Antique Drum Roaster

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Antique Drum Roaster

Postby Bombcup » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:12 pm

Saw this and lost all will power to avoid the 'Buy It Now' button. It looks ideal for home roasting:
Here

I'm now wondering whether it will actually be any use! I don't have a solid fuel stove or an aga. What would anyone recommend to heat it? I was thinking of standing it on a frame with a large camping gas ring under it. I also thought I could extend the spindle and use an electric drill to turn it. Any suggestions?

Most importantly could somebody reassure me that this is a good buy?!


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RE: Antique Drum Roaster

Postby bruceb » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:44 pm

What, no AGA! Poor dear. :twisted:

I think the only way to work with this would be to get one of those small, gas cookers that the TV chefs sometimes use. I bought one for 19 Euros new a few months ago. It uses gas cartridges that look like spray paint cans. You would need to build a wooden frame to hold the roaster down so that the flame is about 15 cm beneath the roaster drum.

If it's in as good a condition as it looks it's almost a shame to use it. It's probably 100 years old.
Three Francesconi (CMA) espresso machines - Rossi, San Marco, LaCimbali, Faema and 2 Mazzer Major grinders- CoffeeTech Maggionlino, Hottop, Alpenröst and HW Precision roasters.
I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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RE: Antique Drum Roaster

Postby Bombcup » Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:54 pm

Sounds like a good idea bruce, I have one of those gas cookers in the camper van as backup. Ideal for the roaster as they're so compact and very powerful.

On the other point I think it's a shame when antiques are *not* used as they were intended. It's great that these machines can still be just as useful as contemporary roasters with control panels and data-loggers. Any idea what sort of capacity this thing will have? I reckon probably 125g but 250 would be much more useful.
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RE: Antique Drum Roaster

Postby bruceb » Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:00 pm

My thoughts were simply that these roasters were not very good 100 years ago and won't be any better today. The drum cannot be turned with a smooth, reproducible speed, the drum itself is quite thin and the beans tend to burn and of course, there's no way to cool the beans but dump into a colander and toss them. I'd guess you can do 250g greens. It might be possible to do more, but getting them even will be difficult.
Three Francesconi (CMA) espresso machines - Rossi, San Marco, LaCimbali, Faema and 2 Mazzer Major grinders- CoffeeTech Maggionlino, Hottop, Alpenröst and HW Precision roasters.
I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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RE: Antique Drum Roaster

Postby Bombcup » Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:18 pm

LOL Oh well, Ill see how I get on with it. Dumping the beans into a colinder is no biggie, it's what I do at the moment. If it's no good I'll relist it, :D
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RE: Antique Drum Roaster

Postby bruceb » Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:40 pm

I guess I responded like that because of my own ineptitude in using one of these. I found one in the cellar in my old home and tried to roast with it over a wood burning stove in the kitchen. Since I had to open the firebox of the stove the smoke from the stove slowly filled the kitchen, followed by the smoke from the coffee beans. The roast generally went very quickly, I could hear 1st and 2nd crack without problem, but the beans varied from light beige to black and had to be picked through, blown over with compressed air outside to remove the chaff. I got a better roast in an iron frying pan and when I moved to our new home I left the roaster in the old cellar. Perhaps with more patience and persistence you will get good roasts. I must admit that I had not had a lot of roasting experience back then (1991) and probably gave up too quickly. Good luck. Please report your results here. Make me feel really stupid by presenting perfect roasts. Go on! Have fun. :x :lol:
Three Francesconi (CMA) espresso machines - Rossi, San Marco, LaCimbali, Faema and 2 Mazzer Major grinders- CoffeeTech Maggionlino, Hottop, Alpenröst and HW Precision roasters.
I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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Postby Bombcup » Sun Feb 03, 2008 4:51 pm

Got the roaster last week and had a little play with it this afternoon.

Here's the result with 150g of Gethumbwini. 1C in about 11 mins, stopped at start of 2C about 16mins. Next time will use 250g to slow it down a little bit. I think the heat diffuser may have contributed to the success.

So what do you reckon Bruce? :wink: :)
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Postby espressomattic » Sun Feb 03, 2008 6:09 pm

Nice work!

Loooks like an upended Whirley Pop.

I used to use a diffuser with mine way back when and I had some cracking roasts. Roast looks pretty even considering. I can assure you that you will find if you use 250g or more the roast will slow down a lot and I think you will get an even better result. You could also try turning down the heat a little after 1C as this will help extend the profile too.

Seriously good work though. Well done mate :D
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Postby bruceb » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:31 am

Superb! That looks wonderful and I think the heat diffuser is a great idea. I always got much shorter times than that. About how fast did you turn the drum? How high did you have the gas flame? The beans look very nice and even. Mine were always quite variable from light brown to nearly black. Good work! I'm glad to be proven wrong. :D
Three Francesconi (CMA) espresso machines - Rossi, San Marco, LaCimbali, Faema and 2 Mazzer Major grinders- CoffeeTech Maggionlino, Hottop, Alpenröst and HW Precision roasters.
I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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Postby Bombcup » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:21 am

Thanks Matt and Bruce! :D

I guess I turned the drum about once every two seconds, pausing at the top of each rotation to get more of a tumble in a 1and2and1and2 type rhythm.

I used the biggest gas ring turned up to full and let all the equipment get really nice and hot before adding the beans. I was worried about them scorching but it appears not to be a problem.

The pictures were from my second attempt. On the first attempt I had the gas up about 2/3rds and didn't preheat as long. The roast hadn't reached first crack by 22 minutes so they went straight onto the compost heap!

I'm going to try motorising it using a drill with a flexible shaft to get more consistency to the tumbling.
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Postby Richard » Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:10 pm

Brilliant, what happens to the chaff ? presumably it stays within the chamber and gets roasted and all smoky with the beans so the question is, does the burning chaff effect the flavour of the beans ? and is it a problem ?

I raised this this question when I was wok roasting, I used a lid in order to keep the chaff and smoke under control and quite frankly it was the least stinky/messy way of roasting I have used yet though one of the forum members thought the beans would get a smoky taste.

What do you think ?
Nice though, cracking piece of kit, well-done.
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Postby fred25 » Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:08 pm

have to say the beans look remarkably even - and you've got the ability to profile to your heart's content... Look like you're onto a winner :D
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Postby Bombcup » Mon Feb 04, 2008 3:44 pm

The chaff does indeed stay in the chamber which is something I didn't like the idea of. I've only roasted with a heatgun up to now which blows the chaff away and vents the smoke nicely. I'm using the same cooling method with the drum as with the heatgun, which is tipping the beans between two sieves 100 times outside. This blows all the chaff out of the beans you're about to bag up and gets them to ambient temperature in about 3 minutes for 250g.

In terms of taste I haven't tried the beans yet. I tend to find this bean works best about 4 days in, but what were your experiences using the wok with a lid compared to any fully vented methods you may have used? :)
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Postby Richard » Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:09 pm

Wonderchunder wrote: but what were your experiences using the wok with a lid compared to any fully vented methods you may have used? :)


I'm glad you asked, mainly because my experience wasn't conclusive and that I had been prompted by suggestion. The suggestion that the resulting roast of an enclosed chamber may deposit smoky taste isn't out of the question so I did a couple of very limited taste-tests and decided that it was possible rather than probable but it didn't spoil any coffee I roasted.

The wok and lid solve a lot of problems for me if I have to roast in my kitchen which may be the case soon when I come out of hospital next week after my body-modification, it was comparatively very clean and tidy (The roast) compared to heat-gun roasts so I'm up for it again and maybe we could both do some comparison tests because the 'smoky-taste' issue worried me at a time I have very little confidence in my methods.

I hope this is coming across as helpful and constructive rather than critical, first thing I thought when I saw your bingo drum was, "I want one".
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Postby Bombcup » Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:20 pm

I tried the gethumbwini this morning in the aeropress. There was definately a smokyness to the aroma but it wasn't really apparent in the taste which I thought was rather more balanced than with my heatgun roast.

The beans are still young though and I've not tried them in the espresso machine. I'll report back later in the week. I've got quite a backlog of beans to get through and I'm feeling pretty wired!
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