roast plus...

just in: koffee kosmo coretto coffee roaster (beta version)!

Ok...so it might not look like much at first glance but I have it on very good authority that this 'home built' coretto coffee roaster is capable of producing very good coffee indeed

First impressions out of the box are that it is well built using first rate and sturdy materials - and it came well packed too - which is just as well as I managed to catch a glance inside the back of the courier truck and everything was all akimbo!

Still... the driver went out of his way to deliver to me at home as opposed to my cafe (which is now closed for a couple of weeks over the break) - which I amvery grateful for...

So... out of the box..

Bearing in mind that this unit is a 'pre release' prototype - a work in progress if you will - I'm going to rate it as if it were the real thing - ready to be released to the Australian public, and presumably the world at large!

Now this may seem a tad unfair as I am one of only twenty select few to be putting this machine through its paces prior to commercial release - so I'm going to be a bit harsher than is perhaps necessary considering the machine is in the 'pre-production' and final stages of development

The product itself is the end result of a lot of hard work on the part of Paul aka "Koffee Kosmo" from the Crema and CoffeeSnobs websites, in collaboration with Bazzari Bezzera as the Australian agent and distributors...

First off the machine itself as mentioned was well packed albeit with the 'o ring' for the heating element packed upside down for safe storage - but annoyingly no mention of this in the instructions anywhere?

Anyway... it didn't take rocket science to figure out how to pop same off and to position it the right way! Although while we're at it an appropriately sized Allen key in the packaging to do the job wouldn't have gone astray, and one of the screws for fastening same had fallen off and was located in the bottom of the box

The actual instructions themselves that accompanied the machine are very limited - and I take it that the end user is assumed to already has a firm handle on the home-roasting process - which, thankfully, I do

So a bit of playing around and a few minutes later the machine is assembled and ready to go - and its a very straight forward assembly!

Except of course to a technophobe like me - who couldn't figure out how to keep the machine running without keeping my finger down on the manual on / off switch on the back of the heating element!

Still, one quick post on the CS website and I'm up and running in minutes - how's that for service!

Turns out you need to lock the handle in place to keep the element and the timer running - sort of a fail-safe safety mechanism!

Can't say I've done much roasting at home recently what with having two kids under five years of age and having recently opened a new cafe - but I do have at least 20kg of green beans on hand just waiting for me to say the word!

And considering that I'm going camping with around 100 mates over the new year's period - and that I traditionally provide both the coffee machine and the home roast coffee that goes with that - I suppose I had better get roasting!

Just waiting for the temperature to drop from the dreaded 38C that it was today (its still 31C at midnight as I write!) - which is NOT ideal conditions for roasting!

Still... time is short and life is sweet and there is no time like the present for giving it a whirl - so maybe I'll whack on the aircon and get cracking!

Watch this space...

a couple of pics...

notice the lovely colour change from green to a more generous yellow? This is when all the action starts to take place, and first crack is not too far away...

Here's a photo of my latest batch, which is 70 per cent Tanzanian Kilimanjaro and 30 per cent Guatemalan Cinco Estrellas - the colours in the photo don't really do it justice as the roast is much more even than it appears here...

Ostensibly this photo has little to do with coffee, but it's my munchky-moo, Kalani Moana, aged 21 months, helping me to sort the beans post roast - Kalani is so dedicated that she started polishing each bean individually!

eliminate the variables

Well... I'm finally happy top say that after a fair amount of trail and error I appear to be on target and back on track in this mysterious and sometimes frustrating business of home roasting!

I decided to vary the mix a little by increasing the pre-heat temperature of my gene cafe, and by decreasing the roast temperature to 200C

But all this did was produce an uneven roast with some beans slightly toasty, and others slightly under-done, leaving a whole lot of messy chaff still clinging to the cooked beans

And when you're using Tanzanian Kilimanjaro beans to start off with - this can be a very expensive mistake!

All was not totally lost, actually, I hand massaged the beans to remove excess chaff, and I found that they came up much better as an espresso 8 days post-roast, as opposed to the standard 3-5 days which I'm used to

On a more positive note I've resorted to what works and I'm pretty much sticking to this formula from now on, and I've seen my most encouraging result to date with a new batch roast of Guatemalan Cinco Estrellas, which I roasted up today

Sticking to my previously successful formula of 180C pre-roast temperature, and a roast temp of 230C - I'm seeing much more even colouration, with less residual chaffing

I think this is slightly helped by marginally increasing the amount of green beans that I'm using which, I believe, adds to increased temperature stability during the roast

Now I know the Gene Cafe is designed for 300g of green beans each roast, which subsequently lose weight but increase in volume with roasting, but I've avoided weighing the beans and have instead opted for two even 1/2 scoops of beans with the measure provided

By increasing this amount to two slightly heaped spoons, however, I appear to have achieved better than previous results - which may or may not be a function of the Guatemalan beans that I have just started using.

I guess time will tell...

This is probably academic to a lot of folks but you can taste the difference in the cup big time, and to me that's what it's all about at the end of the day:

A fantastic product and a repeatable result that produces great tasting coffee time and time again.

The Guatemalan Cinco Estrellas beans were also quite a bit smaller than other beans I've been using, such as many of those from PNG, so I intervened in the roast time and stopped it short at 16min (as opposed to the 'standard' 17min which seems to work well with many larger beans) - as this is when second crack started to kick in.

Although it was two mins into the cooling down cycle that second crack kicked in good and proper; which is the lovely result that I am always looking for, as the beans tend to continue cooking during the cooling down cycle, so you want to manually stop the roast at first sign of second crack

I'll endeavor to upload some photos to give you'll a better look at what I'm talking about

I've also got some video footage that I'm reluctant to use because from memory I mis-pronounce the name of the beans during my commentary... but stuff it I think I'll up-load it anyway to see what it looks like!

paradise found

well... i tend to get there in the end! I know that I still have a long way to go in this whole home coffee roasting business, but it is encouraging to start seeing (and tasting) some reward for my efforts!




in an attempt to keep the out-laws happy for christmas i've roasted up some papua new guinea kimel plantation A for them, and after speaking to the fine fellows from veneziano coffee in abbotsford, i feel like i'm finally on track with my coffee roasting progress!

so this afternoon i roasted up a couple of batches, increasing my pre-heat temperature to 180C, and dropping my roasting temperature down marginally to 230C

i also decided to manually stop the roast as soon as second crack set in, to allow for the relatively slow cool-down process on the gene cafe, which takes 10min on average, during which time the initial temperature is still quite high for awhile, and the beans are still effectively 'cooking' until the temperature drops

anyway, i'm yet to try the end product, and the proof will be in the pudding, but i've included a few photos which i took from my ace new nokia n95, so lets have a look:






this is my newish gene cafe roaster in action. the roast has finished here as the cool down process has just completed



i'm much happier with this batch than my earlier offerings, as i'm learning to intervene in the roasting process a bit earlier, and to stop it short as soon as second crack sets in, to prevent it from over-roasting.

second crack is has a distinctive sound, like that of aluminum foil being crumpled, but it can be quite faint, so you have to watch out for it. i also keep an eye on colouration and smell, and tend to stop the roast when it smells and looks like it's ready

whereas first crack tends to be a lot noisier, more like popcorn popping!

here's a close up of the gene cafe in action.
















and the photo at the top of the page is a close-up of the actually beans post-roast! very happy

well... my little family and i are off to qld on holiday tomorrow morning for a few weeks of rest and relaxation, so you may not hear from me for awhile, but feel free to keep those emails coming, and i will do my best to answer them

so until we meet again... take care and merry christmas!

ACG and family