Testing the Hearthware i-Roast 2TM, page 3

I am having fun with this new roaster. I said in my last post that I didn't think many home roasters would bother with the programming, and "that most users will pick a time and temp that produces a good batch and roast away with that one profile." Well, I get smarter as I get older, and the ability to change a roasting profile does make a better roasted coffee.

Different coffees need to be roasted differently to maximize their potential. And I'm not just referring to their degree of roast, such as "full city" or "Vienna." The ability to change the temp at various time periods does affect the taste of the cup. Every coffee is different and the difference is due to the exact place it is grown.

I have lots of roasting to do before I have determined the proper roasting profiles for all the coffee I drink. I intend to try many different profiles for each coffee to see what works best in the cup. It's tough work but somebody's gotta do it.

I tried venting the roaster in my kitchen with the dryer tube placed at the range hood exhaust fan. It didn't work, since the exhaust wasn't strong enough to get rid of the smoke, so I tried it again the proper way, by putting the hose out a window. I used duct tape to secure the flexible dryer vent hose to the roaster's collar connector. I saw that there was still a small gap between the collar and the roaster so I re-wrapped it and allowed about 1/8" of the duct tape to extend past the bottom edge of the collar. That was enough to almost completely seal the connection. I roasted a batch of Sumatra, wiith a profile of 3 minutes at 350, 3 minutes at 400, and 5 minutes at 450. It reached a very nice Vienna Roast about 30 seconds before completion so I hit the "Cool" button and finished.

It worked beautifully! There was plenty of smoke going out the hose but absolutely none in the house. When I roast to a Vienna in my garage you can barely see the walls because of the smoke. Now I can roast on a cold winter night and get consistent results. What a deal.

If you have some suggested roast profiles please share with our readers in the "Comments" section, located just above the beginning of this post. Be sure to give the coffee's origin.

Test, page 1
Test, page 2