Roaster review

Hi there,

I am looking into some small scale home roasting roaster options. I've narrowed it down to about 3: Behemor 1600, CocoaT Junior Roaster from Cocoa Town, or a stainless steeldrum (RKdrums) hooked up to a rotisserie on my BBQ.

From what I've read, the Behemor is decent and not without its quirks, and only roasts about a lb max. $299 Reasonable price for the beginner.

The CocoaT Junior Roaster seems like a great option. 4-6 lbs at a time, beans rotate slowly in a stainless steel drum under convection heat. $450 Reasonably priced as well.

BBQ drum (depending on size) holds the largest capacity of beans for a home roaster. Depending on where you purchase, it can be quite expensive...upwards of $1000 for asmall size drum, including motor and rotisserie rod. You also need to modify your BBQ somewhat to ensure even heat distribution.

Has anyone used any of these 3methods? Is there another option im not exploring? Any insight would be valuable. Im especially interested if anyone has used the CocoaTown roaster. Thank you.

Donny

updated by @donny-gagliardi: 04/10/15 07:19:23PM

I've used a Behmor for a while - what's frustrating is the lack of control. I'd read about roast profiles in forums or books and be unable to apply it, so Iresold mine to a friend and got a Gene Cafe. It's a lower capacity but much higher control, ideal for nailing down roast profiles before going bigger.

Dedicated roasters resell well since there are a lot of coffee enthusiasts; you can try that option and resell if you don't like or outgrow it.

I was recently emailing with another small chocolate maker who told me about an upgrade to the Behmor that gives a lot more control (although not complete control). You can set the power to the heating elements from 0% to 100% in 25% increments as well as switch the drum speed between 8 and 16 rpm.

I believe that the new Behmor 1600 Plus is basically the old Behmor with this upgrade already installed. I think this would be good for doing tests on bean samples or small batches.

25% increments sound like too little control. I get very different roasts with each 10-20 degree difference, which is trivial to accomplish with the Gene Cafe. Are you supposed to cycle up and down between 50-75% to get a desired temp between those 2 points? How do you then map that to a convection oven?

Makes me want to shake the Behmor makers until they promise to learn about PID controls. No one really cares about *power in*, we only care about *temperature out*.

I would like to test the convection oven roasting method. Reading up on past posts, some members swear by this method and have yielded successful results. Is there a way to modify your oven to ensure even air flow?