by boar_d_laze on Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:33 am
It probably takes forever to become a really accomplished roaster. The kind of guy who cups, and tweaks, cups and tweaks, understands the secret natures of hundreds of varietals, knows... hell I don't know. All that stuff is out of my experience.
What I do know is that if you're interested, observant, focussed, have a good palate, buy an easy machine, are willing to do all of the cleaning and maintenance required, ask lots of stupid questions, and a little lucky in terms of stumbling on appropriate profiles, you should be getting acceptable results after just a few roasts; and very good results after finding a better profile and doing a little tweaking, after around 20 roasts.
As a beginner doing simple blends you'll want to start with a roast strategy that gets you to first crack -- with one slight delay during the drying period -- more or less as quickly as possible; then stretch the period between first and second crack. You do not want to spend too much time anywhere along the line or the beans will taste baked. "Too much" is a relative term -- but you don't want the beans in the drum for longer than... say... 15 minutes, tops.
There are a few machines worth looking at in your price range which will show a beginner a relatively good time: Behmor, Gene, HotTop, HotTop Programmable; and Quest.
Behmor: The Behmor is a good machine, well under your top price; and not only the least expensive (by far) of the good machine, but the price/value leader as well. It's very thoughtfully designed, and the least smokey of the bunch. Smoke is one thing and [ahem] roast-aroma its close relation. If you do indoor roasting under an ordinary hood, this is the roaster which won't stink up your house and get you in trouble with your cell-mates.
Of the machines I listed, the Behmor is the only one which is sold as doing a good job for more than 8oz of beans. In fact, the manufacturer says 1lb. Unfortunately, not so much. Certainly not a good job. Maybe 10oz, but you couldn't tell by me -- I stayed stuck at 8oz. The problem is that larger roasts take more time, the Behmor only produces so much heat, and... train wreck.
It's not really a "batch roaster," but does an okay job of doing a couple of roasts without two much in-between cleaning and waiting. You could do 1.5lbs in one weekly roasting sessions, without stretching the morning out too far. Not true with the HotTops.
For lots of reasons, Behmor roasts tend to be slightly on the duller side of bright -- not just compared to an air roaster but to good shop roasts as well. This is generally true of the machine, but becomes more pronounced as charge size increases, and -- in my experience -- really screams in amounts over 8oz. You may or may not like this quality. At first it didn't bother me at all, then it did slightly, until finally -- when I had to replace mine -- I couldn't get it out of my head.
Behmors are quite sensitive to voltage variation. If yours varies significantly, you'll want to consider some sort of regulation such as a Variac clone.
The Behmor doesn't do a good job of getting chaff out of the heat. That can be a real problem. I won't say it's prone to chaff fires exactly, but the possibility is sure as hell real.
The cooling cycle is not great, and imposes some limitations on the quality of the roast.
Gene: Very easy roaster run to run. Good coffee, but a little on the bright side. Batch roasts without too much delay between charges.
Has cool down issues, similar to the Behmor. Takes around 15minutes to get 8oz to FC. The longer roast -- combined with the slow cool down -- means risking going from bright to baked at a very critical time. The solution is to roast less coffee at a time.
An acquaintance has one, I don't, haven't used his, and am stopping here other than to say his experience was an important part in my decision to buy a HotTop.
HotTop and HotTop Programmable: They're really the same machine with different control boards. The HT is more versatile than the HT-P, slightly more "hands-on" and less expensive, are very easy. The HT-P better rewards understanding and planning, but only slightly. I have an HT-P and love it.
The HTs are very much miniature shop roasters in the way they cook and cool down. Roast quality can be exemplary. In my opinion it doesn't take all that much to get to very, very good, either. True excellence is another thing -- you can ask me abut that in five years.
HTs do not do successive batches easily. They need lots of cool down, and some cleaning beyond as well. Because the drum isn't easily removable -- especially from a hot roaster -- getting all the chaff out requires more effort.
HTs have been around for awhile, are well understood, and you can get quite a bit of good help from the boards. They're also well supported, well made, good looking, fun to use.
Quest: Machine du jour. Over your stated price limit. Best results seem to come from relatively small charges -- less than 200g. I understand the ideal is somewhere around 150g. Roasts quicker and does batches better than anything else, so you may be able to live with that limitation.
Totally manual, which gives you lots of control, and which I gather is not very important to you, because you're a "set it and forget it" kind of guy. The reality is that you don't have to make use of all the control.
The least sensitive to power line variation, because the roaster has complete control over power usage.
I don't own one, but gather from the boards that a lot of people are getting good results from simple profiles like "crank it to the max, heat to 300F and drop, stay cranked untl 1st crack, drop it to 60% until first snaps of second crack, and eject." At a guess, most owners are far from expert roastmasters and are using that sort of simple profile. So you wouldn't be alone.
My guess is that quantity and price push it down to the bottom of your list.
Bottom Line: HotTop or Behmor. Both are simple and friendly.
The Behmor is significantly less expensive, and if that's at all an issue, is the best choice by far. Heck, buy two.
Roasters tend to use more coffee than people who don't roast -- it's partly waste, partly tasting, and partly quien sabe. We go through about the same amount of greens you think you will, roughly a 30% increase over what we did before I started roasting. In our case the amount means roasting a single batch two or three times a week. Asking for greater output from an HT might make the process significantly more onerous. That's not an absolute, it depends on your patience.
If you're the kind of guy who likes to find something that works and stick with it, AND don't mind spending the extra couple of hundred which slightly favors that type of personality, get the HT-P. If you want as much control and improvisatory wriggle-room as possible, get the regular HT. If you don't know, get the regular.
I chose the HT-P over the HT for the wrong reasons, not really understanding the differences. If someone had explained it to me at the time, I probably would have bought the HT... but it turns out the HT-P really suits me. Lucky; but lucky works.
I certainly like the HT-P a great deal more than I did my Behmor. I got better results from the HT from day one, using the "Automatic" program (which you'd outgrow after very few roasts). We like our own roasts more than the biggies, get good results from our own SO choices, my blends, and commercial blends oriented towards home-roasters. Drinking professionally roasted coffee now and then -- including BC -- is a nice change-up.
Not only are we frikkin' thrilled with the coffee we get out it, after nearly a hundred roasts, I still get a kick out of watching the beans drop and the agitator stir them as they cool. Nothing quite like immaturity as a decision basis is there? If I had to do it again, I'd likely buy another HT-P.
BDL
