Hi All,

I've been off HB for a very long time, but making my way back because I'm looking to finally move on from my "JohnB" modified Hottop B2(circa 2012) to a gas roaster. It's served me well all these yrs, but I've always wanted to graduate to a gas roaster at some point. I always do 227g roasts on the Hottop since my wife doesn't drink coffee and my kids are still a bit young to get them started quite yet
Roasting 227g batch size is ideal for me since it lasts me about 6 days. I pretty much just do 30g Kalitas in the AM and that's it for the day.
Looking at the current offerings out there that would fit my needs and $3K-ish budget (Huky/BC-1(looks like over target budget)/Comorant) I'm most intrigued with the Comorant. I always figured the NC/Mill City would be the one I would get but wow their prices have gone up quite a bit it seems
My question is for those that have one is how does it handle smaller batch sizes like I have been doing on my Hottop? Will BT probe sit to high with 227g batch size?
Appears the sweet spot for this roaster is closer to 400-500g mark?
Thanks in advance!

Hi Mark. I like to roast 1 lb (454 gr) batches in my Cormorant but you can do smaller batches. Why not roast a lb & freeze half? I've roasted 325 gr -350 gr batches with no issues. Less then that & you'd have to play with the bt probe position and be careful with the gas setting. It's a very nice roaster but not designed with 227g batches in mind.

Hey John! Thx for the reply. Hope you are well and great to see you are still active on HB.
I figured 227g may be too light. I suppose I'm just accustomed to to roasting that amount and with my consumption rate it has always kept the coffee nice and fresh(gives me 6 days worth). Not a problem to adjust up though once I get one. Sounds like I still have a bit of a wait at this point! Not surprising...looks like a beautiful, well made/designed roaster.

The big adjustment will be going from the Hottop to a gas roaster. You're going to like how responsive the gas burner is compared to waiting for the Hottop's electric element.

What is the current wait period?

JohnB. wrote:The big adjustment will be going from the Hottop to a gas roaster. You're going to like how responsive the gas burner is compared to waiting for the Hottop's electric element.
What is the current wait period?

Looking forward to it. I have an email into Johan to check current lead time.

I was in contact with Johan two weeks ago. He mentioned that the lowest batch size that "can be profiled well" is 200g. The wait time when I checked was August 2021.

You'd want to get some practice using the Cormorant before you tried roasting a 200 gr batch.

I only roast 227g batches on my Cormorant. If you're only roasting one batch a session, no worries. If you do back to back roasts, then heat management becomes an issue on roasts 2+. You need to open the door and cool it down a bit, otherwise I hit yellow way too quickly.

As far as the bean probe, I added a 2mm probes from Mill City to the door. I drilled a hole in one of the door bolts and bent the probe 90* to avoid the stirring paddles. It's tricky, but allows good bean data for smaller roasts. It is free floating, and rides on the bean mass.

BC-1 owner here. Took a while, liking it now. 225g, not an issue.

Thanks everyone for your input! Johan responded and indicated that current delivery date is Oct 2021. Needless to say I locked my place in line!

BTW - on my 227g batch size question Johan indicated..."You can still get a good roast profile around 200g with the CR600. The profile is just slightly adjusted."