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  • using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

    Howdy all,
    Now its getting hotter and cooling roasted beans quickly is getting a little more tricky, I wanted to ask about giving beans a few squirts of water using a spray bottle.
    I read about using this technique somewhere and had a go with a few roasts. It was quite effective in cooling the roast quickly, but I dont know how it effects the beans, if at all.

    Cheers and I hope all your x-mas were merry!
    Anthony

  • #2
    Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

    Anthony,

    Mmmmm

    Some roasters use a very fine mist of water to cool the beans quickly post roast..... but Ive never heard of doing that during the roast (not sure if that is what you mean).

    What you need to get good flavour during roasting is a steady INCREASE in temperature..... it should never stall and definitely NEVER go backwards as the caremelisation process which occurs during roasting will be disrupted.... kind of like stewing rather than roasting the beans.... :P :P

    Change to a Corretto style roaster and the ambient temperature wont be an issue..... and you can stretch your roast even more..... even better flavours!!

    And for rapid cooling make a bean cooler (a bucket with a fan at the base and a wire mesh on the top which holds the beans....) sucking air through the beans cools them quite quickly.

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    • #3
      Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

      I second JavaBs suggestion for a cooling bucket.
      They work well.
      A professional roaster I know says that cooling to room temp in about 2 minutes is OK.
      Thats easily acieved by most methods.
      So no need to worry too much about cooling "quickly".

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      • #4
        Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

        Hi- Thanks, but I think Ive been misunderstood... I did mean a fine mist of water- post roast- to cool the roasted beans. Its the only way Ive been able to cool the beans in around that 2 mins time- especially as it gets a bit warmer. I roast in a coretto, and my general roast time is around 18mins. I have a bucket/fan/collander set up to cool, but I find it a bit slow.
        My main concern is: Does using a fine spray of water to cool post roast change the flavour profile of beans?

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        • #5
          Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

          I dont see how it would change the flavour.
          Id be concerned with drying them before storage.

          My bucket setup is a colander on top of a plasyic bucket with a hole in the side for my vacuum cleaner to suck the air through.
          Its a shop vac so the metal body doesnt have a problem with drawing in the hot air.

          Most others use an extractor fan fitted at the bottom of a bucket to either suck or blow the air through the beans.
          Being fairly enclosed setups they cool the beans quicker than just blowing air over beans in a colander.

          If you dont want to get that complicated, then transferring beans between two colanders in front of a fan cools pretty quickly.

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          • #6
            Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

            when we were in WA and had a tour of one of the roasteries there, the master-roaster explained how the big commercial roasters use water-cooling.
            according to him, they do this not so much to improve the flavour through quick cooling, but primarily to be able to cool the machine as quick as possible, so they can start a new batch asap.

            we talked about using water in the home-roast environment and his advice was to use a very fine mist spray immediately after the roast has been stopped and only for a few seconds, then "dry" cool further to room temp.

            interestingly, he also mentioned that quick cooling is not very important; as long as the beans cool fast enough initially so they dont "bake" after the roasting process, all is well.
            he gave 3-5 minutes to room temp as a guide.

            i had been looking at making cooling bucket with a fan, but as usual, space problems in the bus put limits on any project...
            after that tour i stopped stressing about the cooling: i dump my beans on a towel, spread them in a wide-spaced single layer and air cool them without a fan, just by moving them around to cooler spots on the towel, and so far it has worked for me


            L

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            • #7
              Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

              You could always be scientific about it and set up an experiment with a control batch

              Might need to try it myself, we have 42.2 deg c here in the West today

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              • #8
                Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                42.2 is still a lot cooler than 230.

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                • #9
                  Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                  I remember seeing a vid on youtube where the commercial roaster was using a water spray during roasting! :-/

                  Actually got to 44.2

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                  • #10
                    Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                    Originally posted by coffeebreath link=1198633487/0#3 date=1198635806
                    I roast in a coretto, and my general roast time is around 18mins. I have a bucket/fan/collander set up to cool, but I find it a bit slow.
                    Gday cb,

                    My setup is much the same as yours and all I do is stir the beans in the cooler with the fan running and theyre down to ambient in less than three minutes, and thats for batches averaging 750g, so smaller batches cool even quicker. I wouldnt really bother with the water mist though, maybe you just need a stronger fan to boost the air-flow? All the best...

                    Mal.

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                    • #11
                      Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                      The way I cool beans very quickly is to tip them through the air from one colander into another, and repeat that a few times, while a small desk fan blows away the chaff as they fall.

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                      • #12
                        Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                        Thanks for the responses- I think the stronger fan might be the go... Im using a small "desk" fan in my bucket- and taking about 3 mins to get to approx 60c and 5 mins to reach ambient, which I believe is a little long. Ive just returned from a few days away and the "water cooled" beans have been resting, Ugandans roasted with my normal profile, so Ill give em a go and see if they are any different. Thanks again to you all!
                        Cheers, Anthony

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                        • #13
                          Re: using a water "spritz" to cool beans?

                          Hi there
                          I use the vac/blower method to cool my beans like others and it works well.
                          I do however also use a spray bottle but only when i want to flavour beans (for other people, not me) and i spray flavour essence over the beans and stir like crazy and the beans cool down enough in 3 - 4 mins still. I do batches of 250gm when flavouring a coffee bean.

                          I have only done this with vanilla and sambucca at this stage and the couple of peole who have tried say that the coffee tastes good. The hot beans must draw in the flavour of the essence as it hits them etc. But you do get to the point where you can put too much. I still put the beans into the blower so that they come out relatively dry before i then bag them.

                          Regards
                          Mal

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