look next time

I was doing my best to roast a bunch of coffee up for my folks and send it to them for christmas. I already had a 12 oz batch of the RGN and some decaf for the ol man prepared when I decided to roast some Tanzanian Blackburn Estate PB as well.

I got it all set up and let er crank.

A minute passed by, and I noticed a peculiar smell emanating from the Behmor. It smelt a little on the asphalt side. My hand hovered on the off button as I looked inside, even opening the door for a better peek. Nothing seemed wrong so I let it go. Perhaps I just needed to clean the thing better, or maybe some rogue burlap strings had somehow snuck their way in, whatever the reason, I figured "wait and see" was the best policy. So I let the puppy run its cycle and made a note about the funny rope burning smell in my roast log.

The smell got worse.

I thought about shutting it down but looking at the beans again, everything seemed fine. Then, the smell of the roasting coffee began to overtake the funky chemical burning smell as it started pop its way to a finish. I saw this as a sign that everything was all honky dory.

The cooling cycle kicked in and the the funky chemical smell once again returned as the Behmor Coffee Roaster pumped out the rest of the heat through its catalytic converter. "Interesting,"I thought. I let the coffee cool as I washed some clothes then came back to pull the beans and stick em in a food saver bag for shipment to the UP eh?(My folks happen to live in Northern Michigan)

That was when i discovered the brush sitting on the bottom of the roasting chamber. It seems that I had forgotten to take it out before roasting. I do know why I would have even left the sucker in the roast chamber in the first place, but there it was,sitting at the bottom of the behmor, still smoldering.

The brush had actually stood up well to the 400 plus degree roasting temperatures, only singeing about 1/3 of the way through. The coffee seemed fine too, probably because the brush was lying right next to the exhaust vent. It did leave a nasty tar stain on the bottom of the roaster and who knows what damage it did to the filter.

Anyway, I still use the brush, but now I am sure to double check before roasting just in case i decide for some reason to leave the chaff brush on the bottom again.