Roasting Decaffeinated Coffee - Mexican Mountian

C-man

Any tips? 

a little darker than normal or what?

I am roasting just small amounts with a popper due to lack of funds,

I did some Brazilian a week ago and they tasted great!

I know i know, get a KK roaster, get a better machine, better grinder, bla bla bla

beanflying

Unfortunately Colour is a bad option to roast to with Decaff. Shy of SC for preference if that helps. About to roast a 650g batch of MG Swiss Water one and see how my Roaster likes a smaller batch

C-man

I won't know where 2c is until i find it, but stop just there? I heard from roasters that decaf need a longer darker roast?

beanflying

They look darker by the initial processing so I suppose you could call it a darker (bad choice of words) roast. As to speed treat them like a softer bean so more gentle (tough to do on a popper). Back to my roasting nearly at FC with a batch of Wahgi

C-man

hmm, interesting, I was also told that decaf does not last as long once roasted, because the longer roast changes the structure of the bean? you are saying it is a soft bean that should be stopped just short of 2C and that makes more sense to me.

UNM

The only two decaf beans I have roasted looked WAAAaay darker than normal, but pulled prior to or just at 2C. In a popper it can be hard to hear the cracks and I found a temp probe helped me when I was using a popper (you can just get a cheap digital thermometer) Nowadays I rarely look at roast colour until beans are out the roaster.

C-man

I can roast gently until 2C with a timer for the first batch then using the timer stop a minute sooner maybe? By the way what do you think of KKs col. decaff?

FreshCoffee2

on 1344490273:

...I heard from roasters that decaf need a longer darker roast?...

In general terms and on nothing more than "face value" (which will be the way you would take it from not having roasting experience), I'm afraid that's a bum steer and if you do that, you will a) burn it and b) roast it all up into the sky with the smoke leaving characterless wood.

on 1344491554:

.... I was also told that decaf does not last as long once roasted, because the longer roast changes the structure of the bean?.....

This one falls under the usual classification of too many irrelevant details / academics. Maybe its true, maybe it isnt, but really, it doesnt matter why it is, it just is  In any as as per my preceding remark, I dispute that you'd want to roast decaff "longer" than a regular coffee.

on 1344548269:

I can roast gently until 2C with a timer for the first batch... then using the timer stop a minute sooner maybe?...

I really dont think a timer is going to help you because the delivery of heat / roasting process you are using is not precise and may vary significantly from batch to batch, especially from a 1st batch (cold "roaster") to the follow up batch ("hot roaster'). I wouldnt do that, also if you stopped as much as a minute sooner (than your timed SC) the next go round, you dont know where you will end up. A minute is a long time, there will never be any consistency to your batches. As others have rightly explained, treat the decaff as a much "softer" bean and roast accordingly. Roasting decaff by colour will only guarantee to lead you astray, and I would prefer a "quicker" rather than a slower roast, dropped "early" ie as others have said before SC....but that doesnt mean way early of SC.....just before SC. With your method of roasting, you may just have to stop the roast as soon as you hear any early SC cracks and cool it immediately. Do not wait until you get a continuous or rolling crack or for my money, you would then throw the batch out and try again. Roasting decaff is not easy at the best of times even with real coffee roasting equipment. Hope that helps. 

Lacehim

on 1344488557:

I know i know, get a KK roaster, get a better machine, better grinder, bla bla bla

No need to get caught up in all the upgrading business.  It's what's in the cup that counts.  There is always something better to have and you'll be better off upgrading once and buying something decent. I've only ever roasted decaf once, and yes it ended up dark, but tasted lovely.  I've been told to roast by temperature, not colour, so I just listened for cracks and dumped just as 2C started.

beanflying

Hijacked your thread just a little too C-Man and tweaked the title as it was becoming a bit more general on roasting DeCaff Just for interest and as mentioned elsewhere the curve followed by my Decaff roast of yesterday was way different to the curve followed by the previous roast. While it needed a lower drop temp the rise on 70% power was way quicker then the template at 100% shown in faint lines under it. Just to keep it together I will ad the important bits below.

on 1344505698:

.... decafs have a habit of ramping too fast, regardless of the drop temp. Yes, lowering the drop temp will help dampen the ramp, but you need to think of decaf as perhaps a 0.7 of your normal batch. e.g. use around 70 - 80% of the energy Once you work out the metrics or factors for your different origins, varietals and processing type across various batch sizes, the good 'ol 3/4 rule for decaf works a treat ! Many a decaf was ramped too fast - even by the pros  :-[

In reference to this curve and roast. Interesting the really different path followed during the early stages of the roast before I pulled the power way way down.