my first roasts... your opinion matters

[Almulhem_900]

Greetings Huky community,

I'm new to this great toy and I have had several roasts trying to understand/control the machine. I'm a perforated user and I tried to follow mr. Li guide.


Attached is one of my profiles. I appreciate your comments.



charging 350 g at about 220 C and the fan is always on. Gas at charging is 2.0 kpa. After that it goes up and down trying to hit the targets but obviously I was not successful. I admit the roast is quick.

[Wayneg1]

It will be easier to provide feedback if you mark your events on the graph.  Marking Charge, Dry End, First Crack Start, First Crack End and Drop will give the forum much needed information to critique your roast profile.  There is a section here that explains how to setup up Artisan and how to do the basic things above.  Cheers.

[Jayel]

Not bad for a first roast at all, but you won't really know how it came out until you taste it. Along with what Wayneg1 said, you really should mark events, and also mark when you increase/decrease power and fan. You can do this by creating buttons for different power and fan settings.

Here is a good thread on adding event buttons with some setting you can download and load into Artisan: https://www.hukyforum.com/index.php/topic,733.0.html

By doing this you can get a good idea of what did throughout the roast and learn from your mistakes and successes.

[Almulhem_900]

Thanks for the comments and I'm sorry for not providing these information.

Here are the missing inputs:
- Perf drum, direct heat, started with 2.0 Kpa
- Charge at t=0.0 at 220C ( I started logging when I charged the beans)
- Fan is always fully on with the air flow fully open all the time
- Dry end (not sure)
- First crack at 200 C and it lasted for about 1 min
- Drop at 12:30  at 215 C (where you see a raise in the BT)
- Taste: not yet tested ( beans is resting)

my questions:
How does my ET looks like ? is it reasonable or out of control ? how should it look like ?
How can i improve the roast ?

Thanks again for your input

[SusanJoM]

How does my ET looks like ?

Is your ET really ET?
Or is it MET?
From the profile it looks more like MET.

[Almulhem_900]

How does my ET looks like ?

Is your ET really ET?
Or is it MET?
From the profile it looks more like MET.

Hello Susan

I believe it is the ET. It is the prop in the top part of the drum and I have analog gauge in the center which i believe it is the MET. Right? 

[SusanJoM]

The analog gauge that came on the HUKY when you got it from Mr. Li is ET.
If you still have that analog gauge on the HUKY, then neither of the lines on your graph is ET.

[Almulhem_900]

Hello Susan,

I'm sorry to bother you with the basics. I'm a bit confused. here is a picture of my Huky. please indicate which on is the ET and MET



Thank you so much

[brew]

I know that I have seen an image that Susan either linked to or uploaded in the past but I can't find it.  Here is a new one.  It might be useful to someone else.

[SusanJoM]

Thank you, Brew, I was looking for that image myself just the other day.  I think it is one of the ones that Geoff recovered for us.  I am going to put it in the Gallery so we always know where to find it.

Edit:
You can now find it here:
https://www.hukyforum.com/index.php?action=gallery

[hankua]

Thanks for the comments and I'm sorry for not providing these information.

Here are the missing inputs:
- Perf drum, direct heat, started with 2.0 Kpa
- Charge at t=0.0 at 220C ( I started logging when I charged the beans)
- Fan is always fully on with the air flow fully open all the time
- Dry end (not sure)
- First crack at 200 C and it lasted for about 1 min
- Drop at 12:30  at 215 C (where you see a raise in the BT)
- Taste: not yet tested ( beans is resting)

my questions:
How does my ET looks like ? is it reasonable or out of control ? how should it look like ?
How can i improve the roast ?

Thanks again for your input

Hi
If you are using the damper for air control; a little lower setting might be helpful. It's very sensitive, and can cause chaff clogs. Temporarily opening it up then back down to where it was before helps. 50% air is a managable constant setting, although many of us play around with both air and heat during a roast. Taking the pipe off and visually observing the damper position, while marking the outside so the handle pin lines up would be helpful.

Next question is what level of roast are you looking for and with what bean choice? Light roast, medium roast, dark roast? Wet processed bean, natural bean, Yemen, Ethiopian, Brazil ?

[Almulhem_900]

Thanks for the comments and I'm sorry for not providing these information.

Here are the missing inputs:
- Perf drum, direct heat, started with 2.0 Kpa
- Charge at t=0.0 at 220C ( I started logging when I charged the beans)
- Fan is always fully on with the air flow fully open all the time
- Dry end (not sure)
- First crack at 200 C and it lasted for about 1 min
- Drop at 12:30  at 215 C (where you see a raise in the BT)
- Taste: not yet tested ( beans is resting)

my questions:
How does my ET looks like ? is it reasonable or out of control ? how should it look like ?
How can i improve the roast ?

Thanks again for your input

Hi
If you are using the damper for air control; a little lower setting might be helpful. It's very sensitive, and can cause chaff clogs. Temporarily opening it up then back down to where it was before helps. 50% air is a managable constant setting, although many of us play around with both air and heat during a roast. Taking the pipe off and visually observing the damper position, while marking the outside so the handle pin lines up would be helpful.

Next question is what level of roast are you looking for and with what bean choice? Light roast, medium roast, dark roast? Wet processed bean, natural bean, Yemen, Ethiopian, Brazil ?

During my roast the air flow was fully open and I don't have a varic to control the voltage of the fan. I did try to use lower damper setting in recent roast I will post the profile on my next post.

I was looking for medium roast and the beans was from costa rica (washed) 

[Almulhem_900]

Hi Roasters,

Attached are two roast attempts to new Colombian washed beans just received. I have added the ROR and the Power events (when you see two power settings next to each other. let's say for example P2,P2,P3, the middle one is 2.5 Kpa). I don't have control on the fan speed so i tried to lower the air flow using the damper. I used low air flow at the begging and I increased it as I progress in the roast and decrease the gas setting. Sorry, I was so busy and focused controlling the gas and watching the temperatures that is why I didn't mark the dry end and end of FC.

My BT is not s-curved as my previous roasts was, will that affect the taste ?
My ROR is stabilized in some areas, will that considered roast staling ?
How can I improve my next roast ?

[edtbjon]

I must say that it seems you are making good progress. Make sure to put in time to taste the good coffee too, as "resting time" does not only apply to the roasted beans, it's good for the roaster (you) too.
The "DeltaBT" or RoR curve (which is, simply put, a mignification of how the BT behaves) is a very good indication of how you control the roaster. Artisan is a bit of a beast in itself and it takes some time getting used to.
About the airflow, in general much advice on roasting in general (any drum roaster) is to use very low airflow in the beginning of the roast, up until the beans starts get yellow (150C also called "Drying end", DE). Without a variable fan, I'd give the fan a burst of 5 sec every minute with the damper open. For the rest of the minute I'd leave the fan off. DE is normally happening around the 5 minute mark. After that you can leave the fan on with the damper at "50%" until you come to the first crack, where you open the damper to "100%".
As I pointed out above, the RoR is generated by the BT. As long as you have the RoR above zero, the BT is rising and you are not stalling the roast. You seem aware of what an "ideal" RoR should look like, nicely sloping down from the top value, say 20C/min, around 2 minutes until a value of 3-5C/min around first crack. Even though you have the RoR at the same value for a few minutes maybe isn't ideal, it's not a "bad" thing either.

Next thing I'd try is to drop earlier ... at the end of first crack maybe.

[Almulhem_900]

I must say that it seems you are making good progress. Make sure to put in time to taste the good coffee too, as "resting time" does not only apply to the roasted beans, it's good for the roaster (you) too.
The "DeltaBT" or RoR curve (which is, simply put, a mignification of how the BT behaves) is a very good indication of how you control the roaster. Artisan is a bit of a beast in itself and it takes some time getting used to.
About the airflow, in general much advice on roasting in general (any drum roaster) is to use very low airflow in the beginning of the roast, up until the beans starts get yellow (150C also called "Drying end", DE). Without a variable fan, I'd give the fan a burst of 5 sec every minute with the damper open. For the rest of the minute I'd leave the fan off. DE is normally happening around the 5 minute mark. After that you can leave the fan on with the damper at "50%" until you come to the first crack, where you open the damper to "100%".
As I pointed out above, the RoR is generated by the BT. As long as you have the RoR above zero, the BT is rising and you are not stalling the roast. You seem aware of what an "ideal" RoR should look like, nicely sloping down from the top value, say 20C/min, around 2 minutes until a value of 3-5C/min around first crack. Even though you have the RoR at the same value for a few minutes maybe isn't ideal, it's not a "bad" thing either.

Next thing I'd try is to drop earlier ... at the end of first crack maybe.

Thanks edtbjon for the encouraging words.

I'm enjoying drinking the coffee now as espresso and filter coffee. It tastes good and balanced with notable caramel and sweetness but I taste a strange flavor but not bad (got less as coffee got more rested) that I'm not able to describe really. I don't know if it is a bean characteristic or it has to do with the roast.   

I will trying using your method in controlling the air flow. I will also do my next batch light roast but the question is how long can I keep the coffee at 205 C for example without any temp rise before the drop without having stalling risk ? because I heard to insure bean development the roast has to continue for about 25% of the total roast time after FC.

Regards,
Abdelraof