[Coffee Roasting] Roaster Flame and Airflow Control (Part 2) | Coffee Workshop

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The need to adjust roaster heat and damper settings not only arises during the roasting process itself, but also during the initial preheating phase of the roaster and in maintaining consistency between each batch of beans. These all require adjusting heat and damper settings to achieve.

Preheating and First Batch Strategy

In FrontStreet Coffee's daily roasting operations, I use a semi-direct heat roaster. During the roaster's preheating phase, I set the damper to the middle position and adjust the heat to 75% medium-high heat. This allows the roaster's temperature to quickly reach the first batch's drop-in temperature. Once the roaster reaches the drop-in temperature, I let the temperature continue rising to about 10 degrees above the drop-in temperature, then control the heat to maintain this temperature for about 10 minutes. After that, I completely close both damper and heat, allowing the temperature to drop to the drop-in temperature, then return the damper to the middle position and control the heat to maintain the drop-in temperature for about 5 minutes before dropping the first batch of beans.

The reason for this approach is that the roaster's temperature probe reading doesn't reflect the temperature at every point within the drum. Therefore, if you only preheat to the default drop-in temperature and maintain it for a period, the heat energy stored in the drum is likely lower than the actual heat capacity. Generally, for beans with low fault tolerance, I won't roast them first. Instead, I'll start by roasting some medium-dark roast beans with higher fault tolerance. Typically, after two batches, the roaster's condition stabilizes, and I begin roasting normal beans.

Post-Roasting Management

After each batch of coffee is roasted, especially after completing a dark roast or beans with high drop temperatures, it's best to completely close both damper and heat to allow the roaster's energy to decrease. At this point, you might notice that the roaster's temperature doesn't just start dropping due to the heat being completely off—on the contrary, it might actually rise by several degrees. Once the temperature drops by about 5 degrees, you can set the damper to the middle position and increase the heat to raise the roaster's temperature to the drop-in temperature, then maintain it for about 1 minute before dropping the next batch.

There's no need to heat the roaster above the drop-in temperature at this point because, after roasting beans, the roaster's heat is already sufficient and more evenly distributed.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473