The Fat lady sang!

[Ray T]

Congrats Jim.

[woodstock]

Congrats!  Looking forward to your updates!

[Ascholten]

How long did they say to deliver it to you?

Aaron

[jspain]

Looking to have it delivered and installed on 8/24. Hpwever I shared with Joshua that if his new 5K isn't ready to rock I'd be willing to be patient..... ?

[9Sbeans]

BUCKEYS eat gopher meat only if the buzzards don't get to it as soon as the BUCKS defensive line KILLS IT! Wisconsin baby badgers couldn't beat the BUCKS so you moved to Gopher land! I'll bet theirs no better luck there! 

There is an old joke; Big Ten couldn’t count to 10.

Congrats Jim.  You are the first one to score.  I’ll be waiting for their 1# roaster update.

Go Bucks!
Pat

[jspain]

OK, Here we go with my first 3 roasts!

First a few initial observations.... The new roaster is a beast! Heavy duty but very quiet. Easily hear the cracks. This roaster, the Golden GR1 Plus, is a 1.5K roaster. Solid steel drum of heavy steel. Direct fire with three burners. 4 motors for continual roasting, fan, drum, and temp control. This roaster did not come with data logging but is available upon order. I like to manually log, no problem.

I dropped the first roast at 175 degree C. 2# 8 oz load. Joshua did 3.3# loads only. I want to have 2# finish roast and that is 70% of capacity which most folks say is optimum on a drum....  Damper and fan @ 50% and hit first crack at 5mins and roast city plus at 8 min. Too fast but looks great. My guess is it's under developed?

Second roast dropped at 165 degree C  and hit first crack at 5 min and 30 seconds and the  roast pulled at 9 minutes, full city plus. Too fast and too dark "I think." Roast 1 and 2 were a Columbian grown at 1750 meters.

Last roast a Nic grown at 1500 meters dropped @ 160 degree C and the damper opened 100% and exhaust fan faster. First crack @ 7 min and 30 seconds. Temp increased @ 7 minutes and fan slowed. Roast pulled at the end of 1st crack at 11 mins. City plus and actually could have gone another min! I believe I'm getting closer with that one? Now, Cupping in three days to include a basis roast of the same Columbian from my 1# Sono to compare.... I'll update with results.  "After vacation to lake Michigan!"

Joshua will have his 5K installed in about a week. The 500 gram sample roaster will be coming in in 2 weeks. I'm going to test drive her once she comes and is running up in Canfield. Joshua presents it will roast 600-800 grams....?

 

[peter]

Maybe I'm mis-reading, but it looks like you're only adjust damper and fan.  Have you considered playing w/ the gas too?

[milowebailey]

Jim

I'm with peter on this.... adjust your gas pressure.. I assume it has a gas valve on it? 

You can be the logger.. Run a batch with gas, air and damper full open.  Draw a simple graph and plot the temperature each minute.  Note the time of first crack.  Then plot of what profile you want to run.  Say the blue line below.  Guess how much to reduce the gas to slow it down... you might need full gas for the first few minutes then need to reduce it.  Do a few roasts with different adjustments, keep track of the temperature each minute of the roast and adjust the gas to suit.  Get comfortable with the gas adjustment and where you need to run it, once you have the time of the roast where you want it do it again adjusting your air.  If you don't have a gas gauge, consider installing one, then you will be more accurate.... You'll get a hang of it once you have a few more roasts under your belt.  I charge my roaster typically at 385 degrees, but I'm roasting 4.5 lbs of green most of the time.  I hit first at about 10 minutes with gas at about 90%.

your sono really didn't have any adjustment... drum roaster roasting is very different (you now have control )

[jspain]

Peter and Larry,

The roaster has a gauge at the roaster and at the tank. However the roaster itself has a digital temp setting that is for adjustments. It has an alarm system that keeps temp at the set temp. To keep the flame from firing I change the temp setting digital control. My first three roasts I tried to just mess with airflow to control temp but I do see that I will need to reset the temp as the roast progresses. The airflow helps but without lowering the temp gauge the roaster responses to more air flow by firing again to regain loss temp. Commercial roasters roast FAST! I Need to make those temp adjustment then add air flow to more quickly change temp after those first 4 minutes. Getting a handle on that will take a few more roasts. I could just adjust the gas gauge but it appears to me that the temp setting gauge is for that purpose......

Thanks for your insights!. Now it's a matter of those fine touches and how to make them!  FUN in OHIO!

[peter]

If I'm reading you right, when you adjust your temp, can you see a change in the gas pressure?  If that's the case I'd learn to roast by setting the gas pressure at certain time points, using the temp adjustment. 

That seems a bit odd for a roaster to be set up that way, but it may be their way of adding a bit of automation, to let you set the temp and let the roaster determine the gas it needs to reach and maintain that temp setting.

Do you have another temp reading for the beans, besides the temp reading that is connected to the gas pressure?

Or, maybe I have it all wrong...

[jspain]

If I'm reading you right, when you adjust your temp, can you see a change in the gas pressure?  If that's the case I'd learn to roast by setting the gas pressure at certain time points, using the temp adjustment. 

That seems a bit odd for a roaster to be set up that way, but it may be their way of adding a bit of automation, to let you set the temp and let the roaster determine the gas it needs to reach and maintain that temp setting.

Do you have another temp reading for the beans, besides the temp reading that is connected to the gas pressure?

Or, maybe I have it all wrong...

Peter,

Your part right. The temp setting is a digital  setting that can be adjusted. There is bean temp and exhaust temp readings. Those first 3 roasts were just to get the feel and to mimic to a degree what Josh from Stone fruit did as he roasted. I believe Josh's temp spread was not enough thus I am now going to start adjusting the temp and let the automated temp gauge work. I'll set the first temp setting for drop temp, then lower the gauge to allow a good drop before I ramp just before first crack. I'm working toward a 12 minute roast, first crack at 8 minutes... There is no read out of gas pressure at the roaster other than the reading on the gauge itself. The manual presents temp adjustments made at the temp gauge and allow the automated temp sensor to call for heat (fire) or not. The one issue I see is that the solid drum is thick and adjusting temp after drop will be a challenge. However with the temp change and airflow I believe I'll hit the mark.

Thanks again for your input. Sometimes I read too much and try too hard, but that's the fun of experimentation and the search for the perfect cup!

[peter]

I think the difference you're seeing between your roast times and Josh's are due to his larger batch size.

I'd still recommend setting your gas according to the reading on the gauge.  Your drum is most likely similar to the drum on Larry's and my Ambex.  All it takes is knowing how far in advance you need to change things.  Having that heat in the drum's mass is a great thing once you know how it'll react; it's almost impossible to stall in 1C, and with very little flame you can get a very smooth and gradual temp rise during and after 1C automatically.

[jspain]

I think the difference you're seeing between your roast times and Josh's are due to his larger batch size.

I'd still recommend setting your gas according to the reading on the gauge.  Your drum is most likely similar to the drum on Larry's and my Ambex.  All it takes is knowing how far in advance you need to change things.  Having that heat in the drum's mass is a great thing once you know how it'll react; it's almost impossible to stall in 1C, and with very little flame you can get a very smooth and gradual temp rise during and after 1C automatically.

YEP! I totally agree and I'm on board!

Now Patti and I are heading to northern Lake Mich. for 10 days and a bit of salmon fishing. Once I get home I HOPE my "Grounds for Health" greens are ready to ship to OHIO and I'll be a roasting maniac!!!!

Thanks again Warden for your help and support! Hope to see you soon on a visit towards friends.