So just how do you cool your roast?
During the winter this is how I do it. 10 Degrees F outside today.

The roast is not quite as dark as it looks in this shot.

Hi Bob, Great picture!

I remember, but couldn't find, an H-B thread claiming professional roasts last longer than home roasts because home roasts cool faster. If my memory isn't goofy and this is true, your roasts would only stay fresh a few days

Welcome to the roasting forum. I'm sure you will distinguish yourself here, as you did in the lever forum and we will be the beneficiaries of some great insights.

Fullsack wrote:Hi Bob, Great picture!
I remember, but couldn't find, an H-B thread claiming professional roasts last longer than home roasts because home roasts cool faster. If my memory isn't goofy and this is true, your roasts would only stay fresh a few days
Welcome to the roasting forum. I'm sure you will distinguish yourself here, as you did in the lever forum and we will be the beneficiaries of some great insights.

Hmm... Not sure about that, I always thought the faster one cooled the roast the longer it would last... I think I read it in a book on Home roasting... That is why, in the winter, I have always used the natural cooling of Vermont's freakin' snow banks around my shop.
No matter though I usually vacuum pack what I don't plan on using in the next week or so. I did 10 pounds yesterday. So about 7.5 went to the vacuum bags and cold storage.

Fullsack wrote:I remember, but couldn't find, an H-B thread claiming professional roasts last longer than home roasts because home roasts cool faster.

Maybe this?

This is what I was referring to:
"Cooling the hot beans rapidly and efficiently is one of the most important steps in home roasting, since coffee continues to roast from its own internal heat long after it has been removed from external heat. Coffee that is allowed to coast down to room temperature of its own accord will taste dramatically inferior to coffee that is promptly and decisively cooled." Pg. 146, Home Coffee Roasting, Kenneth Davids, 1996.

On Pg 147 He writes:
"THE FREEZER STRATEGY"
Another favorite cooling strategy among home roasters is sticking the hot beans into a freezer immediately after roasting. Make sure you take them out again well before they freeze, however. Like water quenching, freezing quenching shortens cooling and helps preserve aromatics." Home Coffee Roasting, Kenneth Davids, 1996.

Also on Pg.190...
"Precise, rapid cooling of freshly roasted beans is essential to good flavor. Ideally, beans should be warm to the touch within 2 to 3 minutes after the conclusion of the roast." Home Coffee Roasting, Kenneth Davids, 1996.

I am cooling 4 - 5 pounds of beans at a time...
So am I off base in my understanding of this or is his information no longer correct? I don't leave the beans out there to freeze... They are cool to the touch well within the 3 minute window though.

I've tried cooling my roasts that way several times, and I didn't think they tasted as good as usual. It could very well have been something else I screwed up though!
Jen

With that much bean in a batch I wouldn't worry too much about cooling too quickly. You just need to get the beans below roasting temps quickly to stop the roast. I would be careful to get them in before they get below room temp though so you avoid condensation moisture forming on the beans.

I have a nice stainless steel colander that I place at the top of a barrel-shaped trash barrel (never used for trash, obviously) and there is a large cutout on the side. I just take a high-powered hair dryer on its cool cycle and blow the beans from underneath. They're cool, especially with this weather, in a minute or so. It has the added benefit of blowing a lot of the chaff off as well.

I've heard of some people using leaf blowers, but that seems to be a little more than I need.

I have bought this, http://www.u-roast-em.com/cooling-pan.html ,(without the vac),using a old Miele vac of 900W.
I try to use a bigger vac,a Bosch, of 1800W,that I also have,to see any difference in cooling time.

Wow... Looks as if it is something that could be made simply enough with a 3 gallon bucket w lid. It "Fills the order" for what I would want in the summers here. I already have a couple of shop vacs...