Latest Convert to HG/BM Roasting - Large Post

[Corretto]

Re: Latest Convert to HG/BM Roasting - Large Post

I tie my HG with wire to the lever end of a superautomatica bottle capper. Works a treat! easy to set the height and move up and down in small increments and easy to move back and forth, cause it just sits there on the ground, or where ever. See pictures from my original post .....

Belinda

[KoNG]

Re: Latest Convert to HG/BM Roasting - Large Post

how are you suspending the HG Mal...(and others)?
i need to sort a better method.

[Corretto]

Re: Latest Convert to HG/BM Roasting - Large Post

Looking good Mal. Was wondering how your modifications were coming.

No doubt we will hear how the tast tests go

Are there any spots in the middle of the 2 paddles where the beans dont get agitated much?

Maybe tilting the BM over to one side will help with smaller batches, but then maybe some beans will pool at the deep end and not get agitated enough .....

Glad to see youve joined the BM roasters club

Belinda

[Dimal]

Hi All,

Well..... Today I cast aside my trusty Popper Roasters and headed into HG/BM territory. Since I have a collection of small quantities of beans from many origins left over, but too small to use in any single roast batch, I decided that today was the day that it was about time that they contributed ever more to my ongoing education of the coffee roasting process. I had no option really, after reading of all the successes from other converts since Correttos original post, and that we have a BM sitting in the back of a cupboard doing nothing more than getting pushed further and further into the nether regions of our copious cupboard space.

So, out it (a Breville "Big Loaf" BM) came, back into the daylight whereupon it was set upon with much enthusiasm to install a Stirrer Motor By-Pass Switch (a Push-Button in this case) to allow the Stirrer to keep running beyond the 11-12 minute pre-programmed time that the unit defaults to for most recipes. This was a pretty straight forward job, just mount the switch on the rear of the BM in an inconspicuous location, and connect in parallel with the relay contact that is used to Start/Stop the Stirrer via the built in automation.

Heres a piccie of where I mounted it on the back of the BM (Red coloured square P/Button)...
Notice the height that the Heatgun spreader is above the bread-pan.... Its not very obvious in the other photos.



And a piccie of the BM from the front...



And, my trusty bean cooler ready to cool down the first batch out of the BM



About 2 minutes in from the start of the roast...



Close to 5 minutes in...



8 minutes in and looking good. Dont worry about the apparent unevenness, theres at least 3 bean varieties in there...



10:30 in and 1st Crack getting under way...



12:25 and 1st Crack finished...



16:00 minutes in and about a minute from the end and cooling the beans...



All in all, I am really happy with the HG/BM concept and the manner in which the roast progressed..... Full kudos must go to Corretto (Belinda) for coming up with the idea and putting it into practice so successfully. Theres nothing like success to stir people into action , and especially in the world of we coffeesnobs.

I suppose the only con, if you can call it that, is that our BM has such a large bread-pan that 300 grams of beans seems like it barely covers the bottom of the pan. Since I like to blend most of my roasts, usually post-roast, I think I am going to have to hang on to the poppers for a little while longer yet, unless I can figure a way to do smaller batches in the BM without losing quality..... Maybe if I tilt the BM up on one end and just let one stirrer do all the work, will give it a go next time. Meanwhile, weve got 6-700 grams (pre-roast weight) of beans to get through so it wont be for a little while to come.

As we HG/BM converts have all said before, its a great way to roast and full credit must go to Corretto, this is definitely a winner and one hell of a lot less expensive than most other options with comparable batch size capacity. Hmmm, now where am I going to store all these roasted beans.....

Cheers,
Mal.