I was looking for an up to date on what's available as a good home roasting option for 300-500 Grams for espresso.

Ive been using a Behmor (1lb profile trick) and really need to be around 220 grams to get the profile I am looking for. Maybe its me or my power or whatever. Im getting the itch to upgrade...

I have read about the Quest and am seeing posts on the Mini-500 and others from Taiwan. On the Quest-- Is Coffee shrub the only seller or can you buy direct? Just weighing all options (understanding the whole direct purchase hassle).

Whats the price spread on all of these current and pending future options?
Guessing the M3 is $1000-1200.
Mini-500 ?
Alternatives?

thanks
Brian

Other choices, on the small size end:

Hottop Basic (Hottop USA, at Sweet Maria's)
$820
250g
True drum roaster. Flexible. Adjustable on the fly. Three roast profiles can be saved but can't be modified. Good been cooling.

Hottop Programmable (at Sweet Maria's)
$1000
250g
True drum roaster. Programmable. Less flexible during roast. Good bean cooling.

Gene Cafe (at Sweet Maria's)
$495
225g (owners manual states 300g max)
Hybrid air / drum roaster. Flexible. Noisy compared to Hottop/M3: 1st/2nd crack harder to pick up. Bean cooling is done inside the drum: at the end of the roast you need to get the beans out of the hot drum and cool them manually. Impossible to adapt a bean temperature (BT) probe, due to the design (rotating drum casing).

Other choices, on the large size end:

Toper Cafemino (Toper.com)
$ ?
Up to 1 kg
Commercial drum roaster. Review from Bella Barista. Search results on Home-Barista

Diedrich IR-1 (Diedrich Manufacturing)
$ ?
Up to 1 kg
Commercial drum roaster. Search results on Home-Barista

The mini-500 is $2500+
801N is $5000+ Edit...forget I ever edited, lol
Toper Cafemino is $5500+
Diedrich IR-1 is $6500+

I spent closer to $10,000 on the Diedrich IR-1 with some options, a custom table, and crating and shipping. The Mini and the 801n you will have to broker someone to ship the roaster to you.

Bread machine and heatgun combo roasts 3/4 to 1 pound a lot better than a Behmor, and roughly as well as commercial roasters, at least based on my home roast competition experience. I don't know how much skil it requires to build one, but that would be my recommendation if you have the chops to do it.

Jim-I have a Gene Cafe. But I take what you said to heart. After reading what you said today I am ready to sell GC and research bread machine and heat gun combo's. I never took either of these methods seriously. Sounded too simplistic. But if combo cups on a par with extremely expensive commercial roaster I'm ready to experiment.
Quizzed some homeroasters tonite to see who is using this combo. Could be awhile getting answers.
Appreciate any and all comments as to how this combo works. Thanks.
gene

another_jim wrote:Bread machine and heatgun combo roasts 3/4 to 1 pound a lot better than a Behmor, and roughly as well as commercial roasters, at least based on my home roast competition experience. I don't know how much skil it requires to build one, but that would be my recommendation if you have the chops to do it.

Jim
I haven't seen this option before I will do a site search and check it out. Of the roasters mentioned I think the mini 500 is the one I like the most.

That said if the whole bread machine / heat gun deal works out I could save some serious $$.

It's all about end result. I'm not really looking for an half ars way of doing it, but if it's easy and repeatable I would be about it

Thanks
Brian

Coffeesnobs.com has a ton on making and using HGBM or Coretto. http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?board=roasters

farmroast has his dream machine he made and uses. http://coffee-roasting.blogspot.com/

You won't find me using my HottopB anymore since the Diedrich is such a pleasure but IMO I am not producing roasts that are far superior on the Diedrich compared to the HT. Maybe in 6 more months with the Diedrich I will have more mastery over the machine so my tune may change but I can do 1kg per batch and do 3-4 roasts per hour. The biggest difference I am getting used to is not thinking ahead of an electric element, the HT's element needed me to be 30-45sec ahead of it for changes, however this lag time also seemed more forgiving when changes where being made.

I personally would not recommend a commercial roaster to a home roast hobbyist but I do love that more and more of us are getting them.

Not to dismiss Jim's comment/suggestion, but be aware that Heat guns coffee roasting methods are simple to implement and also very difficult to control! It is an artisanal method. This is a method that I tried 2 times and decided that it was not for me. It requires constant attention and lots of efforts.
I concluded that if I wanted to learn, I needed something with less variability.

That being said, clearly, there are poeple that can achieve great things with this method and I bow my head to them and their achievements. If you succeed, be proud, because it was done by you and not the machine but also expect that unless you are very, very good at it the result may not always be stellar.

I think we might be talking about two different things. This is my, admittedly 2nd hand, understanding

Using the heatgun with an open bowl and manually stirring is an artisanal method that takes about two years practice to get great roasts. The heatgun bread machine combo (HG/BM) is an improvement on the old turbooven/stircrazy design (SC/TO). The bread machine, like the old stir crazy, agitates the beans, the heat gun, like the old turbooven, supplies the convective heat.

The older SC/TO combination had two flaws: it was not well insulated, and the turboven used a click type thermostat with a huge deadband. Therefore, the roaster's ETs varied wildly over time and from center to edge, producing extremely dull roasts. The HG/BM system runs on a well insulated, higher thermal mass bread machine, while the heat gun's output is constant and manually adjustable. So the ET is constant across the machine and rock stable. With a well placed sensor for bean temperature, you can accurately set the heat gun and profile roasts precisely.

The drawback is that while assembling an SC/TO was idiot proof, one simply replaced the stir crazy lid with the turbooven lid, the HG/BM has to have the heatgun mounted and top sealed, as well as requiring a BT sensor for accurate roasts.

Since the knowledge required for assembly is higher, the people using HG/BM systems probably know more about roasting as well. This probably is an added reason for their good results.

well put Jim.

I would like to add that putting the kit together is actually very simple. I pulled this off while deployed in Baghdad, Iraq. If I can make it work here, anyone can make it work back home.

Here is a little write up on my kit:
http://www.homeroasters.org/php/forum/v...ad_id=2274

but be aware that Heat guns coffee roasting methods are simple to implement and also very difficult to control!

This may be true for the open top or dog bowl method. With a closed lid bread machine, you have full control and super snappy response times. Changing roast speed, aka "profiling your roast" is simple and quick.

cheers,
~j