[Catt22]

I've been using my Gene Cafe roaster for about four years or so. The results have been excellent. It's user friendly and the time and temp is adjustable on the fly. It has a glass roasting chamber so you can view the beans as they roast. It does not have any pre-programmed roasting profiles, but that's a feature I have no use for anyway. This machine has proven to be very reliable and produces a consistent roast time after time. It took me awhile to figure out the best roasting profiles for the various beans, but I've got it nailed now and it was fun experimenting. The only thing I would like to see improved might be a faster cooling cycle, but this isn't really a problem so much as something that needs to be factored into the cycle. It's a matter of stopping the roast a little early and letting the beans coast to the finish line before cool down. That was very easy to master. This machine is not cheap at $500, but I think it has more than paid for itself as I now drink premium coffee for about half the cost of store bought stuff. It will roast up to 11 oz of beans, but my standard batch is 275 grams (9.82 oz). I generally stick with a weighed batch size as this roaster is sensitive to varying batch sizes (ie different length of roast for larger batches). I know what to expect when keeping the batch size consistent and the 275 grams carries me for about four days or so. Twice a week roasting at about 16 minutes per batch. That's the actual roasting time, not including the cooling cycle and it varies a few minutes or so depending on the bean variety.

I give this roaster a thumbs up!

[Austin]

Thanks for the review and welcome!

[Dunerunner]

Catt! Cost was the reason I selected the Behmor at $300 over the Gene Cafe at $500. Sounds like it does the same job and the same volume of beans per rosat, which was a secondary consideration.

Glad you're happy with your machine and a four year run without a burp is an excellant plus for this machine.

Thanks for the review!

[Mr. Bean]

I just roasted my first two batches of Kenyan tonight with my Gene Cafe. I can hardly wait until tomorrow to try the flavor.

BTW, I weigh out 300grams of beans for each roasting (the max), then keep notes of roasting and cooling times and temps. 300grams will last me a week, and I roast a second batch for a buddy. I usually give him half of each batch so I can have a second set of taste buds helping me evaluate.

[Catt22]

Originally Posted by Mr. Bean

I just roasted my first two batches of Kenyan tonight with my Gene Cafe. I can hardly wait until tomorrow to try the flavor.

BTW, I weigh out 300grams of beans for each roasting (the max), then keep notes of roasting and cooling times and temps. 300grams will last me a week, and I roast a second batch for a buddy. I usually give him half of each batch so I can have a second set of taste buds helping me evaluate.

Good choice on the Gene Cafe. You're gonna love it. Here's a few tips for you to try when using it. It took me awhile to master the roast, but I've got it dialed in pretty well now:

1. There is an air intake on the bottom of the roaster. The intake has a fine mesh screen covering the opening behind the slots. Get some of that "canned air" stuff that is made for blowing dust out of computer equipment. Before each roast, use the canned air and blow some through the intake to keep it clean. Even a small amount of dust can cause a restriction in the air flow which will affect the roasting profile. Do this every time before you do the roast. It will help you reach a consistent roast degree every time.

2. Clean the chaff collector before each roast. It's important to keep the collector free of chaff buildup for the same reason that you want to keep the air intake clean.

3. Set the roaster to 300 F and the time to 16.5 minutes for most beans. Keep it at 300F for the first 5 minutes then set the temperature to the max 482 until the first crack gets under way. Let the first crack reach the rolling stage where it is nearly continuous, not just a pop here and there. This will happen at about 6 or 7 minutes past the first crack. It's handy to use a separate kitchen timer for both of these timings. It's easier than using the countdown timer on the machine. At that point, turn down the temperature to match whatever the temp reached at that point plus two degrees.

4. The Gene Cafe is very sensitive to the batch size. It's best to weigh the beans each time and use exactly the same amount for consistent results.

5. The above general roasting profile is based on a batch size of 275 grams. This will yield close to 1/2 lb of roasted beans. They lose some weight during roasting, about 20% IIRC.

6. You may want to vary some from the suggested profile for different beans and there are some other factors that can affect the roasting times.
The ambient air temp makes a big difference. If you roast outside on a patio or where the air temp varies a lot, you must take this into consideration. I roast indoors where the temp is more or less the same all the time. Use a fan if the smoke bothers you too much.

7. I've found that's it's best to not let the beans reach the second crack at all. The problem is that you don't know at what point you will reach the second crack until you get there. I know from experience where that point is, but this takes some trial and error to pin down and as I mentioned, it varies with different beans. That's where your notekeeping will come in handy.

8. I used to do the emergency stop, dump the beans into a collander to cool thing, but now I just stop the roasting a little early and let them coast to a finish. I cannot detect any detrimental effect from doing it this way. Be careful if you try the emergency stop method. You want to replace the drum in the roaster immediately and resume cooling with it empty. Do not try to stop the drum from turning as you risk breaking the small nylon gear that drives the drum. Ask me how I discovered this. Do not let the roaster continue to heat without the drum in place. This can damage the roaster.

9. Watch the beans carefully near the end of the roast. As soon as you observe any significant amount of smoke, you are close to or just past the shutdown point for a full city+ roast. When you see a lot of smoke, you can be assured that the volatile oils are being driven off and those contain a lot of good flavor components that are best retained IMO.

Good luck with your roaster. Post back with anything you learn as you experiment with it. I'm not an expert at this stuff, just passing on what I've learned so far and I am always open to learning more from others.

[Catt22]

Gene Cafe review follow up:

The forum has requested that I post a follow up to my initial review. I originally purchased the Gene Cafe in early 2007, so I've been using it regularly for nearly four years. I typically roast about twice weekly, 275 grams per batch. I've had almost no problems with the unit. I did manage to break one of the small nylon gears on the drum mechanism, but the distributor sent me a replacement at no charge and it was an easy repair. I had failed to properly seat the drum in the rotating mechanism and this caused it to rub against the frame which over stressed the nylon gear. The gear is designed to fail in such a situation to prevent possibly more serious damage to the unit. The failure was due to operator error and no fault of the machine. At about the same time, one of the small rubber bumpers on the swinging gate chaff clearing mechanism self destructed. I ordered two replacement sets from the distributor for $4 and these were sent along with the replacement nylon gear. The bumpers were also very easy to replace and this I would say falls under routine maintenance and it's nothing to be alarmed about. Now then, about two weeks ago, the heating element failed. This too was expected to happen eventually. I ordered a replacement element for about $58 IIRC and it arrived within a few days. The heater was also very easy to replace and I had the unit back in operation quickly. I have been told by the distributor to expect the heating element to last about a year or two under normal household usage, so the one I had nearly doubled it's projected life span.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the Gene Cafe. I really have the roasting profiles well dialed in now and the repeatability is great. The roast is very uniform and consistent from batch to batch. I plan to buy another heating element to have on hand as a backup. So, there have been some minor maintenance issues, but they were easily resolved and the cost was very reasonable. Overall, I'm a happy customer.