I know that a careful search could potentially reveal the answer to this question, but as of yet i've been unable to find an answer. I'm working on a roast profile that drys for 6 minutes, maillard for 2, stay in first for 2. Charge size 114g. I can run a proper dry, using the fan off open door meathod for 6 minutes, but can't seem to heat aggresively enough to get 20 degree bt deltas to get to 200 degrees in 2 minutes. Even with heat at 9.5 amps and fan at various levels, I cannot heat that quickly. Is this by design? Is there something i can do differently?

I appreciate any advice. I'm attaching the artisan figures from 2 roasts for your review.

What flavor profile are you aiming for? I would think that a 6min dry would be quite leathery and a 2min ramp would be quite oatmeal-y. I would also expect to see tipping.

Most of my profiles (and most of the profiles I see on the HB forums) are 3:30-4min dry and 3-5min ramp.

My experience with the Quest has been that the rate of rise in the ramp phase correlates to MET quite strongly. So low fan, high amps to get the 2min ramp time you're aiming for.

I don't think this is necessarily a question of profile. He's asking whether his heat transfer capabilities are off.

What are you using to measure temp? If they're digital, have you verified their accuracy? The Quest in it's stock form is fully capable of running faster than pretty much any profile would possibly require. And certainly at that low of a charge weight.

Tom;

Thanks for the response. I'm using thermocouples of unknown origin (came from roaster's previous owner) along with a tmd56 thermometer. I have one tc placed in the temp slot below the trier and one in the upper right screw for MET/ET.

I tried but could not find a combination of fan on fan/off power etc to follow the profile suggested by a roaster using this basic profile very successfully with this relatively high-grown Guatemala. I can hit a 6 minute dry, or a 5 minute dry, but cannot seem to get from 152c to 198c in 2 minutes. According to artisan i can sustain about 12-15 degree BTdeltas, but even then, not consistently. ET does rise more drastically, especially without air.

if you look at this attachment, i was pushing as hard as possible
Any suggestions?
thanks!

this represents a previous roast and i think about as fast as i can move...

Your drying is done by 5 minutes and your past 1C before 9 minutes, you're moving plenty fast enough. And running your elements to a temp just shy of 645°F is a very bad idea if you plan on having them last very long.

The thing that doesn't make sense is your MET should be caving in somewhat, when you apply the fan at the max setting in order to accelerate your ramp. Hint hint.

voltairesb wrote: but cannot seem to get from 152c to 198c in 2 minutes.

Converted to F ( how my brain works when roasting) you're wanting to move 114.8°F in two minutes, just shy of a 60°F/minute rise. You're drag racing. I'm not sure how that isn't apparent to you or if you just have unrealistic expectations of what a ramp speed to 1C should be. Your next step would be consider nuclear fusion.

TomC wrote:I don't think this is necessarily a question of profile. He's asking whether his heat transfer capabilities are off.

Ah. Yeah. I get that. Just wondering what a 6min dry, 2min ramp tastes like. I'm hoping to learn something while trying (albeit, poorly) to help.

Looking at your second graph, you can see you're charging at a decent, but slightly low temp of 330 degrees F. Not bad for a small 100g sample, but on a dense high altitude bean, you could charge slightly higher and get away with it.

So you have 330F at the start and a very slow drying phase for that low charge weight and length of time, and your MET is skyrocketing. Why not put that heat that you're piling up outside of the drum into the drum? Crank you fan to maximum and get that heat moving. The Quest is a slightly oddball roaster in many ways. In a big standard drum roaster if you cranked your fan to the max you'd kill your ET. Not so with the Quest.

And I always advocate making the whole system work more efficiently in heat transfer by painting the drum flat black. Your response times and capabilities open up and allow for a lot more options.