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...

AndyS wrote:Maybe this?

Thanks Andy. When it comes to Carl Staub vs. Kenneth Davids, sorry Kenneth, but Carl is the man.

Fullsack wrote:Thanks Andy. When it comes to Carl Staub vs. Kenneth Davids, sorry Kenneth, but Carl is the man.

Doug... I was just documenting what I had read...

Well after further research on the 'net' I found this:
On this link: http://www.coffeed.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=523&p=5645

Re: Cooling too quickly
by Andy Schecter on Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:07 pm
JIm wrote:
I know you can cool a roast too slowly, but can you mess it up the other way around?
I asked Carl Staub about this at the SCAA show in Atlanta. He said:
1. If the cooling is too slow, skunky odors will develop.
2. 3-4 minutes to room temperature is ideal.
3. Too fast a cooling cycle will disrupt the cell structure (producing widespread micro-cracks) and cause staling to occur more quickly.

Is this what you were referring to Doug?

So I guess I go to a more conventional way of cooling in the shop. But you have to admit the snow bank was very efficient. Although with vacuum packing the roasts after cooling I have never noticed a big swing in flavor to stale...

Some more pics of cooling set ups...?

I have not invested in any materials yet...

I have noted some fans with screen boxes on top. Does anyone have a picture of one of these in action? Seems as if the chaff would be expelled efficiently...

TUS172 wrote:Is this what you were referring to Doug?

Re: Cooling too quickly
by Andy Schecter on Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:07 pm
JIm wrote:
I know you can cool a roast too slowly, but can you mess it up the other way around?
I asked Carl Staub about this at the SCAA show in Atlanta. He said:
1. If the cooling is too slow, skunky odors will develop.
2. 3-4 minutes to room temperature is ideal.
3. Too fast a cooling cycle will disrupt the cell structure (producing widespread micro-cracks) and cause staling to occur more quickly.

This is what I use. I have been using it with the fan on. I have it positioned so that the fan, on high, sucks the air over them (downward). I have noticed that the flavors seem "weaker" than the beans that I buy. I just assumed that it might be in my roast profile. I will try spreading them out using low speed the next roast and maybe after that... turning it off and just cooling on the screen.

Other images of my roasting setup: HERE

Danny,
That's a very effective looking cooling system. Spreading out the beans with a low fan speed sounds like a good plan. The technology is similar to that of a Probat Sample Roaster the beans cover the entire bottom of the cooling tray, about 3" deep. The downward pull of air through the beans accomplishes the cooling without the use of a stirring arm. If the beans get to ambient temperature, (squeeze some beans in your hand to determine), in the recommended 3-4 minutes, you've got that part of the roasting process licked.

Great to see and read about other ways to cool beans quickly. For me, I use a system that cools a pound in a matter of minutes (~2-3 min to cool-to-touch)... and gets rid of chaff! This is a Honeywell fan (sorry, don't have a model number) with a bucket with the bottom cut out sitting on top. Inside the bucket is a mesh strainer in which the beans sit. Around the edge of the strainer is a foil "collar" that helps keep airflow where I want it.

Does this method affect the roasted coffee's flavor? Maybe, and if it does, it's good. I have been very pleased with the results lately

Bob that looks like a great setup. I believe the fan model # is HWL HT-800? The setup I use has the same top (colander in bucket), but in the side of the bottom I cut out a hole in which I insert my shop-vac hose and I use it in suction mode (I am traveling now so cannot add a picture). My setup cools in 3-4 minutes but it doesn't get rid of the chaff. Also I have had problems with the vac hose getting too hot. I am going to try my setup in blow instead of suck mode next time to see if that will de-chaff the beans, and if that doesn't work I may get one of those Honeywell fans.

Scott

Betcha if you put the fan on the bottom and the vacuum hose just above the colander, you'd cool a little faster and get rid of the chaff.

scottfsmith wrote:Bob that looks like a great setup. I believe the fan model # is HWL HT-800? The setup I use has the same top (colander in bucket), but in the side of the bottom I cut out a hole in which I insert my shop-vac hose and I use it in suction mode (I am traveling now so cannot add a picture). My setup cools in 3-4 minutes but it doesn't get rid of the chaff. Also I have had problems with the vac hose getting too hot. I am going to try my setup in blow instead of suck mode next time to see if that will de-chaff the beans, and if that doesn't work I may get one of those Honeywell fans.

Scott

Having the bucket above,and a Miele 900W vac,now in summer,I have a issue with the vac,which stops working,because of high temp motor protection.
In winter,I had not issues.
Any suggestion?

Theodore wrote:Having the bucket above,and a Miele 900W vac,now in summer,I have a issue with the vac,which stops working,because of high temp motor protection.
In winter,I had not issues.
Any suggestion?

Decrease cooling efficiency by adding a "carburetor" hole. Ideally, this will have a damper on it, so you can control how much air is sucked into the vacuum through the coffee, and how much ambient air is sucked in. It should cool down the air going into the vacuum cleaner.