Kostverlorenvaart

(also see  http://kostverlorenvaart.blogspot.nl/2017/01/developing-kenya-roast-profile-using.html ) Marko Luther is a very prolific coffee innovator with products like the Tonino roast color meter which compared to the competition is at least as precise for a fraction of the price . Still, he may be best known for the free-for-all roast logger Artisan  which he has been upgrading and updating intensely over the past years. Last week Marko posted two new blogs which are both very interesting. First he shared a very thorough exposé about PID control , explaining the basics of PID and detailing how Artisan now offers PID control even for those users who don't have PID hardware. If you have a device that influences your roast profile and you can regulate it with a slider in Artisan, then you can use Artisan's software PID to "cruise control" your roast. Then Marko unveiled yet another new feature of Artisan called Area Under Curve , based on a concept that was...

Earlier this week I posted about the probe device Tije made for the CoffeeTech FZ94 coffee roaster to be inserted in the slider for the trier. Here's an update about the first roast done with this new probe. First I warm up the roaster with Tije's trier BT probe device outside the machine and the regular trier in place. This way the probe remains at room temperature, just like the green beans, until the start of the roast.: Warming up As expected, this works much like previous warmups. I use the on screen sliders in Artisan to increase airflow (light blue MODBUS FAN line and brown FAN line in the graph) after 4, 7 and 10 minutes to keep the temperature of drum and air flowing out the roaster closely together. Meanwhile the BT probe remains stable at 17ºC room temp. Then I load the background plan for the next roast: Roast plan in the background I anticipate having to lift the background in case Tije's trier BT probe reports a higher value than in previous ...

The standard Bean Temp probe in the CoffeeTech FZ-94 works well enough but the spot where it is inserted does not allow it to get very deep into the coffee mass that's rolling around in the drum. If I insert the probe a little deeper, sooner or later a bean gets stuck between a drum blade and the tip of the probe and the probe is pushed out a little, causing it to report a lower temperature than before in the same situation. First Crack typically happens around a measured BT of 160ºC which indicates that at this spot the BT probe has an offset of 40ºC since FC mostly happens around 200ºC. I noticed how the trier seems to get much deeper into the drum which could mean that this spot could be great for BT measurements as well. Tije made me an alternative Bean Temp probe device.  It replaces the standard trier but I can get the visuals through the glass and the aroma comes to me from a little hole in the tube above the chaff collector. The probe was custom made by TC Direc...

The Brooklyn Tuckshop is very friendly place, next to the old post office and a tiny motel, across the little train station. We had  excellent espresso from a wonderful "Candyman" blend by www.smallbatch.com.au and delicious Ham and Gruyere cheese toasties. The interior of the place is the typical mainstream 'authentic' style complete with the bare bulbs hanging down from long cables, the La Marzocco machine all the way to the obligatory EK43 grinder with the wooden slider doser but the people were truly very kind and welcoming, none of the hipster attitude. We bought a 250g pack of Candyman beans to take home, for $ 15 Formerly Hawkesbury River Art, presently no tresspassing Candyman blend $ 15 for 250g

(this post copied from  http://www.byleew.nl/coffee/tiny-cheap-fluid-bed-chaff-collector-testing/ ) Last week we did some new tests with our DIY Tiny fluid bed roaster. There were two things to test. First we wanted to test the Chaff collector that was made by Tije. Secondly we wanted to configure the PID of the TC4/ Arduino to make it accurately execute pre defined roast profiles.  Tije’s chaff collector During our previous tests the tiny fluid bed roaster blew lots of coffee chaff in Tije’s workplace. This made a lot of mess and we had to fix that. To solve the problem we needed a small but effective chaff collector. We were very happy that Tije made a creative solution for this. He invented a unique part for this purpose that’s smal and effective. It’s also easy to use & clean. To make the part he used a large herb infuser bowl that he sourced at a cook shop.  Herb infuser becomes chaff collector Video: Tije’s chaff collector in action ...