Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
One of the advantages of a hand grinder: I doubt if I would be turning the Pharos hard enough to hurt a burr. I think it would just stop.
Greg
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Stones in commercial roasts?
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
I have been home roasting for just over three years and have found small stones in several batches. It is not uncommon but some have had quite a few. Once I went through a bag of Yemen Bani Ismail and found a handful of small stone but they all fell apart with a little pressure so I doubt they would have hurt the grinder.
I have found a stone or two in other coffees but nothing that I feel would hurt the grinder. I do however have a good look at the beans before I roast and am thinking of building a destoner for home. There is the plans for one somewhere on this forum.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
There is nothing sinister about the foreign material being in there.
Some origins can come in under, and others will come in over.
You use a weigh bridge or scales of some kind, and advise your broker what you found so he can adjust the invoice (if you have a good relationship and he trusts what you tell him). That means you have to be honest and let him know when the weight is over, just as when it is under.
This is what you can do when you buy inside Australia from a green bean broker in Australia ie you bought so many kilos and were invoiced in Australia. Then you have a case to make a claim on short delivery.
If you buy from O/S, forget it.
You have to consider the weight of the pallets, therefore you either work on an average weight taken over many pallets....
Or you unpack each and every pallet of coffee and weigh each bag individually, then put the bags back on the pallets. You have to consider the weight of the hessian bags if you want any of this to be accurate.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Bags are often under weight from what I have heard.Originally posted by 7C6E60766A0F0 link=1331109700/16#16 date=1331336284Do u think any of it was to increase the weight per bag or nothing so insidious?
There are various reasons, some innocent, some not. Once you have the 60kg bag and it actually has 59.5 or less, what are your options? Its been through several hands by now and most end customers just make a note for their own reference and push on.
I doubt the foreign stuff that makes it in there is put there on purpose.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Ive found half a dozen or so small stones in about 3 years of weekly roasting, all bean size or smaller and mostly soft crumbly stuff that would do no harm to the burrs, a couple looked like granite or similar and may well have been a problem had they found their way into the grinder.
As far as Im concerned stones are not really a problem, I roast a little over 700 grams of beans at a time and the stones are easy to spot in my gem sieve cooler.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
I dont think a couple of screws, a cigarette butt or small stone will affect the weight of a bag of coffee. [smiley=cheesy.gif]
Must say I have not found anything in all the kilos I have roasted, but having said that I dont look for them that carefully (I guess I should), and if there was anything foreign, it ground up ok!
Might look into a DIY destoner.
Cheers
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Do u think any of it was to increase the weight per bag or nothing so insidious?
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
I check post roast using the theory that those rocks/mud lumps are going to be a similar size (are they screened?) and (usually) colour to the greens whereas the browns will be somewhat larger and significantly different colour - so easier to spot.Originally posted by 4741565D4740585A330 link=1331109700/14#14 date=1331291066I always check my eans before I roast
It only takes a minute or two for some peace of mind. I got a large flat tupperware from a $2 shop - tip in a handful of beans from the cooling sieve, quick eyeball, tip into container on scales, repeat until finished. Easy.
I think however that Im seeing less stones now than a few years ago, particularly in the Eth. & Yemen. Maybe they are being more careful with the premium beans, or maybe thats where all my luck has gone.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
I always check my eans before I roast but Ive seen stones that look exactly like beans so Im sure ill miss one one day.
DiBella in Melbourne have a big glass jar on display full of stones they have rescued from their coffee roaster
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Wow, now im super paranoid about the beans that im pouring into my grinder. Pouring veery slowly and checking any suspicious looking ones...Thanks guys!
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
With the small batch sizes I assume you are all roasting at home, it shouldnt be a problem to spread each batch out on a flat surface and cast a very careful eye.
I roasted a couple of 70 gram samples this morning, no problem & very easy to handle with regard to checking for "stones".
The sample in the photograph has to be taken in context. It has been collected over a large quantity of beans, and these days I only pick out and throw in the most interesting finds! You could probably roast 2 or 3 tons of high grade coffee and only get that much rubbish.....
That said, you only need one genuine stone or nail to muck things up pretty badly for you.....
Also consider this. The start up cost on a small low end roasting machine is somewhere under 20 thou. The cost of an add on stand alone destoner at somewhere around say 5 thou can then seem to be very expensive in the scheme of things to newcomers trying to break into the industry.
But without a destoner, theyre in big trouble.
So in terms of newcomers wanting to break into the industry in a metro area, I would say the real cost of their start up equipment needs to include a destoner as well as a suitable afterburner. It then starts to look (rightly) a little more daunting.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Ive only ever had one stone (that ive spotted anyway) which was in a bag of CS greens. Andy does give fair warning being a raw product so im always on the lookout
The odd bit of string in the beans from the cotton bags but otherwise stone free for me
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Ive caught the odd piece here and there. The Yemen a couple of years ago came with a more vocal than usual warning as it did tend to have a bit more non-coffee in it than your other beans.
I usually cast my over over the greens when weighing and the dumped roast when cooling and stirring. Found a few small stones or compressed mud, corn kernels, string etc. Only ever seen one stone that would have potentially hurt the grinder. It was a blueish piece of stone about the size of a bean and very solid.
Its just a good habit to get into to check your greens and beans that you roast.
Purchased roasted beans would hopefully have all gone via a de-stoner, but I have not bought any for a long time myself.
Brett.
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
Ive yet to see any stones in the beans that come from beanbay, but I am slightly worried that I might get an inclusion thatd destroy the burrs on my grinder...
I figured that most inclusions will be sandy/light coloured post-roast, but that batch of things from the destoner worry me.
Is there anything to look out for to visually check to make sure that the roast is free of detritus?
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Re: Stones in commercial roasts?
I havent purchased roasted coffee for some years now but always make it part of my routine to check the beans after roasting (actually its my wifes job to check them ;D )
Some are a lot worse than others. I have found that the Yemen tends to have a fair bit of inclusions.
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