First Roast with Artisan, Feedback Appreciated

[MasterKraus]

Hey Huky Gang,

Just finished my first roasting session with the Huky500T since getting my Phidgets hooked up. I started out with 4 roasts of a French roast, pushed past 2nd crack and ended with a lighter Full City+ roast, lingering a bit past first crack.

I haven't gotten around to recording my input changes, just monitoring temps and seeing how clean and consistent I can be. Setting up buttons and such is my next step.

Link to image of Artisan Roast (because I can't figure out how to add images).
http://imgur.com/a/YdX6J


Used Zimbabwe beans for this one. Feedback appreciated!

[SusanJoM]

(because I can't figure out how to add images).!

Right below the message box, where it says +Attachments and other options....  
Try that.

[MasterKraus]

Nice, I think my image attached anyway, just didn't show in the preview before I posted...

[edtbjon]

The roast looks nice, good declining RoR/deltaBT. You're not rushing it. I guess it will taste decent.

Now for critique, I don't know the size of the roast, but you charge way too high. That wil make you hold back on the burner for the rest of the roast. Burner = heat = energy... I.e the beans gets a hefty kiss of energy when charged into the roaster and then they are just kept slowly changing color. If you charge at say 350F (for a 400g - full pound charge), the initial drop of temperture will be much more dramatic. That's nothing to worry about, as it's only virtual. Then (I usually wait one minute) hit the burner at full whack, lots of energy going into the beans. When the beans starts to get yellow, I lower the heat to say 2 kPa, aiming for going into first crack at around 1 kPa. (I don't know if you have tuned your air speed system yet, but I adjust my air to low - mid - high airflow during these three phases, adjusting the heat before adjusting the fan.)
The reason for me wanting to add more energy after charge and towards the middle and later stages of the roast, is that most of the processes in the coffee takes place in those mid and later stages. This is coffee roasting theory, which you will learn while you get experience. Don't worry, you'll get there. Again, as you are new to the Huky, it's impressive to being able to balance the heat the way you did, to produce a nice looking roast.

[MasterKraus]

Hey, thanks, that's super helpful!

I don't know the size of the roast, but you charge way too high.

I'm glad to confirm about the charge temp. My gut told me it was too high, but was trying to follow this note from one of Kuanho's guides:

"1. Preheat temperature: 250g - 220℃; 300g - 240℃; 400g - 280℃; 500g - 300℃ "

I did roast with a full pound, so will try 350F next time around.   

I don't know if you have tuned your air speed system yet, but I adjust my air to low - mid - high airflow during these three phases, adjusting the heat before adjusting the fan.

I do have one of those fan controller thingys, so I can tune the air speed. What I found on my first few roasts is that more air actually means more heat? Every time I turned up the fan, it seemed like the ET Delta would rise in conjunction.

The reason for me wanting to add more energy after charge and towards the middle and later stages of the roast, is that most of the processes in the coffee takes place in those mid and later stages. This is coffee roasting theory, which you will learn while you get experience.

If I follow through your logic here, could I say in broad strokes that part of the theory here is to back off heat/energy as much as possible towards the later stages, so the roast slows down during that time and develops for a longer period of time?

Lastly, after some digging around here on the forum, I think I need to plug in my laptop to settle down the BT reading.

Thanks,

-Chris

[edtbjon]

Well, Mr Li's instructions are intended for perforated drums which has less mass and thus can take a bit more initial heat.
Check the MillCityRoasters short video on how to calibrate airflow. Then find three markings on your device.
You're absolutely right about that the heat goes up when you rise the airflow a bit. It's true for most parts except when you're in the latter stages with low heat and high air. The flame is running a bit "rich", so the added air makes the burner more effective. This is why I usually lower the heat before rising the air.

The irratic DeltaBT reading may be due to having the laptop plugged in, not vice-versa. You can try adjusting "Smoothing", about which you can read everything in the excellent documentation made by Susan. (It's in the RESOURSES and possibly Downloads section(s). )

[MasterKraus]

Ok, taking into consideration feedback. Started the charge temp much lower, though I think a bit too low this time. Attaching a FC+ Zimbabwe roast and then a Mexico Decaf that I took past 2nd crack.

Definitely hard to keep RoR consistent during the drying phase. It wants to shoot up and then flop back down by the yellowing phase.

Was able to time (and record) fan and damper adjustments in the Mexico Decaf more carefully. Might've left it in just a bit too long, but we will see come tasting.

Thanks also to Susan for the smoothing details on Artisan. Was able to plot much prettier graphs this time 

-Chris

[edtbjon]

Those charge/turningpoint/dry-end times and temps are fine with me.
If you take a look at these graphs, I guess that you can figure out how to change your control scheme. I.e. when to make a change so that the roast doesn't jump back on you. The jump of BT and DeltaBT when rising the fan isn't that bad to the roast, but I usually try to lower the heat some 10-20 seconds before rising the fan.
In the last phase of the roast, you do get a definite "flick", starting just after the middle of first crack. Again, you can be preempative (sp?) and lower the heat (to say 0.5 kPa) some 30 seconds into 1C and balance the roast with the fan at a rather high setting.
I get the feeling that the roasts are "running away" from you in the end. Hasving enough time in the development phase is not bad, but rushing towards and into 2C just produces French roasts, which in most cases is waste of good coffee. On the other hand, keeping the roast at a low RoR (DeltaBT) for development makes the coffee more evenly roasted throughout the bean.
But, you're doing good. You're just a few roasts into learning about roasting with the Huky.

[Wayneg1]

Definitely hard to keep RoR consistent during the drying phase. It wants to shoot up and then flop back down by the yellowing phase.

The graphs usually take 3 seconds to update unless you changed the parameters.  This would make it hard to chase the RoR graph.  If your LED's are on then you can track your RoR much easier by watching the LED.  Also, you might want to smooth the graph out just a tad more.  Cheers.   

[MasterKraus]

I had the RoR at 1 or 2 seconds prior, which was also causing the uneven charting. Raised it to 3 seconds, fine tuned smoothing and tried to be pre-emptive with my adjustments. Happy with the results!

I'll stop bugging this thread at this point, but thanks for all the initial feedback! Really helped my initial learning curve in setting this up.

-Chris

[Wayneg1]

Nice, you're making progress.  If you add the details: weight and volume before and after, you can run a roast report and it will give you some good info.  On windows it's ctrl-R.

Cheers,

Wayne

[edtbjon]

Also, most of the settings you do applies to how Artisan works and presents the collected data. While weight before/after belongs to a particular roast, smoothing is a general Artisan setting. Adjust the smoothing and reopen the old roast which will now show a smoother curve.