Advice on 5kg + Fluid Bed Roasters

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Hello,

I've been reading through lots of informative posts here and on other forums regarding the pro's and cons of different roasters and techniques.
We are looking to set up a small roastery here in the UK, and have been trying to find potential sources of roasters. I have been able to find a variety of companies and prices for 5kg+ drum roasters but not for air roasters. The only fluid bed roasters I have come across are the Sivets and smaller home roasters which are not large enough for our needs.

I understand one of the limitations of fluid bed designs is the maximum size roast they take. However there must be some companies producing 5kg air roasters?

Can someone point me in the right direction.
We could import a sivet and make the power adjustments for it to run on 220v here, but in another thread someone warned that they were not the best constructed roasters.

Any advice on 5kg air roasters? Or is it a matter of DIY?
Many thanks
M

 

[Coffeeexpert]

Neuhaus-Neotec RFB Junior or Shop Roaster

http://www.neuhaus-neotec.de/kaffee/_files/NN_18_shoproester_E.pdf.pdf
http://www.neuhaus-neotec.de/kaffee/_files/NN_14_RFB_Junior_E.pdf

They wont be cheap. Why have you decided to go to an air roaster over a drum roaster?

 

[808glas]

Re: 5 KG Fluid Bed Roaster

I talked with Ken Shepherd who builds a 5 Kg that he claims roasts in 10-12 minutes. He is a former Kona farmer who designed and built thirty seven of these roasters. Twenty seven are in use in Hawaii. The company is ASHE engineering located in California.

 

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Thanks for both those suggestions. I will investigate them further.

I have chosen to look at air roasters because we already have a few drum roasters in the area and i believe it may give an edge in the marketplace. Having read about both air and drum roasting I also feel that air roasting is more suitable for our scenario. I'm not looking for anything which can handle a very large batch size, and the quality of roast is the most important factor.

Thanks again
Any more suggestions?

 

[PeterCoffee]

Hello
The fluidized bed roasting process was developed to pop the coffee beans increase their volume and resulted in the use of the one lb tin to hold 12 oz's of coffee.
having said that I have used a sivets in my store in chicago since 1974. It is a work horse and micheal sivitz wrote the book on fluidized bed coffee roasting.
My roaster does 70lb but i know they make a 1/4 bag model. This would be about 35 lbs or 14kilos or so. But you don't have to do full roasts.
My only concern with this method is that in my opinion this process imparts a metalic edge to the coffee. So if you roast anything but excellent quality soft cupping coffees
you may taste this nuance that you would not taste in a drum roaster.
In NYC I use a probat L12 which I love and have operated it for the last 15 years. I also use a 2 bag LILLam which is great because it doesn't need an afterburner because it
recycles its smoke .
Peter

 

[DirtyDave]

I'm an air roasting "fan".
The most salient attribute of the air roaster is that you can know and control (with either simple OR complex means) the temperature that the beans are exposed to (to make them "do their thing").
For me, this is the big advantage over a drum roaster. (At present, drum roasters have no idea of the actual temperature of the skin of their drum).
Almost all air roasters are of the passive, random spouting bed type. (Not truly fluidizing the beans).
There's lots of room for improvement in controlling an air roaster, eg; monitoring and modulating both the air flow and inlet air temperature.
With just those two capabilities, you could counter the most complained about aspects of air roasting.
You'll be profile roasting.
Coffee roasting (as well as coffee drinking), is a matter of personal preference and expression of style.
Only actually doing it and years of experience will form your own approach, so why wait, get roasting.

 

[Coffeeexpert]

Sivetz roasters are shipped from the factory to roast one batch size in an 8-12 minute window dependent on end temperature and ambient temperature of the environment. The only adjustment you have is the end roast temperature. You could theoretically alter your fuel pressure regulator, not an accurate way to control burner output, or lean out or run your powerburner rich by adjusting it's airflow- something that will wear out your burner plugs. There are companies that can upgrade sivetz's roasters to allow for more adjustablity and that provide profiling systems. Nuehaus-Neotec provides profiling and adjustability from the factory. There is no art in roasting on a fluidized bed roaster without adjustablity, the roastmaster must instead concentrate his efforts on green bean purchasing and blending.

 

[DirtyDave]

Unfortunately, Sivetz roasters do not come equipped with power burners. (making modulation difficult and inaccurate)
Replacing the supplied crab pot burner with a Maxon, Eclipse or any number of burners available on Ebay (these things are stone axes and rarely
wear out), will give you the ability to control your inlet air temperature.
The Neotec roasters are super well built and engineered, but take your breath away when time comes to write that check $$$$.
Running the pressure blower with a VFD will also provide further fine tuning (and do away with the dreaded blocking plate).
These two alterations will provide sufficient control capability to make an air roaster a viable alternative.

 

[uniproducts]

Please check my thread for roasters..

 

[CJevens]

I talked with Ken Shepherd who builds a 5 Kg that he claims roasts in 10-12 minutes. He is a former Kona farmer who designed and built thirty seven of these roasters. Twenty seven are in use in Hawaii. The company is ASHE engineering located in California.

For those that dont wish to search: ASHE - Engineering Solutions for Product Development

I'd like to know if there is anyone using this design. I have spoken to several roasters that are using air roasters, some are even home made.

Please check my thread for roasters..

A link would be very helpful.

 

[coffeeroastersclub]

Try www.FluidBedRoaster.com for a new 5 lb. capacity fluid bed coffee roaster. Good pricing for such a large capacity fluid bed roaster.

Len

 

[Tenpercent]

Hi, you should try Colin at 428roasters.com, his former company HeisRoasters built me a 20kg fluid bed roaster and it has been unbelievable. I'm in Australia, however they are based in Portland. The roaster they built for me has full PID controls over the roast cycle. I can adjust the heat temperature and airflow to roast each for as long as I like at any temperature. I can graph each batch and I can program different batches. The best part is once you decide on the profile anyone can roast the same beans exactly the same over and over again. I can't peak highly enough of these guys. Cheers J