Kostverlorenvaart

Inspired by a demonstration by Marko Luther of a fully PID automated warmup and (also automated) roast on a PROBATONE 5KG roaster, I gave it a fresh try on my little Coffee-Tech FZ94 100g-2.4KG roaster. In this case the PID is provided by the software of the (free) ARTISAN roast logger ( github.com/artisan-roaster-scope/artisan ) which is configured to control the AIRFLOW to keep the machine on the designed track during warmup and to keep the beans exactly on the pre-defined roast profile. Warming up Roasting

A few first shots before Jan van der Weel and I get to work on our review of this new Rocket Espresso machine, for KTC Magazine. .

My friend Gabor from  http://www.naked-portafilter.com sent me this beautiful color-pencil tamper: Thank you Gábor from Frans Goddijn on Vimeo .

Fellow home roaster and Artisan user Mike Silver and I recently exchanged some hints and tips for the use of Artisan and I asked Mike if he would be willing to share the basics about his setup. He provided these below, and hopefully other roasters contemplating the same combination of roaster and Artisan will benefit from this information: Operating a US Roaster Corp 3 Kilo Roaster powered by propane gas and utilizing electronic Drum, Fan and Burner Pressure controls.  The roaster also has a manual air damper located on the bean chute for controlling air flow through the drum. A Phidget 1048 USB interface device is utilized to connect my MacBook Pro to the USR 3 Kilo J-Type Thermocouples.  I am running the latest version of Mac OSX – Sierra, along with Artisan 1.0.0 (1). Two separate J-Type thermocouples are used inside the drum to measure Bean Temp (BT).  One BT thermocouple connects directly to the Digital Temperature Controller on the roaster’s control panel and the other BT th

Below is an update on the earlier blog about PID and La Pavoni : Switching on the 'autotune' around the operating group temp of 77ºC did not work well recently since the procedure involves having the heating element on full capacity for a certain amount of time and at the given temperature that would result in considerable overpressure for the boiler with a violently hissing overpressure valve. Resulting PID settings read from Fuji PXG-4 and saved Following the advice of a friend, I tried the autotune at 45ºC group temp and then went very well. Next, I tested this same PID setting on the internal PID of Artisan and the system worked very well. Then I also tested this at higher temperatures, in steps of 10ºC and finally on the working group temp of 77ºC. Testing the PID controller in several steps ramping up the group temp This morning I did a full warmup using the PID and bypassing the pressostat from the start. I opened the steam wand a little when the pressu

These of course fit all groups of the same type. First the old ones: Old seals on the dirty piston  Below, the new ones have been slipped on: New type seals on the clean piston A bunch of the new seals close up Three of the new seals New seal on the left, old type generic seal on the right Close up Close up Close up

Some footage of the SCAE German Roastmaster championships of 2016 in Emmerich at PROBAT headquarters. PROBAT machine used and Artisan roast logging software (available for free at http://github.com/artisan-roaster-scope/artisan ) Pictures: http://kostverlorenvaart.blogspot.nl/2016/10/images-from-german-2016-scae.html PS this from Marko Luther: Here is my summary of this years local roasting competition https://artisan-roasterscope.blogspot.de/2016/10/die-zweite-deutsche-scae.html that links to the Artisan profiles submitted by the 10 competitors https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4HTX5wS3NB2QWI1dGJvUzBPYVE  (GoogleDrive) The short report also links to the Roast Ranking table produced by Artisan http://my-tonino.com/2016-10-05_07-German_Roasting_Competition/RoastRanking.html Note that this table is sortable by clicking on the column headers.

Joseph, a fellow coffee roaster, is looking for a fun way to lift green beans into his new huge roaster, maybe even one that provides a fun visual experience to the customers in his cafe and the four of us -- Marko, Bono, Joseph and I -- visited a company that could supply a custom made solution to this. Food safe parts push the beans through metal or transparent tubing which can to some extent be curved so the beans can move upwards and around an object before being dropped into the roaster. How fast does it go, asked Joseph. "As slowly as possible, as fast as necessary" was the salesperson's wise reply. What are these for, one wonders very well made Friends with salesperson Visiting the demo setup Miniature cable cars? In motion Around a corner and upwards Discussion  More discussion Continued discussion Marko chimes in, explaining to Bono while Joseph studies hardware Those bolts! Beautiful. They have the

Here are a few photos I took this week during the German 2016 SCAE roastmaster championship. You see the hosts from SCAE and Probat welcoming the participants, staff explaining the program and protocol to everyone, a brief introduction to the controls of the Probatone 5 roaster to be used by all roastmasters, an introduction by Marko Luther of the Artisan roast logging software and the way it was to be operated, roastmasters preparing for their roast, evaluating their data and everyone chatting at the conclusion of day two. First, second and third prize trophies Participants welcomed Probatone 5 machine controls explained Competition details discussed Probatone 5 machine controls Artisan connected Machine internals on display Parallel Artisan displays next to machine and on large screen Artisan machine communication explained by Marko Luther Intermission  Studying results, preparing  Evaluating roast profile Preparations