Hello from a quaint little town called Los Angeles

[BeetleGoose]

Hello all,

I've been fortunate to stumble onto the Huky 500 coffee roaster and this forum. I haven't yet bought one, but this place has been a wealth of knowledge (along with the HB forum) in making me decide to buy one.

A little background about me: As a home roaster for a little over 1 & 1/2 years and coffee enthusiast, I've been having a blast learning about roasting with my Poppery II. However, the little Poppery that could is starting to show signs of wear, and it will probably not last me very long, hence my desire to purchase a replacement. Also, I'm a chemist by education and trade and experienced in multitudes of laboratory techniques, and it is in this technical area that I'm heavily favoring something where I can control more aspects (re: parameters) of the roast. So with that, I'm hoping to get a Huky soon.

Rather than just an introduction, I would also like to share a bit of coffee and chemistry with you all. I decided to further my "experimention" with cold brew/pressed coffee a couple nights ago which led me to this question: Will I be able to cold brew coffee with less water, then dilute to a specific volume after brewing to yield the same taste? Experimentally, is brewing 40 g of ground coffee in 12 oz of water, then diluting to 16 oz of water after brewing, the same as straight brewing 40 g of ground coffee in 16 oz of water. The result: no. The larger volume has the ability to pull out more dissolved solids and flavors than the smaller volume. This was evident when I taste-tested both, as well as analyzed them in a UV-Vis spectrophotomer (see attached picture). The left sample cuvette is the "12oz/40g diluted to 16oz" sample; the right is the "16oz/40g, no dilution" sample. And in the two pictures at the bottom, which I hope come out clearly, are the absorbance values of the solutions (left, 12oz/40g, diluted to 16oz; right, 16oz/40g).

The results are rather interesting for me because I had intended to cold-brew concentrates to be diluted further without significant loss in taste, but seeing that both tasting and absorbance analysis proved contrary, I'll have to stick with a 16 oz./40 g ratio. I'm planning on taking this further by checking if 18 or 20 ounces of water to 40 g of coffee will further pull more flavors out or just simply dilute it.

Anyways, thanks for allowing me to rant.

Have a pleasant day!
BG

[hankua]

We had a couple of them in the beer lab where I used to work, one PE and an older Beckmann. Beckman was solid, newer PE flaky some times. Most people were lazy to keep the cuvette's clean. 

measuring coffee concentration can be pretty controversial; when comparing different instruments.

[Daave]

The only thing I've measured is the TDS amount in my water. Living in Los Angeles as well, our water is incredibly hard and very bad for coffee and coffee equipment. I always brew with bottled water that has minerals added to bring the TDS up to ~80 or so.

BeetleGoose - I hope you share more of your experiments here. This was an awesome post and a very interesting read.

[BeetleGoose]

Thanks! I've actually been in the design phase of my next experiments and I'll definitely keep you in the loop.

I've also been roasting for the owners of a small cafe across from where I live. It's for their own personal batch since they serve preground/prepackaged Don Francisco filter pouches. Thankfully they're really enjoying what I've been giving them, but I figure I could provide them with even better coffee once I get profiling dialed in with a Huky. I tried analog profiling with my Poppery II and a long stem thermometer but it's rather difficult to get accurate temperature readings.

I'm curious though: does anyone have any experience with making 5+ 1lb batches back-to-back with the Huky? Perhaps someday I can supply the cafe owners with a larger supply for their cafe.

[Gregr]

Welcome from another LA guy 
I've never done more than 3 in a row but there's no reason I can see why you couldn't roast as long as you feel like it. We created a forum for commercial roasters just recently because there are others using the Huky to sell what they roast.

[kenneroast]

The Huky is more than capable of doing that many roasts back to back. I usually never roast less than 2-3 batches of coffee at a time. Not that long ago, I roasted somewhere around 15 batches back to back. Charge sizes were mixed between half lb and full lb, but most of them were 1lb charges. I had no issue with it. I'd suggest that you make sure you clean the vent bowl in between though. Other than that, roast away.

[hankua]

Thanks! I've actually been in the design phase of my next experiments and I'll definitely keep you in the loop.

I've also been roasting for the owners of a small cafe across from where I live. It's for their own personal batch since they serve preground/prepackaged Don Francisco filter pouches. Thankfully they're really enjoying what I've been giving them, but I figure I could provide them with even better coffee once I get profiling dialed in with a Huky. I tried analog profiling with my Poppery II and a long stem thermometer but it's rather difficult to get accurate temperature readings.

I'm curious though: does anyone have any experience with making 5+ 1lb batches back-to-back with the Huky? Perhaps someday I can supply the cafe owners with a larger supply for their cafe.

Same here; no problem roasting back to back 5 1lb batches. I vacuum the chaff screen after every roast, even bought a third screen. If your gas gauge is on 0.5 kPa at drop, just leave it and charge when BT hits your target. Very repeatable profiles this way and turning points should be very close as well.

Not only can the Huky roast back to back one pounders, profiles can be almost the same each time providing adjustments are made at the same approximate time/temp intervals. Much easier with 454g than 227g.

[BeetleGoose]

Perfect! Thanks for the assurance with all of your (pl.) experiences!

BG