Just wanted to throw this out there to get some opinions before I decide:

I have the opportunity to purchase an Alpenrost + 15lb of green beans for $125 shipped.

Yes or no on pulling the trigger on this deal, and what are the pros and cons of this roaster?

The reviews I've read are mixed, but none actually give this machine the axe.

BTW: This will be my first shot at roasting.

Thanks-

Run in the other direction

You have to put the beans in cold, there's no profile control, it's hard to hear cracks over the metal clank, cool down takes for ever, agitation is poor, small beans get caught in the drum and turn to charcoal. The coffee produced is flat and boring for any brew method.

100% Yrgacheffe. The white spot is a cinder


I had two. Returned.

Ouch!

Yikes!!!

I started with a whirly pop popcorn-hand crank thingy, with thermometer inside. $40 all in, and I could actually drink the stuff.

The "Alp" was the first drum roaster for hobbyists, and in its time, the stuff of dreams. Unfortunately, it did not pan out: the roaster is extraordinarily hard to control, doesn't do well with chaff or smaller beans, and has a tendency to char beans. It died out as a hobbyist device as soon as the Hottop hit.

I had one sitting in my basement for years and finally threw it out a year ago. Never got a good roast from it. Almost turned me off to home roasting.

Marvin

JY,

I bought an Alp in 2002, it worked as designed for 11 months and suddenly died w/o warning. Swissmar honored the 12 mo warranty and shipped me a new unit and that one lasted for 7 years of weekly roasting. The overwhelming feedback from the user community is mostly negative but for whatever reason I liked my unit and it performed well as a first roaster (roasted 8 oz batches, could route exhaust through a dryer hose to outside, dumps beans into cup, minimal attention required, coffee tasted pretty good though may not win any contests). None of my roasts ever looked so uneven as the prior post although I'm not questioning the validity of the picture. I will say the picture looks alot like the funky beans that are left behind in the drum after a roast that, as indicated by the instructions, should be tossed as they didn't have enough mass to spin out into the cup during the "dump". A swissmar tech had also indicated the unit needed to be kept clean in order to keep it alive and functioning as intended that may explain the longevity and performance of the 2nd unit (first unit wasn't cleaned regularly). My voltage was likely quite low over the years and its possible that it helped tone down the scorching that other users had complained about. I also commonly roasted blends that didn't vary much in composition and roasted to a "vienna" degree of roast. These preferences probably contributed to consistency in results, however, any time I did single orgin, it worked fine.

My Alp seemed to be getting tired about a year ago so it was replaced w/ a Behmor. I can get better roasts w/ the Behmor with an additional variac and voltmeter after spending a substantial amount of time figuring out how to work within the constraints of that roaster, however, the simplicity of the Alp has its merits for someone starting out who wants fresh coffee w/o embarking on a research project (just push start...wait...listen...push stop). As already stated, it does not compete with roasters costing much more but I'm not sure we should be expecting low cost equipment to perform at that level anyway...as usual...you get what you pay for and if you don't want to pay much then there may be some additional challenges.

I am aware they made various changes to the design over the years and these changes may have degraded performance to the point of "no performance". Quality control was apparently quite variable causing some units to work fine and others to be mired in problems or die early. If I could have purchased my exact unit for $300 last year I probably would have, but the last run seemed to be too iffy whether they would work or not so I looked elsewhere.

If the unit you are looking at was late production then there is a reasonable possibility that it won't work but, then again, it just might work, and so it depends on how much you value the money spent vs the risk/reward (you may be buying a "boat anchor" out of the box or an inexpensive and potentially adequate home roaster for almost nothing that could last years). If you do decide to buy, you can check the web for tips on how to adjust the temperature (via a pot on the board, if I recall correctly). It seems like some folks needed to do that with newer units to get the performance they were seeking. Good luck.

Pat

So in spite of all the negative reviews, I ended up getting the roaster anyway I'm a sucker for a challenge.

It seems to be an earlier model, as it didn't have 'security' screws as described in this CoffeeGeek thread.

On the other hand this also means it has more miles on it, and it shows. No biggie though. the first thing I did was completely dismantle and clean the entire machine.
There was some major funk in there, but all the passages have been cleared and any residual chaff and years of dust have been blown out!

This evening I'll roast the first batch. I plan on following the directions in the manual and roasting 225g on the '8' setting.

To be continued...

I purchased an Alp in 2001 and my experience was much like Scrutinizer's. It wasn't fantastic but wasn't bad. I roasted by an open window with a fan blowing the smoke out. I took beans out of roaster as soon as batch was finished and tossed them back and forth between two colanders to speed cooling. It's crucial to keep inside surfaces very clean (I used Greased Lightning spray degreaser and then followed that with a damp cloth to wipe off any remaining residue) and also to empty chaff after every batch. The size of the holes in the perforated drum are problematic for very small and irregular beans such as Yemeni and certain Ethiopians. Some of those beans tend to get stuck in the holes and burn. best bet is to not roast those varietals but you can also do a pre-roast blend that mixes them with larger bean types - the agitation of the larger beans seems to minimize the number of small beans that get stuck.

Knowing when a batch is done is an art rather than a science. The motor noise does make it difficult to discern the difference between first and second crack - especially if first rolls into second. I did get fairly good at discerning the cracks and combined that metric with the smell of the smoke. There is a certain optimal point at which the smoke has a sweet smell and has not yet gotten any burnt or acrid notes. if that happens at the 14 to 17 minute mark then it's time to dump and cool.

I used it for two years and then resold it to another hobbyist who also had good experiences. It sounds as though Swissmar made some unfortunate changes that caused newer units to be less reliable. I upgraded to the Alp from a WB Poppery and found the longer roast time and larger batch size of the Alp - plus chaff collection - to all be positives.