Making Home Roaster Questions

[chinesebob]

I've been looking around and I see a lot of different ideas.  I was thinking about making my own roaster that could handle more than the 1/2 cup volume I've been getting in my air popper. 

I've got a good heat gun, some stainless steel strainers, a couple of motors etc. Anyone ever used a heat gun for roasting?

[John F]

There are tons of guys that use heat guns.

I toyed with it but never had much luck for whatever reason...it's just not my thing.

If you google "heat gun dog bowl" I bet you will find 80 hours worth of reading.

The first version of heat gun roaster I remember seeing is this one from Sivetz but it does a smaller batch size than you are looking for.

http://www.sivetzcoffee.com/online%20catalog.htm#30gm


John F

[garybt3]

I've been looking around and I see a lot of different ideas.  I was thinking about making my own roaster that could handle more than the 1/2 cup volume I've been getting in my air popper. 

I've got a good heat gun, some stainless steel strainers, a couple of motors etc. Anyone ever used a heat gun for roasting?

I use mine like this:http://garybt3.googlepages.com/mybreadmachine%26heatguncombo 

[JoshInCA]

Another happy heat-gun / bread machine roaster here.

If you google "Corretto" and "heat gun" you will find a huge amount of information. You'll have to translate it from Australian ...    ... but if I can, anyone can (that applies both to being able to roast this way -- I'm all thumbs, 24/7 and 365 -- and "decoding" from Ozzie) 

[hobiwankinobi]

Gary
Just wondering if the heat from the gun has warped your heat gun? I have burned out two guns over the past year and a half. Although I bet the chaff went into the vents... and shorted one of them out. for a long time I had this homemade mesh thing over the vents. but I ended up taking it off when it became too clogged. The other part is that my bread machine is nearly half the size of yours. I can comfortably roast about 1/2 pound. The bread loaf pan measures 5X5 inches. So maybe the heat goes right back too close to my gun? Yours seems to have a lot of space off the the side and mine is pretty close up to the side wall. Hmmm. Maybe I need to invest in another bread machine?
Steve

[garybt3]

Hey Steve!
If you ever saw the movie 'Old School', in the beginning of the movie, after the wedding scenes, my bread machine is the same one that is re-gifted as a house warming present....anyway...

I was using the black and decker el cheapo heat guns that I picked up for $5 at a garage sale. I now have an older heavy duty Milwaukee Heavy Duty Heat Gun that has an HEAT ON, HEAT OFF ( Blower only), and true OFF Switch, along with an adjustable heat temperature controller. The tube portion of the gun is nearly double that of the Black and Decker version.

I melted the plastic covers on 2 heatguns, and realized that I should use a metal extension of 4 to 6 inches to prevent the plastic from melting. The better built HG is the way to go, as I use the toggle switch to cool down the roast after dumping it onto 2 large aluminum perforated pizza pie pans.

I normally roast 1.25 #'s per batch (green weight) to 2 #'s and have been doing about 3 to 5 #'s a week.

This method works great outdoors, and I'll switch back over to using a GGSC (1450 watt Turbo Oven and Stir Crazy) in the winter months. I'll have a hot fire going in my log stove inside my shop and roasting some coffee my roasting cabinet. 

[hobiwankinobi]

Old school was a really crazy movie.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B00004TUCY/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=228013&s=hi

Do you mean an extension like that? That surely looks like it wont melt any part of it. It was only about 60 I think at amazon.com. I also use the GG/SC, But I burned out my heat gun this spring and have not replaced it yet. I may end up trying the one linked, its only 20 more than the last one I burned out. I really prefer the HG/BM in the winter. I roast outside on the front porch.
Steve

[garybt3]

Steve,
That heat gun looks like an updated ( cosmetic) version of the same gun that I now use. The cheaper heatgun needed to be much closer to the beans to do larger batches, over 1.5 #'s. The commercial grade heatguns with their longer barrel is the ticket, IMHO. I also use a tripod to keep the tip of the heatgun about 6 inches above the mass of beans. I then raise or lower it an inch or so to slow down or speed up the roasting times. It's easy to do when you use a stop watch and have both hands free to consume a cold beer or 2 during the roast. 

I also find that batches under 1# can progress very quickly during summer temps. 

[dfluke]

Just FYI - here's my setup http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfluke/2122278065/in/set-72157594164208806/ .
That photo is pretty old. Today the setup is very similar, except I've made me a 5 gallon bucket/strainer + shop vac bean cooler and I've setup temperature monitoring etc.. I can do 1 pound rather easy. I haven't tried anything more than that.
The fan today too, is elevated so that it blows on top of the heat gun and blows chaff away for the most part. I find that doing this, plus setting the heat gun so the silver tip is up (when cooling) prolongs the life maybe a little. I buy the cheaper Harbor Freight heat guns and they work pretty decent. I think I started roasting for something like 20 dollars total.

I'm currently in the process of working on re-wiring the motor on my BM to avoid using the bread maker controls and tinkering with a propane torch / vacuum motor powered air roaster in its infant stage of development.

[chinesebob]

In my experimenting I tried a couple different techniques all of them fairly disasterous until recently (2 weeks) I've been using a bread machine I picked up for 15.00 on CL. 

One of my co-workers thought it had a burned trait to the flavor and he thought it was too strong.  Personally I like this but I'm wondering if this is normal or am I doing something wrong.  The last batch was some yemeni (thanks Ron_L) and I love this coffee.  I roasted until just around Full City++.  I tried the same batch, roasted until around full city and while the flavor was outstanding it was still a little "roasty".  I know that when I get it from the local roaster fresh after 3 days it has that quality too.  Whole foods roaster doesn't have that quality unless it is an italian roast. 

Is there something wrong? 

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

In my experimenting I tried a couple different techniques all of them fairly disasterous until recently (2 weeks) I've been using a bread machine I picked up for 15.00 on CL. 

One of my co-workers thought it had a burned trait to the flavor and he thought it was too strong.  Personally I like this but I'm wondering if this is normal or am I doing something wrong.  The last batch was some yemeni (thanks Ron_L) and I love this coffee.  I roasted until just around Full City++.  I tried the same batch, roasted until around full city and while the flavor was outstanding it was still a little "roasty".  I know that when I get it from the local roaster fresh after 3 days it has that quality too.  Whole foods roaster doesn't have that quality unless it is an italian roast. 

Is there something wrong? 

I have not played with the bread machine / hair melter yet... but my roasting contraption experience says..
1: your heat element in the bread machine is not disconnected ...
2: your holding the eat gun too close and some beans are getting too burned.. 

I suspect I am wrong on both counts if the beans are moving anything lik what I see on some of the videos (fast) but tat would be my suspicions

to paraphrase peter in a SC/TO thread... if it taste good you are on the right track

[chinesebob]

I have not played with the bread machine / hair melter yet... but my roasting contraption experience says..
1: your heat element in the bread machine is not disconnected ...
2: your holding the eat gun too close and some beans are getting too burned.. 

I suspect I am wrong on both counts if the beans are moving anything lik what I see on some of the videos (fast) but tat would be my suspicions

to paraphrase peter in a SC/TO thread... if it taste good you are on the right track

I thought about the heating element and it doesn't kick in until after the stirring stops.  It's a fine line on the distance.  I was worried about that with the first batch and it didn't make it to first crack before the knead section stopped by the time the machine had cooled the beans were wasted. 

I was thinking if there was only a way to control the depth without just holding it still the whole time in a holder. 

[garybt3]

Controlling the depth without holding the heatgun is easy, if you have a spare tripod available.
Here are a couple of pictures that I took about a year ago.

http://garybt3.googlepages.com/mybreadmachine&heatguncombo

Since then, I added a more powerful heavy duty heatgun. I have disconnected the control panel & the heater and re-wired it to run constantly. I roast 1.5# batches and keep the nozzle about 4 inches from the top of the rotating bean mass. 1st crack is generally 9 to 11 minutes, and about 14 minutes to a Full City roast (about 5 snaps into 2nd). I pull the pan and dump the roast on a pair of extra large perforated pizza pans, and switch the heatgun heater off, and keep the fan on to cool the roast in about a minute or 2 depending on ambient temperature. I have been roasting between 3 to 5 #'s a week, for over a year with this method and I'm truly surprised that many other people are not using this inexpensive coffee roaster.

And I have two hands free to consume an ice cold beer or two 

Gary

[chinesebob]

Gary,

you leave yours in one place the whole time.  Do you notice it over heating in place? 

[garybt3]

No I adjust the crank on the tripod to keep the nozzle about 4 inches from the top of the bean mass. I angle it towards one of the corners and the mass of rotating beans. It is still in a fluid like motion, and the square shaped breadpan folds the top of the mass into the bottom. I aim for that particular spot, and I think that the transfer of heat into the bean mass (at that spot) mixes everything perfectly. If I suspect that it might stall during a roast, I adjust the nozzle a little closer to the top of the beans. If the roast is progressing too quickly, then I back off to about 6 inches above the roast.