Coffeerick Senior Member Joined: 5 Apr 2007 Posts: 35 Location: Harrisburg Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: ViValdi II Grinder: Rocky Roaster: HotTop
Posted Tue Apr 28, 2009, 6:54pm Subject: Re: How good is the Hot Top Roaster?
I'm sure there are people with more discriminating tastes than mine, but I have been very pleased with the HotTop in most regards. I have done comparisons where I roast the same coffee on the same day as Sweet Marias for their weekly special and then brewed the homeroast side-by-side with the roasted beans from SM. The result was minimal difference and neither was "better" even though you could tell they were not identical.
On the other hand, it is not foolproof and it requires a good understanding of both the roaster and the beans to get consistent results. Its biggest limitation is the long time that it takes to get to first crack with a full load. This isn't much of an issue if you like a darker roast but it can mute some of the brighter flavors in a light roast. I adjust the batch size from as high as 270grams for some dark roasts to as low as 160g for something like a delicate Misty Valley. Just increasing the drop-in temperature does not give the same result since that mostly just reduces the drying time and has little effect on the temperature ramp from 300F to 400F. You will definitely need to modify your machine to monitor bean temperature but that is pretty simple and well documented.
There are good reasons to get a sample roaster, but I don't think that you will get better roasts just by getting more expensive equipment. The HotTop, with a few minor modifications, has all the right stuff to do outstanding roasts once you learn how to work with it and understand what profile you are trying to achieve. Of course, not everyone will agree!
Rick
lbj Said:
Hi-
I went for a Hot Top Roaster as an upgrade over the Cast Iron Skillet.
For those with experience with this machine, how good can beans get.
I have done a few roasts that I like quite a bit, and wonder how good roasts in a Hot Top compare to some of the professionals.
Is the next step after this roaster finding a 'sample roaster'?
Posted Thu Apr 30, 2009, 11:59am Subject: Re: How good is the Hot Top Roaster?
AFAIK and have read the Hottop roaster shares more in common with commercial roasters than other home roasting machines.
There are pretty much two kinds of home roasters; fluid bed and radiant heat drum. Fluid beds are like popcorn poppers, they use hot air to blow the beans around and roast them. Roasts with a fluid bed tend to be quick and the resulting coffee is considered to brew bright in taste.
Radiant heat drum roasters tumble the beans in a drum with a heat source in the chamber. This is the typical commercial roasting method. The roasting time is generally longer than a fluid bed and produces an earthier tasting roast.
The Hottop B and P allow for roast profiling just like commercial roasters. And just like commercial roasters the beans are evacuated from the chamber at the end of the roast to cool outside of the machine. This stops the roast much more effectively than home roasters that leave the beans in their chambers as they cool. Stopping the roast when you've achieved the level you want is an important factor to controlling the roast's character.
On paper and in practice (over 200 Hottop roasts and counting) I've found the Hottop roaster can produce roasts as good as or even better than some of the commercial roasts I've had. With good quality green beans the Hottop is a really good roaster, IMHO. I started with an iRoast2 and I can say there's a difference in quality from the iRoast fluid bed roasting and the Hottop radiant heat drum. My Hottop roasts have a deeper, more full character when extracted for espresso.
lbj Senior Member Joined: 5 Mar 2009 Posts: 45 Location: Sonoma County Expertise: I live coffee
Drip: French Press Only Roaster: Hot Top Roaster, and Cast...
Posted Wed May 6, 2009, 10:58am Subject: Re: How good is the Hot Top Roaster?
Sorry it took a while to reply, but about this info to change up the roasting procedure, can I find it anywhere specifically. I have the 'basic' model, and have been trying to alter the settings during the roast, and I am not sure if the machine is responding to my changes, certainly not exactly how I want.
It looks like choosing the temperature setting chooses the roast profile on the KN-8828. Don't know if you can change the profile during the roast beyond adding time or ejecting when you want.
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