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Coffee roasting is an art gained by experience. A good roaster will know the origin characteristics of each bean and roast to maximize it. Most roasting methods follow six phases. It takes a good experienced roaster to know how to move the coffee bean through each phase at just the right time to achieve a particular outcome.
The six phases:
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Drying Cycle - The first phase. Temperature will rise to 100 degrees centigrade and beans will change from bright green color to a pale yellow.
- First Crack - The beans reach 160 degrees centigrade with chemical reactions causing a cracking sound.
- Roast Initiation - The beans swell to 140-160% of the their initial size. Elements within the beans begin to caramelize, giving the beans their brown color.
- Pause - Audible cracking ceases but reactions continue. Time will depend on the amount of heat applied by the roaster.
- Second Crack - By now, the dehydration that takes place in the beans has made them brittle and more cracking can be heard. At this stage the elements in the beans begin to carbonize, producing the burnt characteristics of extremely dark roast.
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Stopping the Roast - Once the chosen time has elapsed and results achieved, the beans must be cooled quickly. This is accomplished by either cool air or water.
There are many home roasters now. But as you can see by above phases, it is a learned process. It takes many hours of practice and trial and error to start and stop each phase at just the right time. While these home roasting machines are getting better, most do not let you have enough control of each phase, do not heat up fast enough, or cool down fast enough. The better the machines, the more they cost.
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