My roaster

Roasters and roasting

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My roaster

Postby Richard » Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:17 pm

Been a long time Eh, I never did share my roaster with you lot, after much time with it I can't imagine anything doing a better job. 500 grams at a time gets me a nice even roast and I get very little chaff with the beans.

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RE: My roaster

Postby CakeBoy » Sat Dec 04, 2010 2:22 pm

Hi Richard, great to see you. Looks interesting. Presumably it goes on the gas ring yes?
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Re: RE: My roaster

Postby Richard » Sat Dec 04, 2010 2:28 pm

CakeBoy wrote:Hi Richard, great to see you. Looks interesting. Presumably it goes on the gas ring yes?


Hello, great to be able to chat. No, I use a hot-air-gun.

The combination of the holes and an outer casing works-well, very-well.
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RE: Re: RE: My roaster

Postby CakeBoy » Sat Dec 04, 2010 2:33 pm

Good plan. Keeps the extremes of the heat away from the beans. Simple but brilliant.
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Postby Richard » Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:53 pm

You probably didn't realise what I was going through at the time, I'd asked all the questions and there had been lots of reading for me so I was left with trying it all for myself.

In the oven, that wasn't good and the house stank.

Over the hob with extractor running, not good, chaf everywhere and the house stank.

Popcorn poppers worked but small quantities and the roast was too-fast.

I tried a hot air gun though getting the receptacle right was more important.
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Postby orrinoconnor » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:43 pm

I'm jealous!
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Postby Richard » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:09 pm

You're jealous ?

Get yourself a pan and a hot-air-gun, don't be envious. It's easy.
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Postby Richard » Mon Dec 26, 2011 1:41 pm

I'm hoping that resurrecting this thread might get us-all some comparisons on hot-air-gun roasts. It was Steve who recently told me that hot-air roasts tend to give a matt finish though I did find a method where the beans get a slight shine. Not that I know the difference in flavours.

I'm still using this same combination of industrial sized colander inside a bowl, the chaff that doesn't get blown up-and-out goes through the holes.

So, back to the roast, on reaching second crack I cut the heat and let the beans roast with the built-up heat only to give it a little help with more low heat until the correct colour is achieved.

I haven't a clue about timed roasts, most of my roasts are outside until it gets really cold then I go inside. They are all by looking and listening. Presumably, I might need to lengthen the period to first crack, I haven't been able to compare with anyone else and it seems far more of you are using a machine of some description.

How about it, hot-air-gun corner Eh ?
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Postby zix » Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:37 am

Why not! Good idea. I don't do many roasts with the hot air gun nowadays, but the very best ones have all been with this method. I like the oven though, my wife doesn't have a problem with the smoke and it is much more convenient. The oven compared with the hot air gun is very much like an E61 compared to a lever group: the first one is more forgiving, the second one is unbeatable IF everything works out perfectly during the process. First - more "set and forget", second, more hands-on.

Anyway, I have some problems prolonging first crack too. It seems to be very much a matter of bowl size/material in combination with heat gun effect. I got my favourite roasting bowl cracked for me some years ago, but the last one I bought turned out to be even better. It is a double walled steel bowl, size and distance between metal layers very much like your set-up, if I am not mistaken. Perhaps I should drill some holes in my inner wall ;) I try to keep first crack @ ~8-10 minutes. Haven't tried 500g, yet. Worried about getting uneven results, but if you say you can, I feel I should give it a go too.

Just like you, at or near second crack I let the beans coast until finished.
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Postby Richard » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:13 am

Thanks for joining. :D

One thing I need to try, more as a result of stuff I read on this forum is to use a blow-torch rather than the hot-air gun. More scary but i'm used to using a blow-torch. I'm talking about the sort of blow-torch a plumber might use for soldering joints, I already have one.

Main reason for trying this is that quite a few compliments have been made in the direction of gas fired ovens being preferred to electric, for some reason.

Yes, first crack is over very quickly, and compared to second crack it seems a half-heated affair. My first crack is a few isolated cracks here-and-there, nothing like the frantic cracking of second crack.

Better get into the garage and drag-out my old blow-torch.
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Postby Richard » Tue Dec 27, 2011 12:49 pm

That was an interesting experiment.

No chaff floating around because the flame burnt it and the updraft appeared to dispose of the burnt chaff.

Because of the noise from the flame it was very difficult to detect first and second crack, I kept setting fire to the wooden spoon, technique improvement or maybe a metal spoon is the answer.

Yes the beans did come out shiny without any effort though I need to have a taste improvement to cope with the extra inconvenience and obvious hazard.

I have a profesional blow torch with tick-over and high flame when you press another lever which is convenient, i'll have to do a few more roasts and tastings before I recommend the process. In the back of my mind i'm thinking it's just not worth it though the taste-test might change things.

What am I to expect, that the gas flame isn't as
dry as the hot-air gun ?
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Postby zix » Tue Dec 27, 2011 10:46 pm

I wouldn't know since I can't see your beans, but when I get shiny beans it is usually due to oil creeping out on the surface. This can happen if I transfer too much heat too fast when roasting with the heat gun. Solution is lowering the heat, or moving the hot air gun further away, and stirring more. If I transfer too much heat during the first minutes, I may get a very oily and shiny roast, even though it isn't burnt and blackened.
I try to avoid this, since it means I need to drink it all up within 3 days or so, all those oils out on the surface means the coffee will go stale faster than normal.

I have decided to like the uneven, cracked and wrinkled beans I get with a hot air home roaster. May not look as nice, but tastes great. The hot air process really brings out the personality in the bean, while oven roasts and other indirect heating methods diminishes the differences.

Maybe you could divert the hot air stream from the blow torch to the beans with a shield of some kind? Leading the air in some circular path down and up through the beans and getting the beans away from the vicinity of the flame somehow...
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Postby bruceb » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:04 pm

As Zix said, shiny beans are oily beans. I also try to avoid this for the above reason. I find that any time after rolling second crack the beans may begin to get oily and are generally too dark for my taste.

I talked to Steve about hot-air roasting vs. radiant heat roasting and he suggested that hot-air roasting makes a brighter cup, ie. less of the "darker" roast aroma. I think that I have convincingly verified that. I prefer the "darker" cup myself, but that is just a matter of personal taste.

Be careful with that blow torch! :shock: :D
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Postby zix » Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:31 pm

Yes, a good drum roast is hard to beat, I must admit. The hot air gun/bowl taste profile is somewhere between popcorn style hot air roasters and radiant heat roasters like oven and drum roaster. Volume and body, but also varietals. The best of both worlds then? You may ask, and yes I would say it is, provided (as I said before) that the roast works out good.
For environmental thinking, I am afraid the hot air gun roasting process gets minus three points for not being very effective. There is no lid on the bowl... and most hot air guns, I suppose, are around 1-1.5 kW.
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Postby Richard » Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:33 am

Thanks for the help to both of you, there's me thinking that shiny beans are the nirvana of roasting and that matt beans are the also-ran situation you get by roasting with improvised equipment.

The blow torch trial yesterday was just that, I was playing. I haven't tasted those beans yet and to be honest I went darker than I prefer because that was the nature of the the blow torch roast.

I've been roasting with a hot air gun for years now, Hmmmm, since I joined this forum I suppose. I feel confident and in-control with the hot air gun and the bowls I photographed onto this thread.

The only thing missing was a discussion with others who roasted with a hot air gun. The popcorn roasting method quickly lost it's appeal because of the small quantities, also, it seemed far to fast.
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