Greetings from the Muses

[Jonathan-and-Cari]

Hello all,

We're the Muses (Jonathan and Cari).  Just got our roaster yesterday (500T).  What are the recommended first few posts to read or videos to watch?

We've been reading Roaster's Companion by Scott Rao.

Look forward to being apart of the conversation.

Happy roasting!

[hankua]

Here's what I would suggest:

Split up #5 or #10 of a washed central American bean into equal 350g-454g batches and start experimenting. For air control I'd use a router control or variac, or a cheap dimmer in a pinch. (The first detent on my dimmer was low air setting)

Charge the roaster at 180c, turn the gas to the lowest setting and air low as well. The turning point is where the bean temp stops going down and starts to climb (keep track of this marker). Turn the gas up to max, air up a little, the time to first crack is the ramp (keep track of this).

When first crack starts, turn the gas to low, air to medium and start your stopwatch. Let it go till second crack/rice crispies sound (keep track of this) and drop the roast (write down time/temp/time between FC and SC) If its smoking use more air....

I usually don't go wide open throttle all the way to FC, rather start tapering it down 1kPa along the way till it's at 1kPa just before FC; 4-3-2-1.The point being or exercise is where does 2C occurs and what does one do about it. Doesn't need to a drinkable roast...

Do the same thing all over again and stop the roast at the end of FC (1:30-2:00) after the onset of popping till it tails off.

Next try to end a roast right in the middle of the previous two roasts. You should have a record of the the 1C and 2C temp and the time in between. Another easy way to time this is how long after the end of 1C does the roast progress and what temp it is. So ending a roast with a RD (time after the onset of first crack) of 2:00 where 1C ended at 1:30 gives an extra 0:30 of development time.

(Most of us make a lot of silly mistakes in the beginning, even after awhile. I got a nice burn leaning over the machine last year LOL)

[Jonathan-and-Cari]

Awesome! thanks so much! We will definitely be trying all of this. Hopefully we'll get around to it in the next week. We are having some trouble with beans and chaff getting stuck at the wind air valve. sometimes it gets so clogged there is absolutely no airflow by before midway through the roast. Would a router control or variac help with this? Thanks again for all the advice! We are loving all the control we have with the Huky.

[kctremel]

I suggest to also check out artisancoffeealliance.com to see everybodys other roasts and to see what they're doing with theirs.  Welcome!!  With the chaff and beans build up, I had that problem with some panama beans that were quite bigger than normal and kinda pale to start, almost white.  Only had a lb of that left so on the next batch of different beans I was watching for that but didn't seem to have a problem with these smaller Colombian beans.  Are you not using a dimmer switch or control for air now or no??  Are you just using the damper?? If only damper then yes, I would suggest a variac but you can get away with a light dimmer or fan controller for on the cheap side.