SR800 Coffee Roaster – Roast Coffee at Home – Variable Heat and Fan Control – Digital Display – Roasts 6–8 oz (170–226g) Per Batch – Easy to Use – Fast Roast Time

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.

This allows me to approximately double my batch size over what I typically put in SR540. I typically load 170 grams in SR540 and can easily roast 270 in SR800. Both the fan and heater in SR800 are much stronger and the roast chamber is larger. Everything else appears to be the same and if all the components hold up over time like they do in SR540 I'll be completely satisfied.

Have SR500 which I like quite a bit with glass extension (works good), but wanted to upgrade to SR800 since it roasts 8 ounces of green beans at a time. Roasting 8 OZ of green results in 7 OZ of roasted. Takes about 15 to 17 minutes to get roast near perfect which for us is a medium roast with chaff not burned. Took three roasts to get feeling of controls that allow fan air speed, temperature, and time. Pretty EZ to dark roast. Harder to do lighter roasts, as need to adjust fan speeds & power level of heating element. (note: Best to stop roasts a little bit before desired level. Beans retain heat and will coast darker on their own even when in cool-down mode). One of the best things like about this roaster is it provides the temperature reading right on the display. Therefore, can adjust controls and monitor temps to desired roast level. One down-side is this more powerful roaster is louder than older model and can't hear 1st crack very well. (barely audible) If you aim for 2nd crack .. can miss that go past desired point pretty fast. That's why knowing temperature is important. Chaff collector works good but gets quite hot. Use pot holder or gloves to remove. Larger glass roasting chamber makes it easier to see roast color. Cool down in 3 minutes and seems efficient. (additional cooling not needed) Made several back-to-back roasts with no issues. I roast outside on patio so chaff cleanup & smoke not a problem. Excellent fresh roasted coffee!

I really like that the SR800 is easy to modify to use with the Roasting software of your choice. I have roasted over 300 roasts with the following setup: Roasting software, environment and bean temperature thermocouples, extension tube, and a USB thermometer to the computer. With this mode of roasting, not only can I easily repeat a roast profile; but most importantly, I get a consistent roast every time. The Fresh Roast SR800 fluid air roaster is hard to beat for ease of roasting and obtaining consistency throughout each and every roast.

This machine works great for a small quantity. Quality roast and has a good amount of control while still being simple. Check out “Sweet Maria’s Coffee” review on this to get to know your machine better. The only thing that was frustrating is I found that the lids were a bit fragile. I dropped them a few times while smacking out the husks after roasting and cracked off pieces. That’s a bit of a user error, but just beware! I was using this for the last few months for my business and have finally upgraded to a larger machine as this only does a max of 8 oz per cycle which typically took around 10-15 minutes.

Small batch, great for starting home roasting. Understand the adjustments necessary to roast to perfection. You will want to use a timer.