My first Imex roast

Roasters and roasting

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My first Imex roast

Postby simonp » Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:46 pm

Well, just did my first propper roast with the Imex, just to get my bearings with it before I fix the dimmer and start to try some profiles.

I roasted some of Anothercoffee's No1 Espresso blend as it is a fairly easy pre-blend to roast, so thought it would cope well with a quickish roast.

First crack was at 5 minutes, and at a measured bean temp of around 400F, so the thermocouple placement must be quite good. First crack wasn't to hard to hear with this blend.
I forgot to check my watch at second crack :oops: , as I was too busy watching the temperature, and leaning close to the roaster to make sure I didn't miss second. Once again, the crackles were not too hard to hear, and I ran about 25 seconds to where second got rapid (didn't want to roast too light with a quick roast, being a pre-blend with robusta). The beans were shiny, and some looked like they were just about to oil but didn't. Final bean temp was about 450F, and the total roast time was about 9 minutes.
The roast looked quite good, a little less even than a longer, profiled roast, but better than an unmodded popcorn machine.

Looking at the heating capability of this machine, obviously the ramp up in temp initially is very quick, which would be quite a bit slower profiled, but from 300F to 1st crack the rise is not as quick as my popcorn machine would be at full heat, and will only just about meet Jim Schulman's recommended air roaster profile of 290-380F in 3 minutes. I'm guessing that the metal chamber of the Imex looses heat more quickly than the smaller chamber of a popcorn machine.
Also the temperature rise after 1st crack to 2nd is only a little faster than the usual profile I use (about 10 degrees per minute) so there is not as much heat overhead as the popcorn machine, as I never use full heat with this during the roast. As long as there is just enough heat I suppose it is not an issue, but I suspect that roasting in cooler air outside would cause problems.

The best things about the Imex (apart from the chaff collector, which I haven't got one of yet, but hope to source one soon), are the fact that you can do 150g of greens without stirring, and roasting your hand in the process :lol: , and the fact that you can clearly see the beans, which is a big improvement over peering down the baked bean can chimney of the popper getting your facial hair singed off :)
Profitec 700 dual boiler
Isomac Rituale
Mazzer Mini
Mahlkonig Vario
Chemex
Aeropress
2 Bodum press pots
Hottop updated to a B with Compuetr control
Imex roaster, dimmer mod on heater (under spare bed)
Rival popper, with split motor and dimmer mod on heater (retired)
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