Although all of my experience has been with different drum roasters, I am starting to consider the Sonofresco Profile 1Kg sample roaster. Here are a few questions I have regarding the Sonofresco or fluid bed roasters in general that I thought others might be able to help with.

1) What type of beans is the Sonofresco best at roasting and what is it the worst at roasting? (high density, low density, etc...)

2) What type of brewing are types that Sonofresco ADR machines are best at roasting for and what is it not good at roasting for? (Espresso, Siphon, V60, French Press, etc...)

3) Has anybody been adding more sensors to these machines to track or control other elements of the roasting process?

4) What can the Sonofresco or any fluid bed do better or worse than a drum roaster?

Somehow i have to believe there is more experience out there about fluid bed roasters that is not being talked about on the forums and I am wanting to tap into that knowledge base. PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THE SONOFRESCO PROFILE ADR MACHINES!!!

I hear your pain!

While some may be quick to dismiss the Sonofresco based on its aura of too many failed farmers' market venues and cheap coffee sold as a side-business, I think the newer version should deserve a fighting chance. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of firsthand experience with them that's shared here.

I think it's capable and in the right hands I don't believe anyone would be spitting their coffee out, moaning "what was this roasted with!?"

Check out homeroasters.org there are more fluid bed discussions and info there. Seems like the crowd over there is into building them. Don't hear much discussion of them here on HB.

TomC - thanks for your reply! ... FYI ... I have fasted many bad roasts coming off of drum roasters in the hands of armature 2nd-Wave roasters. They either have drum roasters without advanced controls or do not know how to control their own machines. Such roasters are at the farmer markets and independent coffeehouses all over the place. Does this mean i should hold a prejudice against drum roasting machines or just those who do not know how to use them?

Somehow there needs to be some type of roasting machine profile chat made, rather than people just stating what they like best.

First starting with cupping results between machines, but also including taste testing using the same roasts using different brewing methods.

I have an idea that fluid bed air roasters must be better at working with different types of beans and/or roasting for different brewing methods, however without doing the tests myself I have know idea what these are. Hopefully somebody else is experimenting with this.

I tested a Sonofresco for three or four months last year. I had two huge issues with it and some minor ones.

Major
1) On/Off with Flame - You could not control heat input with the software. The profiling software tried to match the curve you input by turning the gas on and off. This resulted in a roast curve that looked like an EKG and was either over-shooting and under-shooting your targets. This became especially problematic near the first crack when a number of things (thermocouple type/thickness, exothermic flash, RoR, etc) proved too much for the system to handle and you could stall.
2) Not Enough Plot Points - I believe the software gave you 5 data points to set. That is simply not enough.

Minor
1) I never got the darker roasts figured out and would skyrocket past 1st crack and just char the hell out of the coffee. We're talking 1-2 minute difference between First and Second crack. Really bad in the cup. Software maybe? Inexperience maybe? I just feel it is a minor problem because after roasting for 8+ years home and professionally, I've never had that much trouble and I could have missed something.
2) The glass chamber makes it near impossible to visualize development.
3) There's a sweet spot on the amount you put into the chamber. Too little and the airflow is too strong. Too much and your coffee roasts unevenly.
4) Thermocuple placement really throws you off. It's sort of an exhaust temp but not quite. For example, I was hitting first crack at 340 according to my readouts (that I could not adjust in the software).

Oh, never ever ever ever (ever) do the exact opposite of what the instructions say to with the damper. I love breaking things and decided to try and manipulate my roasts on a few batches by switching the damper from one setting to another. Yeah...that's how you blow stuff up on that machine.

Now for the Positive
1) The software system was pretty intuitive and if they upgraded it in the last year and managed to give the gas variation rather than on/off it would be a nice.
2) Price point. Pretty decent price point really.
3) The engineer behind it made his money on pellet stoves. He cares and wants to build a good system. I just hope he's going to invest more into it and the software. If he does it will be a nice system.
4) Maintenance is a breeze. Seriously one of the easiest things to clean I've worked on. Disassemble the little chamber, grab some detergent and degreaser, soak it up, dry it with a blow-dryer. Boom. Back in business.

russoroastscoffee - thanks, that was the best review I have read to date on the Sonofresco.

Thanks for the kind words! I missed your comments on different roasters being good at different things. Failed! So let me address that.

I have been to a SCAA cupping where they gave us one coffee roasted on three machines. They did not give us the profiles and curves, but they did taste different. If you've ever tried to roast a coffee on, say, a Probat and then go and roast on a Diedrich if you copy the profile it won't taste the same. The machines require different approaches and you can not simply copy and past your first crack time, RoR, etc. However, if you do take that into consideration and roast the same coffee to the same output, it will taste different.

I've found on a Diedrich some Washed Yirgs and an Amaro Gayo came out exponentially better than anything I had done with the coffees on a Probat. Delicate notes were more noticeable. However, the body was less intense. So I think you are onto something, but for Fluid Bed, which I have little experience on, I couldn't tell you specifics.

Do note, this is not to say that one machine does better at something than another. I just think the way they roast brings out and represses different aspects in the coffee slightly and could allow a roaster to manipulate things better on one machine with a particular coffee. Honestly, I know there are people better than I at doing that like Olympia Coffee Roasters. Oh! Alaska Coffee http://www.alaskacoffeeroasting.com/ in Miami roasts on a Sivetz. See if they'd be willing to chat with you.

russoroastscoffee - thanks again ... will have to contact the Alaska Coffee Roasting Company and ask questions. There is also two roasters nearer to us that are using Fluid bed Roasting, one in Wheaton called "I Have a Bean" and EVP Coffee in Madison. Maybe they would be willing to share their notes on hot air roasting different types of beans and for different roasting methods.

brettpavia wrote:TomC - thanks for your reply! ... FYI ... I have fasted many bad roasts coming off of drum roasters in the hands of armature 2nd-Wave roasters. They either have drum roasters without advanced controls or do not know how to control their own machines. Such roasters are at the farmer markets and independent coffeehouses all over the place.

Does this mean i should hold a prejudice against drum roasting machines or just those who do not know how to use them?

Not at all. Competence doesn't transfer from one or the other. There are likely more incompetent roasters hacking their way thru drum roasting. My point was more a commentary on the historical trend of many small mom and pop shops thinking they'll up their margins by selling fresh roasted coffee. These folks often end up buying Sonofrescos and when that aspect of the business folds, they're re-sold to the next startup. So on and so on.

I'm glad russoroastscoffee is sharing some firsthand experience. I've only roasted on the original one, and not many times.

I guess here in the midwest the hot air roasters like the Sonofresco never really caught on. All the mom and pops cofffeehouses that I have ever seen in MPLS, CHI, MAD, and MKE used drum roasters. However, their coffee was all too often over roasted or burnt.

While I have seen larger hot air roasters more similar to the Sivetz type here in the Midwest, I have never seen a Sonofresco in person. Even when traveling out west and in central Europe The mom and pops shops that I randomly visited all used drum roasters. So somehow I am completely unfamiliar the smaller Fluid Bed coffee roasters in mom and pop shops, but somehow I do not think I missed out on much in the end.