Green Coffee Buying Club
Coffee Discussion boards => Hardware & Equipment => Topic started by: djbetterly on February 22, 2016, 04:11:16 AM
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Are there any Quest M3 users on here? I see there are stickies for a lot of other roasters, but none for the quest.
I'd love to get the Quest on the stickies list for listing tips and roast guides!
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I am one of them. I have been using Quest for more than 8 months.
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@whattodo, are you using it completely manual or did you mod it?
Curious if you have any tips so far.
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Also, here is a Quest cheat sheet that was created by a user on another forum.
Here's a link as well: Click Here!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ohp2E7ceLbNlhwcmEwNnVNQ1E/view?usp=sharing (http://Here's a link as well: Click Here!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9ohp2E7ceLbNlhwcmEwNnVNQ1E/view?usp=sharing)
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Two thermocouples with TMD-56 and Artisan software. Only mod I did is insulation by using ceramic blanket.
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I've been using the Quest for about 2 years. Did the same as wattodo except no ceramic blanket instead I painted the drum. I roast 285g to wind up with 8oz batches. I did 10 batches yesterday back to back with just a 1/2 hour break for lunch at batch 5. No problem at all. I cool the beans by blowing air up from the bottom of a 12" flat flour sifter laid on top of a 24" floor fan that rests on a stool horizontally up against the counter. Beans cool to room temp. in 2 minutes and chaff flies all over my kitchen. I lay a 4" dryer hose up against the back of the roaster and up to my range hood where I have it connected to the filter with a simple wire. This gives me more air through the roaster when needed and keeps the smoke out of the house. I plug the roaster into a 'Kill a Watt' to control the heat level. This gives me a more accurate way to control the heat than relying on the amp meter on the roaster. My roaster was manufactured in March 2011.
Gene
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A few questions:
- What is your average roast size?
- Charge temp? (Based on what thermocouple)
- Regarding the fan, what do you find works the best? I recently tried two roasts, one with fan at #2 and one with fan at #4 and noticed a big
difference in body and flavor of the roast..for the worse. I'm curious what you guys do?
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I'm rocking a quest as well. I have one of the newer ones (thinner drum), EricS probes (BT/MET), and a black drum. I've been using batch sizes of 250g, though I like the idea of adjusting it such that I get 8oz of roasted coffee. Charge temps depend on the coffee, somewhere around 400F (BT) for standard profiles. For naturals and other super-fruity coffee's I've had good results with dragging out drying (subsequently spending less time in development) so I'll charge a bit lower, maybe ~350. I make many fan adjustments as roasts progress, monkey-turning knobs to try and keep BT on track and keep MET at reasonable values, so I don't have any hard advices there.
Been having a lot of fun with it. And fortunately there seems to be no shortage of quest experts scattered about the various coffee fora.
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Good to hear! I purposely had this stickies because of all the forums I'm on, there really isn't a singled out quest forum, so I'm happy this one is stickied.
I've had good luck charging at 300 BT but I keep the fan at one speed until first crack then go full throttle. I added the PID Setup with the arduino/tc4, SSR and Eric S. probes to mine so artisan can control the temperature of the elements. I'm incredibley happy with the accuracy of the software and the PID. The PID also allows for me to repeat a roast quite easily. It's not expensive to do, but it's slightly tricky if you have no wiring experience.
I've attached two photos of my setup as well.
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160229/a5deff5fb1089e31f882d498ccfce400.jpg)
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160229/0fd9a76c3ff2b3a5f32590d3cffcc857.jpg)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Very cool! What kind of improvements did you notice by adding insulation? From what I read it makes it easier to "coast" at constant METs? I also have to imagine it increases overall efficiency (same temp at lower amps), much like the black drum.
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The unit holds heat a lot better with the insulation and yes allows the roast to cost a fair amount.
I did find a pretty decent article from a fellow coffee geek that talks about the insulation. Check it out. He also has some other useful notes as well.
http://no-stream.tumblr.com/post/121968145291/m3-roaster-insulation-experience-speculation
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Have any of played with the idea that using high fan at first crack changes the end flavor of the coffee?
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I recall a few folks mention cranking the fan at first crack, the reasons sometimes varied (e.g. "bringing more energy" into the drum to encourage 1cs, also to more quickly collect chaffe). Assuming you can keep the MET where you want it I've definitely noticed more vigorous cracking if I go into it with a bit higher fan speed. I don't max it out though because I'm usually wanting a bit a wiggle room to keep MET constant.
It's an interesting thing to try though, next time I'm roasting multiple batches I'll try it out.
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I've had a QM3 for about a year. First real roaster - upgraded from an Air Popper. Very happy with machine. I haven't yet mod'ed it. Running it stock. Roast about 2-5 lbs per week in 1 continuous session of 8 ounce (pre-roast) doses. Almost always do that session as continuous roast. I've had no problems with the machine, and as I learn more I expect to mod it with probes and software. Only 2 gripes: 1) pesky it is to clean...the fan blade is very compact and difficult to navigate; 2) would love if it had larger capacity. Great machine though.
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What were you all using before you got your Quest? I've run a Behmor for the last 18 months and do okay, but am sure there isn't more to be gotten from the beans.
How much of a headache is it to get the probe system running, and how OCD does one have to be about the numbers to get good roasts?
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What were you all using before you got your Quest? I've run a Behmor for the last 18 months and do okay, but am sure there isn't more to be gotten from the beans.
How much of a headache is it to get the probe system running, and how OCD does one have to be about the numbers to get good roasts?
I jumped into a quest straight away, once I had gotten the idea that I liked roasting coffee I figured I'd just jump into the deep end
The probe setup was really straightforward. There are a variety of options, any combination of compatible thermocouples and sensor boards will get the job done, but if you want easy installation you can't go wrong with the BT/MET EricS setup. I have those running into a Phidgets 1048, then via usb to computer. After some quick driver selection and axes setup in Artisan everything just "works" really nicely without much fiddling.
The probes are a great learning aid in my opinion. I don't think you necessarily need to be OCD about tracking the numbers and matching profiles, but being able to experiment and correlate differences in a profile to the taste in the cup is absolutely invaluable.
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Thx RBK.
That sort of "plug and play" option is appealing, as opposed to "plug and pray".
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Hi! I'm new to the forum.
I've had a M3 for a few months. Mine is the newer model with 2 thermometers and an insulated drum. I had a Freshroast and Behmor before this and I'm liking the Quest much more!
I've been doing 200g charges and am experimenting with 250g and 300g charges and finding that it's working out ok. It took me a few tries before I was able to figure out how to get a strong 1st crack and not have it stall out but now that I've gotten the hang of it I've been able to get pretty consistent roasts. I usually get to 1C at between 9:30 and 10:00, and will pull after 2 mins of development which is usually before any 2C happens. I try to have all 1C done within 1:30 but sometimes it lingers.
I've noticed a few quirks that maybe you guys can help me with:
1) the BT thermometer seems off: depending on the coffee the very first 1C pops don't come until between 410 and 425F, so I'm judging where I'm at based on how much rise I've gotten from 1C rather than what temp I *should* be at. I've calibrated the thermometer with ice water and boiling water and it seems fine. I guess it's not a big deal, but it's irritating to my brains.
2) I haven't really been able to figure out airflow really factors in to things. My brains say that more airflow should slow down the rate of rise, and less airflow should speed it up but i can't really tell much of a difference if any. My machine is a newer one that supposedly is different in that a 0 on the fan dial still allows some airflow whereas in older models a 0 was litterally no fan at all.
3) my ROR is typically starts around 30F/min in the drying phase, gets down to 20F for yellowing/browning, and then I hope to hit 1C at about 15F/min. It can really stall in the browning phase if I don't push the heat up. Does that sound about right to you guys? I like the cup I end up with, but I get so stuck on wanting to be DOING IT RIGHT
thanks y'all!
- P
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Hi! I'm new to the forum.
I've had a M3 for a few months. Mine is the newer model with 2 thermometers and an insulated drum. I had a Freshroast and Behmor before this and I'm liking the Quest much more!
I've been doing 200g charges and am experimenting with 250g and 300g charges and finding that it's working out ok. It took me a few tries before I was able to figure out how to get a strong 1st crack and not have it stall out but now that I've gotten the hang of it I've been able to get pretty consistent roasts. I usually get to 1C at between 9:30 and 10:00, and will pull after 2 mins of development which is usually before any 2C happens. I try to have all 1C done within 1:30 but sometimes it lingers.
I've noticed a few quirks that maybe you guys can help me with:
1) the BT thermometer seems off: depending on the coffee the very first 1C pops don't come until between 410 and 425F, so I'm judging where I'm at based on how much rise I've gotten from 1C rather than what temp I *should* be at. I've calibrated the thermometer with ice water and boiling water and it seems fine. I guess it's not a big deal, but it's irritating to my brains.
2) I haven't really been able to figure out airflow really factors in to things. My brains say that more airflow should slow down the rate of rise, and less airflow should speed it up but i can't really tell much of a difference if any. My machine is a newer one that supposedly is different in that a 0 on the fan dial still allows some airflow whereas in older models a 0 was litterally no fan at all.
3) my ROR is typically starts around 30F/min in the drying phase, gets down to 20F for yellowing/browning, and then I hope to hit 1C at about 15F/min. It can really stall in the browning phase if I don't push the heat up. Does that sound about right to you guys? I like the cup I end up with, but I get so stuck on wanting to be DOING IT RIGHT
thanks y'all!
- P
I am learning to use a Huky. I know it is different from the Quest but they do have some similarities.
A couple things:
Airflow can reduce heat at some points of the roast by cooling the beans too much, at other times it raises the heat. The exact reasoning was explained to me somewhere and I can't re-state it correctly. But I have cranked the fan a couple times toward the end of the roast and watched the heat jump.
I think you might be baking the beans a little if you're hitting 1C at 15 min. That is like the Behmor which is a slow and low roast style. Coffee probably tastes okay but when compared to a 10-12 minute roast I bet those would have more detail and less of a massing of flavors.
What temp are you charging at?