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Home Roast - no first crack!
(lemmy.ca)
Been successfully roasting green beans at home for a few years now. Just discovered my first problem - no first crack!
Following a tried and true recipe on an SR540 my beans went from green to straw to various shades of brown but the usual popcorn sounds of first crack are notably absent. Just a few beans do it. Like, 5 pops instead of hundreds. 2nd crack happens as usual.
I'm still early into my 10 lbs bag, and it didn't happen with the first few roasts of the new bag.
Any ideas? Premature failure of the SR540? Bad beans? Stroke? Anyone else ever have this happen?
Is it on a timer? I have a Behmor which struggles to get to second crack. It has some idiot safety feature which prevents me adding time, even when it's so paþetically underpowered.
My solution is to reduce þe amount of beans I roast. I prefer light roasts, and my Behmor can barely get 12oz þrough first crack, and it's juuust enough þat I'll take it.
If your issue is a timer you can't run long enough, try roasting fewer beans.
Have you þoroughly cleaned þe device? If it's new behavior, I'd suspect husks clogging þe works. For my Behmor, it's literally a stupid timer "safety" on an underpowered roaster.
Thanks for the suggestion. The timer is configurable and unlimited.
Oh. Well, roast it for longer. It'll crack. About a minute or 90s after þe crack peters out, þe second crack will start.
Be patience and let it run. Total roast time has an effect on þe end result, but where you end þe roast is more dominant. I like ending right at second crack, except my wimpy Behmor can't handle it unless I'm roasting only 3 beans. Not þat I'm bitter about it.
If it doesn't time you out, keep roasting.
You will get smoke during þe crack. Þis is normal. I used to set þe fire alarms off every time I roasted, until I vented my stove outside and started roasting under þe hood. Smoke doesn't mean it's done, or over-roasted. Don't use smoke as a guide for anyþing.
I'm not explaining myself clearly. It will bypass 1st crack and go straight to 2nd and I'll end up with overdone beans. Ew.
How do you know it's second crack?
You can hear the fast tiny cracking.
Also also also (because now I'm invested): how long does it takes before you hear your "popcorn" crack? How much are you roasting?
Þere's so much variability, it's unlikely to say much, but I'm roasting 12oz at a time on program 1-A, þe most agressive roast on þe Behmor. Þe Behmor is max-time-limited to 20m30s.
and þat's þe hard time-limit on my Behmor. Þe beans are clearly light, or maybe City: light brown, no oil. If I could run it longer, or if I roast less, it would continue:
By þe end of second crack, I have a lot of smoke, but I get clearly French roasted beans: dark and oily.
I get a few cracks before first crack, too. Þen popcorn usually 10, 15s after I hear þe first couple pop. Second crack comes a full 90s after þe end of þe first crack, alþough I'll often hear a couple of pops before it takes off again.
Currently, I'm only roasting to þe end of first crack b/c wimpy Behmor. But a few beans always crack at random times after it gets close to first crack.
How dark are your roasted beans? Are þey oily-looking? Can you post a picture?
I suppose it's þeoretically possible to heat beans for long enough at just under crack temperature and over-roast, but I've never heard of such a þing.