title_body: Home Roasting beginner green bean suggestions for learning?
upvoted_answer: I'm trying to narrow my focus for learning purposes so I can really develop a sense of how the process works regarding one specific kind of bean.
  
  That's a good way to start to learn the basics of your roaster, but keep in mind that other roasters will roast the bean differently, especially a tumble or hot air &quot;popcorn&quot; roaster. You'll learn more about the characteristics of that one bean, rather than how to judge the differences in roasts. To truly understand the roasting process, you need see the common events in different beans.
  I suggest learning about roasting by trying several beans to the same roast level. Each will take different times to get there.
  Get an Ethiopian, a Central/South American, a Sumatran, and a decaf (Brazil SWP!!) and roast 1/4 lb (125-135 g) lots to end of 1st crack or start of 2nd crack. Take notes on how they behave: time to start of 1st crack, time to start of 2nd crack, do I like the taste of the results, color change versus time, amount of chaff. Enjoy the results, a different cup every morning.
  Then take them to the middle of 2nd crack. With fire extinguisher at the ready, take them to end of 2nd crack.
  All beans roast differently, even under identical roaster settings. Next year, the same source bean will be slightly different. Some beans are great 30 s after start of 1st crack and others are terrible (Sumatran need to be dark, IMHO, otherwise you get too much &quot;earth&quot;). Some need full city or beyond. A few make a great cup anywhere from 1st crack through 2nd crack with different flavors.