What roaster would you buy today?

[Ascholten]

If you control it that way pwest then they can be pretty snazzy roasters.  you can control the loft and the heat input and honestly I think could get some really decent roasts out of them.
if you just do the campbell soup can chimney with no other controls on it and just throw beans in and 4 minutes later have roasted coffee, then umm no, not the best coffee

brian I looked into that Ikawa roaster you mentioned.  They are trying to push their 'business' model one on me that is running close to 5 grand.  I'll have to see what all the difference is between their 'pro' model at 5 thousand dollars, and the one you mention that is running around 1 thousand dollars.  I'd be really interested to see what huge changes make it shift that much?  Hopefully it's not the  'oh but it's CONNECTED !!!,  it talks directly to fakebook and twatter !! mentality that's driving that price.

A nice little sample roaster that is absolutely repeatable, over and over again all day, has a lot of appeal for sure, but not at 4 to 5k dollars worth.

I'll see if I have time monday to call them on the phone maybe and we can talk a bit.

Aaron

[brianmch]

popcorn poppers to roast with,  i find yes, they are roasty.  I think it's a combo if way too short roast time and the heat is very hot to get the temp up TO roast, and you can't control it.  Pretty much every roaster has some sort of heat control,with a popcorn popper it's just on full blast.

Well heck, 1000 is very close to  approaching doable now.   3100 was not, I'll have to go look at that thing again,  something that cheap, I could justify much easier and write it off.  Dammit man, I do NOT need another roaster!   i may need to start muting people here !   

Aaron

 

[brianmch]

popcorn poppers to roast with,  i find yes, they are roasty.  I think it's a combo if way too short roast time and the heat is very hot to get the temp up TO roast, and you can't control it.  Pretty much every roaster has some sort of heat control,with a popcorn popper it's just on full blast.
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Aaron

I started w/a popcorn popper and put a fan speed control on the fan, and a variac on the heater--I think that is pretty common when roasting with a popcorn popper.

-Phil

The "Popper" is a specific roaster which is why I capitalized it's name. 

Its not a popcorn popper.  It was designed as a roaster with variable fan and heat settings, a timer, and a cooling phase.  It eliminates having to convert a popcorn popper to a roaster as it comes that way.   

THAT said, I can't get anything without that heavy roast note from it -yet.   Not to say its not possible I've just not figured out.  Maybe I just need to work with my timings and drill for a thermocouple or 2. 

And yes, I've followed directions. 

[Ascholten]

brian, I do not have one, so can't speak from absolute experience on it, but, from my days of using FBR's.

Up the loft a little bit, lower the heat a little bit,  yes it will take longer to roast but won't be pushed so hard.  Also don't be afraid to get it cracking, lower the heat a bit, HOLD it there for a minute or so to let it stew..for lack of a better word in the crack zone, then whump the temperature to push it thru and over.

Another trick i have used before, oh god over a decade ago on my Redneck Roaster,  run it straight up into crack, then pull heat way back to essentially stall it a few degrees after crack started.

In other words lets say a roast begins crack at 400 degrees, and first crack ends around 415 degrees,  and at 420 is where second is going to start coming in.
Push it thru, hit 400 it's cracking, VERIFY it's going and not just a rogue early bean, then pull it thru to say 405 degrees, and then pull the temp way back, even if you undershoot it and have to kick it back up,but keep it at 405 and let it do it's crack thing.  You can smell and hear when it's winding down,  when its getting done, up the heat to push it thru fairly quickly now, since your roast is essentially done.. thru to end of crack, , then go into cooling when you feel it's where you want it.

It's hard to explain w/o actually having one or being there with you.
You need to get your ass down to jax, bring your roaster and we'll spend a weekend roasting coffee, going fishing and making a video of our mis-adventures ! 

Aaron

[brianmch]

Those are pretty clear to me Aaron, thanks. 

Regardless, I might take you up on the fishing and roasting offer sometime!

[reepeter]

Tough decision, but I ended up pulling the trigger on a new Arc 800g roaster.  Running it on propane.  It's a bit of a learning curve for me at the moment, as I've only ever roasted with a Behmor, 3 in total, for the past 12 years or so.  So far it's a blast, no issues to report.

[Ascholten]

Don't say blast and propane in the same sentence  

glad you are having fun with it.  I was like that with my Artisan when I first got it, i must have roasted 60 lbs of coffee in a day or so.

Aaron

[210doc]

For my recent upgrade from a Behmor 1600+, I wanted a gas fired drum with better temperature guidance. After mulling the choices for several months, cost, quality, portability and a large user support base made choosing the Huky a good choice for my needs. I ordered.a Huky from Mr Li with fittings for 3 RTD probes about a month ago. I’m only 10 batches in, no pooches so far and loving the capabilities of this roaster.  With some time spent reading on the Huky forum and HB, the transition was smooth and the coffee taste is good, probably as good as my bag of burner beans are capable of, given the huge variations in bean size in this washed hue hue I picked up a couple months ago (not the one I see Aaron has available now). I did take a chance on my last batch and roasted one batch of last years quality CR La Mineta stash that I still have a few lbs of and it is great. I charge 350g batches per Rao’s 70% capacity suggestion, with C-C+ batches yielding 296 to 298g of output. Not a large batch size if your looking to start sales with a large capacity output, but with a good BBP and an organized work flow, you could brown a lot of beans in a day of roasting. The LPG gas settings needed to roast 350g on my unit are so low that I suspect this roaster would easily be capable of doing 1# batches.  I haven’t tried it as I only roast for myself and family and that extra capacity is not needed.
The roaster itself is pure KIS….all manual with no electronics to breakdown or fuss with other than following the user guide to set up Artisan on a laptop. ie it’s not a paint by numbers, push button/done roaster.  As such, it’s also is not a remove from the box and start roasting today package either. It has a DIY aspect requiring sourcing exhaust tubing, devising exhaust fan control (I use a router controller), ordering and installing your own temperature probes and Phidgets to connect via USB to Artisan software loaded and setup on a laptop. All the DIY stuff sounds daunting, but thanks to the posts and ideas of users on the now idle Huky forum, and a comprehensive Artisan installation/use guide found on the Artisan site, it’s fairly straightforward to set up. So far, in my limited experience, it’s a perfect combo of sight, sound, smell roasting coupled with a dynamic sight picture on the laptop screen showing and recording the parameters of gas and air you’ve selected as well as the 3 temperature inputs several times a second to guide the shape of the heat applied right now as well as serve for analysis later.

[peter]

Great write-up, doc!

[ptrmorton]

210doc your experience follows mine almost exactly. The roaster is very agile during the roast and the feedback is solid.  My sweet spot batch size is usually 380 - 400g.  I use Artisan to control the exhaust fan (PWM fan), but otherwise the setup sound similar.  Enjoy the roaster and don't be afraid to try back to back roasts letting the bean charge absorb excess heat for about 60 seconds and then hitting the gas!

[Ascholten]

We should have a Huky thread in the forum here and HankUA is a very good person to talk to about them as well.
I think he even went and visited with the guy who makes them at one time !]

Aaron

[brianmch]

I'm happy to see that Huky's are still being purchased and enjoyed.  I love mine and would recommend it whole-heartedly.  There are a few quirks and its a bit cumbersome but that's just how it is. 

They're a bit out of fashion given the trend away from manual anything to automated everything.

[Ascholten]

sadly brian has a point here.

these kids today, just so lazy, and,  I want everything done for me and NOW DAMMIT !!!!

god forBID anyone asks them to put any effort or input into something themselves, and it's not just done to perfection FOR them and handed to them and QUICKLY NOW, don't you make me have to look up from my phone for more than say 15 or 20 seconds now.  THAT is a micro aggression ..

Automation makes things easy and convenient, AND for the nerds amongst us, being able to add toys and whistles and bells and boops and buzzers is ..well dammit it's just FUN !!  But when it's done so that I do NOT have to learn what's going on, HOW it works etc, then IMO, it's not so much better.   

Besides, the more gizmo's and gadgets, the more stuff to break, and YOU not having a clue what you are doing, because all you want is,  I put beans in, and tomorrow when  I wake up first thing in the morning at about 1030am ...there's a cup of coffee waiting for me. .  the more chances you are going to be spending 500 dollars for a new one of these 'gizmo's every 2 years,  which goes against pretty much, the entire, 'hobby' mentality...

Ok, im an old dinosaur who just needs to crawl off into a corner and die... I get it.
STFU Boomer.....

Aaron