I-Coffee roasting experiences

[trentski]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

These beans produced the most chaff Ive seen, the tray was full but the roaster certainly does work well for catching it.

Ive got a really chaffy bean as well and the chaff collector is full, hardly any chaff left with the beans though.

What are you using to cool the beans ROs?

[Roz]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Ive got a really chaffy bean as well and the chaff collector is full, hardly any chaff left with the beans though.

What are you using to cool the beans ROs?

This is ther area that I need to improve, currently I pull the beans and drop then in a stainless steel steamer pot and back into a metal sieve over the bean cooler, I do this until the beans are fairly cool, This paticular bean there was still chaff in the roast and that blew all over the kitchen when I cooled them haha, had to get the vaccum out for that.

I need to come up with a simple quick bean cooler that I can use inside, must be low cost as well.

[sorrentina]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

if you are doing a chaffy bean- you could dump the beans into a large colander or similar- rush outside and toss them in the air for a minute- the wind usually blows any remaining chaff away. Then take them inside and dump them into the cooler?

Very nice looking roasts by the way 8-)

otherwise there are many idea on this forum about making your own bean cooler- for next to nothing. All you need is an old bucket and an exhaust fan...

[emckissock]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

For indoors use and small quantities, Id suggest a round plastic container (bunnings have these in various sizes) and matching metal seive. Around 10cm diameter would be good. Cut a hole in the side of container (hole saw ideal for this), insert nozzle of vacuum cleaner in hole. One effective bean cooler.
A bucket and fan is good, but better suited to larger batches.

[Roz]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

So I just tried the Peru with a couple of days rest and its bloody good, very happy.

One rough dial in shot over extracted decided to have the second shot in milk, pour still needs to be a bit faster but the second shot was good hopefully Ill nail the pour tomorrow.

I would recommend this roaster as an absolute "cracker" for ease of use and great results, it roasts very even and I would assume that 250g of raw would suit a lot of consumption rate.


I want to experiment coming up with a nice blend that cuts through milk well after a few more roasts, I assume for blending beginners that its best to start out just blending post roast? does that work well?

[jaybee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Here is my turbo cooler. The cooling tube is about 750mm of 100mm pipe with a connector piece pushed on with a round of fiberglass fly screen sandwiched in between. The topo of the tube was flared out by melting with a hot air gun to make it easier to pour the beans in. The base is a short piece of 100mm pipe and an end cap glued on to allow it to be screwed onto a heavy block. I have sanded the top of the base to stop it bibding with the cooling tube. The cooling is suplied by a cheap Ryobi (Bunnings) vacuum on blow.

When the beans are poured into the machine, they just tumble in the column of cool air and hence the tube needs to be reasonanbly long to stop them spitting out, but it works very well. I had most of the bits already in the shed, so the total cost was only a few bucks. It cools a batch down in under a minute!

I use the iCoffee cooler to take the heat out of the pan.

[sorrentina]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

with my own blending I tend to do it post roasting and to mix beans roasted to slightly different levels. I am a dilettante roaster and simply blend anything. I dont make records but sometimes wish I did- it is such a shame when you make a golden blend and cant remember at all what you put in... But it does mean every batch of coffee is a surprise...

I have really been enjoying adding Robusta to my blends- in larger than recommended doses;-)...

but when I have a range of left over beans I like to mix them pre-roast and sometimes this seems to work spectacularly... I did a roast on Monday with 4 beans like this all different sizes and style of bean- jumbo to pea- the resultant roast had a lovely grade of colours within it: Then I mixed that with 250 grams of Mysore nuggets at CS8 and so far this fruity blend has been awesome. The 76 grams of robusta give it a nice kick.

so I suggest dont be afraid to freestyle with the blendings - but perhaps keep records 8-)

is there any robusta in greenbay? I am off to look...

[Roz]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Didnt have a chance to roast on the weekend

I just roasted a 50/50 blend of Peru / PNG Wahgi Peaberry, 250g raw each mixed post roast. split two ways, one bag for a mate and one for me.

PNG was quite hard to hear the cracks so I pulled it based on visuals, looks even enough mixed.

Ive ordered more Peru and some others from this months sales for my stash but I will be roasting a lot of Ethiopian next. Ive got one shot left of the original roast I did and its been great.

[Dimal]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Mmmm...

Looks Delish R0s 8-)

Mal.

[bmcquillen]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hi I-coffee owners,

I was wondering if there are any i-coffee owners who are tech savy enough(willing) to do a video review on the i-coffee roaster detailing the good bits and the bad?

I am in the process of deciding between I-coffee & Behmor & just cant decide.

Regards
Lenny

[MrDerrickC]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Hi I-coffee owners,

I was wondering if there are any i-coffee owners who are tech savy enough(willing) to do a video review on the i-coffee roaster detailing the good bits and the bad?

I am in the process of deciding between I-coffee & Behmor & just cant decide.

Regards
Lenny

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1306903767/0#44

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1306903767/50#70

[jaybee]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpwy4vmwj18[/media]

Here is one I did when I first got mine.

After several kg of roasts, I have nothing but admiration for the machine!

[bmcquillen]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

Brilliant JB exactly what i was after.

Many thanks once again.

[headinclouds]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

I did five batches today and for the first time i let it all happen on the timer. i set it to 5 and only removed the beans when the cooling stage had finished.
i thought id do this to try an get some consistency to my roasts

first was a Yirgacheffe which came out at about a CS7 and dry looking
next was a Peru which was a similar colour but with a beautiful sheen
then an Indian Mysore which looked similar to the Peru
then i did a batch of Ethiopian Limmu and they can out oily and CS9
i did another batch (from a different packet) to make sure that it was the bean type that roasted differently.

i did a cooling of the machine between each batch to try and keep some consistency in the roasts, but the first would have been a little cooler to start with. it was interesting to see how the Yirgacheffe looks so different from the others.

i was expecting there to be differences in the roast level, but not as much with the the Limmu from the others. considering that 5 is the middle setting and theyre nearly black, and the others are a good city roast.

i tried to roast enough today so that i can taste through the week and then after a week and get an idea of how they change with time, so far im only just roasting enough to last a week and drinking one batch at a time. it might be time to start blending now too :P

really happy with the roaster, its super easy to use and i love filling our whole yard with the smell of roasting coffee ;D

[sorrentina]

Re: I-Coffee roasting experiences

what size were your batches?

another manual option is to set at a higher level- but press the power  button once to start the cool cycle early (if required). Doing this you need to think ahead as the roast will continue into the first few minutes of the cool cycle. You will also need to keep a good watch.

But what you are testing could work out well: if you find that given settings gives you a repeatable result with a given bean you can then set and forget. I am not sure how much ambient temp will affect such roasts though...