I pre grind nibs only for 2 hours,then add sugar some butter, then grind to spec, then add residual butter and lecithin.

Not sure when you mean by "at sugar addition". Do you add yours right after nibs or do you wait? And when do you add the rest of the butter?

Try grinding your nibs only with fan on for -two hours before addition of sugar.

adding butter at sugar addition ( I would not add more than 25% of your added butter) can reduce batch times, theoretically this should come at the expense of your fans volatile removal ability, but I think final viscosity isn't much different.

Incidentally, how thoroughly these machines grind is purely a function of time. I like refiner conches but like any piece of equipment they have their limitations.

Huh, I would have thought that more viscous chocolate would refine faster and more thoroughly. On a related note, does anyone know if adding butter at the start or a few hours in has an effect on viscosity?

In the same vein, you may find when grinding less viscous formulations that there are nibs that do not get processed, a trip through a screen is advised.

PeterK brings up a good point.

FDA regulations require a magnetic trap during the bean inspection phase prior to roasting in the sense that if the FDA inspects your facility (you did register, right?) and they don't find one they can cite you.

It is also a good idea to have an inline magnetic trap before tempering.

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@DiscoverChoc

as long as aw is low enough, and micro is clear it generally isn't (until maint.). Your kill step is in roasting. And do not forget your magnet.

updated by @peterk: 03/07/16 11:16:54

I'm curious about cleaning equipment at chocolate factories. Assuming one is running the same type of chocolate in the equipment, how often is the equipment cleaned? What are the health requirements for cleaning? 

Cleaning a MacIntyre constantly can get time consuming and costly, we ran in batches of 5 then mixed them together to even out the variances.

Nothing like good ol' elbow grease  8-)  those are the two most commonly used ways.  obviously one is more thorough than the other!

My first batch of Oko Caribe had some lingering taste from the previous batch of Nacional, despite "cleaning" with a few kilos of cocoa butter. I'm considering heating it up to 30C and scraping the inside after each origin change, just before starting the new batch.

Are there any techniques or work-arounds those using this equipment can share?