What exactly is a Roast Profile?
The process of heating raw coffee beans for a long time is known as coffee roasting. This well-known notion reminds the two most important things to keep track of during the roasting process: time and temperature. Each tiny adjustment in either variable will have a significant impact. As a result, you’ll require a comprehensive record of these modifications — the Roast Profiles (or Roast Profiling).
A Roast Profile can be recorded in a variety of methods. You can make a table like the one below by hand or use data logging software like Cropster, Roast Log, Artisan, Roastlogger, Roastmaster, Coffeesnobs, etc.
The usage of computer programs is proving to be more efficient when creating Roast Profiling. To entirely automate the data recording procedure, all you need is a roasting machine, a sensor reading system, and a computer with an Internet connection.
Furthermore, contemporary designs allow you to make direct temperature and time parameter adjustments during the roasting process, choose the ideal configuration for each type of coffee… and a slew of other accessible features that you have sufficient funds to purchase intelligent software.
Why is it necessary to have a Profile?
You can roast, roast, roast each batch of coffee until it’s perfect; many people do this!
The previous guideline is correct if you confine your roasting to family size. Have you ever wondered how Starbucks manages to roast hundreds of tons of coffee per year using ingredients from dozens of countries while maintaining consistent flavor?
And the following are some of the benefits that Roast Profiles provides:
- Aids a better understanding of the physical changes throughout the roasting process, the roasting cycle and the ability to generate coffee flavor. This is similar to a map that shows you where your coffee beans are in terms of flavor transformation.
The equipment parameter records provide insight into the functioning of the roaster, allowing you to get the most out of it.
Most significantly, the Roast Profiling is a “record” that helps you understand what has to be done with a particular coffee or a taste requirement Determined.
On the other hand, with the third wave of coffee and the rising demand for high-quality coffee of various kinds, Roast Profiling is a general trend that also adds to the sustainability of the coffee business. To fully explore the potential tastes of specialty coffee, it must be “processed” and roasted more scientifically.
Add to that public need for coffee chain transparency (do I need to know how my coffee is roasted?), and the Roast Profiling becomes even more critical.
What do the fundamentals of Roasting Profile coffee entail?
Of course, you won’t achieve a comparable impact if you start keeping notes on roasting profile in a diary-like manner. You’ll need a system of indicators to track each roast so you can compare and understand how each tweak affects the results.
A-frame structure with two primary elements is required for a Roast Profiling to be truly functional.
Before beginning the roast coffee beans, determine the input variables.
The following are the basic parameters to have before and when roasting a batch of coffee:
- Coffee bean moisture Coffee bean volume
- Weight per roasting batch of grain size
- Temperature, humidity, and other aspects of the roasting room’s environment.
- Set up and regulate the airflow (if applicable)
- Set up and adjust the heat source (if any)
- Change the drum’s speed (if any)
- Time to cool
During the roasting process, there are several changes that occur.
This is the most intriguing and crucial component of a Roast Profiling because depending on the adjustments, you’ll get varied outcomes, which you can use to illustrate your “roasting trip.” How are things going so far?
- The temperature at which to begin roasting
- All color changes with the commencement of the first crack, and RoR (Rate of Rising) reflects the increase in temperature over time.
- Temperature and the time it takes for the first crack to form and finish (First crack).
- There is a certain amount of time between the first and second cracks.
- Total roasting time, end time
- After roasting, the weight
- Loss of moisture (calculated by the weight of coffee beans before and after roasting)
- After roasting, the color.
There are a lot of characteristics that need to be watched continually before and during roasting, but you don’t have to keep track of them all. In most cases, computer programs will take data from the roaster’s sensors and convert it into a graph in real-time.
A variety of charts represent factors such as machine temperature, grain temperature, pressure, and air convection. All of them are referred to as Roast Graphs, and you may picture how your “roasting adventure” has progressed based on the changes on the graph.
In a nutshell, a newbie can only have so many critical factors. However, more measures and parameters are required when professional perfection is joined with increased personal experience before, during, and after each roast. Looking over these lists and comparing different roasts will help you figure out what measurements and modifications you can do to improve the final quality – that’s how we make the most of it—fruit with a roasted profile.
How do you use Roasting Profile?
If you roast coffee by hand or if your roasting equipment can’t regulate air, convection current, temperature, or roasting drum speed, for example, the question is whether Roast Profiling is beneficial. Yes, you may still change the amount of coffee per roast to the fullest extent possible as long as you focus on the outcomes of each trial.
The above appears to conflict with the fact that you have a sophisticated system with numerous sensors and gadgets capable of fine-tuning each roast to perfection.
In this situation, adjusting too many parameters on each roast simultaneously will trap you in a matrix with no way out. So, while the rest of the variables remain constant, let’s start altering the parameters one by one to observe which ones significantly impact the final flavor quality.
Light roast coffee
These coffees are roasted to preserve the bean’s distinct characteristics. Beans can generate a vast range of flavors, fragrances, aftertastes, and more if they are cultivated, processed, and roasted properly. The internal temperature of light roasted coffee is typically 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit. These beans just make it to the “first crack,” when the vapors inside the beans break through the outer wall and make a “cracking” sound.
Medium roast coffee
The surface of medium roast coffee is rarely greasy and has a brown tint. The acidity and body of these coffees are medium, and the flavor profile is well-rounded.
Many of the particular characteristics of the coffee’s origin are preserved at this level of roasting, but it also begins to attain the deep caramel sweetness of a longer roast. As a result, these coffees are well-balanced, with a deeper and sweeter flavor.
Some of the light roast’s strongest notes may be lost, but it’s a small price to pay for more balance.
Dark roast coffee
Dark roast beans has an oily surface and is dark brown in color. Low acidity, hefty body, and a tendency to reveal deeper, darker flavors characterize these coffees.
Although coffees roasted to this degree lose a lot of their origin characteristics, that doesn’t mean they’re bland and boring. Some coffees benefit from a dark roast because their chocolatey, nutty, and caramel characteristics shine through.
The distinction between light and dark roast coffee is significant. To properly taste the difference, I recommend comparing a light and a black coffee side by side.