[quest m3, front]

(This post is adapted from a few on home-barista.)

I managed to snag a used Quest M3 (a ~150g sample roaster) around a month ago. The probes are bean temp and max environmental temp.



To calibrate your internal thermometer, my roaster reaches first crack (1C) at 379-383 for high-grown, washed coffees and is generally quite similar to other EricS probe Quest M3’s in terms of readouts. So adjust these temperatures in your mind depending on whatever your thermocouples tend to read at 1Cs.





[example 1 - slow-start, fast-finish]

Here’s the first example. This is a slow-start, fast-finish roast. I hoped that by dragging out drying, I could get a quick development period. Unfortunately, this roast turned out horrendously underdeveloped. Now there is certainly a possibility that a 20% development ratio would yield something not-underdeveloped, but why would I bother dragging out drying and thus sacrificing acidity if I don’t have to? (I’m using this for brewed coffee and thus want to maximize acidity.)





[example 2 - fast-start, slow-finish]

Here’s a contrasting example. I pushed to 1c quite quickly and gave it just under 20% development time. It was properly developed - just barely. In the cup, it tasted like dilute apple juice. But it was the proof of concept I was looking for.





[example 3 - baseline hot-and-fast profile]

And, finally, here’s my new baseline roast. Fast dry, fast ramp with plenty of air, 20% development time. This profile results in around 13.3%-14% weight loss. In the cup, it’s clean, sweet, bright, palate-filling, and caramelly without overwhelming the fruit. The profile is extremely simple. Start with low air and high power, then max out power and increase air to high during ramp, then lower power a bit during 1C. I maintained MET near 500F, the approximate scorching temp in my roaster, for drying and ramp and reduced it as much as I could get away with during 1C to yield a 20% development ratio. The biggest difference between this profile and a typical third-wave profile is not how light I drop (though I do drop a couple degrees lighter) but how quickly I get there.



This profile isn’t perfect, but I think it’s a good baseline.

So my conclusions are that I agree with Rao’s 20% development time suggestion, and I also agree with declining rate-of-rise. Obviously, these are tentative thoughts, but I’m consistently preferring my declining rate-of-rise roasts to my more linear ones. And I’m having better results taking 20% of roast time for development than trying to extend other parts of the roast and then spend ~15% of the roast on development. I was suspicious of Rao’s claim that the way to resolve underdeveloped flavors is to apply heat earlier and more aggressively rather than to drag out the roast… but so far he seems to be absolutely correct. It’s unintuitive that roasting faster can actually produce better development, but it seems to be the case.

Limitations: these profiles are with different coffees, on different days. I’m not trying to say slow-start-fast-finish profiles aren’t viable, just that I haven’t had much luck with them. And I’ve only been using my M3 for a month or so, so I will be tweaking. I just hope this provides some basic ideas to those hoping to explore Nordic-style fast-and-light profiles.

All three roasts were washed, high-grown, Latin American coffees from Sweet Maria’s. The first roast used their Rosma Huehue Guatemala, the second their Huila Colombia, and the third their Costanza y Lopez Guatemala. When experimenting on roast details, I generally stick to high-grown, washed Latin American coffees since I want to avoid the “wilder” characteristics of African coffees coloring my judgments - even though I tend to prefer them.



Larger profiles for your viewing pleasure: http://imgur.com/a/viy9E