I have been a home roaster for nearly 1 year now. I use a Poppery II that has been modified to bypass the thermostat with a thermometer to monitor the bean mass temperature and a variac to control the roast profile as best I can.

I've become pretty good at roasting a large variety of beans and I rely heavily on the thermometer and my senses to get good results that are fairly reproducible. The coffee and more recently the espresso is quite good.

However, I am tired of the small batches and the variability in ambient temperature from season to season (here in New York) requiring me to alter technique. So, I hope that Santa will grant my request for a new drum roaster for Christmas. I want a drum roaster especially now that I have become SERIOUS about espresso and my understanding is that drum roasting may bring out deeper flavor profiles for espresso extractions.

I would greatly appreciate hearing from those here with experience whether to purchase the Behmor or HotTop models. I obviously appreciate that the Behmor can roast up to 1 lb batches but mostly hear that the practical range is 8-12 oz. I appreciate the price is right (LOWER) for the Behmor as well. There is a range of roast profiles but they can't be modified to any large extent as far as I have read beyond extending the roast. What I don't like about the Behmor from my research is that is quite prone to voltage fluctuations yet using a Variac to up the voltage requires care so you don't blow some circuits. Mostly, I hate the fact that there is no monitoring of internal bean mass temperature. You rely on the profile and your senses as far as I can tell. My experience with the popper is that temperature monitoring is more important. Moreover, its not recommended to go much into second crack (I usually don't like dark roasts anyway). Behmor seems to be easy to use and to clean and it has many many fans (especially over on CG).

The HotTop is more than twice the price and can "only" do 9 oz but it seems to be from my reading to be more of a workhorse with a far greater range of roast profiles and possibilities. The auto dump and cool feature is pretty nifty as well. It is reported to produce a roast that is much like the commercial drum roasters and you can go as dark as you wish (watching out for fire of course!). From what I can tell it is internally monitored for voltage (no variac necessary) and less prone to outside temperature fluctuations. Is it easy to clean? It has a long history of reliability and interchangable parts for replacements.

With price being important only in the sense that I want to choose the model that is clearly better (especially espresso beans) I'd appreciate thoughts and recommendations. If they are somewhat equal in roasting abilities, longevity and service I would obviously get the Behmor. If there are obvious benefits to the HotTop I would spend the extra $$$$.

Thanks in advance for your input.

I went through a similar deliberation a few months ago. I bought a Hottop so I could do this. Still happy with my choice.

Jim

If price does not matter, get the Hot Top. I own the Behmor, because for my purposes it is adequate, but it requires some temperature and roast profile surfing. Either one will be a step up though.

Thanks guys - I appreciate the comments and would welcome more opinions.

drdna - Price certainly will make a difference. Have you seen the economic news lately? However, I want any extra money I spend to be for a clearly better product that will eliminate upgradeitis for years hopefully. How do you deal with knowing pretty precisely when to end a roast with the Behmor? With my popper, I have a thermometer probe in the beans and its been my best tool to get to just where I want in a roast. I don't see that ability in the Behmor so in very many ways it is an upgrade but I don't want to lose that control. I asked Joe several times on CG if a temperature indicator was in the works but he never bothered to respond. I think folks would pay extra for that as an add on feature.

Jim - Wow! As a golf nut who was into equipment and knows many guys who constantly tinker with clubs your roaster mod wins all contests. Well done and I hope your coffee has improved too!

I don't have either one, use my homebuilt, but have heard a lot about both of them on various forums. I'd go with the hottop from the criteria you describe.
farm

I can't give you a first hand comparison but I've looked long and hard for my upgrade path from a temperature/variac manually controlled chaff blowing Poppery 1. It would be easy for me to choose the Hottop over the Behmor from the control standpoint alone. Adding a temp probe for bean mass in the Hottop B and you have fairly straight forward profile control. From data I've seen I think it's a bit under-powered (appears the 240V model does quite a bit better here), but this can be overcome mostly with limiting batch size and increasing pre-heat times. If you are wanting to get indoors during the winter months that is another matter for ventilation and the Behmor seems to do better in this regard, but likely ventilation is still required. I've not seen anything on getting bean temps (monitoring or direct control) on the Behmor and Hottop bean cooling is better as well.

Mainly though for me, I can't imagine giving up the direct profile control and monitoring the bean mass temperature to guide the roast. To spend much time experimenting and tasting with this is to realize that it is key to a controlled and repeatable roast. The Behmor is nice for alot of home roasters and brings the process to a kitchen appliance, but for tuning the roast profile for a DP Ethiopian or Guatemala Bourbon, I could not turn the responsibility for profile control to an appliance that runs open loop with respect to bean temperature.

I'm not trying to sell anything and certainly not trying to promote air poppers as the best roaster, but the 'upgrade' path to better quality roast is not obvious to me. I think the Hottop is a solid choice but then I would hack into it for at least a bean temp probe and my ideal drum roaster would also have a knob to control convective heating. Something that was left out of the Hottop design.

GC7 wrote:I have been a home roaster for nearly 1 year now. I use a Poppery II that has been modified to bypass the thermostat with a thermometer to monitor the bean mass temperature and a variac to control the roast profile as best I can.

I've become pretty good at roasting a large variety of beans and I rely heavily on the thermometer and my senses to get good results that are fairly reproducible. The coffee and more recently the espresso is quite good.
...
I would greatly appreciate hearing from those here with experience whether to purchase the Behmor or HotTop models. I obviously appreciate that the Behmor can roast up to 1 lb batches but mostly hear that the practical range is 8-12 oz. I appreciate the price is right (LOWER) for the Behmor as well. There is a range of roast profiles but they can't be modified to any large extent as far as I have read beyond extending the roast. What I don't like about the Behmor from my research is that is quite prone to voltage fluctuations yet using a Variac to up the voltage requires care so you don't blow some circuits. Mostly, I hate the fact that there is no monitoring of internal bean mass temperature. You rely on the profile and your senses as far as I can tell. My experience with the popper is that temperature monitoring is more important. Moreover, its not recommended to go much into second crack (I usually don't like dark roasts anyway). Behmor seems to be easy to use and to clean and it has many many fans (especially over on CG).

The HotTop is more than twice the price and can "only" do 9 oz but it seems to be from my reading to be more of a workhorse with a far greater range of roast profiles and possibilities. The auto dump and cool feature is pretty nifty as well. It is reported to produce a roast that is much like the commercial drum roasters and you can go as dark as you wish (watching out for fire of course!). From what I can tell it is internally monitored for voltage (no variac necessary) and less prone to outside temperature fluctuations. Is it easy to clean? It has a long history of reliability and interchangable parts for replacements.

With price being important only in the sense that I want to choose the model that is clearly better (especially espresso beans) I'd appreciate thoughts and recommendations. If they are somewhat equal in roasting abilities, longevity and service I would obviously get the Behmor. If there are obvious benefits to the HotTop I would spend the extra $$$$.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Great post! You've stated your experience and intentions very clearly.

Having done lots of air popper batches with temp probe and variac I too learned a lot about roasting. Next step was the 1475W TO/SC system which allowed up to 1# batches with good success. No variac needed. So for 3 years I roasted beans by those methods.

When the Behmor was introduced with the impressive $300 price, I was curious and eventually bought one because I liked the idea of a more "appliance" type roaster all in one compact box. Not quite a "set it and forget it" roaster but less vigilence is needed during the roast. The Hottop was more than twice the price and also Asian manufactured. There were also reports of fires from the HOTtop. But I haven't heard much about that recently. I'm not convinced that the roast quality is significantly better with the Hottop, but your tastebuds might be more refined.

I love the Behmor for its consistency and simplicity. The roasts are great. It's like the difference between driving an automatic transmission vs a manual transmission. A BIG PLUS for Behmor is Joe Behm's hands-on customer service. At this point no home roasting company comes close to that, period. But Joe had to put more safety features into it, including limiting roast times for the 3 weight settings (1/4, 1/2, 1#) and profile types. Once I got the voltage issues sorted, it works as advertised. I typically do 1/2# roasts as that is our weekly consumption right now.

But, based on your post, you'll probably be happier with the Hottop so you can have a more hands-on experience with the roasts. There will be a learning curve with either roaster, but you sound as if you are willing to pay the extra $$$ for the Hottop and the "manual transmission". So I'd say to go for it.

I want to clarify a couple points about what makes a 'better' roaster or roast, and I think the analogy between automatic and manual transmission is not quite appropriate here. The auto vs. manual would seem to imply that either way you get from point A to B... (....you end up with roasted beans) but really you don't always(ever?) end up at the same place when roasting. If you run the ramp to first crack at 20F/min or 35F/min, you will absolutely get a different result. One might be better for one bean or another. The roaster (machine) that allows you(the roaster) to make that choice is the better roaster. The better roaster (person doing the roasting) is the one who knows when to apply the heat and to what degree to achiieve the desired result. The 'learning curve' with a roaster (machine) is about learning how a roaster behaves, capabilities and limitations, but learning to be a good roaster(person) is about learning to taste and knowing how to adjust the roast parameters to achieve the desired results (within the limits of the bean and the machine). A machine with better flexibility, stability, monitoring and control, repeatability, will allow the roaster to make a better roast.
...hmmm maybe 'clarify' was not the best word to use....

Frost wrote:A machine with better flexibility, stability, monitoring and control, repeatability, will allow the roaster to make a better roast.

There's a thread full of content from this statement! I suppose you could add to it the option of using a 220V model and how that would affect the roast quality.

Which leads to a bigger question: Can any home roaster machine consistently duplicate the quality of a commercial machine? Can the home roaster person coax the quality out of the bean using one of the better home roasters (Behmor, Gene, Hottop)?