GroundLevelCoffee

It’s twelve months to the day since I bought my current espresso machine: To me it’s a Diadema Junior lever but it goes by a variety of other names. In the US it’s a la Valentina; the machine is physically badged as an Arte di Vittoria -replete with the ‘Winged Victory’; but it’s manufactured by BFC and the compliance plate calls it a BFC Junior (Plus).

So what is it? A single-group, semi-commercial machine with heat exchanger and E61 clone group. A picture can be seen at the CosmoreX Coffee site.

Am I happy with it? Overall, yes. It’s been a source of occasional frustration; and I’m sure I only get 70% quality out of the machine. Some shots I’ve pulled have been fabulous, and other have been nearly undrinkable crud. The expression that the majority of problems are caused this side of the portafilter is undoubedly true.

Yes, it was a hot day, but that’s not the point.

Even though Christmas is just over, my roasting for presents hasn’t commenced. Due to a spread of family, our Christmas gatherings are usually scheduled for later in December or early January.

We have five groups of parents/siblings that I need to roast for. I figure each group should receive two separate lots of coffee, and each lot should be around 250 grams roasted. The primary consumption method is plunger (3 of the 5) and the remainder is drip. All but one needs ground coffee. And so a hunt through the green coffee stash/roasting spreadsheet yields the following suggested beans:

• Cuban Touquino Lavado (2 lots)
• Kenya Masai (3 lots)
• New Guinea Kimel A1 (2 lots)
• Sumatran Lintong (1 lot)
• Indian Mysore Plantation AA (2 lots)

That makes for 10 roast in all commencing with 4 today or tomorrow and concluding early next week with the remaining 6 roasts.

That should get me on the way to understanding my SC/TO.

Tried the Harrar this morning after a two-day rest. It was roasted on Saturday morning to the edge of second crack with a wonky profile. I was expecting it to be a bit bright since it seemed a touch under-roasted to me.

Pulled a shot in the machine and thought I’d sample it straight. Not bad. A fairly intense drop with a lot of flavour and only an edge of bitterness. I’m not sure that I like straight espresso, but this was fine. I then steamed some milk for my standard flat white/latte style drink. It was OK, but a little lacking in flavour - surprisingly enough!

Roasted a batch of Ethiopian Harrar this morning. It’ll be used primarily (exclusively?) for cappuccino/flat white style coffees.

The roast was a 320 gram batch in the SC/TO in air temperatures around 38C. The profile was all over the place. I started off with the standard ramp of 165C but had to lower and raise the temperature throughout the roast. I had to lift the lid a few times to reseat the foil cap before reaching first crack and so that phase of the roast lasted around 12 minutes. I bumped the temperature up to over 165C to complete first and then the roast seemed to start to come into second. Total roast was probably around 18-or-so minutes.
Dry-processed beans such as the Harrar usually roast unevenly and today’s was no exception. I tossed a few light-brown beans in the garden and the remainder of the roast looks OK. I’ll rest it until early next week and give it a whirl. I hope it’s not the best roast I’ve ever done because the profile will be almost impossible to re-create.

Completed my third roast in the SC/TO setup this morning. The first roast was the other day and comprised the Uganda Okoro White Nile and was without a spacer. I disconnected the SC heating element the other day and scored a spacer this morning (25cm springform ring tin), and so proceeded to do two roasts:

1. A Kenya Masai. Batch size was 320 grams. Temp indicator was set too high (225C) and some outliers just started to hit second when I pulled the roast. Total time was around 10 minutes. It’s for plunging this week. A nice, even roast, though.
2. Next was some of 1-1-1 blend (Brazil Yellow Bourbon, Kenya Masai and Yemen Ismaili). Again a 320 gram batch. Kept the temp down to around 155C-170C on the dial - no idea on bean temp, though. First commenced at around 8 minutes and I lowered the temp to when the thermostat cut off - around 155C. Held there for the rest of first - about 4 minutes. After a minutes pause at around 12-13 minutes, I ramped up to 170C until second commenced. Pulled the roast around 30 seconds in. Again a nice even roast. It’s for espresso and so will be tried around Tuesday/Wednesday of next week.

As long as I can get reasonable temperature control, and find a way of cooling the beans quickly (apart from the hairdryer on cool) and can find a way of getting the beans out of the SC quicker than hand-scooping, we’ll be OK.

First impressions of the SC/TO? Fairly easy to roast with; a bit of fiddling to setup until a semi-permanent roasting station can be located; adequate batch size seems to be around 320 grams at present - but I’ll try others when I’ve got a reasonable profile I place.

Roasted up a batch of the Ugandan Okoro ‘White Nile’ this evening. It was the first batch in the SC/TO and so the profile is anyone’s guess.

The roast was performed without a spacer between the Turbo Oven and the Stir Crazy, and I haven’t disconnected the heating element in the SC yet. As a result the roast was probably too fast and it is somewhat uneven.

The roast of 300 grams took about 11 minutes with first being reached at about 8 minutes. The roast is something of a melange, but some beans hit second and the remainder weren’t too far off. Probably a Full City or FC+ overall.

The initial aroma was somewhat grassy (reminiscent of the Bugisu), but it had changed to a very peanutty aroma around 1 1/2 hours after roasting.

By most accounts the Bugisu benefits from a three-day-rest and so these should be sampled on Saturday afternoon/evening.

The bits are slowly but inextricably being collected: The Stir Crazy is sitting in a FedEx depot somewhere in Wisconsin - but due for delivery mid next week. The Turbo Oven (Prima PCO12 from The Good Guys for $70 cash) has been purchased. A 12-way terminal block has been procured and stripped down.

The bits to be obtained are a wing nut and cap to replace the plastic bits on the Stir Crazy. I’ll also need to investigate spacers. The Prima TO comes with a spacer, but it’s about 31cm in diameter and perhaps a touch too big for the Stir Crazy. But the absence of one doesn’t preclude roasting - it just cuts down on the batch size that can be roasted.

After a little more ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ with West Bend about the Stir Crazy, I’ve finally placed an order. The freight cost of USD70 was a bit steep (but in accordance with the cost of sending a similar-sized parcel from Aus to the US). After a bit of hunting around on the FedEx site, I found that the incremental cost of a second unit was about USD30, and USD25 for the third and so on.

Another OzGreens member was willing to purchase a Stir Crazy and so I’ve opted to buy three. One for the other OzGreens member, one for my coffee roasting, and one - amazingly - to pop popcorn on. Amazon reviews of the SC suggest corn popped in a SC is markedly better than air popper popped. Interestingly enough, I’ll also have a backup unit in case anything happens to the coffee-roasting SC.

All-up cost for the three units is USD106 for the SC’s and USD122 for the freight. In Aussie dollars that’s about $100 per unit. Not cheap, but not excessively dear, either.

After exchanging a few emails with West Bend’s International Sales Rep, it seems that WB will ship a 220v Stir Crazy to Aus for USD35 for the unit and USD70 for shipping (5-day turnaround via Fedex).

The Sales Rep has been very helpful and prompt via email - usually responding overnight to my questions or comments.

Total cost to purchase a Stir Crazy is in the vicinity of $140. That, coupled with a Turbo Oven at about $75 and various stirring accoutrements would put the cost at around $230 for a roaster capable of producing 400-600 gram batches.

I’ll continue pondering a bit more. It may be that alternative shipping can be arranged. I’m not unhappy with USD35 for the SC, but USD70 for the shipping is a bit steep.

Roasted up a couple of batches in the Imex last evening. That’s one of the good things about summer and daylight saving - an opportunity to roast coffee after work and still see the results.

My current blend is based on a ‘low - medium - high’ philosophy, or a base (usually Brazilian, or a Sumatran), a middle bean that rounds out the blend (usually a Central American or Asian bean), and a highlight bean (a flavoursome dry-processed hit from Ethiopia or Yemen).

The specific beans at the moment are Brazil Yellow Bourbon Pocos de Caldas, Kenya Masai and Yemen Ismaili. The Masai doesn’t fit my standard profile of a Central or Asian bean, but I’ve got a bit of Masai that I need to finish up and it adds a big meaty, winey backdrop to the blend. The proportions are 1-1-1 to make it easy. The name is just as easy ‘1-1-1′.