I consume 60 grams of roasted beans each day. 60*365 = 21.9 kilograms = 48 pounds of coffee per year They say a typical loss is 15 percent (100 lbs of green beans yields 85 pounds of roasted coffee). So I consume and roast about 56.5 pounds of green coffee each year. I bought my SR800 in July of 2021, so I have roasted about 112 pounds. Amortizing my roaster (which cost $259) over 112 pounds of beans gives me $2.31 per pound roasted.
I bought it from David at Captains Coffee. I could have gotten it by ordering from Amazon, but I like Davids videos, he throws in some beans to get you started, and I just like doing business with what looks to be a nice local company.
I have a bunch of notes elsewhere on what led me to choose this unit. I looked at the old Nesco CR1010, but it was discontinued in 2014 and is only available on the used market. I would be buying a unit with lots of miles on it and there would be no hope of getting repair parts. Other fancier units like the Behmor are just more money than I can talk myself into spending at this time.
David at the Captains Coffee has produced a bunch of really good videos on using the CR800.
0 min F9 P4 -- lots of fan to get bean motion 1.5 min F8 P5 - reduce when beans move more 3 min F8 P6 4 min F7 P6 5 min F7 P7 6 min F7 P8 -- he says he should have pushed heat more here 7 min F6 P7 - first crack starts 8 min F6 P6 9 min F9 C - done after 15 sec with no cracks heard 12 min all doneSo first crack started at 7 minutes and lasted 1 min, 45 seconds. He went 15 seconds more and declared enough. He says that first crack started later than he would have wished. Cool down on the SR800 is always 3 minutes. Always do the full cool down for both the beans and the machine.
Reducing fan speed a notch will increase heat more than increasing heat a notch. One person says a one notch reduction in fan speed is equal to a heat increase of 2 or 3. No need to have the beans flying around, just get them circulating.
0 min F8 P5 385 F 2 min F7 P5 405 F 5 min F7 P5 424 F 8 min F7 P5 440 F - first crack at 8m 20 10 min F6 P5 455 F 12 min F6 P5 466 F 14 min F8 CComparing this to David's roast above, I don't push the power as hard, so I am no doubt not getting as high a temperatures as he is, and as a result I can go longer to get the same roast level. In fact, even though I go 2 minutes longer, I'll bet that I am not getting as dark a roast as he is.
My bet is that this is a City+ roast, and just a little longer would take me to Full City, which I think is where I would like to be. Getting a few snaps of 2nd crack would mean that I had gone to Full City+ which wouldn't be terrible, but is certainly as far as I want to go. Beyond this you are heading into Vienna roast. If you see oil on the beans and little explosion craters, congratulations! You can rush over to Starbucks and apply for a job as a roaster.
Note that Full City is synonymous with what is often called "medium", which makes no sense to me, but that is just how it is. It is what I aim for.
I found this extremely informative review of the CR800 --
I've roasted thousands of pounds of coffee in various roasters, everything from Probats to popcorn makers. Obviously I can't have a large gas roaster at home (I wish) so I'm stuck with slighly smaller roasters. I'm trying this roaster just for fun.This is a fully manual roaster; you need to stand next to it and continuously adjust the settings to get a decent roast. The controls let you adjust air flow (fan speed) and heat output. It is an outdoor roaster - the simple design has no smoke control and makes lots of chaff.
Capacity is listed as 8 ounces, but in reality it's best at around 6 - 7 ounces for wet processed beans, and about 5 ounces for dry processed. So your yield is in reality around 1/4 pound per session. Capacity also depends on ambient temperature, since none of the heat is recycled, and almost none of the heat goes in to heating the mass of the roaster itself (like a drum roaster).
It takes some skill to get an even roast. The heater is fairly low powered, so you have to keep the fan at a speed that just circulates the beans, yet keeps them from floating. Too low of a fan speed yields an uneven roast, too high just bakes the beans. Since the moisture level changes throughout the roast, you need to continually adjust the fan speed.
There's a temperature probe that appears to be located upstream of the beans. It gives a general idea of how hot the air is, but it doesn't tell you how hot the beans are, nor how much heat they are absorbing. Because you can't watch the temperature while adjusting controls, you end up standing next to the machine and constantly fiddling with the knob. Not necessarily a good thing because of the smoke, even outdoors. A good fume extractor is handy even outdoors.
The coffee beans only touch glass and aluminum. The base is plastic, and the chaff collector hat is plastic. Both have that characteristic Chinese plastic smell when new. The hot air blows through a metal chamber, but the intake is routed through the plastic base. If you're super concerned about plastic, this may be an issue. Hot air does go through the plastic chaff collector, but only on its way out.
The chaff collector is a failure. A large percentage of chaff jams up against the inside of the collector, and drops back on top of the beans when the machine is shut off. Of course you can either turn on the blower and create a chaff fountain; or you can remove the chaff hat before turning off the blower. Either way creates a huge mess (another reason that this is an outdoor roaster). A properly designed chaff collector would have a U-turn so that the chaff drops down into another chamber, not on top of the beans. The chaff hat gets extremely hot, and you can't remove it with bare hands. The two halves do not lock together, and I have ended up accidentally lifting up the top half too many times, creating a giant fountain of chaff. Messy.
The blower motor is about 1/5 hp. The heater is 1400 watts (Level 9, max), and can be adjusted down to 1100 watts (Level 1). You can use an extension cord, as long as it has the proper rating. Sound level at 3 feet ranges from 62 dB - 67 dB depending on fan speed. Subjectively, it's not too noisy, and sounds about the same as a hair dryer on the 'low' setting. The base area, including controls, stays relatively cool during operation. Nothing locks together - the glass cup simply sits on the base, and the chaff collector sits on the glass cup. I found it to be reasonably stable on a flat surface, but an accidental bump could knock the whole thing over.
And finally.... yes it can produce a good roast. I've run everything through it, from tiny Kona beans to dry process Ethiopians to African peaberry to top shelf Gesha (or Geisha if you want). I was able to get a good quality City, City+ and Full City roast from all of them after a few test batches. I normally don't roast past Full City because I don't drink charcoal water, but if that's your thing, there's nothing stopping you from making some burned Starbucks coffee in this roaster. There are no safety controls, nothing to stop you from roasting beans until they turn black.
If you only drink a small amount of coffee and like to experiment, this might be a good roaster for you. If you drink more coffee (4 cups a day or more in your household), and your goal is to roast some good coffee without hassle, this might not be the best choice.
Tom's coffee pages / tom@mmto.org