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Hottop KN-8828P-2K - Roasting Profiles
annguyen20
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Posted on 02/06/2023 1:57 PM
Hi all,

I just picked up a Hottop KN-8828P-2K locally and would love any help I can get. Unfortunately, it seems like the B manual would've been the better model, but I'll make do with what was available and deal with adjusting post-roast. It also doesn't look like there's too much information going around for the P model, due to the fact that it was more expensive in the manual and only featured 7 extra preset profiles, which no one uses anyway.

While waiting for my green beans to arrive, I wanted to prepare myself for my first roast ever. I have 5 lbs of Bali, Costa Rica, 3 lbs of Ethiopian, and 2 Colombian. Thinking about starting with the Costa Rican since it was less than $5/lb at HappyMug (6.25/lb average for all with shipping). Do we like HappyMug here for the price, or is there another green bean supplier that is better? Lastly, do we know what grade beans HappyMug uses, vs SM?

Anywho, it looks like Hottop has the following guide for a full city roast/city+. I'm sure I'll likely be more full city+ at the start, but can dial it in and drop it based on timing after the first couple of roasts. I believe 242.6f is the highest it'll go before the next segment begins.

Full City Roast - 297 charge

1m0s at 242.6f, 0 fan

2m0s at 297f, 0 fan - add beans here

1m0s at 311, 0 fan

1m30s at 311f, 1 fan

1m30s at 340f, 1 fan

2m0s at 370f, 2 fan

2m30s at 394f, 3 fan

2m0s at 401f, 4 fan

Manually eject immediately right before 2nd crack, which sounds like it's easier said than done. Seeing this setting, I've played around with another profile to try and hit the recommended drop of 335, essentially extending the drying period at 297f.

Full City(?) Roast - 335 charge

30s at 242.6f, 0 fan

1m0s at 335f, 0 fan, add beans here

3m0s at 297f, 0 fan

1m15s at 311f, 1 fan

1m30s at 340f, 1 fan

1m30s at 370f, 2 fan

1m30s at 390f, 3 fan

2m0s at 401f, 4 fan

I fully admit this is totally experimental and may completely fail, but figured my first roast should be at the manufacturer's recommended setting and then go to the other extreme and adjust from there.

Overall, how's the profile look for a Costa Rican? Any glaring issues?
 
renatoa
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Posted on 02/07/2023 1:09 AM
From what I seen to other people, you could be more lucky if charging to the maximum you can get, i.e. 400F/200C, and have a minimal fan, like 1 from the start.
Not personal experience, though, but for any design I am inclined to favor even minimal convection roasting more than the so called "contact" roasting, i.e. no fan at all.
 
annguyen20
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Posted on 02/08/2023 2:32 PM

Quote

renatoa wrote:

From what I seen to other people, you could be more lucky if charging to the maximum you can get, i.e. 400F/200C, and have a minimal fan, like 1 from the start.
Not personal experience, though, but for any design I am inclined to favor even minimal convection roasting more than the so called "contact" roasting, i.e. no fan at all.


Appreciate the response! I'll try the standard profile, and then try to charge to the max as the other extreme and test it out. Is the profile pretty good after that? Try to keep it at 297 for 3-4 minutes at 0 fan?
 
TDub
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Posted on 02/06/2024 9:07 AM
I realize this is an old thread, but I’ve always found it difficult to find a decent roast profile on the Hottop until today. I followed this profile from the Hottop site and my beans have never smelled better. They’re usually too smoky and bitter. I hope this profile helps others out too. I’ll be cupping this in a few days.

https://www.hotto...tatic.html

I am following up on this post to say that this roast profile resulted in an excellent cup of coffee relative to the rest of my attempts. I roasted Sweet Maria’s “Polar Expresso”. No bitterness or excess smokiness. This is the first time I’ve ever preferred the taste of a roast from the Hottop over my FreshRoast. I used the manual controls for this roast and the most notable difference for me was a much heavier use of the fan after 1c. Now I just need to build Artisan alarms to follow this profile.

I can’t figure out how to post a screen print of the profile on this forum, so the link above to the Hottop America site is the best I can offer.

Best of luck to everyone.
Edited by TDub on 02/08/2024 8:57 AM
 
HarryDog
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Posted on 02/08/2024 9:12 AM
I don't have a Hot Top so cupping is always the best judge of your roast but looking at that curve you might try charging a bit higher, applying more heat at TP and dropping temp before DE maybe increasing fan a bit to try an extend that caramelization stage. Then cup against your new favorite.
 
TDub
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Posted on 02/08/2024 9:27 AM

Quote

HarryDog wrote:

I don't have a Hot Top so cupping is always the best judge of your roast but looking at that curve you might try charging a bit higher, applying more heat at TP and dropping temp before DE maybe increasing fan a bit to try an extend that caramelization stage. Then cup against your new favorite.


Thank you HarryDog! I will try each of those recommendations as soon as I get it talking to Artisan. There’s definitely room for improvement here.
 
HarryDog
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Posted on 02/09/2024 7:05 AM
TDUB I should add that the development time could be shorter depending how much heat you are able to pull back out over the caramelization stage. Watch your final temp and color, just in case you need that time to fully roast the beans to where you like them.
 
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