Coffee Roasting

Part One: The Basics

To Roasting

There really isn't that much to it.

Keep roasts around 10 to 15 minutes.

The roast is made up of three phases that need roughly equal time segments.
o Charge to Dry End (dry end)
o dry end to First Crack (first crack)
o first crack to End of Roast (end of roast)
This phase is called development time (development time)
At least a minute more on development time for espresso roasts than for
brewing is needed.
And longer than that if the espresso is light.
- The lighter the espresso roast, the longer development time
is needed.
o These phases can be achieved on almost any roaster that gives some control and
the roaster is willing to roast in small batches and watch carefully.
To Profiles

Basics to Understand how to Profile
o Understand The Roaster
Heat application and its transfer to the beans
Temperature adjustments
Air flow adjustments
Roast monitoring capabilities
Visual, smells, sounds, Temperature (BT,ET,MET)
Identify and work with or around shortcomings
o Understand the beans
What will cause different beans to roast and taste differently
Bean density and size
Moisture content
Processing
- Wet processed, various dry processed, decaf
Identifying and culling defects pre and post roast
o Understand roasting chemistry and reactions
Determine when reaction happened at different times of a roast, and how
they affect taste.
o Plan a Profile
A profile must incorporate all parts mentioned above.
Break down the roast profile into phases.
Determine a roast level.

o The Roast
Use the profile
Monitor the roast
Collect data
Adjusting on the fly, if possible, to stay within the profile
Determine if any changes are needed to nail the profile better next time
Taste the results and change the profile if needed
To Chemistry

Three Basic Things Happen While Coffee is Roasting

The Three Stages
o 1) Water evaporates
o 2) Organic acids and aromatics break down or are boiled off
o 3) Water, sugars, and amino acids combine in a chain of chemical reactions
collectively called the Maillard reaction.

1) Water Evaporating
o This happens from the moment the beans are heated up to the first crack.
At first crack the remaining free water escapes.
o Below 150C bean temperature, not much is happening except water
evaporating.
o As the beans exceed 150C, a steam wave moves out of the bean from its center.
This wave also starts the Millard reactions.
o If the bean is too moist going above this, the bitter organic acids will not break
down as quickly.
o If too much water evaporates, the Millard reactions are starved, and the roast
will be dominated by dry distillates
o The charge temperatures, or early bean heating should be adjusted to achieve
this balance in 300 - 530.

2) Organic Acids and Aromatics Breaking Down or Boiling Off
o Roasts have to go to partway into the first crack since this is where the
chlorogenic acids that make unroasted coffee intensely bitter finish their
breakdown.
o The smaller acid molecules and aromatics, which are responsible for the fruity
aromas and acidic tastes start breaking down around here.
o The longer the beans stay at temperatures above about 199C the lower the
acidity will be.
For instance, stalling the beans around first crack will reduce acidity
without reaching temperatures that caramelize off the sugars.
Too much of this is a roasting flaw called baking, which overly
flattens the flavor of the coffee.

3) Millard Reaction Chains
o This is where the complexity of coffee is created, since these reaction chains are
hugely complicated.
o There are some overall guidelines.
The early Millard reaction, from dry end (150C) to around first crack
(199C), creates nutty, toasty, and woody flavors.
At higher temperatures, sugars stop reacting with amino acids and start
caramelizing on their own, creating caramel, vanilla and chocolate flavors.
Finally, also at higher temperatures, and when the water required for early
Millard reactions and caramelization runs low, the Strecker degradation
changes the compounds created earlier in the roast to dry distillates
smoky, spicy and peaty flavors.
The simplest lesson here is that these processes compete for water.
Taking a longer ramp to first crack and less time thereafter will favor the
woody, toasty, nutty flavors and reduce the caramel ones.
Go as fast as possible earlier in the roast and the Strecker degradation
creating these flavors is controlled.
If the roast is to get very dark, the only way to avoid overwhelming
distillate flavors is to dry the beans less.

Coffee roasting reactions (Millard) have autocatalytic cycles, but aren't self-organizing.
o A bean is a closed system and eventually runs out of amino acids, sugars and
water (the basic reaction foods).