Hello fellow coffee lovers,

due to the lack of real quality roasters here in Germany it took a while until it happened, but last week i've finally tried some real real good coffee - SquareMiles' Santa Rita and Takegon. What should i say, i was astonished. So what does that have to do with the Home Roasting Forum you may ask?

Simple, i am trying to get the max out of my gene for almost two years now. And the moment the first drop of that Takegon touched my lips i was sure i would never be able to taste any other coffee without a strange look on my face again . So, i'm addicted to the real thing now, no more off-by-30-sec roasts, only Spot on, only exactly the way it has to be. The problem? SquareMiles prices and shipping will make me a poor man in an glimpse of an eye, so i've gotta do that myself. With the Gene? No, not possible. (and just in case you wanted to ask that, yes i am quite aware that the quality is not only the roast and the roaster, but also their superb quality beans, thats another problem i'm gonna have to get solved ;P)

So, what does a addicted quality coffee freak do now? Right, check around, ask Probat, Amex, Diedrich, Toper for their smallest and cheapest roasters. Well now ... 5000-10500Eur is a *tad* much for the poor student i am. So thats unfortunately not possible. Okay, now i finally come to my real question .

I've just discovered the Huky 300 http://barismo.com/labels/huky%20300.html - strange little roaster it is. You put it on a gas cooking field. Airflow is controllable through the chaff collector (or through putting a fan on the bean-hopper), you have a thermocouple directly in the beans and you can take samples. Sound like a great thing. Two things seem less great - the perforated drum (barismo did a mod, i may ask the manufacturer for a modded version?) and ... well, i'm not quite sure whether it can deliver the quality i'm after or not? In roasting, are there thermal-mass effects that make anything less than XY-kilo coffee not roastable reproducibly (did i say that my english suck already? well, sorry for that ;P)?

What do you think of that little beast? Can i achieve anything near the superb quality of SM with this cute little roaster? Or should i save tons of money and go for a Toper Cafemino or similar?

Thanks in advance ;P.
- Dario

Looks like a sweet roaster. How can I get one and how much would it set me back?

Another roaster from Taiwan. The Huky300 was the older, smaller version. The current version is Huky500. It is a roaster handmade by a hobbyist.

Here is it from a Taiwanese coffee forum:

http://www.bellataiwan.com/phpBB2/viewt...sc&start=0

Here is a YouTube video of the Huky 500 from December 2009, with non-English captions:

HUKY 500

I now have got my HUKY500 and would very much like to change experiences.
The drum can be closed at bottom-circumference.
But all roasters have some air-roasting-effects.

I have exchanged the analog thermometer with a digital one and will try to do roasting with ARTISAN
software.

Please post me some reactions!

Erhard

Here are some photos of the Huky500. Maybe Erhard can tell us more about his roaster .

Here are some more photos illustrating the Direct Flame vs Half Direct Flame:
Specs:
The direct flame Roaster (Can change into the half direct flame)
specification:
size：40*19*35cm （L*W*H）
weight：( around 6kg)
Voltage:110V
material：(drum T2.5mm stainless steel with hole ) 2.5MM#304 　diameter130MM。
cover:super shining stainless steel。
handle:(hard wooden )
Drum rotation speed:50rpm
Temperature measuring：(dual system ,analog and k-type digital reading)。
Fuel source：(liquefied propane Gas (LPG) )or(Butane Gas)
Batch capacitor：150g~ Max500g。
Exhaust fan and cooling :6 inch casting fan
Bearing: Full Ceramic Bearing

I'm curious what folks think about the half open drum compared to the solid drum Quest.

I really like the extra capacity of
this roaster versus the quest.

The Huky is available in a Solid drum too.

I would like to know which option would be better... Solid drum or half direct?

What a beautiful piece of machinery. If I ever get into roasting, this is what I want. Thanks for the video.