The Hottop gang

[simonp]

It's official now, I've joined the Hottop gang .
Having found the room to store it, and a location for kitchen use when it is too cold outside. That and my girlfriend NOT killing me like I suspected (in fact she was fine about it), I'm going to keep it.

I've always hoped one would come up 2nd hand one day (no way could I go for full price), and one did, thanks to Steve . Just think of all those beans I'll have to order from you now, with the batch size twice that of my Imex .

I can't wait to do a roast nad her 2nd crack again (the Rival popcorn machine was great for hearing cracks).

[JonathanM]

It's a great machine; I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it.

You'll have to add it to your list of equipment
Hottop Roaster - no mods!

[simonp]

I already have it in my equipment list, but it doesn't say no mods, who knows what I might do with it?

[simonp]

I did a test roast with some old Malabar Gold (Phil gave this to me last year, as he didn't like it, and I am not overkeen so I use it as test beans) that I had lying around. Boy is that thing quiet the cracks are SO easy to hear.
I was surprised how much smoke comes out of the bean chute lid. I think some sort of seal would have been a good idea here. I must admit that there was more smoke in general than I expected, but then I suppose the batch size is twice the size I have been used to.

The MG is a tricky blighetr to judge roast though as 1st and 2nd crack rather merge. I thought I was still in 1st crack when things sped up again, and I realised I was in 2nd and rolling, So dumped the beans quick. LOTS of smoke

The cooler is very cool (pardon the pun) though, gets the temp down nice and quick. The change of direction of the stirer bar is a bit alarming though, it sounds and looks like it has jammed till it changes.

This is an impressive bit of kit, no doubt about it. I did feel a bit lost not having to watch the temp gauge, and alter the heat. I think it will certainly be much easier to get the degree of desired roast though, and consistently.

I was also impressed how easy it was to get the drum out and clean out inside, nicely thought out.

[simonp]

I've done a roast proper now. I thought I'd give the Hottop a hard time straight up, and roast a blend. All the beans were similar roast time, so not too bad. The blend was one I did a week ofr so back:
50% Brazil
20% Guatamalan
20% Lintong
10% Yirgacheffe

The roats time was a little over 20 minutes, taking the beans just to where 2nd crack starts to speed up (not wanting to underroast the Lintong), again the ease of hearing the cracks enabled me to stop the roast just when I wanted to. The beans were shiny, but no oil was showing. The roast looked pretty even considering it was a pre-blend.

I can't wait for them to be rested so I can try them!

[simonp]

I tried the roast very briefly yesterday, and more so with my tasting head on today. Not bad. There is certainly more depth to the flavour than with the same blend air roasted a week or so back, and there was a cocoa flavour that had not been there before. This was a slightly lighetr roast than the air one, possibly as I had Cachoera as well as the Lagoa to form the Brazilian content, and the Cach seemed to roast a little quicker, and it may have hit 2nd crack first prompting me to stop before the other beans were quite done.

[simonp]

Well, on the 4th day after roasting, and after raising the temperature on my machine (measured with the thermocouple on the top of the puck rather than in it, found that after the initial slightly hot water the water temp was down at 90C for the majority of the shot), this stuff is really coming good. The crema is finer and much less foamy, and there is some nice mottling now. There is lots of body, and some gentle acidity as a highlight, but no sourness.

I've also tried grinding finer and tamping less hard, which seemed to make the flow more even throughout the shot.

I'll try some ristrettos this evening, I'm hoping for good things.