By the way, the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of Roast has an article about purchasing roaster by Willem Boot, although from a commercial perspective. However I find the article also pertinent to the extreme hobbyist.

Thanks Henry and Hank -- or is it Hank and Henry?

I already did some research on the Fuji Royal earlier today... looks very nice.

The Mini 500/800n option is starting to seem a lot more possible. Your comparison of the US and Asian situations with doing the work yourself and shipping waits were very helpful. I have some minor questions about this and that but they can wait until we get serious.

Speaking of which... We had a pretty good day on the market, and I told my wife... "Honey, I ordered the $3000 roaster from China," and she (a) took it seriously; and (b) thought it was a pretty good idea. So maybe serious isn't quite as far as I thought.

My desire for a stirring vane in the cooling basket is sheer vanity. I know it doesn't serve much useful purpose in roasters this small, but do like the "real roaster" visual cue; and, of course, they're fun to watch. Just because we're too old and sophisticated to get caught playing with model trains, doesn't mean we won't find a way.

If you start getting roast profile questions from me, you can call Mr. Yang and give him a "heads up."

In the meantime that Diedrich sounds pretty interesting.

Thanks again,
BDL

tekomino wrote:I would recommend holding off on Huky. It is not certain that it actually works and can do claimed 500 grams.

Quite to the contrary, I've been using the Huky 500 for over 3 months now and I can reliably roast pound of green to FC+ and into Vienna in 14-15 minutes no problem. Shortly, I will be posting an extensive review of the Huky 500 and most should find it to compare favorably to the Quest and perhaps even to the Mini500 / 500N at 1/3rd the cost. However, it does require the roaster be ordered in a specific configuration (namely solid drum) and then setup (which I'll outline) to get good roasting outcomes at full capacity.

So I would definitely keep this on your list of options. And while it doesn't have the vanity stirring vanes that you want in the cooling tray, it's ridiculously powerful fan more than compensates for quick cooling. What it does have, among many other things, is a very well made drum with excellent stirring vanes "in the drum", where it matters more.

Stay tuned.

boar_d_laze wrote:
Speaking of which... We had a pretty good day on the market, and I told my wife... "Honey, I ordered the $3000 roaster from China," and she (a) took it seriously; and (b) thought it was a pretty good idea. So maybe serious isn't quite as far as I thought.

Two years ago, when the market was at the bottom, I asked my wife "honey, everything is cheap....hotel, airfare, why don't we fly to Taiwan for vacation, and while we are there, bring back a coffee roaster?"

slickrock's comment is very sound. Also use the advanced search function in google and search in traditional Chinese for more pictures and blogs on the huky300/500.

Hi BDL,

Separate and apart from your turnaround times and gas requirements, I'm wondering why your 220 grm roasts are turning out 'Baked'?.....I'm roasting 250 grm roasts and with very few exceptions, the roasts are cupping and drinking beautifully.

JL

Joel, thanks for joining the conversation! I did hear from Mr. Li someone in SF ordered a roaster, and it would seem you're the pioneer! At least from the photos Mr. Li does beautiful work, and the fin design looks very advanced. What do you think about the ventilated drum with the adjustable sliding gate below?

Will the Huky500 be the next rage?

Hi John L,

There's beautiful and there's beautiful. We like our HT roasts quite a bit; and I do several, simple blends we usually prefer to anything locally available -- and just for the sake of context that includes Klatch and Intelligentisa. However, I think I could do better in terms of preserving some of the top notes without getting as bright as a fluid bed -- and would also like to pursue some more sophisticated profiles than an electric roaster's agility allows.

Then there's the inconvenience of doing the amounts I'm starting to do -- especially since being "empowered" to waste more coffee than I'd been doing. I've been roasting a skosh over two pounds a week, just for us; see that as going to just under three pounds; and would like to keep my roasting down to two or three sessions a week.

As you know, the HT doesn't do successive batches without a lot of rest. As I understand it, a Quest would do 5 roasts at 150g faster than the HT does three at 220g.

I also use the HT at slightly lower charges than you do, 220g max, because I find the small amount of additional time the extra 30g takes does something negative to the roast -- or at least my roast -- which amplifies the very slight "baked" note I get from the HT's FC roasts, even when I push quickly through 1st C to not quite 2d.

I'd like to find a way of opening up the nuances that develop between the cracks without muting others, but think that's going to take more control than the HT can muster.

And let's face it, male hobbyists like us buy new stuff -- or at least think about it -- because it's the nature of male hobbyism. It's not enough that my "Y" chromosome wants to upgrade, but I'm getting spousal encouragement.

Admittedly, the criticism of the HT is hyper-critical. Don't get me wrong, we love nearly everything about our home roasts (not to mention Klatch's and Intelligentsia's non-home roasts), and could easily continue to live with the HT's minor inconveniences and shortcomings if there were nothing better. But there supposedly is, and we want it. We're only at the window shopping stage, and this may not happen at all.

Can't wait to hear more about the Huky 500.

Quien sabe?
BDL

If you haven't swapped the P control panel for a B panel & installed BT & ET T/Cs you haven't even begun to explore what you can do with the Hottop. As for long rests between roasts that's hardly necessary. When I finish a roast I remove the front cover, chaff tray, rear filter & bean chute cover. After vacuuming out the chaff I aim a small desk fan into the drum area to cool down the roaster. By the time I'm done cleaning up & bagging the roasted beans the HT is ready for the next roast.

Several folks on here have gone on to pro gas roasters & have mentioned that their roasts aren't necessarily any better then what they got/get from their HT.

After a few loving years with the HotTop I moved onto a Diedrich IR-1. I thought there would be a huge improvement in my roasts immediately but this was not the case, it has taken me a year to really get a good handle on the nuances of the Diedrich. I roast 5lbs or more per week and this was the main reason I wanted to upgrade from the HT, even with cooling tricks for back to back roasts it had become very time consuming to get my roasts done and the 1kg batch size of the Diedrich has more then solved this completely.

Gas does give more finite control (the Toper does not have gas control) and allows tweaks to the profile curve that just can't be had with the lag time of electric. This is a double edge sword with larger batch sizes since you get less practice and this is a reason it has taken so long for me to get comfortable with the Diedrich.

The Feima was the runner up to the Diedrich and the reasons I went with Diedrich had nothing to do with a difference in quality. IMO a good commercial roaster in the hands of a hobbiest will have little to no problems for a very long time if ever if maintaned proper, these machines are built to run all day everyday and as a hobbiest they just don't see that kind of work.

I saw a post saying getting a commercial gas machine is a pipe dream, I think if you look around the forums you will notice many have made it a reality and are very happy with their decissions. Is a commercial roaster going to make roasts like a pro? Only if you spend the time and effort to learn the machine and knowledge to roast that way.

hankua wrote:I did hear from Mr. Li someone in SF ordered a roaster, and it would seem you're the pioneer! At least from the photos Mr. Li does beautiful work, and the fin design looks very advanced. What do you think about the ventilated drum with the adjustable sliding gate below?

I'm definitely in the solid drum camp. However, with the Huky 500, the gate/shutter mechanism is only useful at controlling heat radiation of the beans if the drum is ventilated. Since I use the solid drum, then the gate/shutter mechanism in its current state serves no purpose. Because of this, I requested a modified version of the shutter that works better with the solid drum setup (I'll cover the details of this in the pending review).

hankua wrote:Will the Huky 500 be the next rage?

Perhaps it may. It will probably stake out it's own place as a viable Quest M3 alternative or a poor-man's Mini 500 (i.e. the Huky has the capacity of the Mini 500 at the price of a Quest M3)