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Postby icke » Wed May 23, 2012 7:59 pm

bit of an update on my life with the huky due here after roasting with it for a couple of months.

the biggest drawback that i can find is the large batch size. as a result i get to roast much less often as i'd like to. roasting only twice per week makes it a bit hard to remember what changes i had planned to apply to the next roast

it's still a lot of fun to roast with it and i wouldn't want to go back to my hottop but the huky has seen a few updates since i've received it.

i'm still using the perforated drum while most other users that i know of have either chosen a solid drum straight away or changed to the solid drum later.

the three updates that i have done are:
- a 'normal' gas burner instead of the IR stove
- a 72 rpm drum motor over the default 50 rpm motor
- a dimmer on the fan

the 'normal' gas burner has a bit more power and doesn't heat the drum itself as much as the ir burner does (or so i have been told - not sure if it's true).
the faster motor simply improves bean agitation while the dimmer on the fan is needed to stop the 747 style ventilation pulling beans out of the drum while roasting.

strangely, after the first few very successful roasts i started to find a lot of bitterness in my roasts. none of the above upgrades however seemed improve things there as i had sometimes more and sometimes less bitterness in the cup.

i think however that i now understand what i have been doing wrong. i always used to have at least some moderate if not strong ventilation during the drying phase. i tried to stay as close to 5 minutes for reaching 150C BT. at batch sizes of 350g+ that is only possible when the fan is actively pulling quite a bit of heat through the drum/beans. i think however that this has been drying the beans to much to fast. i now have the exhaust pipe closed and the fan off and all of the sudden i have hardly any bitterness in my roasts...
i may try to at least open the exhaust valve again but i will certainly keep the fan off until the beans start to turn yellow from now on.

does anybody have suggestions regarding the drying phase?
Black KvdW Speedster / Arrarex Caravel / Elektra Nino / Vario / Huky 500 / and a bunch of less frequently used things...
LMWDP #386
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Postby lukas » Wed May 23, 2012 11:17 pm

Hi Icke, glad to hear you're still having fun!

Re batch size, that was the most frustrating thing for me on the quest as well - only the other way around: 150-250g wasn't enough and after the first 200 or so roasts I wanted to roast more in fewer batches. That was hardly enough to drink yet still have some leftovers of the last batch to cup alongside the new batch :)
How about giving excess coffee to friends and family?

Re the drying phase - I have no conclusive knowledge there. With the Quest, ca. 5 minutes to 150degC seems best. With the Ghibli though I'm anywhere between 8 and 13 minutes. That's one of the many variables I'd certainly like to explore further!

The Quest is quite a good sample roaster, btw :)

Icke wrote:the 'normal' gas burner has a bit more power and doesn't heat the drum itself as much as the ir burner does (or so i have been told - not sure if it's true).

Might be true - speculation: I suppose the IR-burner does not produce as much an airflow as the flame on the normal burner?
Lukas

This week I like my coffee luke-warm.
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Postby icke » Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:53 am

yau = yet another update:

i have swapped the original perforated drum for a solid drum. i think that has made the biggest impact so far. i get much better results now, no more burnt or bitter flavors really. i guess my roasting skills/knowledge might just not be where they should be to handle the perforated drum.

if i change anything else on the huky, i might look at installing a met probe. it involves drilling a hole in the front plate in a difficult location though. getting it wrong might have the potential of rendering the roaster useless if something goes wrong, so i'm still pondering if the risk is worth the effort...
Black KvdW Speedster / Arrarex Caravel / Elektra Nino / Vario / Huky 500 / and a bunch of less frequently used things...
LMWDP #386
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icke
 
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