First, I needed to find a workable profile within 1hr...

National Championship Day 1

Top 7 roasters were selected and gathered at Criteria Coffe in port Melbourne.

We quickly introduced ourselves and had an overview of the site, equipment, and schedule of the whole competition.

And of course the coffees.

There were 3 coffees to create a blend and 1 coffee for a single origin. We were required to submit 500g of a blend and single origin along with each roasting plan for the final evaluation.

Blend:

• Burundi Washed
• Burundi Honey
• Brazil Pulped Natural

• Kenya PB Washed

As I expected, there were natural and honey process. They could be quite tricky to roast. 

If you don't apply enough heat, it will taste underdeveloped.
If you apply too much heat, it will taste bitter.

First, I needed to find a workable profile within 1hr of practice roast with a Diedrich IR 2.5kg. Based on the drum speed and available airflow, I quickly decided to use a 1kg batch size. Even though this roaster is made to roast up to 2.5kg, 1kg batch allowed me to use gentler gas while keeping the roast lengths to relatively short.
Quick roast tends to preserve a lot of aromatics when cupped within a few days. I decided to roast just like a cupping roast, rather lighter roast to accentuate the acidity and sweetness. It may not get a high score in the body, but less caramelized sugar should contribute to the mouthfeel. Lighter roasts are generally favored when compared in a cupping format. It took me about 5 roasts to find a good reference roast curve. Thanks to Cropster for making roasting a lot easier : )
I made sure that the roast profile was saved for tomorrow's production.

As roasters, Green Bean Grading is something we were familiar with. We measure the moisture contents, density, and weight each screen size. The defects counts can be a bit subjective, so I used my common sense, not to over grade it. I will talk about green bean grading in another blog soon.

At the end of the day, I tasted all the sample roasts to write my roast plans. The Kenya PB for single-origin had a stunning acidity and sweetness.
Out of the 3 origins for the blend, Burundi Honey tasted the best, so I decided to use it for 80% of the blend. I then used 10% of the Burundi washed and 10% of the Brazil pulped natural. Simple but effective.
I wrote the start and finish temperatures, roast color, and flavor notes on each coffee, hoping I could achieve a similar outcome the next day during my production roast. Read more about the roasting plan in blog Part 2.

Here were my schedules:
29th May:
9:25-11:00 Sample Roasting/Practice Roasting
12:15-12:30 Lab Practice
13:00-13:30 Green Bean Grading 
14:00-15:00 Cupping Practice roast

30th May:
8:30-9:30 Production (Blend)
9:30-10:00 Production (Single Origin)

31st May
10:30-11:30 Open Cupping 
18:00 Winner Announcement

Continue to part 4