The Gene Cafe home roaster is now available in red.
Archive for the ‘Roasters’ Category
Gene Cafe home coffee roaster in RED
Sunday, February 20th, 2011Oh, FYI Roaster saftey
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010If your power goes out on occasion, pay special attention to unplugging your SR series Freshroast roaster.
When the power comes back on, so will your roaster!
If it’s your habit to leave the bean in the chamber… and you happen to be away when the power comes back on, it could get messy.
Just saying.
Fresh Roast SRs sold out, but you gain
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Oops, We are sold out of both models, so here’s an offer ….if you DO buy either model Freshroast in the meantime from another vendor, just email us a copy of your receipt dated after Tuesday March 9th, and we’ll send you a discount code for a price break on beans from The Coffee Project.
We hope to have more in stock by April. But in the meantime, since you are ordering one elsewhere anyway, why not scoop up the deal?
This offer will be available only until we get them back in stock.
A Funny FreshRoast movie
Monday, February 22nd, 2010Share this with your roaster friends!
Loves the Gene
Saturday, January 12th, 2008“Hi James,
I LOVE MY GENE ROASTER!!!!
It’s a far cry from the Alpenrost. I have made two batches so far with my new toy and can’t describe the pleasure just watching the roasting process, the first crack, and the beautiful aroma which permeates my garage where the roaster does its job.
There is very little smoke from the roast, primarily because the chaff doesn’t get burned by the heat coils as with the alpenrost. Actually, the beans come out cleaner because of the “tilt & twirl” rotation.
Now the real question is time vs temperature to keep the flavor in the finished product – lower temp & longer, or higher temp & shorter. But still, it takes a while for the temperature to get to 482.
Oh well, that’s not really important, I’m simply a happy Coffee drinker again!
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
John”
Behmor small grid cylinder / drum
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007The smaller grid drums should be arriving at the end of December. This is an estimate so don’t ink that in. At this time of year anything could happen.
This smaller grid drum will make it possible to roast tinier beans like Yemen, and our Felucca blend.
Happy Holidays!
Have you seen our Kopi Luwak? No, seriously.
Which Roaster Should I Buy for a Gift?
Thursday, December 6th, 2007Help! I don’t drink coffee, but I want to buy a coffee roaster for someone who is an extreme coffee lover. Which roaster should I buy?
This time of year, we get many calls from thoughtful people that would very much like to give their beloved Coffee Hound something that they will really enjoy—a home coffee roaster. Many of these people don’t drink coffee at all, so it’s doubly hard for them to pick out a roaster and beans that the intended recipient will enjoy. The question foremost in their minds is “Which roaster would be best for my husband/wife/friend?” Here are some considerations that will help you hone in on your selection.
1. How many people in the household will be drinking coffee? I’ve always said that capacity is highly over-rated. With so many coffees on our menu, why would you want to drink the same coffee every day anyway? Still, many people would like to roast a whole weeks worth of coffee in one fell swoop and be done with it. In that case, you might want a roaster with a slightly larger capacity. Here are the roasters in order of capacity, smallest to largest.
Freshroast Plus 8
Roasts about one 14 cup pot of brewed coffee per batch.
Hearthware I Roast 2
2-3 pots of coffee worth.
Gene Cafe
About a half pound of coffee
Behmor 1600
Allows you to select a quantity to roast, ¼ lb, ½ lb, or 1 lb of green coffee.
2. What kind of a person is the intended recipient? OK, this is NOT a trick question. Hands on people who like to tweak, modify, and play with their hobbies will enjoy a roaster that allows them to create and vary the roast profiles to get the best flavor from their beans. For these people, the Hearthware I Roast 2
and the Gene Cafe are good choices. People who like to turn the machine on and let it do it’s thing might be happier with a roaster that doesn’t require you to do anything but load it up, turn it on, and watch it go. Selections in this category are the Freshroast Plus 8, Hearthware I Roast 2
(has both preprogrammed profiles and the capacity to create your own), and the Behmor 1600 which allows you to select one of 5 pre-programmed roast profiles along with roast time.
Remember that all of our roasters come with some beans to get you started. Be sure to check the drop down menu for your options.
A nice addition for someone just learning to roast coffee is the book Home Coffee Roasting by Ken Davids, a respected professional in the industry.
Still in need of some guidance for roasters and beans? Give us a call! We have excellent customer service, and have people who actually know about coffee and coffee roasting on hand to answer your questions. We’ll be glad to help you find the right roaster for your resident coffee lover.
Happy Roasting, and Happy Holidays!
Cheryl
Cold weather roasting in a Behmor
Monday, December 3rd, 2007The Behmor 1600 is one of the very few roasters that still works in cold environments. this is super good news for those of you roasting out in the barn!
But just in case you see and error (err1) don’t panic. If you’re very cold, your machine may be cold too and that’s whats causing the message. Error #1 is about the thermostat, the simple way to clear it up the message is to bring the machine into a warmer environment for a while ( like above 40 degrees!) and let the machine warm up.
Why does this occur?
According to Joe Behm, “The system has high tech circuitry much like a laptop computer that should not be subjected to cold, often moist climates when turned on. It would be like spray misting the interior circuits.”
This doesn’t mean you can’t take your machine out to a colder environment to roast. Just keep it indoors or in a warmer spot until you’re ready to roast.
Cold Weather Roasting with the Behmor 1600
Monday, December 3rd, 2007While the folks in Hollyood are basking in 80 degrees of sunny warmth, here at the Wisconsin office, we had snow followed by rain this weekend. It seemed to me the perfect opportunity to test the performance of the new Behmor 1600 when the temps are on the nippy side. So, I set up a roasting station in a garage, where the ambient temp was a nippy 42 degrees. The test bean was Guatemala Huehuetenango El Injerto. The results were good—I did 4 roasts of 1 lb each, using various profiles and time settings. While I did need to extend the roast by adding time for 3 of the 4 roasts, I was able to get the maximum of 20 seconds into 2nd crack. Preliminary cups from each batch are good, no flatness, no muting of the bright, fruity acidity that I so love in the Guats. It will be interesting to see just how low we can go with the Behmor, but for your holiday roasting, if you’re at around 40 degrees ambient temps, you can achieve excellent results. Have fun! Cheryl
Goo be Gone – Behmor sticky tape
Friday, November 23rd, 2007You may have noticed that the tape used on the Behmor 1600 is especially sticky…. Just got this from Joe Behm. Joe says,
“DO NOT USE acetone or nail polish remover on the control panel or digital display to remove the stickum… While I’ve personally not used WD-40 some customers are recommending it and I know goo be gone works really well. My sincerest apologies for the extra effort required to remove the ugghhh.. ”
Subsequent runs of roasters will have a different tape used.