic but I've found that I can override the KL with zonesSometimes I wish there were more zones than three.

Hi

Steve put in a request for more zones a very long time ago, and I think Chris might have mentioned if there are enough people wanting more zones he would look into it. Don’t quote me as it was a very long time ago.

Suggest you put in a request in the following area, “KL Studio and Training Suggestions”

Regards
G

[nrdlnd]

I'm beginning to experiment with Damians D-Light profile. I'm on 230V so I'll have to adapt it and I have some other ideas. I've written in the D-Light thread. https://kaffelogic.com/community/viewto ... 2312#p2312

[Geronimo]

I'm beginning to experiment with Damians D-Light profile. I'm on 230V so I'll have to adapt it and I have some other ideas. I've written in the D-Light thread. https://kaffelogic.com/community/viewto ... 2312#p2312

Hi

Interesting read your fan profile tweak in the link you provided, in particular on heat and fan adjustment on electric roasters.

I suffer from flatlining power if using D-Roast (haven’t tried D-Light), but rightly or wrongly, when roasting using D-Roast, I lower the fan calibration, and haven’t had any flatlining. I have to make a note to change back the calibration for use with other profiles. I then don’t have to edit the fan profile.

I’m no expert on the subject, but it’s a quick and dirty workaround for me. I’m sure your method is more scientific and the correct way of doing it on a per bean basis, rather than a global setting change like I am doing.

Cheers
G

[nrdlnd]

I'm afraid it could be a "rabbit hole". If I raise the fan speed the KL logic will raise the heat. I want to raise the fan speed and at the same time lower the heat. I don't want to go into power profiling or make big changes with the profile. I'm not ready for that. What I think I could try is to raise the fan speed not too much and use a negative boost zone and see what happens after FC. This zone could alternatively be a power zone (decoupled PID) if the power curve goes up and down because of the PID trying to regulate. I want the PID to do it's work but affect how it reads the bean temperature. Does this make sense?
What do you mean with that you "lower the fan calibration". Where do you do that and how much? What happens when you do that? I prefer to start to make changes within the specific profile.

EDIT: When I first thought of trying to modify the fan speeds was when I tried the D-light and modified the fan speed to be within my power resources. I think now that this is equally possible with any profile and I've started with one of the Raost profiles. It's easier to do it with a profile like this as there is less risk to reach the power roof. Besides it's rather easy to do modifications if you add inserts points and then also smooth them.

[Geronimo]

What do you mean with that you "lower the fan calibration". Where do you do that and how much? What happens when you do that?

Hi

The fan calibration factor is a global setting, and will bump the fan speed up or down for all profiles. In my case I have a calibration factor of 0.96 which I use for all profiles (except D-Roast). I lower to 0.9 for D-Roast. If doing this it won’t necessarily be the same as mine as your power supply will be different. I have a little bit of a buffer so to speak if the voltage is down a little more than normal. Or someone turns another device on. I could get away with 0.92 or 0.93

The 0.96 is supposedly the factory calibrated number. I am using 110grams for all my roasts. Each machine may have a slightly different factory calibrated value.

To tweak the calibration, hold the two left buttons down together, and turn the machine on, release buttons. Push the right hand button to take you to the fan speed calibration screen. You can also tweak the global cooling fan speed factor also, but suggest leaving this. Note what your fan speed calibration factor is, so you can put that value back in latter on. Use the +\- buttons to either go up or down. Suggest not going over 1.0 if bumping up. Follow on screen instructions to save setting. Turn machine off, then on again, and proceed with roast as normal.

Remember to change calibration back once finished with D-Roast/Light.

Be interesting if you do try this method to see what your thoughts are with respect to roast quality. If you find it’s not as good as what your doing now, then I will rethink things along what you are doing.

I did initially edited the fan profile for D-Roast, but was a little hit and miss and gave up after about 10 edits, and have been using the fan calibration tweak for a while now. Note I’m only using for Colombian and similar.

Cheers
G

[nrdlnd]

Thank you Geronimo!
I will try that out with changing the calibration later on. More than a year ago I was active in the D-roast thread. I had found out that I couldn't use the D-roast because of power limits. I had also found out that a very high fan speed in the beginning of the roast lowered the initial heat to the beans (cooling effect?). I thought then that according to Scott Rao it was important with a high Delta T especially for dense beans. But I had also had very good results with one of Steves profiles (I think it was Darkside) for a less dense Brazilian. I was very much focused on espresso by then and it was one of my best roasts for espresso.
What I will do now before experimenting with the calibration is to test and compare two profiles where I have done adjustments to the fan profile. Slight change with D-light and more with Raost. I will also adjust the initial heat according to the bean I will use.

[Geronimo]

I will try that out with changing the calibration later on. More than a year ago I was active in the D-roast thread. I had found out that I couldn't use the D-roast because of power limits.

Hi

My method of decreasing power requirements is a cowboy approach, whereas yours is the better method, once tweaked sufficiently.

Because I’m blending, any deficiencies are probably hidden somewhat.

Enjoy your posts, as very informative especially with your findings.

Cheers
G

[nrdlnd]

Hi,
I have made further changes to the profile. I have changed the profile according to my idea to have an increased fan speed at the end of the roast but below available power. This wasn't easy and I had to change the original Raost profile to get a more gradually declining ROR. So even if I started with Raost the profile is different now. I found it difficult to change the profile and at the end I put a -4 boost zone. I think that is the reason why the log doesn't quite follow the profile at the end. The needed power was 1.38 kW but I had 1.48 kW available. I could of course change the profile to avoid the negative boost zone. Anyway ROR looks ok.and the power doesn't seem to flatten at the end. I show the log and also the "crazy" fan profile. It's a medium light and L=2.0. DTR=20.4%.

212111_SidamoWendo_Raostmod2+fan3_2.png (72.26 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

212111_Fan_profile_mod3+fan.png (34.81 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

This is the profile:

Raost_mod3+fan.kpro

(2.86 KiB) Downloaded 335 times

[olga_u]

And for one called Kambera, which is a heavilly fermented gesha, I opted for a slightly modified Raost:

kambera.png

That last one was the most challenging to roast, as it was very delicate, and also took up heat super easily.

Hi Benjamine, thank you for sharing. I have 2 kilos of Ninty plus beans. But was struggling to find a good profile for their fermented beans. I was asking the guys from the estate about Drima Zede, and got this recommendations: "As a suggestion I would say to start fast with a lot of power and then into the Maillard reaction, slow down in order to extend the caramelization of the sugars. Then development time is entirely up to you, depending on how you like your coffees"
Do you mind sharing your Kambera profile? I would like to try it and see if I could do any modifications.