Hey Herman! You’re getting some great opinions and I think you’re on the right track. I don’t have a lot to add on the current techie side, but I will say that one thing keeps occurring to me about your comments. You talk a lot about automation and repeatability, and that is indeed a good goal when you find what you like for bread-and-butter. But, one thing I note about my own experience is that there are variables that are out of your control to some extent at the home level—fluctuations in room (green bean) temperature, line voltage, etc. and these will impact your roast to some extent. I had a favorite profile I used, but I almost always ended up manually ejecting the beans to account for these things.
My point is—when you visit most roasting studios, they still have little trays of their “ideal” roast color for each blend, etc. and eject the beans when a bit short of that target. There is still an element of “eye” or “art” to this, in spite of how much science you bring to it. Much like adjusting your grinder to improve a shot as you have changes in relative humidity from day to day, you know? So to the previous post from Ira or one of the others, having a very visible and manual machine is a great first step. You will learn a lot about what you want, what do the stages look and sound like (first crack, second crack, etc.), how is decaf different than regular, etc. and you will need this to be able to find what you like and be able to program that in to a machine later. Bottom line, I think you will find that roasting is a finicky thing, very fun, and manual involvement is almost inevitable in my opinion. If you don’t like that aspect, you may want to spend the time and money sampling lots of blends from other roasters instead and going that route? I like Jonathan’s suggestion below a lot—and if you borrow my hottop you can experiment with some programmed profiles and see how they vary from day to day, even with identical times and temps! Anyway, just another angle on things. best, bmc > On Sep 27, 2016, at 11:56, herman dickens <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks, the more info and opinions I get the better! > > On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 2:52 PM, Jonathan Stroum <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > Quest M3 seems like a lot of $ for a 120 gram per roast output. Do I have > that right? > > > > I buy from Sweet Maria’s (Vivace is less than a mile from me but $14 for 12 > oz of beans is $$$). I use a Nesco roaster for ¼ lb batches. $150 from > Sweet Marias. Very good introduction to the simple art of roasting and > sampling beans from different areas of the world. I roast 3 or 4 batches in > a row. Important to let roasted beans rest for 48 to 72 hours. Lots of info > on Sweet Marias on every variety. > > > > $150 and beans to experiment with would let you get your feet wet and better > prepare you for choosing a machine that’ll best support your ambitions. Fully > manual wouldn’t be my first choice. Hottop looks great but, again, I’d get my > feet wet first. > > > > Have fun! > > > > JPaul > > <> > From: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf > Of herman dickens > Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2016 10:01 AM > To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Home Roasting > > > > Thanks for the reply. I'll be spending a lot of time researching before I > buy. I've been reading almost constantly since I posted and am still trying > to decide the best route. It looks like the Quest m3 is a great machine and > since it's manual and quiet and has a trier should be a great machine. I will > not need to do large batches so that's a plus as well. I am finding that it's > more involved to get a good roast than I initially thought but that's not > necessarily a bad thing. I think I will enjoy the experimentation. I'd rather > buy a machine that I will be satisfied than end up upgrading every year or > two. Still a lot of information to sort though.... > > > > On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 11:49 AM, 'Mike Walsh' via Brewtus > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > I started with a modified popcorn popper where I could switch in and out both > the high temp and the low temp heating coils and could control the fan. It > took me maybe two hours and $25 in parts from Radio Shack. I wish I could > point you to the info, but that was years ago. If you have a variac around > you can get even more heat control, but just being able to switch the high > and low coils in and out was enough for me to stretch roasts between 1st and > 2nd crack, etc. > > > > I got VERY good coffee, including espresso, out of that setup, but ultimately > the capacity wasn't high enough for my needs. > > > > I would not use an unmodified popper, but I'm sure you can probably find some > decent info out there still on mods (I just did a Google and there are tons > of pages still). > > The big benefit of using a popper for some time is that you can very easily > probe the bean mass, smell it, see it, hear it. You really learn, > understand, and recognize all the roasting stages. > > > > Once you move to a more closed roaster, you are going to need all that > experience because your sensory information is going to be reduced. > > > > If for no other reason than that, I'd do 10-20 popper roasts. > > > > I've been on a Behmor 1600 since virtually the day they came out, and I get > very good roasts, including pushing into light Vienna for espresso. Recently > I upgraded to the new control panel and the side panel with the fan. In my > experience, the Behmor is a bargain of a roaster and you get good results, > but do make sure that you regularly clean the inside as well as doing minor > disassembly and really clean the fans well. For whatever reason, if I get > more than minimal buildup on my fans the roaster doesn't work nearly as well. > > > On Monday, September 26, 2016 at 11:06:19 AM UTC-4, bmacpiper wrote: > > Hey Herman, > > I used to roast a lot, and really enjoyed it. I’ve gone through a few > roasters and my last was/is a hottop. It was really good, and I hear great > things about the behmor also. > > In my opinion, using a popcorn popper to decide if you like roasting would be > like using Folger’s to decide if you like espresso. You need to have a decent > tool to get the good result, and if you use a crappy tool you can’t really > conclude you don’t like the result. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus > <https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus > <https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus > <https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus > <https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
