Anyone using a Quest M3 as a sample roaster?

[NEWMAN]

Hi Everybody,

I'm in the market for a sample roaster and so far the Quest M3 seems to be my best option.

I plan on being able to do back to back 100 gram samples for the purposes of evaluating and profiling coffees.

I have used a Probat sample roaster and liked it's simple design and controls; however, it's not within our budget.

Are there any other sample roasters similar to the Quest that would also be worth considering?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Matt

 

[Musicphan]

Matt - I'm just getting my roasting facility up and going. I have been using my Quest M3 for a little over a year and very happy with the results. Right now I'm roasting 150g batches with fairly good consistency. It seems like the other option would be the Huky 500 which is gas vs. electric. I don't know how well I will be able to transfer my profile from my Quest to my USRC 12K. Dan wrote a good article on SM's website:

Controlling Quality: Sample Roasting | The Coffee Shrub

 

[kcona76]

Matt,

I just purchased the Quest a month ago to do the same. Because we are used to commercial equipment, like burns and probat cast iron type sample roasters and commercial size roasters, the Quest really seems like a piece of junk as for build quality. If I needed to use it daily, I wouldn't go this route. Because I'm sample roasting maybe several hours once every couple months, its perfect for me. So, understand that its light duty and requires a lot of cleaning to keep it safe. As for quality of roast that you can achieve, its fantastic. I have full confidence that after you master the controls you'll get what you want out of it. It is very ambient temperature sensitive. We did a trade show outside with wind and varying temps and it really made us have to be sharp on the temp and airflow controls to keep times where we wanted them.

Long story short, if you have limited need for sample roasting, go for it. Otherwise, get a full blown sample roaster from Dan at US Roaster Corp or similar. I'd probably rather get one from Dan than an old probat or burns for similar money. Hope this helps man.

Kevin

 

[NEWMAN]

Thank you both for the feedback. I'll most likely be sample roasting for a few hours a week and I think the Quest will meet my needs.

Kevin, thanks for the tips on AT and keeping it clean.

I'm looking forward to playing with the Quest and figuring out the calculus required to translate the profiles to my production roaster.

Thanks again and happy roasting,

Matt