I’m having to admit to myself that being able to build a roaster at the same time as building a derby car is unrealistic. so production is on hold until after August 25th when the Portland Adult Soapbox Derby is being held… or maybe a couple days after that to let us re-coup a little. It at least gives me a little bit of time to accumulate materials.. so I may still make it by the end of September..
Archive for July, 2007
A belated, but hearty thanks to Keith at Victrola for, well, generally being a great guy who obviously cares about his craft. And to Jen and Chris for creating a business that gives that passion a place to grow. Not that there are any questions about it, but it clearly shows in their cafes and their coffee that they are passionate about what they do. And on top of it, they are very welcoming as well… It just great.
Anyway, I was Seattle last week and had happened into meeting Keith (Victrola’s roaster) on Wednesday when I had a couple early morning hours to get a good coffee…We had a good conversation about coffees, roasting, drum and roaster design and just things. And he was gracious enough to invite me back for a cupping of their Panama auction lot later that day. Sadly, I couldn’t make it then, but he offered to re-arrange his cupping schedule so I could make it back on Friday. I fully appreciate that he was willing to accommodate my schedule - even though showed up right when they were trying to figure out why they had a ton of water pouring down the inside of their walls, and into the roasting room… turns out there was a crazy leak in their ceiling! (I hope that got fixed pretty painlessly…)
So, we cupped some real nice coffees—particrually their Yirg, a Columbian and a new Retro Mandheling that was quite nice and crisply spicy. I was in between one place and another, so was in a bit of a hurry (turned out I didn’t need to rush, shit) so when I left, I totally forgot that I’d meant to get a lb of the Columbian—it’s sweet, nice nutty balance kinda made be wanna drink it all week—espically since I haven’t been placing that much attention on Columbians lately… Ahh well, next time, cause I will be back in.
Thanks again and best of luck with that leak.
Looks like the porcelain enamel I was excited about isn’t all that I thought. Shouldda known. Kinda exactly the opposite of what works for roasting a duck is working against me in the drum design. That and that roasting poultry is a pretty much a linear process in terms of input.. coffee roasting isn’t.
Anyway, I have become (somewhat) initiated into the world of coatings. What’s possible and what’s not. What works well and what doesn’t. Which ones distribute heat, which ones are thermal barriers. Porcelain Enamel, contrary to waht I had read, is a barrier, which is why it works to trap heat (and moisture) in that Le Creuset cast iron dutch oven so well.
So I think I have the right formula for coatings that will distribute the heat efficiently and evenly from the flame to the interior of the drum. It will be a bit tricky to make sure that the ambient temperature around the drum stays stable and responsive to the flame, but I think that with a combination of insulation and coated drum material, I will be in really good shape. So that means I am ready to begin building the drum and the housing. Aluminum and mild steel. I never thought that I would end up with a drum that didn’t have stainless steel as the inner surface of the drum, but here I am, with a design for a solid aluminum drum. Well, it’ll be coated of course but the aluminum will transfer the heat from the heat source to the roast chamber extremely well. Extremely quickly. And because of the coatings, it should be extremely even. Now, all I need to do is build the working prototype.