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My First Roaster
whenry
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Posted on 05/05/2013 11:13 AM
Hey all,
whenry here. Just did my third batch with the modified bread machine. My first batch was undrinkable. Had that grassy taste. I've done a pretty good Columbian and did a Sumatran the other day. Drank this morning. I can't tell if it's good or not. My wife and son liked it.

Anyway, I'm really into this. Can't wait to get better at it.

Thanks for a great forum.
 
allenb
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Posted on 05/05/2013 5:11 PM
Good to have you on board WH! I've had some incredible tasting roasts from members using modified breadmakers and you'll undoubtedly be creating some excellent roasts in it soon enough.

Make sure you post questions/comments often on your progress and photos are appreciated when you can break the camera out.

If you have any specific breadmaker roaster questions/comments be sure to post them within the breadmaker roaster forum.

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
geezer girl
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Posted on 05/26/2013 10:14 AM
My very first roaster was a Westbend Air Crazy popcorn popper. It roasted well to about a city roast and then the roast would stall from there. In fact I let it run for about 20 minutes one time and there was no visible change in the beans they just stalled. I think a lot of the problem was that particular popper didn't get hot enough to roast darker. Another issue was my voltage on the outside electrical outlet was poor. Plus it can be darn cold outside here in Montana.

I have just recently bought a Gene Caf?. So far I have done one roast (which I have not tried). At the suggestion of another post somewhere in this forum, I also did a roast to burnt just to see what the machine did. That was a real learning experience for me. I now know that I was under roasting most of the time. I also have a better idea what the various roasts levels should look like.

I love home roasting and am always anticipating the next roastThumbsUp
 
ginny
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Posted on 05/27/2013 8:25 AM
well gg, it's noce to have yu here. we have a great bunch who use the Gene Cafe so be sure to check out those forums for hints on roasting with your GC.

thanks for joining.

ginny

beach
 
oldgearhead
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Posted on 05/31/2013 8:46 AM
My First Roaster - What a great topic!

Mine was a used Zach & Dani, now know as the "Nesco Professional". The Nesco roasting scheme is similar to the Gene Cafe'. It uses convection heat to roast the beans and a mechanical device to stir them. However, there is absolutely nothing 'professional' about it.

I quickly found out the following:
1) It gets too hot during the 'drying' phase.
2) It doesn't get hot enough during the 'ramp-to-first-crack' phase.
3) It's way too hot during the 'finish' phase.
4) Cooling is a joke.
5) Main bearing receives so much hot air it's life is very short.
5) Nesco won't sell internal replacement parts to it's customers.

On the plus side:
1) Awesome designed RC.
2) Good chaff control.

I found that by connecting the heater element to a Variac, installing a BMT (bean mass temperature) probe, building a cooler, and buying 3 more 'junkers', I could do a fair job.
oldgearhead attached the following image:
roaster_stationcombo2_3.jpg
No oil on my beans...
 
JackH
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Posted on 05/31/2013 10:05 AM
Mine was the StirCrazy Turbo Oven. If I had to do it over I would have started with a popper as a beginner to learn how coffee roasts, Then switched to the turbo. I do have a Poppery II and sometimes use it for fun --chaff everywhere!
 
snwcmpr
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Posted on 05/31/2013 11:22 AM

Quote

It roasted well to about a city roast and then the roast would stall from there.

I would guess the stalling is from a thermostat that turned the heat off. There is an article on this forum about modifying it to bypass that thermostat. Look under the popper forum.
I did that mod to a WB Poppery I.

Ken in NC
--------------
Backwoods Roaster
"I wish I could taste as well as I wish I could roast."

As Abraham Lincoln said "Do not trust everything you read on the internet".
 
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