Hi Group, I'm new at roasting. Started with a hot-air popper and used a couple of asparagus cans as a chimmney and got decent results. Then I bought a used Melitta hot-air roaster and got poor results (should have read newsgroup posts). Then I bought the Hearthware special roaster with the grider for $66. After roasting about 3 lbs. with the Hearthware I don't see the same quality of roast from it as with the hot-air popper. It is somewhat more convenient because of the chaff collector and the auto cool down cycle. I have a Maxim Convection Oven that gets up to 500 degrees and the blower really moves the air around inside the oven. I think it might do a good job but the clean-up of the chaff might be a problem and it could get into the air handler and clog it. Has anyone ever used a convection oven for roasting and if so what were your experiences? Thanks, Alan FREE voicemail, email, and fax...all in one place. Sign Up Now!http://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast">http://www.onebox.comhomeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
<Snip> When I roast in the oven the chaff stays with the bean. My experiences:http://www.ineedcoffee.com/00/06/oven/http://www.ineedcoffee.com/00/08/gas/ The biggest issue with oven roasting is ventilation. It is very easy to fill a house full of smoke. good luck, mas homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Alan, My oven has no forced air circulation, just radiation and natural convection. I really prefer the results I get from oven than my popcorn poppers. As Michael mentioned the problem is smoke. I put fans on four windows to force ventilation of the entire room. Still, I avoided roasting coffee in my oven during the summer because it warms up the room too much. I think I get noticeably more subtle notes out of central Americans by roasting them in oven with quickly rising temperature to the first crack. I also think I get much more body and flavor by roasting things like Aged Sumatra Mandheling and Brazil Mogiani slowly in oven. One problem with slowly roasting in oven is that it requires close monitoring of the air temperature. Oven thermostat is by no means accurate (at least mine isn't) and a few oven thermometers I bought are too slow to respond to temperature change in the chamber. I use a thermocouple (a very small temperature sensor that can undergo very high temperature and has short response time). I can roast Sumatran slowly in my poppers but the result is somewhat different; for example I get more intense aftertaste with these done in oven. This paragraph is just my opinion (or mere bias) that was tested with only one subject, and I would appreciate it to hear others' opinion (or mere bias). A while back I reported here that my newly ordered Ghimbi decaf contained molasses flavor, possibly masking many other notes. I think that was partly due to higher moisture content of roasted coffee (when done in hot air popper) doing something while resting bean for a day. My impression of the same bean is different when done in oven. I'll try more on this and come back to it later. -- Ryuji Suzuki "I'll play it first & tell you what it is later." (Miles Davis) homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Does this mean at first it was as good but got worse, or simply was never as good. What difference do you see? What does the popper do that the HWG does not do? *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 10/14/2001 at 12:16 PM Alan Friend wrote: <Snip> Steve Shank Oregon Computer Solutionshttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast">http://www.steveshank.comhomeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |