BBQ Roasting

Discussions about roaster hardware and the finer points of their use
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Grant

BBQ Roasting

Post by Grant »

I have been roasting for many years. I have purchased and outlived bunches of roasters, including popcorn poppers, roasters made by Hearthware, Freshroast, and others. When I ordered my S1, I also decided to make a switch to a BBQ drum roaster. I ordered a stainless steel drum with a 6 inch radius, not the standard 8 inch radius, because the 8 inch would be too close to the flames in my BBQ.

This past weekend I made two roasts with the BBQ drum. The first was no good. The second was a great improvement, and very drinkable.

I have mainly roasted Sweetmarias Moka Kadir and Monkey blends. I am enjoying my S1 so much that I want to drink more espresso. To keep the caffeine under control, I have ordered Sweetmarias Decaf Espresso Donkey Blend.

Any suggestions on roasting techniques and green beans for the S1?
hlsheppard

Post by hlsheppard »

Grant -

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm currently using the first generation I-Roast. I've gone through many a roaster...

However, I've failed miserably at the BBQ roasting. Virtually every batch I've tried ends up horrible. I actually had one burst into flame! :shock:

We have one of the enormous stainless steel grills. I often wonder if I would get good results just buying a cheap Char-broil or some such grill just to dedicate to roasting. I am NOT understanding my disability with BBQ roasting!

That said, my favorites with the S1 are Intelligencia's Black Cat, Josuma's Malabar Gold, Sweet Marias Liquid Amber and Puro Scuro (the latter is a new PHENOMENAL blend in drip or espresso).
Grant

Post by Grant »

hlsheppard

I too like the Puro Scuro. I have an order in for Liquid Amber.

My first roast followed the instructions included with the BBQ drum and was drek. My second roast was surprisingly good, encouraging me to stick with BBQ.

My BBQ is on the small side at 27" which might allow for "good" environment controlled temperature ramping. A bigger grill might not be as stable in environment temperature. I don't know.

Sweetmarias has a good web page on this at http://www.sweetmarias.com/roasting-VisualGuideV2.html

The first roast I did was following the instructions that came with the BBQ drum. Something like "heat to 575 and then put your drum in the BBQ." Well, in two minutes the beans were black and another minute it would have been time for the fire department. With that learning curve done, the next day I put the beans in the BBQ and then fired up the gas burners. Without the benefit of having read the Sweetmarias roasting page, I ramped the environment temperature up over about 15 minutes to about 440 intohttp://www.sweetmarias.com/roasting-VisualGuideV2.html stage 10. Next time I will know a bit more about what I am doing.
Grant

Post by Grant »

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Post by admin »

Ron of RK Roasting Drums is a member of this forum. Perhaps he'll chime in with some ideas.

Are you using the stock rotisserie motor with your setup? I know that Ron sells a heavy duty replacement that turns quite a bit faster. Sounds like that makes a big difference in evenness of the roast.
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hlsheppard

Post by hlsheppard »

My roasting drum is one of the first RK units!! I didn't know ron was here *sweet*.

Honestly, I think my grill is just too damned hot. With all "inboard" burners set to high I can reach 700+ degrees in 15 minutes. With the same burners on low it will be 450+.

WAAAAY too much overkill for coffee roasting, methinks.
Grant

Post by Grant »

I am using the universal motor from Homedepot. Being the only coffee drinker in my household, my roast sizes are small. My first roasts in the BBQ had two cups of green beans per roast. I will probably reduce my roast size to one cup, and have more frequent roasts. So the universal motor from Homedepot should be fine.

hlsheppard, following the table at Sweetmarias, it would appear that you are way too hot, like my first roast. Next time I am going to try an even lower temp ramp up. But I don't want to go too low and get a "baked" taste. How about trying your burners on low, and put your beans in the BBQ before you light your burners, and pull them out when you hear them well into first crack (probably 12 to 13 minutes)?

A tip on cooling down the beans. I removed the BBQ drum with beans from the BBQ and set it down on my driveway. I blasted it with my 200 MPH leaf blower. That got any remaining chaff out, and cooled down both the beans and the drum right away. Not elegant, but it worked fine. Afterwards I opened the end and dumped the cooled beans out without any issue. Some have written you need "welding gloves" when using Ken's BBQ drum design. Nonsense. What you need is a turbo leaf blower.
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