Been roasting occasionally with my popper, but felt my coffee lacked depth and sweetness. Also, the popper just roasted too little coffee at a time.
Longing for a different roast profile than what I get from my popper. I finally decided to get hold of one of those Rotisserie toaster ovens last month and fit it with a roasting drum. My unit has a switch for selecting the bottom, top, or both heating elements. I live in Manila and this type of oven usually sells very cheap for about $30.
The 1500 watts of heat is plenty. Tested the temperatures with both heating elements on, and the thermostat maxed out at about 490 F. One nice thing too: the dead band on the thermostat seemed reasonably tight ( +- 6F )
Worked on a drum made out of rigid stainless steel mesh. That was the hard part. Took a good whole afternoon of work with a pair of long nosed pliers. and some drill work. When I finished, the drum was about 6" in diameter, and 7 1/2 long.
When I finally fired it up. I was a happy camper. :)
My first roast using about 4 ounces of espresso beans from Paradise Roasters turned out very even and reached 2nd crack in about 12 minutes. Nice!
I will try with a larger batch next time. I figure the drum can easily do 12 ounces. enough to keep me happy for a week. I marked the thermostat for 380 F , 440 F, and 490. so I can adjust the roast temps. as I go.
Alfonso, that looks like a great setup. I was always of the thought that a toaster oven puts out too little heat to roast beans effectively, but if yours is a dual element design, (and your measured temperatures certainly seemed like they were appropriate for roasting) then it looks good to go. How did you fashion your roasting drum? And, what is the rotation rate of the drum?
I guess I need to keep an eye out for a similar oven here in the States.
Posted Sat Jan 28, 2006, 1:30am Subject: Re: Rotisserie Toaster Oven Project
bolojm Said:
Alfonso, that looks like a great setup. I was always of the thought that a toaster oven puts out too little heat to roast beans effectively, but if yours is a dual element design, (and your measured temperatures certainly seemed like they were appropriate for roasting) then it looks good to go. How did you fashion your roasting drum? And, what is the rotation rate of the drum?
I guess I need to keep an eye out for a similar oven here in the States.
Before anything, I would like to emphasize that you have to make the drum as big as possible without touching the heating elements. That way, the drum is actually very very close to the heating elements and are heated efficiently as they turn before they get to the beans at the bottom of the drum. The rotation is about 4 per minute. Not fast, but I got a very even roast.
For the drum, I just bought a foot of stainless steel mesh about 3 ft. wide ( More than enough ). You have to choose the mesh well. Too thick a gauge makes it hard to work with, and too thin makes the drum less rigid.
You basically cut it to size and pull out a few lateral wires to expose a few end wires you need to tie together the whole thing. ( You dont need all of them, some you cut and some you bend back to prevent the screen from fraying ) Then you just bend it around to form a cylinder, and use your pliers to tie the end wires.
I used a stainless bowl for the end, with a hole in the middle for pouring beans in and out. Oh yeah, you also need to fashion a few stirring vanes from the same mesh. I had one full lenght, two side vanes and one shorter middle vane to mix up the beans well.
You got lots of these toasters stateside. Salton/george foreman sells one, another one also was the Aroma roast, and a few others.
Posted Sat Jan 28, 2006, 1:38am Subject: Re: Rotisserie Toaster Oven Project
CraigA Said:
Very nice Alfonso, way to go!
Cheers! {;-D
Thanks Craig. Here's a picture of the drum in case anybody else needs ideas. Nice thing is, the Toaster Oven even comes with a handle I can use to remove the hot drum. :)
Posted Sun Jan 29, 2006, 9:04pm Subject: Re: Rotisserie Toaster Oven Project
Roasted a 1/2 pound batch today. As the temperature rose, I went to get a cooling colander I forgot to get earlier.
When I came back at around 15 minutes into the roast, it was well into a rolling second crack! Dumped it out as fast as I can, and it happily still turned out fine.
Just goes to show, you gotta pay attention when roasting.
Here's a picture of the roast at 13-14 minutes right before I left it. Some chaff had already fallen off but there was a lot more when I cooled it in front of a fan.
This is how my roaster looks like now after going through I guess about a hundred pounds.
It now has an extra heating element on the back. With 2000 watts of heat, It can now do 1 full pound in 17 minutes up to full city. I turn off some heaters after 1C at about 12-13 minutes. But I still prefer to do smaller roasts of 1/2 pound batches. That way I get more variety in smaller quantities, and have more control over the roast profile.
With 1 pound batches, either they go stale, or I have to give them away.
Looks pretty beat up, but it has been working pretty hard. :)
I've also added an industrial thermometer as a bean probe. The end stays right in the rolling beans while roasting.
The only inconvenience is that I have to pull out the probe every time I take out or put in the drum. But at least now I can monitor bean temp as I roast.
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