Heads up: watch out for them there rocks!

[Puck]

Hi All,

I’ve read posts from people in the past, who’ve had rocks in their beans, so I’ve always invested half a minute or so inspecting each batch of beans before and after roasting, but to be honest, I was beginning to grow complacent having never come across any foreign objects whatsoever.

In fact I am truly amazed at the very high quality of the beans, with just the occasional damaged or mutant bean.

Anyway, I was awarded a little surprise today that has made the vigilance all worthwhile.

I think, today I just saved my grinder.

So, this is just a quick heads-up to all you bean lovers out there, keep your eyes peeled, and may you keep your grinders from harm.

Cheers..

[Gouezeri]

That's why I don't like magnets, as they give you a false sense of security. I do find that it is much more common (and even then it is quite rare) to find stones or twigs with greens than it is with roasted though.

[Puck]

Magnets?.. Is that some method used to separate out the stones? Not heard of that before. I didn't know stones were magnetic.

[Gouezeri]

Actually, from memory, it's something Baz uses to attract girlfriends
We've had this topic here before a number of times. What we're referring to is one of these. It's meant to stop bits of metal from falling in to your grinder. Obviously, does absolutely nada for stopping stones (thus my warning above)

[Puck]

Ah, right, thought that sounded bit weird.

So you can't beat the Mk1 eyeball

Edit: typo.

[Gouezeri]

Well, in my experience, eyeballs tend not to cause as much damage to the burrs, though they do take a long time to clean up from afterwards.

[GreenBean]

Well, in my experience, eyeballs tend not to cause as much damage to the burrs, though they do take a long time to clean up from afterwards.

In your experience?

[Gouezeri]

Well, I would wink at that comment, but....

[Puck]

As you can see from my avatar (which is a genuine likeness) I have bean eyes.
So if they accidentally get ground, I just pop in some new ones. I prefer high mountain ones… the view is so much better.

Edit: I've now changed my avatar, so this post no longer makes sense. Actually I don't think it did anyway.

[Jasonscheltus]

The other really common type of forgein object is the drying patio stone - it's just cement really, so it's quite soft and doesn't make too much of a mess of your grinder.

Quartz and harder stones, like the one in your picture, make a bit more of a crack as they go through your burrs and prolly hurt a little more.

One roaster I met in Melbourne was using a destoner at they had quite a collection of *things...

[Gouezeri]

Ooh, there are some good ones in there!
I dread to think what the risks are like for a commercial outlet, getting through kilos of beans each week, as looking out for this kinda stuff becomes much harder! Whereas your average home barista, weighing for each shot, is gonna spot stuff much quicker.
Hey Steve (or Ivo or Walter), any comment on what it is like roasting stuff like this? Ie what kinda of damage can it do to a machine?

[Olings]

Our roast drum is made in cast iron, and a little stone wouldn't do to much damage.

We have found several different objects among our green beans, but when you buy coffee of higher quality such as the roasters in the specialty coffee part of the industry do, they are rare.



Ola

[BazBean]

over recent years I have managed to grind a fair few tons of beans now and have only ever had 1 piece of gravel and one unroasted bean.. not a bad average me thinks

[Bombcup]

I investigated a jammed grinder the other week and found a pound coin in there. Coin was mullered but the burrs were undamaged. Dittings rule!

[quoad]

That's why I don't like magnets, as they give you a false sense of security. I do find that it is much more common (and even then it is quite rare) to find stones or twigs with greens than it is with roasted though.

Do ya know, it hadn't even occurred to me that the screw that f*%^ed up my Macap could've been in with the beans when they arrived.

Though I'm still to find where the b*%ger came from... So... Hmmmm.

Interesting thread