Shake, Not Stir: Tije's Roaster Shaker for Coffee Beans
Over the past months, Tije has been testing out several concepts for a fluid bed roaster that will be very similar to my Fracino Roastilino but with a larger capacity. One example is shown here:
A problem in this setup is the high speed of the cheap blower we are using. The blower is so powerful that it cools the heating element rather than heat the beans and it tends to blow beans all over the place instead of just "stirring" them around. We actually need a blower that has less speed with more static pressure and we're currently looking at an Multi Stage MS8 Backward Curved, Single Inlet Centrifugal Fan from Air Control Industries.
Taking a break from this R&D which is more time consuming than we anticipated, Tije has worked on an idea of his own, using very basic materials which most everyone has in the household somewhere.
Tije let go of the idea to agitate the beans by a powerful air flow and he also discarded the "rolling drum" concept which has been used in most classic roasters so far. He tried stirring the beans but found that this hard to do automatically. He used the motion of a jigsaw to shake a kitchen sieve filled with beans and he took the heat from a simple paint stripper:
In the next version, a hood will help catch chaff and smoke and a more effective cooling system will be tested too. We will be monitoring the bean temperature using a probe and the Artisan Roast Logging software.
The initial results are very promising. It might become a very minimalistic roaster, combining high tech with the least amount of sophisticated hardware.
Update:
Taking a break from this R&D which is more time consuming than we anticipated, Tije has worked on an idea of his own, using very basic materials which most everyone has in the household somewhere.
Tije let go of the idea to agitate the beans by a powerful air flow and he also discarded the "rolling drum" concept which has been used in most classic roasters so far. He tried stirring the beans but found that this hard to do automatically. He used the motion of a jigsaw to shake a kitchen sieve filled with beans and he took the heat from a simple paint stripper:
In the next version, a hood will help catch chaff and smoke and a more effective cooling system will be tested too. We will be monitoring the bean temperature using a probe and the Artisan Roast Logging software.
The initial results are very promising. It might become a very minimalistic roaster, combining high tech with the least amount of sophisticated hardware.
Update:
Update september 2016: Tije mostly uses a hand written log and below is a successful roast of Guatemala Finca Las Delicias:
#3:
Some pictures & details:
(this roaster is currently --4 March 2020-- available for sale)
Reacties