It took forever to get delivery (USRC was in a rocky patch). Forever to set it up afterwards (my fault, illness) A third forever to troubleshoot whatever it was that kept it from lighting (turned out to be a bogus regulator).

Got a new regulator and some trick looking fittings -- at great expense to the management. All was good. I lit the roaster late yesterday afternoon, but had an evening commitment so was unable to roast. Fortunately the evening commitment resulted in me getting lit, and it wasn't a total loss.

Three practice roasts with sweepings today. First roast would have been a disaster if intended for anything other than finding out if everything works; what fan settings draw air; what's the least amount of gas flow that will keep it lit; and all that stuff.

The roaster is frikkin' fast. Just like the trick to the Amazon was working around it's inherently slow speed, the trick to this baby (which needs a name) is going to be managing its power. Second and third roasts were about slowing things down, finding the right controls at the right time, and all that kind of stuff.

Did a fourth roast, 390g of beans which actually cost something, my "Basic Blend" of 3 Central shbs. Dosed at preheated 365F. Dragged dose to drying --0 - ~4min; medium fan, 1.5" water (turn at around 1min, 200F). Didn't exactly hurry to onset of 1stC -- 4 - 9min; medium fan, 3" water. Dragged the hell out of interval from onset of 1st to what I thought was onset of 2d (gardener next door decided to use his leaf blower at exactly the right moment) -- 9 - 13min; heap much plenty fan, 1.5" water. Dropped at 13min. C+ by inspection.

I haven't connected the datalogger to Artisan yet. The two BT thermocouples -- one reporting to controller, other to datalogger -- are in general agreement. Close enough for information to be useful, and not to require an offset. The ET thermocouple is mounted in the manifold, which makes the "E" more about "Exhaust" than "Environmental;" but the readings don't make sense. They seemed too hot, then too cold.

• *Hmmm.
  *Fan?
  *Mount location?
  *Me misreading the T2 display?
  *Something else?
  *Quien sabe?

Took notes, but -- alas! -- not very good ones. Because it's a new roaster, because this is my first experience with gas, and because I'm feeble minded, I was too occupied with the basics of control and sequence to get everything down on paper.

Pictures soon.

BDL

I bet it was fun though! Looking forward to pics.

What diameter exhaust tubing are you needing to use?

Congratulations on new roaster Rich. I read your posts and often see that your C+ and FC+ are bit off Here is good common reference: https://www.sweetmarias.com/library/con ... gree-roast

Edit: What I mean is you say verge of second crack and call it C+, when verge of second and start of second is FC or FC+

I might be slightly thin skinned (the only skinny thing on me), but unsolicited criticism like this would be better delivered via PM. If he had asked for feedback, that's one thing, but jumping on his new roaster thread and telling him he doesn't know what roast development looks like, smacks in the face. At least to me.

TomC wrote:I might be slightly thin skinned (the only skinny thing on me), but unsolicited criticism like this would be better delivered via PM. If he had asked for feedback, that's one thing, but jumping on his new roaster thread and telling him he doesn't know what roast development looks like, smacks in the face. At least to me.

Its not meant like that, i do not mean that he does not know what he is doing. I know he does. It's just thing that I noticed and wanted to bring up since it's helpful to us all to exchange info based on common understanding of roast levels. It's not criticism at all. There is nothing to criticize. You can call your roast levels any way you want, but it's easier to communicate when we use same language.

I look forward to reading more about his new roaster.

Cool! I like those sample roasters from US Roaster. What color did you get? I picked up my 5 kg roaster there the end of September and roasted on a red one that they were trying out.

The roaster is green, and very cool.

I think of first snaps of 2d as FC, and about a dozen into it as FC+ with the proviso that sounds are not as accurate as appearance. However, what I thought were the first snaps of 2d were hallucinations. The actual sounds of the roast having been obscured by a nearby leafblower, I was forced to rely on an imagination fired by the fear that the roast was going out of control.

Rest assured the roast went no deeper than C+. Should be OK. It's a very forgiving blend.

This is all very preliminary. Although tracking the roasts in my log, I'm not going to number them until I have enough control to take timely notes. By then, I should be better attuned to the sounds, smell and sights of roast development.

BDL

Congratulations Rich!

I wish you a lot of fun using and learning to master it.
Probably exciting times for you with something like that arriving to your home...

Waiting for some pictures as well, the green color is way better than a traditional black...

Kfir.

boar_d_laze wrote:The roaster is green, and very cool.

I'm Green with envy!
Rich, wishing you the very best results with your roaster. As far as naming your new baby, Gertrude is OUT, as that's the name of the GPS on our Prius C!

Congratulations on getting it up and running! I can't wait to see some pictures. I bet it feels great to finally have it within your reach.