Ask the Alchemist #341

I have a question about the Behmor AB 2000 roaster. Ive read your blog posts and follow your P1 with manual convection and reduce down. My question is "is there a way to extend the roast time beyond 20:30 minutes?" Im trying to work on my roasting experience and bringing out some of the nuttier notes associated with a longer roast time. I find that when I load 1 kg or 2.5 lb on average, I feel like I am just getting to the interesting part of roasting when the roast time gets to the end of the 20 minutes and the machine wants to go on too something else - ie cooling. I do extend by hitting C to get it into the finishing stage and 3:10 more minutes but still feel like I am missing out on the key part. I hope that this makes sense. thanks so much for any guidance.

PS I dont have a thermocoupler device added - im not that skilled and do use my senses to monitor.

Are you one of those people that flip to the end of a book or magazine?  I do it almost all the time with books but really try to refine from doing it in books as I like suspense and don’t want to spoiler myself.  I’m not totally sure why some us do it but the same draw is there to answer this question backwards and as it isn’t hurting anyone, so be it.

You no longer have to be skilled to have a modified Behmor fitted with a thermocouple and thermometer.  We are offering that service for existing Behmor 2000 owners or you can by a new one and have it modified.

Behmor (2000AB+) Thermocouple modification Service

I cannot recommend the modification enough.

Moving backwards now, there is an adage about mastering a skill taking 10,000 hours of practice.  We are not talking about mastery here but competence and for that it is said you need about 1000 hours.  On the surface one might conclude that one needs to do about 2000 roasts assuming 30 minutes per roast.  

That sounds kind of daunting doesn’t it?  How about just being adequate?

That brings the time commitment down an order of magnitude.  200 roasts.  That isn’t too terrible for a new skill.  

But....there is always a but, isn’t there?

What do those 200 roasts entail?

The breakdown of the "10,000 hour rule" has 3 parts.

1. Time Commitment

2. Focus and Repetition

3. Deliberate Practice

1. To reach 10,000 hours, you need to dedicate a significant amount of time.  It is roughly equivalent to 20 hours per week for 10 years.  By that measure I probably have not mastered roasting.  Maybe you don’t need to either which is why I touched on a mere 100 hours.  More on that later….

2. Focus and repetition involves actually concentrating on the task at hand.  You need to break down complex skills into smaller components, and repeating those components to build proficiency.  In roasting this involves controlling the roaster you are using to give you the profile you want.

3. I have found the most misunderstood part of the 10,000 rule is the importance of deliberate practice.   It involves focusing your efforts on specific areas of weakness and gathering feedback explicitly so you can improve. It's not just about putting in the time, but about actively working on areas that need improvement.

Think about trying to improve at driving a car.  You must stay in the lanes, keep to the speed limit and not crash.  Imagine putting in 10,000 hours driving but you are blindfolded and the course changes slightly each time.  The only information you get to know (at the end or if you crash) is if you succeed for fail.  Will you ever master driving?  I think the answer is obvious.  No.  You are not deliberately practicing, you are going through the motions.

Roasting without temperature data is driving blind.  You might make good chocolate with one bean (one driving course) but change one variable you could well crash.

This is the reason you simply must have bean temperatures during your roasting if you want to improve at anything resembling a reasonable pace.  You need feedback.

Softish sales push for the Behmor Modification over.

Moving on.

This last area is where I think you are mostly going wrong.  For some reason I don’t understand you are focusing on increasing the length of the roast to bring out nuttier notes.  I have not found that general association.    I certainly have never said that.  What I have said is that you have to treat beans with nut characteristics more gently or you can get bitter notes. That gentle treatment may in fact make for a longer roast but the longer roast certainly didn’t make the nut flavor - it revealed it.

I’ve seen variations of this when people want to make certain flavors in cocoa and coffee when they don’t exist.  

People as “What profile should I use to create blackberry?” when I don’t mention blackberry in the review.

I came across someone talking about this for coffee and it applies quite well to cocoa also.

My philosophy? Don’t play God with coffee. Respect the bean, and let it tell its story.

Unless a bean has nuttier notes, nothing you do in with a roast profile will create them because nut and fruit and earthiness are not associated with profiles, they are associated with the bean and it’s personal story.

I do extend by hitting C to get it into the finishing stage and 3:10 more minutes but still feel like I am missing out on the key part.

Again I am unsure why you would think that.  Nowhere do I talk about the end being the interesting part of the roast.  I’ve talked about important parts of the roast, but to my memory, never an interesting part.

Before I continue let me clarify something.  You can hit C as many times as you wish and it will reset the timer to 3:10 meaning you can literally roast as long as you want.

Moving on once again.  

There is ONE thing you are on the look out for when roasting.  

BAD SMELLS

You change (and by change I mean slow down) the roast when you smell something bad and specifically, something acrid, but otherwise you celebrate/enjoy nice aromas when they happen but you should NOT think that good smells equate or correlate to a good roast or good chocolate.  I’ve seen way too many exceptions for this to be the case.  While we are at is, so no one reads between the lines, just because you smell something acrid/bad does NOT mean that the roast is bad, that you ruined the roast, that the beans are bad or that they will make bad chocolate.  It means ONE THING.  You need to slow the roast down (if you are in the middle of it) or the roast is done (and you should stop the roast).  Now, of course, if you don’t turn the roast down you might ruin the roast and make bad chocolate but it is incredible how forgiving cocoa beans are.

I like to think of acrid smells like the howlers they put on your brake pads. When your pads are getting low but totally safe to drive on still they start screeching. They are telling you you need to do something pretty soon but at the moment everything is ok still.

To my mind the key you are missing is only that you are not seeing the simplicity of roasting.

One of my favorite quotes is from Constantin Brancusi

Simplicity is Complexity resolved    

I’ve now come across another saying that fits as well, from the same gentleman (Valentine) who I quote above.

“Simplicity isn’t a shortcut—it’s a strategy”

To put that in context I borrow from Valentine again about coffee

Simplicity is a Virtue

Coffee is already complex. Every bean has its own story—its terroir, processing, and unique characteristics. If you start adding too many variables during roasting or brewing, you’ll lose control of the process.

My philosophy? Don’t play God with coffee. Respect the bean, and let it tell its story.

Keep it simple. Focus on the fundamentals, and let the coffee shine. Simplicity isn’t a shortcut—it’s a strategy

Think of it (roasting) like tuning a guitar: development time is the string tension, slope is how fast you turn the pegs, and endpoint temperature is the note you’re aiming for. Too tight, and the string snaps. Too loose, and the sound is flat. Nail these, and your roast will sing.

I know I have written a LOT about roasting and chocolate making, somewhere around 5 million words and counting, over 20 plus years.  That on it’s own doesn’t mean chocolate making is complex.  It just means I’m a wordy-assed bastard. The more I think about it, I realize that I use a lot of words to try and cover every possibility.

We have talked about mastery.  We have talked about over complicating things and clearly I am as guilty of this as anyone.

It has made me realize something else (aside from being the Wordy-Assed Alchemist).

I’ve realized you don’t need 20 hours a week over 10 years.  

I’m not sure I’m a master of chocolate making.  Am I a master of over complicating things?  Very possibly.  Of cooking? Maybe. I have been at it 50+ years.  Teaching?  Not even close.  Building and making?  I’m a master of making mistakes and learning.  But do I need to be a master?  Do YOU need to be a master?

At the end of the day I have come to believe you don’t need mastery.

You need competence and with reasonable direction from a maybe master (damn, it is uncomfortable writing that) that is not a high bar.

I mention Ask the Alchemist 200-206 a lot as a way to share with you what I’ve learned about roasting, and I have certainly over complicated it.  It has a lot of complexity.  It is time for me to resolve that and make it simple.

As I mentioned above we have started offering the service to modify your Behmor so you can gather temperature data and Deliberately Practice and not just guess about the roasting.

To that end I wrote a quick start guide for roasting and using the temperature probed Behmor.  Here is an excerpt where I hope I have resolved some complexity.

Profile Roasting 101

It is helpful to talk about the speed of a roast in terms of slope.  Understanding this concept is critical to profile roasting and controlling your roast.

For example, if the temperature goes from 210 F to 219 F in one minute the slope is 9 F/min.  

It is no different than miles per hour, i.e. how far you go in what length of time.

If the roast goes from 212 to 232 F (20 F) in 2 minutes then the slope is 20 / 2 or 10 F/min.  

Profile Terminology

I give recommendations for roast profiles in a particular notation that usually looks one of two ways:

Slope notation (example):

10/8/6 @ 256 F

• The first number (10 F/min) refers to the slope from the start of the roast until the temperature is 212 F.

  1. The 2nd number (8 F/min) is the slope between 212 F and 232 F.

  2. The 3rd number (6 F/min) is the slope between 232 F and the final end of roast (EOR) temperature

  3. The last number is the EOR temperature.

The same profile in Time notation is:

14:00/16:00/20:00 @ 256 F

• Drying Phase: The first number (14 minutes) refers to the time from the start of the roast until the temperature is 212 F..

  1. Development Phase: The 2nd number (16 minutes) refers to the time to get to 232 F from the start of the roast.  Note, it took 2 minutes to go from 212 to 232 F, not 16 minutes.

  2. Finishing Phase: The 3rd number (20 minutes) refers to the time to get to the final end of roast (EOR) temperature.  It took 4 minutes (20 - 16) to go from 232 to the EOR.

  3. EOR Temperature (EOR): The last number is the EOR temperature. A good EOR temperature is 254-262 F.

This is a GREAT profile that will work with 95%+ of the cocoa beans you buy anywhere.

Any beans you buy from Chocolate Alchemy have associated suggested roast profiles.

Recommendations

Slope Goals

·         Try to maintain a slope of 9-11 F/min until 212 F.  

·         Try and maintain a slope of 8-10 F/min between 212-232 F.  

·         Try and maintain a slope of 6-8 F/min between 232 F and the end of the roast.

Time Goals

·         It should take 12-14 minutes to go from the start of the roast to 212 F.  

·         It should take 2-3 minutes to go from 212 F to 232 F.  

·         It should take 3-5 minutes to go from 232 F to the end of roast.

Determining End of Roast (EOR)

The roast is finished if the aroma turns sharp/acrid in the 3 to 5 minutes window of the Finishing phase.  

If the aroma turns sharp before the Finishing phase it is a sign the roast is going too fast, i.e the slope is too high.  You have not ruined the roast, just turn the power down by one power setting.

If the roast never turns sharp smelling, roast to 262 F or 5 minutes in the Finishing phase, whichever comes first.

Cool the beans actively to room temperature in 5-30 minutes.  

Allow the beans to rest at least 6 hours before cracking and winnowing.

I’m not sure that is as simple as I can get it but I hope it is a damn sight less complex that the 20,000 words of Ask the Alchemist 200-260.  

Now, if you want to hear me get more complex...no, not more complex....if you want me to give you more details that will allow you to better understand why I give the recommendations above I urge you to sign up for our next full day Roasting seminar.  Although not scheduled yet, I have plans in the works for it to be in Seattle Washington in the beginning of October.  Feel free to contact me to be put on an “I’m interested list” and I’ll make sure you get first dibs to sign up.

That’s all for now. I’m going to go see what other areas of my life I can apply the strategy of simplicity to. I urge you to join me.