Behmor

History

Joe Behm did not come from coffee. After two years of university, he worked in masonry on high-rise buildings. He then became an electronics sales representative at Marshall Industries, in Irvine, California. This stint matters, because it explains the machine that follows: a device driven by electronics, not by a timer. In 1997, a trip to Costa Rica let him taste the coffee of Café Monteverde, roasted in the shop itself. That taste became his reference. He began roasting at home in June 1999, first by watching his toaster oven, then by seeing an advertisement for the Ronco Showtime rotisserie. The home market of the time was limited to small hot-air machines, with no program and no fume treatment. Behm therefore aimed at three gaps at once: capacity, electronics, and a way not to smoke up the kitchen. He started in the fall of 2001, from cardboard mockups to final plans. Not being a roaster, he says he took advice from coffee professionals, Scott Reed, Ted Lingle and Don Holly. The Behmor 1600 came out in 2007. The company has remained in Incline Village, on the shore of Lake Tahoe, and its catalog still holds two roasters.

What it makes

The 1600 and its successors are electric countertop drums, heated by radiation and not by the wall. The elements are quartz, that is, silica glass tubes that glow red and emit infrared. The bean therefore receives heat from a distance, as under a grill, instead of taking it by contact with a hot metal wall. Behmor sells these elements only in pairs, so the chamber has two. The drum is made of steel mesh, which lets this radiation and the air through. The other key piece is the fume treatment, which the manuals declare patent pending. The outgoing air passes through a heated channel, which Behmor calls the afterburner, that is, a secondary burner that finishes burning the fumes before they reach the room. It is the principle of the afterburner on industrial roasters, reduced here to a spare part sold for 24.95 dollars. It is what makes it possible to roast in a kitchen without an extraction hood. The manufacturer measures 1607 W at 120 V for the whole machine.

The models

A single line, taken up again and corrected over time. The Behmor 1600 came out in 2007, the 1600 Plus in September 2014, the AB in April or May 2019, the 2000AB in 2020. The abbreviation AB stands for the all-black finish, but this model above all brings temperature readout and the fast motor. The Plus designation refers to the panel with manual controls, which appeared in 2014 and became standard afterward. All these machines advertise 454 g of green coffee per batch, that is, one pound, with keys for a quarter, a half and a pound. The 2020SR Plus is the same machine in 220-240 V for export. Its weight keys are nevertheless graduated in grams, 100, 200 and 400, while its manual keeps 454 g as the ceiling. Behmor sells two kits that bring a 1600, a 1600 Plus or an AB up to the latest electronic level, at 129 and 94.50 dollars. Separately, the Behmor Jake goes up to 1 kg and down to 100 g. Its construction departs from that of the 1600 on several documented points. The perforated drum weighs 1.4 kg and the chamber 5.9 kg, so this machine works with thermal mass. The chamber air is recycled and adjustable. Two thermocouples read the bean mass and the chamber. A USB port allows it to be driven from Artisan, the free roast profile software. It requires 2000 W and a 20 A outlet. A sight glass and a trier complete the set, the latter being the spoon used to pull a few beans during the roast to look at them.

What you gain

Radiant heating does not depend on the thermal mass of a wall. A quarter-pound batch, 113 g, therefore receives the same heating as a pound. A production drum, for its part, tends to burn the bean against its wall when the charge is too small. The power of the elements is adjusted in quarters, from 0 to 100%, and the drum goes from 16 to 32 rpm during the roast. An electric element responds in a few seconds, where a burner must first warm the steel. The manual claims 454 g taken to the second crack with no visible smoke. The second crack is the second series of cracking sounds, the one that marks the entry into dark roasts, and it is the moment when the smoke becomes abundant. Getting past this point without an extraction hood is what the secondary burner buys.

What you lose

The 1600 line never reads the bean temperature. The display gives the exhaust air, key A, and the chamber wall, key B. Behmor itself writes that a roast must not be driven by these values. The probes carry a tolerance of 1 to 3%, enough to mask a drift one would want to correct. The power of a resistance follows the square of the mains voltage. The manufacturer measures 1607 W at 120 V and 1345 W at 110 V. Eight percent less voltage costs 16.4% of power, hence a roast that drags at peak hours. The manual rules out the Vienna, French and Italian degrees: the machine is not made for these dark roasts. Beyond Full City+, a degree sitting right at the threshold of the second crack, it asks to drop to 336 g at 120 V and to 200 g at 220 V. The warranty falls to six months on the drum and on the chaff tray, against twelve on the rest. These two parts receive the chaff that the bean sheds as it roasts, and they are the ones Behmor sells separately.