Fresh Roast SR800

The SR-800 replaces our old roaster, which was a smaller, programmable roaster from the same company. The newer version has two distinct benefits in my opinion. First, the new roaster has twice the capacity (180 grams of green beans vs. 90 grams). This means I’m brewing only two batches a week instead of 3-4. That’s a huge time saver. Second, the SR-800 is operated manually, which means you stand by the roaster and adjust the fan and temperature as required during the roast. This may not sound like an advantage, but our previous roaster (now discontinued) was a pain to program and only stored one roasting profile at a time. Not good if you like to try coffee from around the world, because one roasting profile does not suit all coffees. With a manual roaster, you just put in 180 grams of beans and start the machine. What I discovered with the SR-800 is that there are only a few basic principles to follow for a consistently good roast. Hot air is blown into the glass roasting chamber, which pushes the beans in the center up and the beans on the outside down, and so the first principle is to keep the beans moving this way to ensure they are evenly roasted and none are scorched. You start with a high fan speed to circulate the heavy beans and a medium temp to remove moisture, and then gradually increase to maximum temp during the first two minutes. The second principle is to reduce the fan speed step by step as the beans lose their moisture and become lighter. You only need enough fan speed to push the beans in the center to the top so that the outside beans will sink to the bottom. The beans don’t need to be flying around the chamber. As you lower the fan speed, the temp becomes substantially hotter. My roasts generally peak at 450+ degrees Fahrenheit. The third principle is to finish heating the beans within about 8 minutes. I like the beans to start popping at around 6 minutes, and then become evenly dark and plump in the next two minutes. You finish with the cool setting at the highest fan speed and lowest temp for a total time in the roaster of about 10 minutes. If you roast the beans too long, the flavor will become muted and bland. The above is my recipe for a medium dark roast just short of any oil coming out of the beans. I don’t like oily beans because they are messy and the oils starts to go rancid in a few days. I also don’t care for the acidic taste of very light roasts, but to each his own. You can adjust the time and temp as you please to achieve your ideal roast. It takes a few batches to get the hang of it, but it’s not all that hard if you pay attention to what the beans are doing in the roaster for about 8 minutes. Personally, I like watching the beans roast and tweaking the fan and temp. It’s fun and I love the results. The SR-800 seems to be the ideal starter roaster for 2-3 coffee drinkers in one household. Better machines start at double the price and not everyone can taste the difference.

Lets talk about the flaws first. When its 60 degrees outside it is a bit underpowered. Instead of 220 grams of coffee I roast at a time, I use about 170 grams. You will have to turn up the heat to full, and turn the fan on the highest setting for the drying process. Your beans must always move. At first the beans do not move much as they have moisture in them in the first phase of the drying process. I stir them without the chaff collector on. I have a fan that blows the chaff away from the chimney on the roaster. I do this out in the back yard so I do not care if it makes a mess i just wash it down with water when I'm done. I always check the bean temps with a infrared temp gun through the top of the glass chimney I do not follow the built in temp meter because its a bit off until way in the roasting process. When the beans start moving on there own, I turn the fan to 8 for a minute, then turn the fan to 7 and still on full heat power. Then the beans will get to 360 degrees for a few minutes, on the mallard phase where the beans develope the Sugars. After about 8 minutes in the beans will get to 390 degrees for finishing. You want to keep the beans for about 3 minutes between 350 and 370 to convert the sugars in the bean. After that its the roasting phase, and the temp will go up to 390 or more by that time. If its hotter outside you can add more beans to 220 grams, and should not have a problem getting bean temp to 420 degrees. You really want to check the bean temperature with a infrared temp gun. Dodn't rely trying to get a temp through the glass when your using the chaff collector through the glass with the infrared temp gun. The Chaff collector needs to be off and then you can lazor right into the top of the glass to the beans. if you want to use the chaff collector then fine, but the real bean temperature is abit off on the roaster concerning bean temp. Otherwise when its warm outside, I just fill up 220 grams and go to town. No problems underpowered on warm days. You will need to turn the power down to 8 or seven, and the fan. Remember 3 or 4 mins drying, 3or 4 minutes between 360 and 370 (not over 380 degrees as this is the mallard phase converting starches to sugars and will stop the mallard or sugar developing phase, your coffee will not taste any sweetness.) And the next phase is the real roasting phase. Please unless you like totally black beans with the oils covering the beans its nasty. I do not ever go over 410 degrees. If you see oils on the beans there way overcooked, and your coffee will taste totally bland without good flavors. Primos Coffee on Amazon is good coffee beans very fresh, not too expensive, and really plump up and they are from a single estate so not every Tom, Dick, and Harry's beans is not mixed together. I like green coffee from Mexico the best so I ordered some from Anthony's There products are high quality also, and organic from Mexico. Do try Single Estate coffee its way better.

Overall, an excellent choice for beginning roasters. I transitioned to this from a popcorn popper when that gave up the ghost. The SR-800 in fact has taught me much about roasting, and I appreciate that. For the most part the SR-800 is simple to use, and the ability to adjust both heat and fan speed enable the straight through blower design as well as the ability to increase your roasting speed towards the end of your roast. The latter is good because the roasting speed is fairly slow, the positive side of this slowness is that the roast is always quite even. The larger capacity is also good, especially given the slower roasting speed. The materials and engineering seem to be of good quality, and so far I have had no real issues with it. The cons are listed here more as a suggestion for improvement to the manufacturer than really significant design issues, although I have only been using it for a couple of months so that may change. As has been mentioned in other reviews, the two piece top / chaff collector only sits on the top of the device, it does not clip in, and there is no way to secure it. This seems likely to cause problems in future. Also, the glass roasting chamber again only sits on the base, it does not clip in. Again, this should be redesigned. The roasting cycle is slow, at least with larger loads, probably because the heating element should have a higher maximum temperature. As mentioned above, this can be somewhat improved by turning down the fan speed, but considering I never use the lower heat registers, there is room for improvement here. Finally, more of an annoyance, but the single multi function button / knob takes more than a little getting used to. I could imagine three single function button / knobs would be more intuitive, with a button to display the chamber temperature in addition to the controls that are present.

I can't say enough good things about this roaster and especially the customer service. I bought it over 6 years ago and it acted up after 1 1/2 years, which is beyond the 1 year warranty. They will repair a roaster for $50 (plus your shipping to them, only), but i mentioned that i was disappointed that it broke after 1 1/2 years of moderate (1-2 times per week) use. They fixed it free of charge. Five years later it died so I sent it in, still a $50 flat rate repair charge. It was returned in about a week and it looks and performs like a brand new roaster. I know that the $337 price tag is not cheap, but when you amortize it over its lifetime (even including the repair charge) and compare that to how much you save by not buying high-end roasted coffee, I think it's worth the money.

Item works well. I have an older Fresh Roast SR500, this is hands down much better overall. Better bean agitation, resulting in very even roasting. Better temperature control and fan speed. Also allows roasting of up to 8oz of green coffee which is what I normally roast at a time. The older one could only do up to 4oz at a time. I have been roasting coffee going on 7 years, this was a nice upgrade. Note: The manual portion is nice if you are roasting by sight, sound and smell. You can adjust the temp and fan speed for the different types of coffee beans you are roasting or different roast levels. The count down timer you can adjust and add more time if needed while in the middle of the roasting along with manually entering into cool down when through with the roast. Overall very pleased with the product. Just ordered the product and already roasted 10lbs of coffee for friends and family for Christmas. Very pleased with the results and simplicity of use. Thanks!