How do I find a good roaster?

[Pick335]

After reading some of the home roasting forums, I tried to find links for roasters...none took me to a link that displayed a decent number of roasters. Would appreciate suggestions of where to look and what to look for. I am continuing to read the home roasting forum for more info.

Thanks,

[cafeIKE]

Most of the machines are quite capable of producing fresh roasted coffee. Producing excellent coffee is the responsibility of the CBLF*

A quick synopsis

HotTop - manual best buy, bullet proof, profiles only by changing bean weight and insertion delay. Easy to hack for full manual control. Digital not worth the $. Programmable not programable enough to warrant the $$$$.

GeneCafe - quite flexible, but does not cool quite rapidly. Need to manually dump and cool.

iRoar aka iRoast (I or II) somewhat flexible, cheaply made and VERY Loud.

Nesco - slow but makes mellow coffee.

Fresh Roast - fast, bright coffee in small quantities.

Bravi - bakes roasts.

Other options are Heat Gun / Dog Bowl, RK DRum, Electric Popcorn Popper, StoveTop Popper, Stir Crazy


* CBLF = you, Carbon Based Life Form

[Martin]

After reading some of the home roasting forums, I tried to find links for roasters...none took me to a link that displayed a decent number of roasters. Would appreciate suggestions of where to look and what to look for. I am continuing to read the home roasting forum for more info.
Thanks,

Hard to know what "decent number" might be. Fact is, there's a handful or fewer off-the-shelf consumer roasters, and then a big price jump to some commercial-duty sample roasters. CafeIKE's synopsis more or less covers the field. A glance at your espresso gear leads me to think that you are seriously committed, so I'd concentrate on the "best of" in several categories:

1. Off-the-shelf, plug-and-play (but with lots of room to obsess and fine-tune). HotTop
2. Serious large-batch for self and many friends. BBQ grill.
3. Low tech, hands-on, cheap, process-oriented. Heatgun/Dogbowl (but absolutely everyone is partial to their own cobbled invention).
4. Sample Roaster.

Where to look: IMO, Sweetmarias.com is the best single-site roasting info resource----including a couple of machines, pages of consumer inventions, and what you might expect from these. After that, search by brand or type.
What to look for: You want control. You want a robust machine that's commensurate with your investment. But, with all respect, this is kind of a "what's better----a Corvette, a Mini, or a Lexus?" question. Look for posts (or make specific inquiries) from people who have used and may continue to use a couple or more of the roasters or methods you have in mind. Consider whether you want (at the extremes) another hobby on which you'd enjoy spending a bunch of time, or you mostly want an efficient way to guarantee a supply of decent fresh coffee. This is not to imply that any of the above will produce a "better" roast than the others; it's more a matter of how you want to be involved. Think about your roasting environment (apartment kitchen, year-round outdoor, etc.).
Martin

[tellicherry]

Hi,

Over on Coffee Geek there is discussion of a new home roaster that will be making an appearance at the upcoming SCAA conference. Availability is unknown but it the possibility of a new product seems to have generated a buzz.

Cory

[tellicherry]

Hi,

Here is a link to the coffee geek thread...

http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/...e/homeroast/291225

Cory

[Pick335]

Thanks guys for the info...I have plenty of studying to do!

I have learned more here in a week than I had over the last 5 years "guiding my own footsteps".

As I study the info in the last posts, is there anything in the technology of the heating I need to pay particular attention....type of heating elements, position of etc? I understand the I want "control".

Thanks agin guys...

[mrgnomer]

With regards to the plug and play roasters: I had an iRoast2 for over 2 years, 400 roasts. Roasts were bright but after getting to know the roaster I had some very good roasts. Pretty big capacity for a fluid bed, about 6oz, but not enough for a week's worth of coffee/espresso for me. I had to do about 3-4 batches/week for enough to drip/blend for espresso. Doing multiple roasts probably killed it.

Currently I've upgraded to a Hottop programmable. It's expensive but I find it to be very flexible. Once you get to know how it works and can really trick it out to do follow interesting profiles. It's more programmable than the iRoast2 and a better quality roaster for sure. True, though, during roast the only control you have is raising or lowering the roasting temp, adding time to the end of the roast or dumping the roast whenever you want so your more or less stuck with whatever profile you programmed in. The flexibility is in being about to program in a profile you want. I like it and I'd like it more if wasn't so expensive but it produces a very good roast at twice the capacity of the iRoast2 and I expect the Hottop to last a lot longer than any less expensive fluid bed.

The choice for me for a roaster would come down to fluid bed vs. radiant heat drum vs. a hybrid like the Gene Cafe. Fluid beds are the least expensive but their roasting capacities are lower and aren't designed to last that long. Typically fluid beds roast faster and the character of the roast tends to be brighter. Radiant heat drums are more expensive but their roasting capacities are higher and the roast quality is more like commercial roasters.

If I had a gas BBQ an RK drum would really interest me. After the Hottop I'd probably go with a professional sample roaster.

http://www.diedrichroasters.com/sample.html

[another_jim]

After reading some of the home roasting forums, I tried to find links for roasters...none took me to a link that displayed a decent number of roasters. Would appreciate suggestions of where to look and what to look for. I am continuing to read the home roasting forum for more info.

Thanks,

Almost any roaster will produce nice medium or medium dark roasts for espresso; no roaster you can buy will produce a roast nearly as good as those of the best pros until you learn more about roasting, and a lot more about coffee, than most consumers know when they begin home roasting.

Also, the requirements of experienced home roasters are extremely idiosyncratic, and there is no way you'll know what you need at that point until you have the experience.

Finally, as someone starting, you don't know at this point whether you'll want to stick with it or not.

So my advice to beginning roasters is to get something inexpensive and easy, like a popcorn popper, a Freshroast, or the stircrazy/convection oven combo, to learn the basics. If you get hooked, you'll know what you want next; if you decide it isn't worth it, you won't have lost a lot. This is not a waste of money, since it's almost guaranteed if you spend a lot now, it'll be on something that doesn't fit your needs down the line.

[Ken Fox]

With regards to the plug and play roasters: I had an iRoast2 for over 2 years, 400 roasts. Roasts were bright but after getting to know the roaster I had some very good roasts. Pretty big capacity for a fluid bed, about 6oz, but not enough for a week's worth of coffee/espresso for me. I had to do about 3-4 batches/week for enough to drip/blend for espresso. Doing multiple roasts probably killed it.

Currently I've upgraded to a Hottop programmable. It's expensive but I find it to be very flexible. Once you get to know how it works and can really trick it out to do follow interesting profiles. It's more programmable than the iRoast2 and a better quality roaster for sure. True, though, during roast the only control you have is raising or lowering the roasting temp, adding time to the end of the roast or dumping the roast whenever you want so your more or less stuck with whatever profile you programmed in. The flexibility is in being about to program in a profile you want. I like it and I'd like it more if wasn't so expensive but it produces a very good roast at twice the capacity of the iRoast2 and I expect the Hottop to last a lot longer than any less expensive fluid bed.

The choice for me for a roaster would come down to fluid bed vs. radiant heat drum vs. a hybrid like the Gene Cafe. Fluid beds are the least expensive but their roasting capacities are lower and aren't designed to last that long. Typically fluid beds roast faster and the character of the roast tends to be brighter. Radiant heat drums are more expensive but their roasting capacities are higher and the roast quality is more like commercial roasters.

If I had a gas BBQ an RK drum would really interest me. After the Hottop I'd probably go with a professional sample roaster.

http://www.diedrichroasters.com/sample.html

I would not go with that Diedrich; I started another thread in this forum about this roaster, which I had a chance to see close up and personal last week at the SCAA. In my opinion it is an expensive toy for the kitchen obsessed, that will not meet the needs of a passionate home roaster in a cost effective manner. Unfortunately, I don't have another suggestion for an expensive "home roaster," other than spending the same amount of money or a little bit more on a real shop roaster with a larger capacity. For 20% more than the cost of this Diedrich, you could buy a *real* 1kg to 6lb roaster, that will be capable of roasting smaller amounts if you so choose, will be a real professional roaster, and that you can resell later easily if you decide you don't want to continue with home roasting.

Reselling the Diedrich, which I emphatically state is NOT a real sample roaster, will be tough; you'll have to find another rich, fancy kitchen obsessed person who wants to roast coffee in their kitchen. There aren't a whole lot of those people out there.

ken

[mrgnomer]

I would not go with that Diedrich; I started another thread in this forum about this roaster, which I had a chance to see close up and personal last week at the SCAA. In my opinion it is an expensive toy for the kitchen obsessed, that will not meet the needs of a passionate home roaster in a cost effective manner. Unfortunately, I don't have another suggestion for an expensive "home roaster," other than spending the same amount of money or a little bit more on a real shop roaster with a larger capacity. For 20% more than the cost of this Diedrich, you could buy a *real* 1kg to 6lb roaster, that will be capable of roasting smaller amounts if you so choose, will be a real professional roaster, and that you can resell later easily if you decide you don't want to continue with home roasting.

Reselling the Diedrich, which I emphatically state is NOT a real sample roaster, will be tough; you'll have to find another rich, fancy kitchen obsessed person who wants to roast coffee in their kitchen. There aren't a whole lot of those people out there.

ken

Thanks Ken,

I have no experience with professional roasters, just going on what is said about them. The Diedrich gets mentioned quite a bit.

What about this one? Gas powered, potential PC interface. Looks pretty good?

http://www.usroastercorp.com/sample.htm

[Woz]

Check out my website for my humble opinion.

[Jasonian]

Check out my website for my humble opinion.

A very famous website at that.