New Roaster in the house

Roasters and roasting

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New Roaster in the house

Postby icke » Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:02 pm

just received a Huky 500 this week and got it hooked up to some lpg today.
three roasts done so far:
1. some robusta that i had ordered for blending but have never really used - goes to the bin
2. some very old (2007-2008 crop) kenyan that just was not good for espresso, hence is still lying around - goes to the bin too most likely (sorry steve... :oops: )
3. some accidental mix of fresh beans. i had ordered a few kg from a supplier in germany. when it arrived the box was slightly out of shape and every single packet inside was torn open. so i had about 2.5 kg of a random mix of Sidamo, Herbazu, Brasil Santos and perhaps a bit Monsooned Malabar.

i didn't hear much cracking during roast 1 and 2 but the fresher beans did create quite some noises, so my initial worry that i wouldn't hear them well enough was unfounded.

the results all look actually surprisingly good at first glance. the tastebuds will be a better judge though...
there is a LOT to learn and i feel a bit overwhelmed by the new shiny beast. the hottop was in use for about 4 years and feels like an old glove by now. the huky feels like a new pair of rather rigid hiking boots that need a long while to be worn in properly.

it's all in all quite a bit more messy. chaff flying around, some beans getting stuck in there and coming out half roasted when the roaster tilted downwards, the cooling tray is a tad flimsy and no automatic agitation. but that's all stuff that one can get used to as long as the results are palatable... also the new 'freedom' of on the fly manual controls create a bit of stress during the process. but that was actually one of the biggest gripes i had with the hottop p - it just didn't allow enough manual override during a roast.

have attached the profiles as recorded with Artisan but they don't show an awful lot of detail...
Attachments
robusta no 1.jpg
Roast #1
robusta no 1.jpg (64.65 KiB) Viewed 21931 times
OldKenyan.FS.jpg
Roast #2
OldKenyan.FS.jpg (69.5 KiB) Viewed 21931 times
Melange 1.FS.jpg
Roast #3
Melange 1.FS.jpg (62.34 KiB) Viewed 21931 times
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RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby lukas » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:34 am

Congratulations! I'd love to get my hand on one of those and compare it to the Quest M3. Try to refrain from fiddling to much with the controls in the beginning - try a few roasts with near-constant heat and near-constant air to get a feel how the roaster behaves, what heat you need to get a specific roasting time/curve. Takes much of the stress off operating it and leaves plenty of space to experiment later!
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Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby icke » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:43 am

lukas wrote:Congratulations! I'd love to get my hand on one of those and compare it to the Quest M3.


well, just pop in when you're coming to the cote d'azur the next time, you're welcome to play with the huky as much as you like... ;)

lukas wrote:Try to refrain from fiddling to much with the controls in the beginning - try a few roasts with near-constant heat and near-constant air to get a feel how the roaster behaves, what heat you need to get a specific roasting time/curve. Takes much of the stress off operating it and leaves plenty of space to experiment later!

i think that's a rather good idea indeed to take a bit of stress out of the process. all the more so as clicking on artisan buttons adds to the workload anyway.

actually, in roast #2 one can see between about 5 and 12 minutes that the red ET curve rose and then flattened out again, creating two camel back humps. that rising of the temp was a result of switching the fan on, pulling air through the drum.

forgot to mention that all the above mentioned roasts were 400g batches. i tried to (cold) load the drum with 500g but that seems to stretch it's capacity quite a bit. beans seemed to be piling back in the bean chute and when i pulled the trier out, beans came spilling out of the opening there...

one positive surprise already: i added about 4g of the above mentioned robusta to my current blend just now and surprisingly, it didn't ruin the shot!!! when i had tried that robusta in even smaller quantities before it always seemed to add too much bitter and rubbery notes to the blend. not today though...
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RE: Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby lsjms » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:47 pm

What is this thing? Got any photos?
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Postby icke » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:13 pm

it's a hand made gas powered little drum roaster.
Attachments
shutter-o.jpg
shutter open
shutter-o.jpg (170.75 KiB) Viewed 21855 times
shutter-c.jpg
shutter closed
shutter-c.jpg (163.13 KiB) Viewed 21855 times
drum.jpg
drum
drum.jpg (159.03 KiB) Viewed 21858 times
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Postby icke » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:24 pm

is there a limit of three attachments per post?
Attachments
Huky500.jpg
huky 500 (huky seems to be chinese for husky)
Huky500.jpg (137.65 KiB) Viewed 21854 times
shutter-o2.jpg
shutter open
shutter-o2.jpg (135.35 KiB) Viewed 21854 times
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Postby bruceb » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:55 pm

Yes, there is a limit of 3 images per post if you post them here. You can, however, link to another website where you store your images and then you can link to as many of them as you want.

What is the price of this roaster? I have seen some discussions of it on the German coffee forums. It looks expensive. Is that a gas heater on the bottom?

It sounds like it has the same capacity as the maggio, but it is certainly much more refined and technical. The Maggio is about at complicated as a brick.
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: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby lukas » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:19 am

icke wrote:
lukas wrote:Congratulations! I'd love to get my hand on one of those and compare it to the Quest M3.


well, just pop in when you're coming to the cote d'azur the next time, you're welcome to play with the huky as much as you like... ;)


Will certainly do so! As to when, well, my last visit to france was 16 years ago. No idea when the next will be ;P
icke wrote:actually, in roast #2 one can see between about 5 and 12 minutes that the red ET curve rose and then flattened out again, creating two camel back humps. that rising of the temp was a result of switching the fan on, pulling air through the drum.

Airlfow is quite critical to a successful roast (yes, even drum roasters do >50% of their heat transfer via convection) - you need the air to get the heat to the beans, but except for a few moments when the roast goes exothermic you also need the air to not take away the heat from the beans, so there has to be a balance between the heat source and the airflow. That blower looks quite big to me, but the Huky uses a flap to regulate the airflow, right?

With the Quest, it's very important to have a good airflow during the buildup to first crack as well as during it.

icke wrote:forgot to mention that all the above mentioned roasts were 400g batches. i tried to (cold) load the drum with 500g but that seems to stretch it's capacity quite a bit. beans seemed to be piling back in the bean chute and when i pulled the trier out, beans came spilling out of the opening there...

I love the drum design, it's so simple and solid. And the vanes mean realy good agitation and probably very even roasts (if the airflow is right). My Quest does 300g roasts if it has to, but the best tasting roasts I only ever get if I load it with 180-200g.
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Postby GreenBean » Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:43 am

Thanks for posting this icke. It looks like a very interesting, simple, hands on roaster. 8) I am sure you will enjoy getting to know it. Please let us know what you think after using it for some time.

I agree with your comments on the Hottop P lack of control during the roast. I would recommend changing the control panel to the Hottop B model. It is very easy to do and allows much better control during the roast.
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Postby icke » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:06 pm

bruceb wrote:What is the price of this roaster? I have seen some discussions of it on the German coffee forums. It looks expensive. Is that a gas heater on the bottom?

the 'plain' roaster is 730€. it comes with either 1 analog and one k-type tc or two k-type tc. i chose the latter as i just recently got a 4 channel Voltcraft thermometer to interface with artisan.
that's indeed a gas heater on the bottom - see attached picture. he calls it an infrared stove. not sure if the main heat source is infrared but the mesh (or whatever that is) is glowing quite intense. there is however a flame too but it's not looking like a typical gas flame.
the stove costs extra and incl. shipping it cost me 911€ on which i had to add import duty and vat of another 200€ - so indeed, cheap it is not... but in comparison to any other pound roaster i think it's not bad, not to mention 1kg batch size roasters which we all only salivate about... ;)

bruceb wrote:It sounds like it has the same capacity as the maggio, but it is certainly much more refined and technical. The Maggio is about at complicated as a brick.

it is actually quite visibly handmade. build by someone who seems quite passionate about it but it's not an industrial design.
roasting with it is quite a bit more messy than it was with the hottop though. the fan is a huge pc-style fan that's sitting in it's own little enclosure and is separately powered. the funnel doubles as beab-charge funnel and fan funnel when placed upside down into the site on top of the fan - got that? :)
before dumping the beans, all this has to be disassembled so that the sieve on top of the fan can becomes the cooling tray. in the meantime there's lot's of smoke and floating chaff in the air. also, when using the fan, the smoke that get's pulled out of the roaster is not easily captured by a kitchen hood as it's possible with the hottop.

i think actually that the pictures are a tad deceiving and the whole thing is actually a bit slower than what i anticipated. i can try to take a picture of it next to my hottop for reference.

greenbean wrote:I agree with your comments on the Hottop P lack of control during the roast. I would recommend changing the control panel to the Hottop B model. It is very easy to do and allows much better control during the roast.

i had actually thought about just doing that but decided not to throw money at the hottop as it's getting a bit old by now. it would not allow me to increase batch size either nor would i get those great vanes or gas heating. all those options made it quite tempting really...
Attachments
Infrared stoves.jpg
ir gas stove
Infrared stoves.jpg (239.41 KiB) Viewed 21770 times
standard appurtenance.jpg
i actually had to look up the term appurtenance :) never heard it before.
standard appurtenance.jpg (243.2 KiB) Viewed 21770 times
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Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby icke » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:18 pm

lukas wrote:I love the drum design, it's so simple and solid. And the vanes mean realy good agitation and probably very even roasts (if the airflow is right). My Quest does 300g roasts if it has to, but the best tasting roasts I only ever get if I load it with 180-200g.


the drum is also available as solid drum where only the back end is perforated. i was tempted but then being told that it works well with the perforated drum. so i trusted the vendor and followed his advise... i haven't seen any scorching or tipping as i sometimes did with the hottop when it was pre-heated a bit to much. even though i have pre-heated the huky to 300C!!!

the fan is quite strong and just on/off. the only control i have is the flap in the diversion pipe. another owner in austria (i guess bruce and lukas may have seen his posts in the german forum) has obtained a dimmer for the fan so that he can directly control airflow via fan power instead of the flap inside the diversion pipe. sounds like a good idea but increases the mess a bit too. i'll see how i get on with the flap for the times being. artisan is quite a good tool to observe what happens when one changes parameters. so i can play a bit with the flap and see how the rate of ET rise is changing.

well, lot's to learn, lot's of coffee to drink before i can make my amateur mind decided if i like it or not - so far it's a great new toy and the initial results seem promising. problem with those large batch sizes is that roasting becomes a bit less frequent... need to find a few willing consumers for my trial output... :)

(edit: grammar)
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RE: Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby bruceb » Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:03 pm

Appurtenance is not an everyday word, to be certain. I rather suspect that the person who chose the word found it in some Chinese/English dictionary and thought that it sounded better than accessory, not realising that many native English speakers would have to look up the word or ignore it. :D
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I decided I needed a bit of a change so I roasted some Monsooned Malabar. That was a change!
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Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby MKSwing » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:03 pm

Hello,
This is a nice little roaster and the profiles look nice. Where did you buy it ?
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RE: Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby CakeBoy » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:31 am

Very interesting looking machine.
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Re: RE: New Roaster in the house

Postby icke » Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:08 am

MKSwing wrote:Hello,
This is a nice little roaster and the profiles look nice. Where did you buy it ?


i got it directly from the taiwanese vendor. he is hand building them and selling them directly.

here's actually a youtube video that he uploaded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W7Lst2AYSg
there you can actually also find mr. kuanho li's contact details.
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