What do people use for their supplies? The only few I can think (UK) which are reasonable are: * coffee compass; * Bella barista; * Small batch roasting: * Falcon micro. I never bought from the last two. Are there any others? I think I’d go through 10kg a year, but rather buy in 2kg or 3kg at a time, 1kg each type preferably. Also, I’m currently roasting (and learning) an Ethiopian Guji natural (peaberry maybe) on the Gene, but for the life of me I could not hear first crack. Maybe one or two pops and that was it. Is it normal? Very different from a washed Colombian before. Many thanks!

We have the Coffee Snobs forum in Australia with their Bean Bay run by owner Andy who really does a great job of sourcing a range of beans and some very high quality, great variety and all for very competitive prices. Not much help for those of you on the "Up Over" but worth checking out for those Down Under. A notable mention goes to Withams here in Australia too.

I have the same issue (not being able to hear first crack) with my Aillio Bullet. So I bought one of those portable speakers with microphone. See make and model name below. When the beans are approaching first crack, I take out the Trier plug thingy and stick the microphone in the cylinder that the Trier came out from. It really works a treat. I can even hear second crack like this. _"WinBridge WB001 Portable Voice Amplifier with Headset Microphone Personal Speaker Mic Rechargeable Ultralight for Teachers"_

@"tompoland"#p2045 - that’s interesting! I actually bought one too, and even with that I could not hear with those beans. Maybe the odd “pop”, which I attributed to FC. But it was like 2 or 3, very spaced out over 2 minutes. @"Doram"#54 roasts with the Gene too, and he said he never had such problems of not hearing FC with the Gene. I wonder whether it’s this particular bean. @"tompoland"#p2045 - with the Bullet, is it the case for any beans you’ve roasted?

Some beans are super quiet as they enter first. Daterra microlots are notorious for it, the Amazon Dalian is a very quiet roaster (well mine is) and I can barely hear the start of first. Often when I do a roasting course, the trainee can't hear it at first. Knowing what to listen for helps a lot…but as with all things the aging ear is less sensitive.

I got 2x10kg, 10 of Colombian and 10 of a natural Nicaraguan from a collective that coordinate on facebook. There's a roaster who lives near me so he collected his 130kg+ and mine at the same time so postage was free! The Nicaraguan sound like mini fireworks going off when they crack, whereas the Colombian are much quieter, but still auidable with the Behmors noise.

@"MediumRoastSteam"#p2038 I used to buy greens from Has Bean, but got tired of seeing the prices go up with every purchase, so looked for an alternative, found Coffee Compass and never felt a need to go somewhere else. Those two were selling green blends, which is what I was after as I didn't know what singles to get. Others were selling single origin greens but not blends. Now I get singles as well, but still like Compass. And as you mentioned, I don't have a problem to hear FC, but some beans are louder than others, so maybe you got a shy coffee. :)

@"Del_UK"#p2062 - is that the Green Buying Collective group on FB with Phillip Turner?

> @"Doram"#p2064 got a shy coffee. :) Most likely got a shy ear! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@"MediumRoastSteam"#p2065 It is indeed! It worked out at about £8.50 a kg for my order and the beans are pretty fantastic, the natural is a strawberry feast) I know there's talk of another order coming soon, some Brazilian I believe...

@"Del_UK"#p2067 - ah! Small world. I actually posted there not long ago asking if someone was going to place an order and happen to live near me. You can then work out who I am. 😉 That group is great, as the quality of the beans are superb and the value for money is incredible. Are you roasting on the Behmor then? Even I’m thinking of ordering one from Hasbean, despite having ordered one and ending up with a lemon a while ago. However, I’m also determined to make the Gene cafe work. 😊

Coffee greens suppliers

Del_UK

For £250 it’s a great bit of kit. It’ll roast 400g easily so I can manage on about one roast a week, unless it’s Christmas and I’m at home for 2 weeks!!

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam - thanks great to know. Other people like @SteveBRS also rave about the Behmor. Maybe I should give it a go again….

Can’t hurt to try, HB price seemed pretty good.

MediumRoastSteam

DavecUK Can’t hurt to try

Thing is… I did try. But it didn’t like me.

Del_UK

Photo (hopefully) of my last roast (15th of Dec) about to be bottled up for single dosing and a shot (16g/32g) from them. A touch darker then I’d usually go but I am trying the various profiles on the roaster. Lovely salted caramel/toffee hit

MediumRoastSteam

Where abouts in the UK are you Del_UK ?

Del_UK

MediumRoastSteam
I’m in rainy Plymouth, Devon

MediumRoastSteam

Del_UK - cool cool. Had a glimmer of hope you’d be nearby. 😊👍

SteveBRS

There’s 2 used Behmor 2020s for sale on FB I’ve seen…near Marlborough?

I’ve had good experiences buying greens from Pennine Coffee and Tea company for my home use. Great choice and reasonable prices for 1kg bags, free postage above £60 order ( and I even found 10% discount vouchers online…so order more than £70 and it’s even better). I especially like their Indian monsoon Malabar, Nicaraguan swiss water decaff, recently purchased also their Maragogype from Mexico and Nicaragua.

MediumRoastSteam

SteveBRS - I must admit I hardly check FB, let alone on sales stuff. I’ll take a look. Thank you.

SteveBRS

Oh, and Pennines shipping is pretty fast as well, DPD with tracking window, normally within 2 days I’d think

RDC8

Nice to see a few familiar faces here. If anyone wants to know more about the FB greens buying group then feel free drop me a PM as I’m one of the admins. Buying direct from the importers works out at between £6.50 and £8.50 per kg (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less), plus pallet shipping (another £.25-£0.4 per kg) depending on weight). And the coffee is (usually) “current crop” - ie from the 2021 harvests.

DavecUK

RDC8 Feel free to link to it here if you want…it’s not a problem, we’re not commercial.

RDC8

Here is the link to the FB group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenscollective

Always happy to welcome new roasters aboard.

tompoland

MediumRoastSteam Yes pretty much the same for all of them. Even with the microphone, second crack is really hard to hear and other new Bullet owners have complained about not hearing first crack. Pic of the set up uploaded for those who have no idea what I’m talking about.

oztayls

tompoland

For any Aussies here, you cannot go past Andy at CoffeeSnobs/Beanbay. The range and service are exemplary.

thusband

Doram I agree about Hasbean. I was willing to pay more for quality greens until I came across Coffee Compass which has quality and decent pricing. I’ve bought greens from a few companies here where the before roast sorting produced dozens of defects. Really unacceptable.

I usually don’t have a problem hearing first crack in my Huky except with decaf beans. They have a very soft first crack and almost zero chaff.

MediumRoastSteam

thusband - did you import the Huky? (Assuming you are in the Uk?)

DavecUK

thusband I always had a huge problem with Hasbeans green bean pricing, especially as I know how much these coffees cost and all they are having to do is pack them into a bag and post them. Take Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon

Roasted £30.40 per Kg
Green £48 for 2Kg

On the face of it looks like a £6.40 difference (saving) buying green vs roasted…but not so fast!

Coffee looses about 16% of weight when roasting….that 1 Kg green turns into 840g of roasted….working the numbers through, this means 1Kg of roasted from green coffee is costing you £28.57. not so much of a saving any more is it, just £1.83.

Worse still that coffee is probably costing no more than £8.50 per Kg green and less if they import direct. A mark up of almost 350% on green coffee really isn’t justified..

thusband

Re: Huky
Yes I’m in the UK now but I bought the Huky when I lived in California about 6 or 7 years ago. One of the most important things I brought with us.

H1udd

I am really enjoying the beans from Rave at the moment

I went with them because they had a discount on and due to my lack of patience and the impending rain due any minute threw 250g into the gene cafe, in the garden, full power and just hit cool when they almost reached the right colour … best roast I have done … they were lovely …. I have now ditched all the science, they go in the roaster, full power until they look good

this haphazard approach probably only works with a gen 1 unmodified gene 101 due to its own inconsistencies 😁

MediumRoastSteam

H1udd - So you just went by colour and that was it? No listening to F/C or anything? Which coffee was that?

That’s what most of us do with the Gene anyway, full power until F/C and then either turn it down a bit or just cool down very soon after. How long did your roast last for until cool down?

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