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This looks like an interesting approach.

In my cold garage in the winter, I use a parabolic radiant heater for more consistency and a lot more comfort too.

Adding comfort to cold weather roasting is always welcome but just remember that radiant forms of heating will heat objects, not the air directly, and that the issues of dealing with cold air entering the roaster still remain.

A good point, and one can choose a heater with a fan. With my radiant heater, the ambient air temperature also measured higher. It may be because I'm in an enclosed garage with heat absorbed by the machine, the walls nearby, etc. and often only open the door near the bottom.

Some great insights here. I think next time I'll try using the damper earlier, or maybe all the way through the roast. My concern with trying to half close it is that since the throw is incredibly short - only around 5mm - that it will be hard to get reproducible results. I'm aware that some users including LBIespresso and almico are roasting with the damper closed all of the time, maybe this is the best approach.

Perhaps part of the issue is the way I'm set up. I have the roaster right at the edge of the garage, with the door completely open. Maybe i should get a longer exhaust hose to let me stay a bit further inside, and the issue with outside air temps is a bit less extreme.

ShotClock wrote: Perhaps part of the issue is the way I'm set up. I have the roaster right at the edge of the garage, with the door completely open. Maybe i should get a longer exhaust hose to let me stay a bit further inside, and the issue with outside air temps is a bit less extreme.

I know we all have to make the best of what ever we have at hand but consistency will always suffer when ambient temperature changes. In Scott Rao's "Coffee Roasting Best Practices" , chapter 5 is "Preparation and Consistency ", he talks about "managing roastery temperature in the winter ". His suggestions refer to a commercial roastery (large roaster)in a warehouse setting. I think the small mass of the Cormorant is going to make winter roasting in the garage always a challenge. Don't get too frustrated.
I gave up on trying to roast in a shed and finally moved it all into a room in the basement.

Things like ambient temperature are what makes roasting a little more of an art and a little less of a "cut and paste" operation.

It is snowing and 30F colder this AM than when I roasted 2 days ago creating a lot more back-pressure on my Huky exhaust. A bit more fan, a bit higher charge temp, some other adjustments. All in a day.

That's the attitude to have pcofftenyo, good on you! My main point I was trying to make for ShotClock was not to get frustrated. I should probably listen to my own advice.

ShotClock wrote:Some great insights here. I think next time I'll try using the damper earlier, or maybe all the way through the roast. My concern with trying to half close it is that since the throw is incredibly short - only around 5mm - that it will be hard to get reproducible results. I'm aware that some users including LBIespresso and almico are roasting with the damper closed all of the time, maybe this is the best approach.

With the damper closed you are getting indirect heat which doesn't seem like the best approach in a cold environment. Why not just leave the damper open so the drum gets heated directly?

ShotClock wrote:Some great insights here. I think next time I'll try using the damper earlier, or maybe all the way through the roast. My concern with trying to half close it is that since the throw is incredibly short - only around 5mm - that it will be hard to get reproducible results. I'm aware that some users including LBIespresso and almico are roasting with the damper closed all of the time, maybe this is the best approach.

Perhaps part of the issue is the way I'm set up. I have the roaster right at the edge of the garage, with the door completely open. Maybe i should get a longer exhaust hose to let me stay a bit further inside, and the issue with outside air temps is a bit less extreme.

I like to call it a diffuser since people often think of a damper in reference to a fan and this is between the burner and the drum. When the diffuser is closed you are relying more and convective heat (airfow) than conductive and radiant heat. The roasting environment will have a bigger impact in this case. For that reason, IF you are roasting in a changing or very cold environment I suggest roasting with the diffuser open for more consistency.

Just to clarify, I have been roasting with the damper/diffuser open exclusively (i.e. directly heating the drum). No specific reason for this other than it's another thing to not think about...

Having rested the first roast from my most recent session a few more days, it's actually quite good now. Getting some peach/plum and grapefruit flavors out of it now.