Green Coffee Buying Club
Coffee Discussion boards => Hardware & Equipment => Topic started by: J.Jirehs Roaster on July 18, 2009, 03:14:08 PM
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maybe it can be built with optional pizza shelf and pig spit?!?!?! (http://firebrandcoffee.com/coffee.html)
(http://firebrandcoffee.com/images/photos/roaster.jpg)
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I talked with Oaxaca Charlie about an idea like this some years ago when I was going to build an earth oven.
He roasted tons of coffee in a drum rotated by pedal power. 8)
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We had some tree-huggers giving the local BBQ joints some grief about the carbon emissions from the wood-fired pits. After they were well enough to travel again, they decided to take their arguments to friendlier climes. ;D
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Sad thing is tex, wood is carbon neutral, it gives off the same co2 burning, as it would rotting on the floor of the woods.
I say we should shove the tree huggers up a coal feeder in some power plant somewhere see how many kilowatts we can get from their worthless carcass'
Aaron
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Actually, rotting on the forest floor some of the carbon ends up as a major, vital, soil component. That didn't stop me from roasting TONS of coffee with my brick oven coffee roaster, feeling no guilt whatsoever. Too difficult to control the roast profile, however, for commercial sales to fussy coffee shops. Ron Kyle took my roaster drum design and made it better and now I use a RK extra large drum with a gas grill and life is sweet without any more wood scavaging/chopping/smoking up the neighborhood every day. Lucky for me they don't drill for propane around here. I here it's a nasty business. And, oh yeah...I like trees and I really don't like your attitude, dude.
(oaxaca) Charly
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That didn't stop me from roasting TONS of coffee with my brick oven coffee roaster..
(oaxaca) Charly
;D ;D
I didn't know that was you (here).
I never did get around to building my earth oven but I still have the book for someday. ;)
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You like trees, that's good. But you don't put them over the well being of mankind that I am aware of, or do you?
Do you hold secret late at night tree rictuals with your fellow druids of the drink, and roast coffee in the middle of the woods where you won't get caught?
If a bean enters first crack in the middle of the woods, but the treehuggers are too busy ... hugging trees, does it still make a sound?
Either way, recycling a few of the more radical ones sounds like a good idea to me, like it or not, there it is.
Aaron
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You like trees, that's good. But you don't put them over the well being of mankind that I am aware of, or do you?
Do you hold secret late at night tree rictuals with your fellow druids of the drink, and roast coffee in the middle of the woods where you won't get caught?
If a bean enters first crack in the middle of the woods, but the treehuggers are too busy ... hugging trees, does it still make a sound?
Either way, recycling a few of the more radical ones sounds like a good idea to me, like it or not, there it is.
Aaron
I do like trees, and I live in a house made from them, and heat it with dead trees...etc. I just don't equate the well being of mega corporations with the well being of mankind. Where I live there are mostly very large clearcuts, watershed damage is extreme, and logging and milling jobs are very few. The corporate logging I keep seeing in Mexico isn't doing "mankind" a lot of good A (much) more ecological system of logging, and some old growth, and more wilderness reserves would quiet down 90% of the huggers and create some sustainable jobs. my2 pesos worth no need to move this to HT, I won't write any more insults--that was the beer talking :P
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Actually, rotting on the forest floor some of the carbon ends up as a major, vital, soil component. That didn't stop me from roasting TONS of coffee with my brick oven coffee roaster, feeling no guilt whatsoever. Too difficult to control the roast profile, however, for commercial sales to fussy coffee shops. Ron Kyle took my roaster drum design and made it better and now I use a RK extra large drum with a gas grill and life is sweet without any more wood scavaging/chopping/smoking up the neighborhood every day. Lucky for me they don't drill for propane around here. I here it's a nasty business. And, oh yeah...I like trees and I really don't like your attitude, dude.
(oaxaca) Charly
I like the thought of an outdoor fireplace/oven that I could cook, bake and roast coffee in ... not for production but the zen (for lack of a better word) of it... its kinda like JohnF's quest for the perfect espresso ... you find it now and again and slowly over time you find it more often but its a sad day when you have perfected some things... because the power is in the journey not the destination.
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...because the power is in the journey not the destination...
This is geezer-speak for, "I've got to get a real life!" :D
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(http://www.ikeclub.org/Forums/images/smiles/ontopic.gif)
...because the power is in the journey not the destination...
This is geezer-speak for, "I've got to get a real life!" :D
LOL... I'm not a geezer, I have a real life, and I am enjoying it now; not killing my self at a job I hate dreaming of a retirement I will never have because I would be to broken and worn out when I get their...
as much as I like to push a button and get coffee roasted and or brewed virtually instantaneous and with out thinking I also like the pursuit of the low tech harder way... I learn a lot more about the process... You of all people would appreciate this (so I thought) with your love for the espresso machine as a machine not just a source of caffeine...
if you want to pic a fight take it over to HT... I just wanted to hear ideas and experiences with wood fired roasters?!?!?!?!
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No personal experience, but when I first discovered the now celebrated Victrola coffee shop in Seattle, they were working with an Italian wood-fired roast. They don't any more, but I'm pretty sure that they would never have gone there if it hadn't been an exceptional quality product.
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I just wanted to hear ideas and experiences with wood fired roasters?!?!?!?!
The book I posted a pic of is pretty interesting.
I really intended to build it but you know how I am. ;D
The reason I think it will work is that you can build a fire inside and bring the oven up to the temp you want. Once you get it to your point you can roast on radiant heat for a good while. You won't be doing a lot of profiling (as Charly) points out but I do think I'll eventually build one and roast some straightforward stuff on it that works well with a simple ramp.
Then when you are not roasting you can fire up some pizza and bread...I make a mean both. 8)
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I just wanted to hear ideas and experiences with wood fired roasters?!?!?!?!
The book I posted a pic of is pretty interesting.
I really intended to build it but you know how I am. ;D
The reason I think it will work is that you can build a fire inside and bring the oven up to the temp you want. Once you get it to your point you can roast on radiant heat for a good while. You won't be doing a lot of profiling (as Charly) points out but I do think I'll eventually build one and roast some straightforward stuff on it that works well with a simple ramp.
Then when you are not roasting you can fire up some pizza and bread...I make a mean both. 8)
I am in the process of building a gas grill roaster... on my small grill roaster I kinda change the heat but my presumption is I will be heating up the grill tiles to a fixed (ish) temp and then the ramp is what it is... so the wood fired would not be much different.?.?.?
(http://www.divi.com.au/Wood_Fire_Coffee_flip.jpg)
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...You of all people would appreciate this (so I thought) with your love for the espresso machine as a machine not just a source of caffeine...
if you want to pic a fight take it over to HT... I just wanted to hear ideas and experiences with wood fired roasters?!?!?!?!
What, no sense of humor today? Any thread is subject to being hijacked if there's a chuckle to be had! ;D
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Wow, talk about panties in a wad.
on brick ovens though, you say you can't control the heat....
Is it possible to put the fire on one end or one side of it and move the item being cooked / roasted more over where the fire is, less over where it is to control the temp or is it more of a the whole thing is at one temperature type deal there?
I just remember getting a pizza in romania and they cooked it in a brick oven, the fire was made of wood and right in there, and they moved the pizza closer to / further from the fire to control cooking it. Just curious if something similar could be done with roasting coffee.
Aaron
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Wow, talk about panties in a wad.
on brick ovens though, you say you can't control the heat....
Is it possible to put the fire on one end or one side of it and move the item being cooked / roasted more over where the fire is, less over where it is to control the temp or is it more of a the whole thing is at one temperature type deal there?
I just remember getting a pizza in romania and they cooked it in a brick oven, the fire was made of wood and right in there, and they moved the pizza closer to / further from the fire to control cooking it. Just curious if something similar could be done with roasting coffee.
Aaron
that is probably the only way to do it... and thus harder on a small scale...
I was picturing something in the neighborhood of this... or the one a few posts back
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/3168411455_12fd12f15a.jpg?v=0)
on this roaster you probably opens and closes dampers to let more or less outside air in to control the temp...
(http://www.caffepacori.com/images/wood_roaster.jpg)
and Heaven knows what they do to control this beast?!?!?
(http://absolutecoffee.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/coffeeroasting_woodfired.jpg)
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The brick wood fired brick oven I have is charged (pre heated) with a long hot fire, left to calm down and be evenly hot throughout, and then the ashes are cleaned out and it's ready to either roast coffee or cook pizzas. Both need high temps. Later it holds a bread baking temp for a long time. Pizza is quick and easy. Coffee....you really want to drop the heat some just as first crack is coming and some kind of ventilation is needed. That's doable. Then it's handy to be able to raise the heat a little if you want to for certain profiles. Stopping the air flow will do that when the oven is fresh charged, it just takes a great deal of practice and it's never quite a science. Good fan powered venting, and maybe gas jets for upping temps plus years of practice and you could certainly do masterfull roasts 9 times out of ten I reckon. Best way to roast a turkey, you can dry green wood overnight in it with residual heat, a freind malty barly in my oven, the pizzas are the best, sourdough bread hot of the bricks...mighty fine. Great hobby. Heavy work if it's a job. I started out roasting in my bread oven using an Androck over the fire popcorn popper, with a welding mitt I shook 1 lb. of greens inside the oven door when it was still too hot to put the 3 dozen loaves of sourdough in. Later a RK-like drum got made and a roller system to spin it on inside the oven, 7 lbs at a time. I have quite a few burn scars on my arms hands and wrists. It (hand crank roasting in the brick oven, not the scars) looked really cool and got the little roasting biz off to a good start.
With a gas grill you make the temp go up or down or stay the same, quick and easy. No waiting hours for a brick oven to warm up, no refiring throughout the day with small fires to bump the temp up to roasting level, no smoke, no ash piles, far fewer out of control roasts. Much more relaxed if it's a job,the coffee will be served in coffee shops wanting consistency, but for a once a week passionate hobby the brick oven wins hands down.
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I am seriously thinking of building a brick oven / fireplace outside, been for a while. Had a lead on some firebricks from a power plant they were tearing down. Straight out of the boiler. Then I did a chemical analysis of them... whoa, little too much arsenic for me bucky, oh well, maybe next time. Shame too because these could stand 2000 degrees or so probably, would have been perfect.
Aaron
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I am seriously thinking of building a brick oven / fireplace outside, been for a while.
When I was researching it I spent a lot of time at this forum and ordered his instructional CD.
There is a lot of good information here...
http://www.traditionaloven.com/
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Wow, talk about panties in a wad.
on brick ovens though, you say you can't control the heat....
Is it possible to put the fire on one end or one side of it and move the item being cooked / roasted more over where the fire is, less over where it is to control the temp or is it more of a the whole thing is at one temperature type deal there?
I just remember getting a pizza in romania and they cooked it in a brick oven, the fire was made of wood and right in there, and they moved the pizza closer to / further from the fire to control cooking it. Just curious if something similar could be done with roasting coffee.
Aaron
When cooking pizzas all day in a brick oven you need to keep the temps very high so you keep some hot coals and/or small flame going in the back. I did that when I had a drum that I rolled on the oven floor (it had over sized end plates), pushing and pulling a connected rod. Smoke and ash effected the coffee some but not always in a bad way. Grabbing the very hot drum to remove it for cooling was always tricky and I often burned my fore arms reaching into the small oven doorway.
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I am seriously thinking of building a brick oven / fireplace outside, been for a while. Had a lead on some firebricks from a power plant they were tearing down. Straight out of the boiler. Then I did a chemical analysis of them... whoa, little too much arsenic for me bucky, oh well, maybe next time. Shame too because these could stand 2000 degrees or so probably, would have been perfect.
Aaron
From one Aaron to another... ;) contemplate a Big Green Egg. (http://biggreenegg.com/) Temp controlable, burns lump charcoal, great outdoor pizza/bread/smoker, maybe you can even roast coffee on it :)
Aaron
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I am seriously thinking of building a brick oven / fireplace outside, been for a while. Had a lead on some firebricks from a power plant they were tearing down. Straight out of the boiler. Then I did a chemical analysis of them... whoa, little too much arsenic for me bucky, oh well, maybe next time. Shame too because these could stand 2000 degrees or so probably, would have been perfect.
Aaron
From one Aaron to another... ;) contemplate a Big Green Egg. ([url]http://biggreenegg.com/[/url]) Temp controlable, burns lump charcoal, great outdoor pizza/bread/smoker, maybe you can even roast coffee on it :)
Aaron
:o
Aaron, you won't believe what a can of worms you've just opened there. We have a thread on the Big Green Egg - Aaron doesn't believe the hype.
Myself on the other hand, own and love my BGE!
-Stubbie
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Ill behave and won't attack the egg here heeeeee.
I think it's a bit overpriced myself and will leave it at that. I was thinking more of a BIGger oven, something you could easily slide a super pig out sized pizza into, or a small pig, or whatever, and on the back side, or the . side... or whatever it can double as a fireplace sort of thing. The egg, while some love it, is a bit small for what I had in mind.
Aaron
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I admire the BGE (it is clay so of course I want) but the oven/out door fire place is a bigger vision... heat it up, make a pizza or four... roast a little coffee for the guests... and pack some bread and/or roastables and sit around eating and socializing in Oct, Nov (NE IL gets cool enough by then you appreciate the heat)
actually if I add a room off of our kitchen (all of this is big dreams at this point) I would have a dual fireplace (one inside, one out) on the back wall of that room.
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JJ what part of NE illinois you talking about. I did some time in Zion when I was stationed in great mistakes. Just curious.
Aaron
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JJ what part of NE illinois you talking about. I did some time in Zion when I was stationed in great mistakes. Just curious.
Aaron
yep.. right their.. Winthrop Harbor is the last outpost before the Cheddar Curtain...
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yep I know where that is, last stop on sheridan rd before cheezeville. and true on the weather that time of year. i grew up in oak forest / tinley park and it wasn't much better down there either.. but you have the glow from the zion nuke plant to keep you warm though right?
Aaron
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yep I know where that is, last stop on sheridan rd before cheezeville. and true on the weather that time of year. i grew up in oak forest / tinley park and it wasn't much better down there either.. but you have the glow from the zion nuke plant to keep you warm though right?
Aaron
northern lights?!?!?! we don't need no steinkin northern lights.... we got the glow from the spent rod pool....
actually Zion power has been shutdown for a while so the glow is pretty faint
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Oops Stubbie...my bad 8)
At least thee and me gots green huevos!
Aaron