Been successfully roasting green beans at home for a few years now. Just discovered my first problem - no first crack!
Following a tried and true recipe on an SR540 my beans went from green to straw to various shades of brown but the usual popcorn sounds of first crack are notably absent. Just a few beans do it. Like, 5 pops instead of hundreds. 2nd crack happens as usual.
I’m still early into my 10 lbs bag, and it didn’t happen with the first few roasts of the new bag.
Any ideas? Premature failure of the SR540? Bad beans? Stroke? Anyone else ever have this happen?
Same as every other time for 3 years. I will buy a random lbs of green beans for comparison.
They roast fine. Colour is there, just little to no first crack. I did 4 batches, each one a little hotter and shorter. All the same.
i just figure if they dont crack maybe they are baking instead of roasting
What could cause this and how can I mitigate it?
my understanding is that they “bake” when they are heated too slowly. you have to start them off low enough to avoid scorching but some preheating protocol is still needed
So a presumably older, dier bean would need to be roasted faster and hotter?
not sure; id assume the older and drier it is, the less resistance it would have to the roasting. if it’s old and dry enough the crack might not happen since the crack is supposedly caused by steam pressure for an uncompromised bean. if the bean’s already broken/cracked, or no water remains trapped to become steam, i guess it might not crack at all.