Today's Roast: Old Brown Java

Tonight I roasted Old Brown Java. This coffee came to me from Rich, who bought it (I think) from Cate's.

I had previously roasted 1/2 cup of this coffect on May 8 2006. I used "Rich's roast", which is just preset #1 with the time turned way down to 6:30. The roasted beans were at Full City, which means a medium dark shiny brown color but only a few drops of oil (which in this bean did not show up until the next day).

According to my notes, I was very happy with the taste of this bean at the above roast but thought it could go darker, so tonight I tried lengthening the roast by 25 seconds. Nevertheless I achieved substantially the same roast as before. The beans were a shiny but oil-free medium dark brown that later developed small oil spots.

One pitfall: I experienced a roaster malfunction. The lid to my roaster came loose as soon as I started the cool-down cycle. I have had this problem before and am unsure how to solve it. The part that comes loose is the lid for accessing the chamber where the beans are, not the smaller chaff lid. And when it comes loose, stuff goes flying all over the stove. (I think I mentioned that I use the roaster right on top of the stove to take advantage of the vents. If I do not do that then all the smoke alarms in the house go off!) Recover is simple; I just use an oven mitt to screw the lid back on. But it does mean that using the roaster unattended is out of the question.