Pardon my ignorance, but who is GCBC? I need that blueberry bean!
What Green Coffee did you Buy or Roast Today?
- Thread starter Mick
- Start date
Green Coffee Buying Club
Google it, you'll have to request a login, then you can buy from the vendors that place bean offerings there. When an offering is made, they usually have a limited supply, so you have to be quick sometimes.
Bump.
Since this was given a bump. I roasted yesterday, but was in a hurry and didn't take any photos. I did a Guatemala and another Ethiopian. Both seem to turn out okay, only had the Guat so far because I like to given my African beans 48-72hrs rest after roasting. I did have a weird thing happen though, my Hottop went crazy at the end of my second roast and became unresponsive. I had to pull the manual eject lever to get my beans out and save the roast. The arduino lost contact with my laptop and I had to unplug the hottop from the outlet and replug it in to get everything back to working order. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but I ran the system today again and everything ran correctly. I'll have to keep an eye on the system for the next few runs and see if it hiccups again.
Coffee was still delicious by the way.
Coffee was still delicious by the way.
Recently roasted some Colombia La Cabana and Costa Rican Tarrazu.
Where are the home roasters? I will admit it has been cold and difficult to roast lately.
Late today roasted a pound of Costa Rican Tarrazu.
Late today roasted a pound of Costa Rican Tarrazu.
roasted up 12oz of Cameroon Mifi Java Longberry (what a mouth full!) a couple of hours ago.
Still getting the hang of my thrown together BBQ drum roaster setup.
-jim
- Thread starter
- #248
I still have the San Franciscan in a bazillion pieces BUT I have the base bolted to the cart which makes using the Hottop VERY inconvenient. Roasting chamber came back in on Monday (yesterday) need to post some more pics in the rebuild thread as it is moving along.
I did roast 2 days ago by taking out a large folding table and I will take out a smaller card table today and roast another 2 half pound batches of Colombian Santa Barbara estate and some Tanzanian peaberry.
Got a tad over cooked with my last roast of espresso. The hottop did the emergency high temp dump on me. Glad it did as it was over where I wanted to go with the roast.
Hard to see all of the smoke but I was surprised the beans did not burst into flames when they hit the cold air.
A lot of the smoke had dissipated before the camera turned on but still smoke'in
- Thread starter
- #249
Been a little lax posting my roasts...
Today was 2 half pound roasts:
First was Sweet Maria's Guatemala Antigua Finca Retana roasted to City (american light roast for my daily cup)
Second roast was Sweet Maria's Espresso Workshop #27 Los Tumulos roasted to full city for the Pasquini
Got everything all apart still so I used my Ambrob TMD-56 data-logger meter instead of the dedicated controller hardware. Set the Hottop up so that I could use a number of roasting controllers/data-loggers
The light roasted Guatemala dumped at 395º @ 11:55 into the roast
Darker roasted espresso, dumped at 400º and smokin... @ 11:50 into the roast
Today was 2 half pound roasts:
First was Sweet Maria's Guatemala Antigua Finca Retana roasted to City (american light roast for my daily cup)
Second roast was Sweet Maria's Espresso Workshop #27 Los Tumulos roasted to full city for the Pasquini
Got everything all apart still so I used my Ambrob TMD-56 data-logger meter instead of the dedicated controller hardware. Set the Hottop up so that I could use a number of roasting controllers/data-loggers
The light roasted Guatemala dumped at 395º @ 11:55 into the roast
Darker roasted espresso, dumped at 400º and smokin... @ 11:50 into the roast
Just roasted up a half pound of Sweet Marias Espresso Monkey Blend.
- Thread starter
- #251
OYE it is COLD.... 36º outside during the roast......
I could not take many more days of Folgers.....
So.....
Shoveled off the snow and ice and set up a small card table near the electric outlet outside and did 2 half pound roasts. One Mexican the other El Salvador..... both central American but I NEED some good coffee NOW.....
Nothing special. Roaster. Clip board (to record the roast time/temp). A timer to keep track of things. My Amprobe TMD-56 meter plugged in to give me BT and ET temps AND DA BEANS (of course)... This is all ya need anyway to get a good roast. Lappy and artisan software stayed inside where it was warm. Both of the roasts look GREAT... Two days from now will tell whether it was worth freezing my tush off or not
Roasts came out within what I expected (time/temp) even though it was WAY TOO COLD to roast outside today.
Mex dropped at 400º (bean temp) 11:15 total roast time. I am expecting some chocolate out of this roast and hope it is good enough for a SO (single origin) for the Pasquini otherwise it will be pour over or auto drip in the Bunn
El Salvador dropped at 395º (bean temp) 11:35 into the roast. Lighter and should be a nice pour over SO (single origin) if the extreme cold did not foo bar it up too much.
Interesting that the smaller beans (Mexican) roasted shorter (time wise) but came out darker (City + to Full City) and the larger beans (El Salvador) roasted a LONGER amount of time but were lighter (City).
I roast by sight, smell, and visual but check things with time/temp on the probe meter and the timer BUT sight, smell and visual RULE when it comes to the time to dump the beans out.....
Will let you know in a couple days once they have rested if it was worth freezing my tush off standing outside for a couple hours to roast today or not <sigh>
I could not take many more days of Folgers.....
So.....
Shoveled off the snow and ice and set up a small card table near the electric outlet outside and did 2 half pound roasts. One Mexican the other El Salvador..... both central American but I NEED some good coffee NOW.....
Nothing special. Roaster. Clip board (to record the roast time/temp). A timer to keep track of things. My Amprobe TMD-56 meter plugged in to give me BT and ET temps AND DA BEANS (of course)... This is all ya need anyway to get a good roast. Lappy and artisan software stayed inside where it was warm. Both of the roasts look GREAT... Two days from now will tell whether it was worth freezing my tush off or not
Roasts came out within what I expected (time/temp) even though it was WAY TOO COLD to roast outside today.
Mex dropped at 400º (bean temp) 11:15 total roast time. I am expecting some chocolate out of this roast and hope it is good enough for a SO (single origin) for the Pasquini otherwise it will be pour over or auto drip in the Bunn
El Salvador dropped at 395º (bean temp) 11:35 into the roast. Lighter and should be a nice pour over SO (single origin) if the extreme cold did not foo bar it up too much.
Interesting that the smaller beans (Mexican) roasted shorter (time wise) but came out darker (City + to Full City) and the larger beans (El Salvador) roasted a LONGER amount of time but were lighter (City).
I roast by sight, smell, and visual but check things with time/temp on the probe meter and the timer BUT sight, smell and visual RULE when it comes to the time to dump the beans out.....
Will let you know in a couple days once they have rested if it was worth freezing my tush off standing outside for a couple hours to roast today or not <sigh>
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You are a trooper Mick! Do you have a garage you could roast in and avoid some of the cold and snow shoveling? My laundry room has a vent fan and it's bearable with my Behmor 1600, but just barely. I'm not familiar with your roaster but could you make or use ducting so that you could roast inside and vent the smoke outside?
Nice job Mick, sure miss my Hottop, just does a killer job. Think I might go the cheap route and make another heat gun/breadmaker set up.
- Thread starter
- #254
Got a couple garages. One would entail hiking through the snow to get to. The other is filled with no room for a roaster.
Roasting is messy (lots of chaff everywhere) so outside is the best place
Even here in Texas it's a bit cold for roasting. I have my Hottop set up in the garage, and it was still 38 degrees when I roasted a batch of Yemen Mokha Sharasi last night. You are right about the chaff making a mess, Mick, particularly when the batch is dropped into the cooling tray. I use a shop vac to clean the roaster and environs between each roast. And I open the garage door around first crack to let the smoke out. And I turn on a fan behind the roaster after I drop the beans.
I agree with using physical cues over temp readings and time, but I go with sound, smell, and sight instead.
For some reason, I have the hardest time with Yemeni coffees on my Hottop. I just can't seem to find the right profile or degree of roast to pull out the flavors these beans are supposed to showcase. I have found it pretty easy to go too dark, so this last batch I kept on the lighter side, dropping somewhere between first and second crack (these beans are so heterogeneous, there's no clear end of first crack or beginning of second crack). The aroma from the beans today is not promising, but that may very well change by the time they are ready for consumption in 3-4 days.
I agree with using physical cues over temp readings and time, but I go with sound, smell, and sight instead.
For some reason, I have the hardest time with Yemeni coffees on my Hottop. I just can't seem to find the right profile or degree of roast to pull out the flavors these beans are supposed to showcase. I have found it pretty easy to go too dark, so this last batch I kept on the lighter side, dropping somewhere between first and second crack (these beans are so heterogeneous, there's no clear end of first crack or beginning of second crack). The aroma from the beans today is not promising, but that may very well change by the time they are ready for consumption in 3-4 days.
- Thread starter
- #256
I find the hottop a little awkward as far as burner adjustment goes. It is way too slow to respond to settings so I keep mine set to 100% throughout the roast and use the fan during the dry stage (270 to 340 degrees) then when first crack starts I turn the burner down to 50% (or less) for the remainder of the time but the burner is so slow I have to anticipate first crack which is hard with some beans.
I equate turning the burner down to trying to stop a fully loaded 300 car coal train. Put on the breaks and WHOA baby what a ride.
I use my BT and ET probes to verify what I am seeing, smelling, and hearing. I've gone away from using Artisan as the roaster is jut not cooperative enough to be controlled in a "normal" way.
Don't get me wrong. I really like using my hottop but I wish it were a little more responsive in heat on/off up/down is all
I equate turning the burner down to trying to stop a fully loaded 300 car coal train. Put on the breaks and WHOA baby what a ride.
I use my BT and ET probes to verify what I am seeing, smelling, and hearing. I've gone away from using Artisan as the roaster is jut not cooperative enough to be controlled in a "normal" way.
Don't get me wrong. I really like using my hottop but I wish it were a little more responsive in heat on/off up/down is all
- Thread starter
- #258
I suppose you've read my thread about my SF batch/sample roaster restore......
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/437302-Yet-another-Coffee-Roaster-restoration-project
I read some of your earlier posts but haven't checked the thread in a while. Heading there now...
- Thread starter
- #260
Nothing new in that thread for a while.
I need to update it (when I have it to the point of having something new to say about the rebuild).
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