My Kaleido M2 Lite was delivered nine days ago. I got four roasts on it last Sunday, and two more today. I’m trying to approximate a profile that I would expect to produce good results, but I’m not close.

I’ve roasted on a Behmor 2000AB+ for four years, and produced pretty good results. I plateaued, though, and roasting wasn’t as fun. I’m on a new machine now and there’s a lot to learn!

My understanding of how to start a roast with this type of machine is to charge with sufficient temperature to prevent stalling, and to gradually apply less heat. Increased air late in the roast. So far, I’ve flown through to first crack (my final roast today took 6:30) or stalled the roast.

Am I thinking about this wrong? If not, do you have targets for charge temp? Other milestones you’re trying to hit?

I love the roller coaster of learning. If you have something that’s helped you roast better on this or a similar machine, I’d love to hear about it!

I’m new to the roasting thing. I have a Poppo roaster that I just got from Sweet Maria’s. Today I tried it the second time. I want a light/medium roast (City Roast). I roasted outside at 1200 watts on a 70 degree day. First crack started at 2:30, and I pulled these out just before 4:00, just after the heavy popping stopped. From everything I read this should be a light roast… but it looks very dark to me.

Since I’m a beginner, I’d appreciate any advice as to what I might be doing wrong. So far both batches I’ve made seem to be way darker than I expected, even after I bought a watt meter and took steps to lower the power.

Picture in full sunlight to get an idea of the color:

Roasting a Brazilian natural (Fazenda Fronteira, 1350 m, Catuaí / Mundo Novo / Obatã / Bourbon) on a ROEST, 100 g batches. I want to use it as an omni / light espresso coffee.

My last tasted roast was fast: FC at 6:02, drop at 6:50 at 207 °C BT, 48 s development. It had clear peanut notes and basically no acidity.

My new roast is longer: FC at 8:38, drop at 10:00 at 210 °C BT, 1:22 development. It’s still resting.

What do peanut notes usually mean? Should I lengthen the roast even more?

So, I’m not at all new to roasting and I’ve roasted a lot of natural process coffees over the last couple decades. I’m using a Aillio Bullet R2. I also started with a roasting curve that I’ve used for a few different natural or fermented Pacamara varieties. This one has presented a challenge. The mucilage is really stuck on the beans, so while it produces a lot of chaff, it leaves a good amount stuck to the beans, especially on the bottom, which results in the chaff blackening and remaining on the underside of the bean. While all of the characteristic fruit notes are present, it also has a, to me, undesirable smoky taste along with it. Even the second attempt, which was more conservative with the power level and upped the fan speed a bit, had the same issue. Both batches were 500g

Power = P, Fan = F, Drum speed = D

Attempt 1

Charge temp: 473°F

0:00 - 3:50: P8, F3, D8

3:50 - 5:09: P7, F3, D8

5:10 - 6:00: P6, F4, D8

6:01 - 7:47: P6, F5, D8

7:48 - 9:44: P5, F5, D8

End temp: 401.1F

Attempt 2

Charge temp: 464°F

0:00 - 6:10: P7, F4, D9

6:11 - 7:19: P6, F5, D8

7:20 - 9:15: P5, F5, D8

9:15 - 11:06: P4, F5, D8

End temp: 395°F

12.2% loss

Both roasts ended up at 12.2% loss.

Here are pictures of the green beans and the roasted beans. You can see that especially on the bottom of the beans there is a lot of mucilage stuck on. I obviously expect mucilage on natural process coffees, but this one seems extra tenacious.

Anyone have any insight on this and how my approach needs to shift to account for this? I feel as though to avoid the blackening of the chaff and the resulting scorching, I’d need to take the heat down to the point where I’d be looking at a roast time of possibly 15:00 or so.

My charts are coming out very choppy and not sure why. Some setting was originally checked after install, but since I've been messing around with it, I could've checked it myself perhaps. Either way, would appreciated if y'all can give me some advise on the setting so that it doesn't end up being choppy.

For the heat source, we have a Bosch gas stovetop, so I use the one that has the fire nearly matching the width of the drum. I've tried not adjusting the heat by turning it down vs. leaving it as is.. and both still end up being choppy. I want it to have enough energy in the beginning so it will carry through the roast, but i'm wondering if perhaps when i have the range hood on high, it may be disrupting it overall? I could try and put a cap or something over it, but not sure if that would help.

In any case, any insight would be helpful. I've attached a photo of the setup in the curves setting as that's the only thing i've adjusted. The sampling is set at 4 sec.

My roaster setup:

Kaldi Mini gas drum roaster, roasting over gas stove top in our kitchen with range hood on high for ventilation

70rpm drum speed, I can modify the speed of drum as needed

Using 1 probe for BT and measuring using Mastech MS6514 and a PC

and my first roast ever!

Indian Specialty Robusta (From Koraput Odisha) — highly revered in many European countries, yet still misunderstood in its own homeland. This roast was an attempt to bring that potential to life.
Carefully selected, harvested, and cured. The roast profile was curated on the Nucleus LINK, keeping the delicacy of the beans in Mind.
In frame: Naturally processed Koraput Robusta, fruit-fermented for 72 hours.
The aim: To explore the full potential of this nano lot, bringing out its character and complexity.
Roasted with manual brewing in mind, then explored through a wet blend cold brew, and well know Bombón.
Not just a roast, but an exploration of what Indian Robusta can truly become. ☕
#IndianRobusta #SpecialtyCoffee #CoffeeRoasting #NucleusLINK #NanoLot #RobustaCoffee #CoffeeFermentation #ManualBrew #ColdBrew #CoffeeExploration

I purchased 2lb's of Guatemalan green beans from Sweet Maria's and I have been roasting small batches to get a better handle on roasting. I accidentally roasted to second crack (I thought it was first crack...thanks gene cafe for being loud!) and achieved a full city+ roast on accident.

I usually try to achieve a light-medium roast. I do enjoy dark roasts, but most roasters (i have personally tried) always over-roast, leading to a charcoal taste so I usually avoid them.

After three days of rest, my accidental dark roast has become one of my favorite coffees! It's not bitter at all and has a dark chocolate, almond taste and has a nice mouthfeel. It's quite pleasant! I'm definitely going to try and replicate it on the next roast!

My first coffee bean roasting, love it!

Hey everyone!

I've recently been experimenting with roasting Nicaragua Moncho Díaz Pacamara Natural beans on ROEST and would love to hear about your experiences with this variety.

I'm still learning and trying to understand how to get the best out of these beans. First crack was almost silent.

A few questions:

• Do you approach Pacamara differently because of its large bean size?
• What kind of roast profile works best for you?

I'm mainly roasting for filter coffee, aiming for a light, fruity, and juicy cup.

100 g in, 86.3 g out

First crack 6:58 at 203.4°C

Drop 8:13 at 208.3°C

Dev time 1:15 (15.2%)

We are a small coffee shop, thinking about dipping our toes into roasting. I got targeted ads for Bellweather the second I started to research and now their sales team calls me like 15x/day. I have been able to find some info on their equipment on reddit, and I'm scared. Is there anything like them, but better? We like the idea of a small toaster for our shop - it's a drive-thru only so it's small. Anything else out there that isn't "breaking down all the time"?

This is the first time I see a coffee treated with the Swiss Water Process (it is actually the first time I see a decaf at all). It looks already roasted! And it smells very different. I will roast it today.

I am a new owner of a Kaleido M1 Lite. I wanted to be able to run hi bean with my iPad, so I got an ESP32 and successfully flashed it with the correct bin. I noticed the Kaleido board doesn’t have an upper usb port like it did in the pictures in the tutorial. It’s now a 4 pin JST connector. I purchased a JST to USB cable, and connected it all up. Upon powering up some smoke came off my ESP32. Fried. Any ideas? I think I may just seek out an android tablet, I should be able to connect via Bluetooth that way.

Hi everyone
Recently got my bullet and started roasting,
The espresso roasts are going pretty well and I’ve managed to get to pretty good results with the coffee I bought.
The filter roasts though, make me lose my mind.
I feel a bit lost and I’d love for some help!
Currently trying to roast a natural Guji from Hambela
And a washed Yirgacheffe from Chelchele

The Hambela so far gives me cacao nibs despite roasting quite light
The Chelchele is sour and lemony but accompanied with an annoying bitterness.

Tried roasting both of them from 8 min total roast with 1:30 dev time all the way down to 6:30 with 0:50 dev time

We're setting up a tasting room for our roastery. We're going to have a plumbed-in espresso machine, and I'm looking at inline RO and remineralisation. I was wondering if anyone could comment on any of these systems that are working for them or if anyone has any tips for this kind of setup.

​

I have the opportunity to sell at a farmers market next week and was wondering what my best options are for water so I can be selling cups of drip coffee with airpots at the market.

I have heard those large 5 gallons of water can make the coffee taste weird.

I'm just wondering what people use? Just using a low budget setup as it's my first time and i have a 1.8 liter coffee maker.

Should I buy the 5 gallon jugs and just fill them with tap water instead?

I can't really find any information on this at all so any help is appreciated thank you :)

Hello Everyone,

I’m a coffee roaster based out of Nashville with a bit of a loaded question:

I roast my coffee in my garage in Nashville and use a lot of sanitary precaution when packing, roasting, etc. Technically, I’m not supposed to sell across state lines. I have a website that sells only coffee beans to people all over the US, and I was wondering the severity of selling dry goods across state lines. Yes, I know I am confessing to a fault, but in my opinion my business is just nowhere near big enough to get a warehouse. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been roasting at home and I’m planning a small commercial setup in Kuwait. The market is small and a lot of green seems to come through Dubai, so I want to get sourcing right before I scale.

For anyone roasting in a small or import-dependent market (GCC or anywhere similar):

• Do you buy from a regional importer, order from US/EU green sellers, or go direct?
• What MOQs and landed $/kg are realistic at around 20 to 100 kg a month?
• Biggest headache: past-crop green, shipping, customs, or cash tied up in stock?
• Has anyone worked directly with washing stations in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Colombia, Uganda, etc.? Is it worth it at small volume?

Would really appreciate hearing what’s worked and what burned you.

I used the slow roast medium preset profile but there seems to be a variation in colour throughout the batch. 100g of Brazilian beans.

I have dreamed for years of roasting my own beans and it finally happened! It always seemed to expensive. I was extremely surprised and spoiled to get this machine yesterday. I don’t know roasters but after day 1 I’m having a lot of fun.

I was trying to find more info on the sr800 / 900 and this community came up. Seemed like a great place to dive into my new hobby! I like coffee and video games. How about you?

I don’t really know anything about the machine or roasting other than the quick start guide that came with it. I’d love any beginner tips you can share! Good sources for green beans in Canada also appreciated.

And since apparently this roaster is pretty new and maybe not too common yet I’m also happy to answer any questions anyone has, although don’t expect expert answers lol.

Oh and I do drink it black just not after dinner. I hope I haven’t lost my coffee snob card before I even got it by adding the cream 😂

Not sure if this is an odd question, but do any of you guys have recs for some good coffee podcasts?

I’ve gotten tired of my current playlist and need something fresh to listen to.

Its my second week on the bullet, learning a lot but still unable to maintain a steady curve.

I did an 800g Brazil Cerrado for this batch.

Any advice, tips or critiques are appreciated! Thanks ✌🏼

Hello there,

Did my first batch today. Total time was 13:05 min. I tried to follow a prompt from Chatgpt just to become more familiar with the process.

Drying Phase 0-2 min Fan 9 Heat at 3.
Maillard Phase 2-5 Fan 7 Heat at 5.

I heard first crack at 8:45. Kept Fan at 7 and Heat increased to 7. I tried to wait till the last crack but it was difficult lol so at 10:45 I decreased the Heat to 4 until 13:05 and then started the cooling phase.

Weight: 220g in and 185g out. So lost about 16%.

Any suggestions for the following batch? How long should I wait to make some espresso? (i know full rule is 7 days but since is the first batch, I am curious to try!)

Thanks!

Just got my M2 lite delivered yesterday and first batch was disaster (artisan learning curve; I had SV temp set right but the burner power was at 30%).

But the second batch turned out OK I think. What do you experts this?

Hi roasters. I am a new Skywalker V1 with HiBean user. By new I mean I had today done my first HiBean roast and after 3 hours (ish of troubleshooting) I have an extremely slow roast (19 mins). I have no idea how it will be when I try it. But I have a somewhat fundamental problem with heating.

Preheat takes 10 minutes. My roast took 19 minutes.

I checked and saw the advice is "reduce fan" But for my slow preheat and roast I was already 100% heater and 0% fan. So I am roasting with max power and zero control.

This is not a hardware issue. Using the Skywalker control panel works fine. it appears to be some kind of HiBean Skywalker comms issue. HiBean telling me it is 100% but that just cannot be the case.

I am using HiBean in Celsius as I have seen that can also be an issue

Finally. I also noticed that I might need to disable PID: I have some automation rules for PID but nowhere in the interface to see if it is overriding anything.

Some other things that may or may not be normal. Before forcing preheat at 100% heater 0% fan. HiBean wants it to be lower power and with the fan. That was losing temperature.

Also just before charge temp it switches over to auto heat which is also reduced heater plus fan

Any ideas how to overcome this initial issue?