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Re: Coffee Roasting with Popper Tips (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Saturday, August 21 @ 05:36:34 CDT | Ed-- Great info and quite correct.
The major variation in poppers is the thermostat setting and /or the fan being worn out (used). Bi-metalic thermostats are rather inaccurate and change with time.
- based on my experience.
Bob Cook (bobcook@oii.net)
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Re: Coffee Roasting with Popper Tips (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, August 22 @ 16:13:21 CDT | How do you secure the 8oz chimmney to your Poppery? I tried roasting this way just now, and found it really clumsy to try and tilt the poppery 30-45degrees, while trying to hold the 8oz chimney in place with a pot holder.
I did get (3:50)4:20 - (7:30)7:55 which seems pretty decent (total roast of 9:30). |
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Thanks for the Comments (Score: 1)
by Edward on Wednesday, August 25 @ 01:53:51 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | Thanks for the comments. As people post new information, I will try to incorporate it into the main page as time permits (updates will be sporadic as my work schedule is pretty intense at the moment).
--Edward |
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Re: Coffee Roasting with Popper Tips (Score: 1)
by garybt3 on Wednesday, August 25 @ 16:25:52 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Hey Ed!
Great site! 1 tip that I'll share with you is for roasting with multiple poppers. I like to roast a lb at a time. Keeping in mind that even identically appearing poppers will not cook at the same rate, here's what I do. I use 2 popcorn pumpers, and I altermate using one, and letting the other, rest. I start with a measured 1/2 cup, start my timer, and dump in my beans. I then add more beans until the spinning beans slows down to a crawl, and is just barely moving. Important step here, KEEP The beans MOVING ! But, just barely. I find that I can Slow the roast down to an average 1st crack of 6 -7 minutes using a cheap, (thin) extension cord. I use a 3 (female ) plug adapter and I plug both pumpers into it at the same time. But I only use 1 pumper at a time. I plug a small, powerfull, and adjustable (3 settings) fan into the last recepticle. AFTER 1st crack, I turn on the fan. This does 2 things, more load on the cirquit, and the blowing air helps to cool the popper a little bit, therefore extending the roasting period between 1st and 2nd crack. If I carefully watch the roasting, I can get to 2nd crack at around 12 - 15 minutes. ( total elapsed time.) I can turn off the fan and induce second crack usually within a minute. I also use a spare wooden spoon, but I stick it UNDER the popper to tilt it. I tried stirring the beans a few times, and I had too many under and over cooked beans, so I stopped doing that technique. I usually cook 4 batches to cook 1 lb of beans, but 1 popper can manage 4.5 oz X2, the other 3.5 ox x 2. I also use a chimmney usually a soup can that fit's tight in the chamber. Just thought I'd share a technique that my brother passed on to me! BTW, I like to stop the roast 15 seconds, after 2nd Crack begins. I cool them beans ASAP!!! ( just built a 'turbo bean cooler, will try it out, tonight!) |
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Tilting note (Score: 1)
by Edward on Tuesday, August 31 @ 18:51:22 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | It has been brought to my attention that tilting is not effective with some poppers. A couple of people have reported that it doesn't have much impact their Poppery IIs. So, when experimenting with slow down techniques, if one doesn't work, try another. In the Poppery II, it appears that when the popper is tilted, the flow is reduced so much that the beans do not move well.
Let me know about your own experiences, by leaving a comment here or on the Leave a Tip page.
--E |
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Some Profiles (Score: 1)
by Edward on Wednesday, September 01 @ 13:03:47 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | Here are some ToastMaster profiles in response to questions about how the slowdown techniques have impacted actual roasting times. Please note that both of the profile 'no slowdown' roasts turned out good but not great coffee. None of the pre-slowdown roasts that I did on the ToastMaster matched slower roasts. I did about 12 roasts before starting to use slowdown techniques. In my opinion, the key point for slow downs is to make sure that first crack does not happen too soon (2 minutes is IMHO too quick) and that there is a distinct pause between first and second cracks. There seems to be a huge difference between the quality of roasts in the under 5 minute range and those in the over six minute range. I have not noticed a significant difference in quality between roasts in the six to eight minute range and those that take significantly longer. (Caveat: I have not done enough side-by-side comparisons of six to eight minute vs. 13-18 minute roasts for this conclusion to be given much weight.)
with no slowdown techniques
Toastmaster, 1/2 cup mokha sanani, no slowdown
Total: 4:30 | First crack (2) 2:20 | Second crack 4:30
Result: Vienna
Toastmaster, 1/2 cup colombian swp decaf, no slowdown
Total: 4:00 | First crack (2) 2:26 | Second crack 3:30
Result: Vienna/French -- slightly burned
with slowdown | top off in all cases
Toastmaster, a bit less than 1/2 cup mokha sanani, top off, stirring till first crack starts then a couple of times between first and second
Total: 8:20 | first crack 3:30 | second crack 8:00
Toastmaster, 1/2 cup, mokha ismaili, tilt through end of first crack
Total 8:25 | first crack: 3:45 | second: 8:25
Result: Full City+ |
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Poppery II Profiles (Score: 1)
by Edward on Thursday, September 02 @ 12:55:40 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | Here is a Poppery II profile of a roast done with no slowdown techniques (except that I roast with the top off). It is a very nice profile. These times don't necessitate a slowdown (unlike a raw ToastMaster).
Poppery II, no top, 1/2 cup Sulawesi Toraja Decaf
Total time: 7:00
First Crack: (3:25) 3:30 - 4:45
Second Crack: (5:35) 6:55
Comment: The roast was quite even but not quite as even as the last couple of roasts that I did in the Poppery. It might be because I tilted and occasionally shaked the popper in the last roast. I notice that the Poppery II swirls beans around for quite a while until the beans become less dense. A slight tilt might be helping to turn them over better during the early stages, or the agitation might have been responsible (in which case an occasional shake early on might be a good idea). HOWEVER, the even-ness was more than acceptable and the slight unevenness might actually benefit the cup's complexity.
So, this popper seems like one that you don't really need to mess with at all. One could clearly roast a little bit more without needing to worry about it being too fast. One could probably roast quite a bit more in this popper if one used some slowdown techniques to compensate for the added bean mass (which results in better heat retention). |
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Stretching a Poppery II Roast with an Extension Cord (Score: 1)
by Edward on Sunday, September 12 @ 21:23:47 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | Bill Morgan -- a member of the homeroast listserv -- sent the following message:
My Poppery II roasts were going too fast (5:00-5:30 into 2nd crack) and I saw the suggestion to use an extension cord. I didn't believe it at first, but it was easy to find out that the Poppery was drawing 9.2 A at 116 V plugged into the wall, but 8.6 A at 108 V through a fairly heavy, 100-ft 16-gauge 3-conductor fairly heavy extension cord. That stretches my roasting times to 8:00-10:00 and gives me a lot more control. |
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Stretching ToastMaster Roasts with an Extension Cord (Score: 1)
by Edward on Monday, September 13 @ 16:50:39 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | | I just did a test of doing a complete roast with a 100 ft medium duty extension cord I had in my garage. The popper (a ToastMaster) was tilted slightly almost the whole time. First crack hit at about 6 minutes and the first outliers of second crack at about 12 minutes (these were outliers and not the real second crack itself which I would guess was still 20 to 30 seconds off). So, the extension cord shifted first crack by about 2 minutes compared to without and shifted second crack by four minutes or more. |
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Popper Tilting (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, September 24 @ 07:07:43 CDT | I've found it effective, with my Wear Ever 1250 poppers, to "internally tilt" the chamber in order to slow the roast. It's pretty simple - open up the popper and use a Dremmel to grind about 1/8" from one of the posts that holds the assembly. This will tilt the chamber without creating a gap at the top. I haven't tried this with a poppery II, but you'll be the first to know when I do...
Gregg Talton
Birmingham, AL |
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Is Your Popper Stalling? (Score: 1)
by Edward on Tuesday, September 28 @ 01:23:42 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message | Journal) http://www.edwardspiegel.org | If you go for a very long time after first crack, there is a chance that the popper is stalling. I have found with an extension cord that successfully extends the roast that there are some poppers that don't seem to get hot enough to get all the way to second. This ONLY happens with SOME poppers. Most of my poppers don't have this problem, and it may only happen under certain circumstances. I will follow up in the coming weeks.
If you have a thermometer, you can detect this. In my case, I found that with my 100 ft extension cord, the roast got stuck at 420 degrees F after four minutes with no change in temp, I unplugged the popper from the extension cord and went straight to the wall and the temps immediately started moving.
There is an ExTech MultiMeter that includes a thermocouple which can be found for $20 that makes a nice fast-responding, low-latency electronic thermometer that is worth having if you are doing a lot of experimenting or want to focus in on roasts that end somewhere between end of first (City) and very first onset of second (Full City+). |
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Widening Slots (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 05 @ 13:59:11 CST | If your popper has a reasonably good fan (Popperys of all flavors, Wearever Pumpers, Toastmasters), I am finding that I can extend roast time and increase the amount of coffee that can be roasted by simply widening the slots in the popper. You do not even need to disassemble the popper. Using a screwdriver's blade, you can widen the slots slightly.
On my spare Wearever Pumper, I did this and the roast time for 120 grams of beans went from five or six minutes to 12 to 14 minutes to get to the edge of second crack. This should also allow for a significantly larger amount of beans and still have a nice seven to 10 minute roast time to the second crack outliers.
I am going to explore adding larger vent holes in stead of widening the slots when I get another spare pumper. This would allow one to control the temperature by partially covering the inlet holes. |
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