Hot Prog - what do you do if it aborts the roast?

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Hot Prog - what do you do if it aborts the roast?

Postby bluevalentine » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:47 am

The Programmable Hottie has a failsafe mechanism built in. When the temperature reaches 212 degs it asks you to confirm by pressing 'Enter'. If you don't it aborts the roast and decants the beans in to the cooling tray.
I think this is a failsafe for our less tech savvy cousins across the pond and I could really do without it but whatever... on the odd occasion, I've been caught short or gone off to answer the door or the telephone and missed the 212 beeps.
Has anyone else had this experience and if so, what do you do with the beans?
a) dump them
b) find some way of fiddling the Hottie to complete the roast - if so, how?
c) finish them off some other way - hot pan, oven etc?

Do non-programmable Hotties have this failsafe?
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RE: Hot Prog - what do you do if it aborts the roast?

Postby bruceb » Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:17 am

My digital-display (non-programmable) HT will only allow me to press the + button 5 times, thus limiting the total roasting time to about 25 minutes. I don't know if it cuts out at 212°C because by the time I get to 210°C (as measured by the element in the heat path) the beans are nearly charcoal anyway. I always shoot for 209°C. which gives me a relatively dark "full-city +" roast for espresso.

The above only applies to and works if I reduce the green bean mass to 230 g. If I try to roast 250 g I usually get relatively poor results and can't go beyond what roughly looks like a "city roast."

Without major brain surgery on the HT there is no way to override the cutout, I've been told. I try never to leave the roaster once 1st crack has taken place. I always keep a cordless phone in my pocket and if the doorbell rings I just ignore it. A roaster fire in one of these home roasters is a mess and potentially quite dangerous.

Edit: I forgot to mention something I've written about before (and been ridiculed for, as well): If I dump a roast that is way too light I have successfully re-roasted it. No, it's not as good as a proper single roast, but it gives very acceptable results, assuming the beans were of a good quality in the first place. To re-roast I let the HT cool down, then roast completely normally, waiting for first or second crack, which usually takes place about 5-10 minutes sooner than in a normal roast (depending on how light the first roast was, of course). I finish the roast normally. If you have money and beans to bin, just do that. But, if you want to try to rescue a roast gone wrong give it a try. If it is lousy you will be that much richer for the experience. As always, my advice is, never take anyone else's word for anything. A simple experiment is much more convincing than dogma.
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RE: Hot Prog - what do you do if it aborts the roast?

Postby zix » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:21 pm

oh, well... sorry not to have been supportive if the ridicule was on this forum. I have done this too, twice I think. Just as you said, the results have been quite OK to drink. I guess it is more of a catastrophe for a commercial roaster, as it might change the taste of the brew too much for the occasionlal picky customer - or for the roasters themselves, what with the pride of craftsmanship and quality that must come with the job.
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