Seasoning the Drum

Setting up the greens,

• Weigh out 1 kilo (2.2 pounds).
• Make sure the face plate is warm! Letting the machine warm up for 30 minutes assures that the heat applied during your roasting goes to the bean, not to warming a steel mass.
• For those using Artisan (and we encourage it), plug the USB connector into your USB port on your computer.
• Turn on Artisan.
• Make sure the environmental temp (ET) reads at 410*F or higher.
• Pour your beans into the top hopper (make sure the chute is closed).
• Open the chute and immediately start your Artisan profile.
• Make sure the chute is closed.
• Turn the “roasting switch” off by pushing down once on the “roasting swtich.” Do not turn off the gas at the blue handle. Just leave it.
• Let the roast “coast,” for 1.0 minutes with the gas “off” and then turn the burners back on by hitting the “roasting switch.”
• Turn the gas up to 5.5-6 kPa (as labeled on inner dial). This is the pressure at which I roast most high growns during the initial phase of roasting.
• At about 5.5 minutes into the roast, turn the gas down to about 5.0 kPa. Beans should be at a yellowing stage. Turn the air volume the air up to 45 on the dial.
• Start nursing the gas pressure down. You don’t want to fly into 1st crack. Beans are absorbing heat and will discharge that heat shortly during 1st crack (exothermic). You will want your gas to read about 2.0 when you enter 1st crack.
• You are striving to hit first crack (sounds like popcorn popping) between 8-9 minutes (390-395*F). Ignore the outliers and mark 1st crack when a series of cracks are heard.
• Keep your gas low — gas pressure at about 2kPa for about 2 minutes — or until the exothermic heat (stored up energy in the beans) exhausts itself and meter your gas higher as you continue to drive to 2nd crack. Rarely do I roast into 2nd crack. But for our seasoning roasts, we will press on.
• Second crack sounds like Rice Crispies. It is softer and less pronounced than 1st crack. Keep your heat going so that 2nd crack is controlled. Don’t let the roast get out of control.
• When you achieve a French Roast (great visual presentation on degrees of roast here at Sweet Maria’s: http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/content/using-sight-determine-degree-roast), TURN OFF THE GAS (labeled “roasting switch”), turn the “air volume adjusting” to its highest setting, and turn the drum RPMs all the way up (reads 100).
• Let the drum coast for 20 minutes (again assuring that your burners are off). Turn on the “cooling fan,” and the “coolant mixing” buttons. Your fan kicks on and the blades in the cooling tray will rotate.
• At the end of the 20 minutes, dump by lifting the handle on the left of the facing. Once the beans have all emptied from the drum, close the drum chamber. Let cool to room temp and feed the garden.

You did it! You can turn right around and do 4 more roasts as detailed above. 

Turn the machine off

• Turn your burners off (“roasting switch”)
• Wait until your ET is 250*F or less.
• Turn “power switch” off.
• Turn electrical power off on the transformer (black switch and white button).
• Close the propane valve at the tank.
• REPEAT, close the propane at the tank.

More help? Give us a call. We are here, long after you the North roaster hits your driveway. Dave Borton, BoldJava