Good video, and good tips on roasting. I have had a Gene Cafe since early 2007 -- just over 16 years now! I had to replace the heating element once during that time, but otherwise it just keeps going. I roast about two 8oz batches per week, plus more for holiday gifts, so I have put 900+ pounds through it. And it's still going! The early video comments about it "paying for itself" are absolutely true. I do have one caution for people watching this video: While I agree that pre-heating is important, you should NEVER NEVER NEVER unplug the machine while it is actively heating! If you want 250C preheat, then preheat to 275C -- and turn down the temp (so the heating elements are off), wait 30 seconds for the elements to cool, and only then unplug or E-stop. Unplugging the machine while the elements are actively heating, as advocated in this video, will seriously lower the life of the heating element. It is basically "red-hot" when heating, and suddenly turning off the air flow (fan) will cause oxidation or even partial melting of the heating element. Don't do it!

It's amazing to see other foreigners in Japan roasting and so into coffee like me 😂

Thanks for uploading this!

Thankyou for this information. I'm in UK and new to home roasting. Used a popcorn popper for a couple of roasts and now decided to buy the Gene Cafe. Waiting for it to be delivered this week Jan 2023

very helpful, thanks!

I love this video! I recently got my hands on a gene roaster. Only thing I’d say is no need for music.

Thanks! Just got it and use your way to roast it!

I have the same roaster, I just bough a new one because my old one was worn out efter many many years of great service. I roast for 6 minutes at 160 degrees, and then another 11-12 minutes at 235. Makes perfect coffee every time...

For coffee lovers seeking the most flavor, you should aim to balance the degassing of CO2 with the loss of important aromatics. For darker roasted coffees, this period usually starts after the first few days after roasting. For lighter roasted coffees, it's a good idea to wait a little longer before diving in, about 5-10 days. This is because dark roast coffees are more porous than light roast after spending more time in the roaster.

Let a comment on another of your videos and subscribed. Just went from many years of air roasting to my first drum, this one. Struggling with not being able to hear first crack and "bean rattle" with this but mainly trying to understand why the timer is going after several times long before my programmed time is reached. Thanks for the tutorial.

Great easy to follow vid!!! In my experience the chaff collector doesn’t do a great job so I go outside and pass the coffee from basket to basket letting the chaff fly away. Also I’ve tried drinking a fresh roast immediately and I can’t really pick that much of a difference. It’s interesting to notice subtle differences from day to day however. Ive always read 10 days is optimum but I enjoy it at every stage 😬 Traditionally Africans roast and drink in the same sitting so I think it’s definitely worth trying.

I start between 240-250 degrees C, and drop to 240-235 degrees C, and for my Arbica beans, this gives me a milk chocolate flavour on the front pallet and a vanilla flavour on the back pallet, and for my Rubusta I go straight for 250 degrees C, and I get a mix of flavours depending on where the beans are from

Excelent video

Awesome video! 👏

I had this roast machine for 2 years and I experimented a lot with various settings and coffees There is only one way to roast with gene cafe and have REALLY good results Batch size, 200gr for low medium dense beans and 150 for really high dense Preheat at max temp for 10' and then act quick and put the beans inside Roast at max temp and watch for 1st crack Now, if you want city roast, 15"-30" after finished 1st crack, stop the machine and quickly cool the beans with a fan outside the glass, I had a diy sieve for this

No need to pull the plug to allign the handle. Just hold down the red button. The heater and fan will stop and the chamber will automatically rotate to the removal position.😎

How long should I let it cool between uses

Thank you Charlie for the video. My first two roasts were nasty, bitter, and flat. After talking with some folks I realized I had baked the beans. Going to try your suggestions for my next batch. Also, you might want to put the fahrenheit number in as well for those of us across the pond. ;)

the music is too loud and distracting the information

I buy my coffee on matsuya coffee! I use to buy in namamame though!

Great video. One concern though: I'd be wary of heating up the roaster and then unplugging it. To not overheat and risk damage, I'd think that the fan in the heating element would be really important.

Constructive feedback: the music is too loud and distracting. I've also gotten advice from others to use the emergency stop at the end of the roast rather than using the build in cooling phase. This is because the cooling phase does not cool down the beans quickly enough, and you may risk overshooting the roast.

Please clean the chamber.. Its so dark oily😂.. Some tips you can soak it with some espresso detergent and rub with some hard brush to loosen the oils.. Nice channel anyway.. How do you find lighter roast on gene? I never tasted any goodness from medium roast to below (my medium is 2-2.5 mins after FC).. Usually sour and grassy.. In my opinion this roaster is suitable for espresso roast (city plus and up) than filter.. What do you think??

Just got my Gene Coffee roaster. It does not get hot enough or I'm not sure what. My beans just yellow in color after 30 min. roasting and on the max. temp. Do you have any answer to this?

In page 9 of the GENE Cafe Roaster manual, 6- Safety Precaution, the last sentence of the top left box mentions that "Do not preheat this product without coffee beans". Is it really safe to do the preheating as you suggest? Does the preheating really make any different as drying process does not start any chemical reaction? The suggested temperature and time in Roasting Level table in page 6 must already include the time require for beans heating at the beginning from room temperature. Thus, with the pre-heating, the suggested times in that table become too much to reach the desired final results.

I've had mine almost a week and I've done 5 roasts

Question: I have just brought a Kaldi wide coffee roaster 😁 and iv been seeing a few people online that have made extraction fans to, as they say " regulate the temperature better'' and to get rid of smoke that might ''effect the flavour of the bean'' I would like to know your thoughts/ oppinion on that. good video as well 👍

I saw another video where the poster indicated the manufacturer says preheating will prematurely wear the chamber.

Hi Charlie, is there a reason why you need to pre-heat the chamber before loading the beans? Do you see the difference or have you done the comparison in terms of the taste when comparing with when you loading the beans right from the very beginning?

What about the chaff? where does it go?

Good info but the music is too much - tone it down - a lot.

Just bought one. The manual says you should not preheat the machine without beans in it. Should I do it Anyways?

I wonder how you can get the Gene hot so fast? What current does it run on? You got 210 C in less than 5 min. I usually preheat more than 10 min .. I have roasted some beans for over 20 min, and still not hit the second crack. (A two stage roast, first drying at 160C for 8+ min, take beans out, cool them, and then preheat Gene again, and then roast for 20+ min.)

Hello! Thank you for the informative video. I was wondering if you could share the temperatures and times you use for the Ethiopian coffee, that's what I predominantly drink and I just got a Gene Cafe roaster. Any help would be very appreciated thank you!

I purchase my beans from the same store I believe, 生豆！

What’s your airtight cylinder ?!

With mine i can keep my finger on the red button instead of turning off the machine when preheating

I've had a Gene for about 10 years and I roast about 30 lbs a year of espresso blend (mostly Brazilian, some Colombian, and Uganda). You don't have to pull the plug to shut off the machine, just hold the red temp button for a couple seconds. I would recommend you let the beans sit in an open container or dish for 24 hours to properly degas, before placing them in an air tight container. I love my Gene. With the price of quality green beans as opposed to roasted who knows when beans you buy in town, I have saved the price of the Gene several times over. The original Genes had poorly made heating elements. I was replacing mine about every year to 18 months. Then about 5 years ago they either upped the quality control or found another Chinese manufacturer. I installed the last heating element 5 years ago and it is still working just fine. I bought two just in case. I hate to be waiting on parts when I could be roasting fresh coffee. I am dubious as to the value of preheating your chamber. Just start at the lower temp until the beans yellow and ramp up while listening for the crack. 550 pounds! Yikes! They sell for less than $600 bucks in US.

The issues I have with home coffee roasters they don’t roast enough per batch. It takes you almost an hr to do 1 pound. I don’t know how much coffee many people go though but a pound for my household isn’t nothing.

Today better with gene cafe= Buy a real drum roaster

where do you buy green coffee in Japan?

Don't have a window to use, and ??? for the money, why don't they put some sort of filter on the roaster? A charcoal filter maybe?

Hey bud, Have we chatted in the past? Do you still stay in Japan?

genecafeの使用期間はどれくらいですか？ 故障したりしましたか？

Since this is an old video you probably won't comment. I have the gene roaster almost 9 years now. I've used it a lot but not continuously. But these are my coments. 1) first I don't think it does any good to preheat. And pulling the plug on a hot unit could cause increase internal degradation. I would not do it and I really don't think it's necessary. 2) the heating element is it is either on or it is off. It doesn't matter where you set the thermostat. Setting the thermostat above the internal temperature, means that the heating Element is on it doesn't put any more power to the unit. If you turned the thermostat higher . So if you want to cook the beans so to speak then set it below the first crack and let the beans spend some time there then turn it up to a temperature above first crack. I physically live in Panama and travel to Colombia frequently so good access to local beans. One challenge I have found is finding beans that are all the same size. beans even from sources in the United States, I sometimes get packages of Coffee beans that are not graded equally.. I also don't roast more than about 150 g at a time but it does depend on how much chaff that you get from the beans. Lower chaff beans you can go to 225 g 3) my opinion is you really don't have many options. Except for one and that is how long after first crack are you going before starting the cool down cycle. And yes it will coast higher. And again the biggest problem is getting beans there graded equal size. It has been a good unit it has many hours of roasting on it. And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to operate it 😁

You stated that you do not recommend roasting longer than 15 minutes yet your Brazilian roast was 16 minutes. Why?

Dude - what's the Ninja Blade grinder doing? I sure hope you don't grind your beans with that.

I'm not sure I got that right so please confirm the roasting process: 1. Preheat @ 210°C until the machine gets up to that temp. 2. Force stop the machine 3. Load 175 g of green coffee beans 4. Start roast at 235°C 5. At the start of browning (~6 min. in) lower temp. to 220°C 6. Raise temp. to 230°C (when the machine reaches 220°C ?) 7. end roast at 16 min. 8. let machine cool beans I think you missed some really important points in your video: a. Could you please mention at which point in time had FC started? b. What means beginning of browning to you? How do you determine that you are there? c. How much did the beans weigh after roasting? d. And most importantly how did it taste? e. How did you roasted the Ethiopian coffee? Same process but end it sooner? When? f. Is this process how you normally roast a coffee for the first time?

Sorry I couldn’t watch. I have auditory processing disorder, and just couldn’t hear you above the music.

couldn't finish the video, annoying music playing in the background.

Not bad..but next time..86 the music...

dude your music is too loud.

Kinda seems like this is kinda cheaply made. The constant clicking while the drum was rotating is horrible also the idea that using it will damage the motor and that the plastics could melt. This is not good why has the company not sourced the correct plastics that can handle really high temps also I can imagen they are using a non branded hobby motor. I personally would not buy this roaster for these reasons I can see this product not long living. The fact in the plastics melting is crazy and possibly extremely dangerous!!

How long should I let it cool between uses