Gene Café CBR101 coffee roaster (red) starter pack

The Gene Cafe CBR-101 coffee roaster

The Gene Cafe CBR-101 is known as an excellent electric roaster that can hold about 250 grams of unroasted coffee. Suitable for both novice and experienced home roasters. Its convenient time and temperature controls and a full glass roasting chamber make it easy to start your first coffee roast right away. As you become more experienced, you will soon put your own spin on roasts and build a roast profile. The CBR-101 uses a unique downward rotating swirl drum which ensures a very even roast.

Usage tips:

• You will soon find that you tend to roast too dark. Don't do that because the best flavours in coffee are lost in a darker roast. Moreover, dark roasted coffee beans are bad for fully automatic coffee machines.
• Always stay near the roaster during roasting for reasons of fire safety and to hear the 1st and/or 2nd crack during roasting.
• Because of the loss in moisture during roasting, you will always be left with about 20% less by weight of roasted coffee beans than you put in unroasted beans.
• Use under the extractor hood or near an open window to avoid smoke production
• Use 250 grams of unroasted coffee beans per batch. If you use less, the roasting time will be shorter, if you use more, the roasting time will be longer. Always keep this in mind when trying to repeat a roast profile.
• Start with a temperature of +/- 235 degrees and experiment from there for your next roasts. For example, if you are more experienced, you can start with the highest temperature and after the first crack of the beans, turn the temperature lower and lower.
• Try to cool the beans as quickly as possible after roasting by, for example, rocking them back and forth in a sieve.
• Remove membranes from the roaster after each roast. Every 20 roasts, remove the fleece trap from the machine and clean it in warm water (do let it dry well afterwards). Any residual grease makes no difference to the roast quality but in very serious cases, you should clean it to avoid a fire hazard.
• After roasting, wait at least 4 to 24 hours before using it to make coffee. Coffee tastes best between day 3 and 5 after roasting.
• We have a wide range of unroasted coffee beans for you to experiment with.