Agreed. I'm not prepared to upgrade from my Behmor yet, but seeing this in person could be a problem for me.

This looks like a really nice machine! I'm very excited to see more details and price. Theres a definite home for this in the current market

Looks nice, Been saving my pennies since I decided to upgrade in the spring. Was waiting on the price to be released on the new HotTop(speculation to high priced) but would much prefer a gas or propane roaster. There are a couple of Chinese roasters filtering through the US but no US distributers. Makes it hard to invest my hobby money on one of those machines. Is Dustin going to be a US distributor for this roaster? If so might be right up my alley

slickrock wrote: I would really like to get a good look at the cast iron drum on this thing... not just the dimensions... but it might help make sense of the freakish location of the tryer being exactly right where the drum axle and bearing should be. Exactly how is the drum suspended on its transport?

The beauty of this roaster being built BY ROASTERS is that he is very open to improvements. When I brought the first one in the country, I asked him about trier size and my desire to pull samples to cup. And Viola, a huge trier was born. Course this wouldn't be possible if this roaster was built like the quest, mini, or whatever. Those roasters have supports that run really close to the faceplate, limiting the size of the trier(even if you had a custom one built). Its hard to explain how the drum is held in words... but obviously there is no shaft running threw the middle!

drgary wrote:Very nice. The best part of this is dedicated roasters like Dustin, Tom and (Henry???) testing this and making sure the kinks are out of it. I also like the batch size compared to 1 Kg and its ability to go down to 100 gm. After the testing that's already been done I'm most tempted by this roaster compared to any others I've seen except the Mini 500, which is costing more and more.

Batch size has been under rated on this roaster, instead of over rated like most manufactures(that know nothing about roasting). I probably could roast 50 grams if I wanted too, but that's with my thermocouples not the stock ones. But there are plenty of entrances to place your own probes with this roaster... and ive been going pretty ocd with that. I currently have 4 of my own in the machine(plus the 2 stock). I keep the 2 stock around, cause one acts as a safety feature, turning off the flame when it reaches a set temp(aka way hotter than you would roast too... mine is set to 450 F').

kwantfm wrote:
Did you have any thoughts on how easy it is to clean and maintain?

Cleaning has been virtually non existent since I got it. You have to dump the chaff occasionally(i havnt really measured, but probably every 5 to 10 pounds depending on the bean. I just do it at the start of a roasting session, regardless of how much I roasted last time. There is a tray under the drum that catches stray chaff, it just pulls out. And a screen under the cooling tray(does that same thing). I suppose at some point I will have to clean the charge shoot/damper, but i dont think that will be too hard.

arcus wrote:Now this looks very interesting! I've never roasted before but have been reading most of the roaster threads lately as I'd love to have a prosumer machine that I won't want to upgrade in a year or two. My only concern is the steep learning curve for a beginner and my wife. I think I can win her over because it's still a lot cheaper than a toy car

Learning on a gas roaster is sort of like learning to pull shots on a slayer. But I would not recommend starting out with one, gas roasters command a lot more respect than an espresso machine does. I would start on something like a hottop, roast with it for a year or two before upgradeing to something bigger.

bean2friends wrote:I'm surely tempted. I roast now on an RK drum - 2 pound lots - in the garage. It's a primitive set up in a way, but that means I can just leave it out there and not worry about damage to the unit in the winter. Winter time in Northern Indiana can be pretty inhospitable. So, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to leave this unit out there in the garage when it gets down to 20 degrees F. I wonder if I could set this unit up in my unfinished basement?

I dont think the cold is something you need to worry about, moisture on the other hand...

kboom1 wrote:Looks nice, Been saving my pennies since I decided to upgrade in the spring. Was waiting on the price to be released on the new HotTop(speculation to high priced) but would much prefer a gas or propane roaster. There are a couple of Chinese roasters filtering through the US but no US distributers. Makes it hard to invest my hobby money on one of those machines. Is Dustin going to be a US distributor for this roaster? If so might be right up my alley

Thats the plan Joe! My first roasters are being built right now...

Dustin,
How is the fin design for good/even agitation