Perciso seized from Roastmaster's rock

[BozemanEric]

As I was grinding a Panama Elida the Perciso seized to a stop.  I ran over and pulled the plug on it. I had to take the top burr off to get the rock out.  I understand that rocks can show up, especially in natural coffees. I very rarely see them though.  I have never seen them in a coffee from SM or here on GCBC.  I rarely buy beans from RM because I don't think they have the quality that I get at Klatch, SM's, or here. I picked up this Panama because I could not get any more at Klatsch.

The questions I have are:  How often do you find rocks in your beans? Do you find that some vendors have more rocks? How big of a hit can my burrs take before they need to get replaced? 

I will post a photo of the burrs when I have time to take the grinder apart and clean it.  The funny thing is, this was one of the best cups of this roast I have made.  Kone V60, 48g/26oz.

[ScareYourPassenger]

There is always a chance you will find a rock, that is why professional roasters have destoners. I always pour my roasted coffee into a bowl slowly while looking for rocks.  Coffee from Yemen can be real bad about it. I have experienced a rock from every vendor and they cannot do anything about it since the rock is roughly the same density as the green beans.

[Cammie]

Thank you for the reminder to check.  I have purchased quality coffee from RM, Klatch, Bodhi, SM and many GCBC distributors.  I have never found a rock and I think I have become complacent about checking for this potential issue.  I'm teaching my brother-in-law to roast and will need to remind him of this as well.

[Tex]

There was a distro a couple of years ago that had stones in it. Fortunately, I was using the UFO/CO and the batch sizes were small enough that I spotted them (actually I heard them scratching on the bottom of the aluminum pan).

Hopefully the rock in your grinder stopped the burrs before much damage was done?

[RobertL]

I found a small rock just a few days ago in a batch of Sumatra I roasted. The Sumatra was purchased from Sweet Maria's so it can happen from any vendor. Luckily I found it right after roasting and it never made it into my grinder.

[jbviau]

Can you tell if the rock might be a chunk of drying patio?

[milowebailey]

Can you tell if the rock might be a chunk of drying patio?

I've found patio chunks in coffees a few times.  Some of the poorer countries don't have nice smooth concrete to dry the coffee... always good idea to look for them.

I normally save them and put them in coffee I send to Tex

[bekeld]

I'm almost as compulsive about culling as Yakster used to be. I've found small strands of thread, rope, several rocks, a small piece of concrete...and found a staple today. My greens are from here and SM.

Perhaps I'm the magnet that pulls all the trash from the bags into my orders.

[Tex]

Can you tell if the rock might be a chunk of drying patio?

I've found patio chunks in coffees a few times.  Some of the poorer countries don't have nice smooth concrete to dry the coffee... always good idea to look for them.

I normally save them and put them in coffee I send to Tex

I didn't mention any distributors in my post, but making up for short weights by adding rocks seems more common for some than others.

[BozemanEric]

Can you tell if the rock might be a chunk of drying patio?

No, it is a rock.

[mp]

I have not found them too often but on occasion they do show up.

Just keep an eye out when you roast and if you notice something strange check it out further.

 

[rgrosz78]

There is always a chance you will find a rock, that is why professional roasters have destoners. I always pour my roasted coffee into a bowl slowly while looking for rocks.  Coffee from Yemen can be real bad about it. I have experienced a rock from every vendor and they cannot do anything about it since the rock is roughly the same density as the green beans.

It is rare for me NOT to find any rocks when I roast Sweet Maria's Yemen Mocha. I have noticed fewer rocks in the 2011 beans than I had in the 2010.

These pix are from my roast on 10-29-2011. I had three big rocks (and four smaller ones) with 13 ounces of beans.

[dmankin]

I have found occasional stones, but like Tex, my batch size & glass dome in my UFO/TO has luckily allowed me to catch them early... so far.

On a stranger note, I once found something else <weird> in my roaster.  A kernel of popcorn apparently slipped through the cracks as a processing plant shifted from corn to coffee processing.  Talk about first crack!

http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/homeroast/292745

Cheers,

David

[BozemanEric]

A friendly reminder: rocks can show up anywhere. I pulled this little guy out of a high ranked COE that I got last year. It was just about the right size to get caught in the burrs and bring my grinder to a screeching halt.  Surprisingly, Rebekah found this one. Remember to always check your beans.