Ok, I finally got the Huky put together, the phidget working and artisan downloaded and a couple failed trial batches under the belt. I finally am starting to see how the different variables of the machine and the roast effect things so I tried roasting 415g of a Washed Ethiopia from Illibabor Baaroo washing station. My roast seems to be going great but the beans look very uneven and different from what I am accustomed to seeing. I can't tell if this is just the bean and its characteristics as a very unique and different bean or if it is me. Here is my profile for the roast

And here are the beans, at first I thought it was scorching but from the heat that was used and how it was used a closer look at the beans looks more like a bean characteristic.

Any thoughts? I thought the profile looked ok (obvious room for improvement) the ROR is pretty jagged but at least declining, there appears to be good development, I hit the marks as far as time, heat and bean changes went etc.... for the most part.

On another note this machine is a lot of fun!!!

Thanks for the help,

Ron

I'm close to your position, having done a dozen or so roasts. The major difference from my old Gene Roaster in results is the waiting time!!! The coffee is better, but I have to let it rest for at least 4-5 days. (Of course there's also all the possibilities to totally mess things up... Been there, done that... a few times )
And yes... I'm having a great time, lots of fun with this new toy.

Hi Ron-
What was your fan usage like on that roast? Maybe a little more fan will even out the bean color. I get good results using a small amount of fan (20%) throughout the roast and heavy (50-75%) starting when first crack is done. A couple observations- your charge temp seems pretty high- I'd have started that bean closer to 220C and 230-240C seems to be more average. That may help with the surface charring too (if that's what it was- kind of hard to tell). Next thing is the dry point- it's subjective but most of the profiles I see from experienced roasters call it a lot closer to 145-155C. That isn't a big deal but I use that point as a signal to bring the fan up to 50% for 20-30 seconds to blow out some moisture and possibly pile on some more heat. Plus it would move your 3 stages to something like 4:30/4:30/2:30- that sounds excellent but 3/6/2.5 sounds not so good.

Wecome, Ron!

I thought I would chime in with some of my past experience with the Huky.

I find that the power of the included fan can have the ability to stip the greens of moisture much too soon in the process, leaving one with very textured and mottled beans. Once I discovered HOW much air to use and andat what stages, the looked and tasted much better.

Currently, I m not even attaching the vent pipe until alomst the end of the dryng phase (300 F).
The it's on it's lowest setting with the stting unitl 11st crack.

Yes, a fan speed controller is critical. Low speed at the beginning and middle, with more speed towards the end.

This works great!

http://www.amazon.com/Gotham-Hydroponic ... controller

If I remember correctly, Ronny already has a Variac.

That's the one I use too- works great, doesn't interfere with anything but I've been told that the power coming from a Variac will make the fan motor last longer.

Awesome feedback thanks everyone, I will try reducing the fan some in the beginning to try and keep the beans moisture in for longer. I have been having the fan start near 40% as it has helped me keep my MET close or below Charge temp, with out the fan my MET gets pretty high as it shows in the profile above. The beans do have groves in them though that are where the darker areas are and after a closer look they do like areas that moisture has been sucked from. I don't know what would be to high of an MET so I have just been trying to keep it close to charge temp. Any suggestions and what to look for as to too high of an MET temp? Is it really anything I should be concerned about? I know Kfir also suggest little to no fan at first so I will give this a whirl and see what happens. I really had no idea where the Dry time would go or what to look for to see if it has ended so I have just been clicking the button after the turn point. I guess when color starts to change it might indicate the dry phase has ended?

So I went ahead and tried a roast with no air during the dry time and had a very similar looking final product except my ROR curve had some struggles. The bean moisture loss was only .3% different so I feel that even with the fan on a lower setting from the start I am not pulling excessive moisture out of the bean. Now, I will have to cup the two profiles to see the true difference. I personally like air from the start that slowly increases as the roast progresses and chaff and smoke become more apparent as it seems to help with my ROR curve while still hitting the temps I want close to desired times.
This is an image with air going from the start, please ignore my dry time mark as I still was unsure where to put it when I made this profile but the ROR is nice and the temps and times are what I was shooting for
This is with no air during the dry phase (hit air at 150c) and I really struggled with the ROR and the MET went pretty high. I also struggled to get the BT to rise fast enough as FC came a little late. this is probably because I have been roasting with air from the start so to get a steeper BT Curve I will need to learn what to do with the heat.

RonnyG wrote: I really had no idea where the Dry time would go or what to look for to see if it has ended so I have just been clicking the button after the turn point. I guess when color starts to change it might indicate the dry phase has ended?

Here is an old but useful conversation about the end of the dry phase
Drying Phase Pictorial