I will be out of the office starting 11/26/2002 and will not return until 12/02/2002. I will respond to your message when I return. homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Well, I finally got all the items I needed to get my new RKDrum up and running. I selected my first bean arbitrarily, it was El Salvador-Finca El Carmen. Having never roasted coffee before, I was unsure that I would recognize ANY cracks over the rythmic beat of the rotisserie turning. I tried to follow some recommended profiles but ended up with a foul tasting, undercooked mess, not really sure I had even gotten on 1st. Not willing to accept defeat so easily, I threw the batch back in the drum and headed for 2nd. The times were quite long, the overall roast taking over 20 minutes. I pulled it, cooled it, and bagged it for 4 days. I then moved on to my secon= d pound, this time I used SM's Puro Scuro blend I preheated the grill to the 550 range, loaded the beans and tried to maintain the grill around 480. I got 1st crack at 10:00, 2nd at 14:00, pulled it at 16:00, cool to touch at 20:00. I tasted it after a few hours and found it to be without body although not terrible. I bagged it for 4 days and brought it to work today and fed it to my colleagues....IT IS PRETTY DARN GOOD!!! I am excited to just have it drinkable but it has a nice aroma and is not oily (the beans are mostly dry). I plan to try to go a little darker tonight with some of the same bean. The first batch (Carmen) is drinkable as well, I tried a little in the FP this morning. So all in all I am pretty satisfied with my first attempts and am looking forward to getting to know my RK Drum better and settling into a roast the I like and can repeat and then moving on to experimentation with other beans and roasts. I now have to get a real grinder though, as my newly acquired Miss Sylvia is not letting me by with sloppy grinding from my cuisinart. MichaelB gave me some Monkey to get me b= y for a few times but my first pull was pretty lousy. I need some alone time with Sylvia to experiment... Cheers! Vince |
Vince Doss wrote: <Snip> l <Snip> Vince, Sounds like you are having fun... An RK Drum & a Silvia ??? You must have a really understanding Significant other ;-) I had to sneak in the front door when I bought Rocky... Then Livia...and then newly aquired Poppers...etc.... Chaff Happens !!! LOL Gary -- Albert Einstein - "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent= one |
It shouldn't be that hard. I'm wondering if your thermometry is a bit off. And I'd guess that if you are using the thermometer that came on your grill, it is. Shoot for a roast of about 18 minutes to second crack, then tweak it from there. If it were me, I'd crank the grill as high as it could go and see where the cracks fall, then do the next roast with a little less heat to get close to the 18 minute mark. ********************* Ed Needham® "to absurdity and beyond!" ed at homeroaster dot com (include [FRIEND] in subject line to get through my SPAM filters) ********************* |
Thanks for the feedback Ed! I have the SM digital w/ thermocouple run through 1/4" copper tubing down t= o a cast iron griddle that is laying on top of the burner guards and I have the SM 8" stem Cooper thermo set in the hole that was for the OEM thermo an= d its tip sits right over the center line of the drum. I get a higher temp from the top thermo instead of the bottom thermo next to the heat source. This surprised me. Should the ambient temp in the top of the fire box be higher than by the burner? Maybe from the accumulated heat rising? anyway, once everthing comes up to preheat the two thermos come closer in their readings. I will get some pics of the set up and try what you suggest with cranking it up on high and adjusting down from there. Thanks Vince On 5/18/06, Ed Needham wrote: <Snip> l <Snip> o <Snip> r <Snip> e <Snip> t <Snip> y <Snip> y <Snip> r <Snip> h <Snip> e <Snip> |
I didn't get nearly as good of a result with a small Cooper thermometer I was using some time back. I added a $20 pig smoker thermometer at near the midline of the drum on the front and it gives me readings that I would expect based on the time taken to roast. The stock grill thermometer reads 700F when the regular thermometer reads 470F. The stock one is a few inches higher in the grill body. I used a cast griddle plate to see if I liked it and took it out after a while. It took too long to heat up and I didn't have the temperature flexibility that I get with the perfed ceramic tiles. It seemed to inhibit the airflow too. Just my experience. Your mileage may vary. ********************* Ed Needham® "to absurdity and beyond!" ed at homeroaster dot com (include [FRIEND] in subject line to get through my SPAM filters) ********************* |
Ed,
Is this something like your ceramic tiles?http://tinyurl.com/h8v59I'm trying to get things together to have my BBQ roaster operational and
this is one of the questions I've had. I've also wondered about lifting
the standard rocks a bit and thinning them.
Jason
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Jason Brooks
jbrookshttp://members.kinex.net/~jbrooks/blog/blog.html-----------------------------------------
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Jason, Thanks for the link. ThermaTiles look pretty useful as heat moderators over the gas flame. Cheers -RayO, aka Opa! Got Grinder? |
On 5/18/06, raymanowen wrote: <Snip> I used an old small sized cookie sheet with numerous holes poked in it to act as a heat diffuser and that worked OK, too, although after 8 months of roasting, it was looking pretty doggy - all rusted and warped. Safe Journeys and Sweet Music Justin Marquez (Snyder, TX) |
Justin, I've wondered about something like that coupled with a sparse coating of laval-style rocks. Maybe knocked down smaller so they don't hit the chamber. And maybe even an oven broiler pan top, already slit for heat transference. Jason snip <Snip> -- Jason Brooks jbrookshttp://members.kinex.net/~jbrooks/blog/blog.html----------------------------------------- This email was sent using Kinex WebMail. "Webmail for the World!"http://www.kinex.net/ |
On 5/18/06, Jason Brooks wrote: <Snip> I should have finished the description ... I had a few lava rocks in the bottom to support the pan, too. Safe Journeys and Sweet Music Justin Marquez (Snyder, TX) |
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. I use a 12 gage cold rolled steel plate as a Diffuser with about 1.5" of = clearance all around. I also am in favor of analog thermometer verses a = digital. I like Ed have it placed dead center of the drums length and = diameter. I may be wrong but will do the experiment again when I roast again. I checked the grill with the lid closed and on high an found that for = each 2" up from the flame using a IR gun thermometer the temp dropped 50 = degrees. I will run the test again when I do my next session. RK |
Different than mine but maybe better. Here's mine. I got them at Home Depot but I have not seen them there recently.http://www.grilllovers.com/shopitemdetail.aspx?itemidI84778&sc=********************* Ed Needham® "to absurdity and beyond!" ed at homeroaster dot com (include [FRIEND] in subject line to get through my SPAM filters) ********************* |