My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

[ozscott]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

If anything I might taken a tiny bit long to the FC on the above roast, but it tasted sweet.

[sdg]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

Tried my Yirg again this morning -- the shot blonded a bit quick -- 22 seconds and 42ml, but was very nice and smooth, couldnt detect undue acidity or bitterness, definitely a hint of chocolate, and some sort of spice -- I can never identify these tastes, and the more I sip, and think, the less I seem to be able to put my finger on it

Was rather bland and uninteresting with milk though (should perhaps confess that Im not much of an espresso drinker, and I tend to rate my shots according to how much I feel like drinking before I get round to adding the milk, and on this occasion there wasnt very much left by that stage

And the 2nd shot was crap -- dont think that was the coffee tho -- sigh

[PhilMac]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

got any pics?

Just a piece of scrap timber. Two holes for the peg keep it stable, the thermocouple held to the peg with some twisted wire. Easy to take off whe the roast is finished, and no bent probes. Adjustable height for roast amounts.





Cheers

[sdg]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

Thanks Philmac -- very neat So the TC is at least a cm from the pan surface on all sides (or maybe more?)

I also see that youve attached your HG with its nose through the round drill holder thingy -- I was going to do this, but the owner of the HG thought it might get too hot. I gather it hasnt been a problem?

[PhilMac]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

Not sure about the neat part, but the rest is right. Ive put a couple of marks to place it, andthe piece of timber just sits on top of the BM. It moves around a little bit, not too much, I keep tapping it back inplace. Maybe some velco, if things arent too hot.

As for the HG, I havent done a lot of roasts yet, but so far so good. It sits a couple of centimetres above the level of the pan with the fan blowing over it, and the original intent was to swivel it out of the way on the drill stand when the roast was finished. But as it just sits there I just take it out, dial the heat down to its lowest (50C) and then leave it on the table to cool as Im getting the beans out and cooling them.

I dont vary the height, I use the variable heat of the gun. Starts off at 350, and then needs to be tweaked up to almost the hottest setting to FC, then turned down again.

I didnt slow it down enough here tho, me thinks

[sdg]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

Aha -- that could be one of my problems right there - I started with the HG on flat-out!

What fraction of "flat-out" do you think youd be starting at?

BTW -- how do you know the guns at 350C? Does yours have a temperature indicator of its own, or are you measuring it with a TC?

[ozscott]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

When the beans are cold it wont take a high setting to get the rate of climb to say 14c/min...must muck around and you will get the hang of the start up procedure.

Cheers

[sdg]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

Thanks Ozscott -- so definitely *not* flat-out then

[ozscott]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

No Simone definitely not flat out...assuming that your gun is at least 1500w, and more likely 2000w it doesnt take much to get the beans climbing in heat nicely. If you start off too high the rate of climb will rip up to 25c/m or higher before you can catch it and you can end up spiking it and then having to drop right back down and instead of a nice gentle ramp up you get the contrary...and you cut down the time to the first snaps, which is ok if you want to get there quickly, but I prefer a slower ramp up.

Cheers

[PhilMac]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

BTW -- how do you know the guns at 350C? Does yours have a temperature indicator of its own, or are you measuring it with a TC?

The HG I have is a variable heat Ryobi that has a dial to change the heat output. The output temperature is represented by a series of lights against a scale.

Cheers

[sdg]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

The HG I have is a variable heat Ryobi that has a dial to change the heat output. The output temperature is represented by a series of lights against a scale

Envy -- Ours has the dial but no handy lights.

So backed it off about 1/4 of a turn, and launched into 400g of the Mexico Veracruz.

And things went very slowly indeed for a while -- eased the HG up to flat-out around 7 mins -- then backed off again, then up again at 10 mins, starting to worry -- wheres FC??? Finally snaps at 12 mins, back HG off 1/8 turn, lots of little firecrackers, yippee, still snapping at 14 mins, going along nicely, then at 15:30 the temp suddenly shoots up to 220C, out of control, aarrgh, SC shortly follows (I think, not very definite), dither a bit, dump at 17:30.

Whew.

Well Ive no idea what this bean wouldve liked, but this is what it got :-/

[PhilMac]

Re: My 1st Corretto (yet another one!)

The fun starts. As a thought , you could try using the TC to calibrate the HG. ie stick it right up close to the nozzle, take some measurements and put some marks on the dial. May not be all together accurate, but may provide consistency.

Cheers