Puff Cigar Discussion Forums

evazan · 05-02-2008, 07:32 PM

This is my first post in the coffee forums so I figured I would try to make it a good one. I've been lurking around CS for a while and just recently registered. In my time at CS I have learned so much from you guys about tobacco products. Now I figured it is my time to give back to the community and since I know much more about coffee then I know about tobacco this is the best place for me to do that. I hope the following post helps some people out as I found this mod really elevated my roasting to the next level.

Why mod the Fresh Roast?

This is the inevitable first question for those of you currently roasting with this machine. I'll simply tell a bit about myself and why I decided to do that to answer that question. I started roasting about a year ago. The fresh roast was my first roaster and I was having a great time enjoying my home roasts. In my first two months of roasting I enjoyed some great coffee but at the same time I felt like something was off. Most of my roasts had either a faint or strong sour smell and taste and I wasn't noticing very many nuances between different cups. Don't get me wrong, the coffee was still better then any commercially bought stuff, but I felt like I had not reached the level I wanted to obtain. After doing some research I attributed most of the taste to roasting too fast. I was reaching first crack in about 5 minutes and second crack a minute after that. The result of this fast roast time was that the beans were getting a tan rather then roasting. In other words, the inside of the beans were not reaching the same roast level as the outside. This is what resulted in the sourness. To combat this I would usually just roast a bit longer to make sure the sourness would leave. This worked for alleviating that sour taste but after 7 minutes in my fresh roast most beans tasted the same. The joys of lighter roasts were unknown to me.

What are some methods of slowing down the roast?

There are a number of a different ways in which people slow down the roast and they all have their problems. In my opinion the method I use is by far the most superior but also the least discussed. I'll start by mentioning some solutions which some people use. The cheapest is to unplug and plug in the roaster during the roast. Once at about 300 degrees and again right after first crack. I tried this a couple of times and it did extend my roast time but it felt very unscientific and unreliable. Another free method is to roast less coffee. This works as well but it is hard to control and is a poor solution given the already small roasting capacity of the Fresh Roast. Another thing people do is use a long extension cord to drop the voltage before it gets to the fresh roast. This does work but a problem with it is that it also will slow down the speed of the fan. Slowing down the fan speed means you need to roast smaller batches. The most common solution is adding a variac. This device will infinitely vary the voltage going to the fresh roast and thus allow you to control the temperature. The problems with this method is primarily the cost. A cheap variac is ~100 dollars and will probably blow up after a couple of weeks. A more robust and reliable variac will cost you ~200 dollars. I could not justify spending 200 dollars on a mod for an 80 dollar roaster. Another issue is the same issue as the extension cord. Unless you rewire the fresh roast the variac will control both the fan speed and the temperature. This is a bad thing.

So how do you slow down the roast?

My method is both simple, cheap and effective, and best of all, you don't have to be an electrical engineer to do it(even though I am finishing my third year in electrical engineering). I'll first briefly discuss my method and then give detailed instructions of how to perform the mod. All I did was wire a household dimmer switch in series with the heating element. Now the dimmer switch effectively acts as a temperature control without affecting the fan speed. Using this method I am able to precisely control the temperature and my roasts can be as fast or as slow as I want them to be.

Here is my setup:

Step by step instructions:

Parts List:

1. 1000 watt dimmer - I believe the Fresh roast is rated around 1200 watts but a 1000 watt dimmer is more then effective. Remember the dimmer switch is meant to be used on a light which can be on 24/7. I bought mine on ebay for around 20 dollars.

2. Thermometer - This is absolutely necessary to have once you start manually controlling temperature. 10-15 dollars.

3. Soldering Iron and solder - If you don't have one they can be bought for under 10 dollars at radio shack.

4. 12 gauge wiring - a couple of dollars. I wouldn't use a thinner wire then this.

So the entire thing cost about 35 dollars if you already have a soldering iron. In my opinion this mod more then doubles the effectiveness of the fresh roast so it is well worth it.

The first step is to drill a hole for the thermometer. I didn't have a drill so tried using a nail and hammer and cracked the lid so I would recommend not trying that.

To get the thermometer to stay on you can glue spacers on it.

The next step is to open her up. There are only two screws holding the the Fresh Roast together and they can be found on the bottom of it. They are circled in the following picture.

Once you get it open there are only two solder points. I don't have a picture pre-modded but I'll do my best to explain what needs to be done.

Before I modded it the white wire circled in B was connected at point A. For reference Point A is right by the timer. The first thing you need to do is disconnect that white wire from Point A. Now solder the negative or black lead from the dimmer to Point A. You will need to use the 12 gauge wire to extend the wires coming off of the dimmer. The next solder point is B. Solder the positive or red lead from the dimmer to the wire you just disconnected from Point A. There are plenty of holes on the bottom of the roaster to run the wires through. Thats it! Now just screw the thing back together any your dimmer will act as a temperature control for the roaster.

Now What?

This is where the fun begins. Now you can finally start roasting and feel in control of the roast. You can begin experimenting with "profiles." The profile is essentially just how you bring the temperature from point A to point B. Generally, a fast roast will result in a brighter and more acidic cup. A longer roast will result in muted acidity but more body. These are all variables you get to play with now since you control the roast! I will provide my default profile to get me to Full City.

Time(min) Temp(F)
2 280
3 300
4 330
5 360
6 380
7 400(first crack)
8 415
9 430
10 440(verge of second crack)

Tips and concerns

Even when you have the dimmer set to full power you probably won't be able to achieve the same max temp as before you performed the mod. This is due to extra resistance you place in the circuit via solder points. As long as your line voltage is above 114(my line voltage) and the ambient temp is around 60 degrees or higher this shouldn't be a problem. If you find you can't reach high enough temperatures you can add an extra half scoop of beans. That is the great thing about this setup. Since you control temp you can roast as little or as many beans as you want with the same profile.
Don't forget to reset the timer! I have ruined a good number of roasts by not rewinding the timer. The timer on the fresh roast is only 8 minutes and then it goes into the colling the phase. If you plan on roasting longer then 10 minutes you must reset the timer.
Don't expect a certain position on the dimmer to relate to a specific temperature. Now that you are carefully monitoring temperature you will begin to realize the dramatic influence ambient temperature, amount of beans, and line voltage has on temperature. You will drive yourself crazy if you try to do this.
Make sure the thermometer is at the same height above the beans every time you roast. This ensures consistent temperature readings.
Have fun and don't stress about reaching that exact temperature and at that exact time. When I first started this I tried to keep logs of exact temperatures at one minute intervals. Not only is this not going to give you much useful information but it became a chore keeping track of it. If you really want to log something just keep track of the time and temperature when you hit first and second crack.

The Future of my roaster!

I assure you that once you perform this mod you will be satisfied for a good number of months if not forever but the engineer in me says "if it's not broken, take it apart and make it better." Over the summer I am going to try to build a new circuit to control the fan. I would like to add a boost transformer to up the voltage going to the fan. A greater fan speed would allow me to increase batch size. I would also need to add another dimmer switch to then control the fan. At this point I would have complete control over the roaster and it would have big enough batch size to satisfy me for a while. If anyone else has any electrical knowledge let me know and maybe we can work on this together.

I hope people found this post informative. If you have any questions on how to do this or on roasting with it after it is done just let me know and I will be more then happy to answer them.

Mister Moo · 05-02-2008, 10:37 PM

Welcome.

Dag.

I'm gonna need a bigger computer for your next post.

Syekick · 05-05-2008, 03:48 PM

Very nice article. Good pics. Thanks.

EvanS · 06-02-2008, 06:20 PM

Well this post inspired me - great work, nice detail and novel idea!! Hear!! Hear!!

I also had been noticing the similarity between different cups and also had come to the conclusion that the beans were not getting roasted thru. It was actually getting frustrating and I started to wonder if maybe I 'just don't get it" concerning home roast.

But I remembered as a super green noob last fall that my first roasts were taking the whole 8 minutes to barely reach VG 2nd crack. This kinda freaked me out so I immediately did the "fan slow down" mod as detailed at Sweet Maria's. Basically moving the fan coil tap to the far right. Well yeah, this dramatically speeded up the roasts and I was happy as could be. Finish 1st crack at 4, start first crack at timer=3 and finished at timer = 2.5....at the latest. But then two things happened...my taste buds seem to have developed AND spring came with warmer temperatures. Suddenly my roasts are going even faster with the warm weather and now I can't duplicate the flavor of anything that I was coming up with just a month ago.

That's when I read this post, which reminded me of the fan slow mod I had done. Well I went in and moved the fan tap alllll the way to the left, farther left (fast) than it was when new. What a difference. Now 1st crack is at timer=3 to 2.5 and VG 2nd happens right about as the timer is nearing it's end. Normally I can get 2nd to just start rolling during the initial 8 minutes, but every so often I need to re-up the timer.

All of the roasting is SO much more casual now with a nice 2 minute + coast between 1st and 2nd cracks. Immediately the few coffees I have tried are VERY much more opened up and easily distinguishable. Nuances are abundant. Darker roasts are now something that I enjoy. Where they used to seem dark and underdone at the same time, they are now much more fully developed with new flavors popping all over the place.

So thank you evazan for your timely and inventive endeavour and post. I am going nowhere near what you did (you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me) BUT....well, maybe better you just excuse me while I go shred all of my previous roasting notes, as they are all now meaningless. VG 2nd crack is NOT VG 2nd crack from roaster to roaster ... maybe not even from day to day with the same roaster.

Either way - I am starting completely from scratch, armed with a fist full of fun experience behind me and looking forward to more madcap coffee adventures.

j6ppc · 06-03-2008, 12:35 PM

Nice mod.

evazan · 06-04-2008, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvanS

Well this post inspired me - great work, nice detail and novel idea!! Hear!! Hear!!

I also had been noticing the similarity between different cups and also had come to the conclusion that the beans were not getting roasted thru. It was actually getting frustrating and I started to wonder if maybe I 'just don't get it" concerning home roast.

But I remembered as a super green noob last fall that my first roasts were taking the whole 8 minutes to barely reach VG 2nd crack. This kinda freaked me out so I immediately did the "fan slow down" mod as detailed at Sweet Maria's. Basically moving the fan coil tap to the far right. Well yeah, this dramatically speeded up the roasts and I was happy as could be. Finish 1st crack at 4, start first crack at timer=3 and finished at timer = 2.5....at the latest. But then two things happened...my taste buds seem to have developed AND spring came with warmer temperatures. Suddenly my roasts are going even faster with the warm weather and now I can't duplicate the flavor of anything that I was coming up with just a month ago.

That's when I read this post, which reminded me of the fan slow mod I had done. Well I went in and moved the fan tap alllll the way to the left, farther left (fast) than it was when new. What a difference. Now 1st crack is at timer=3 to 2.5 and VG 2nd happens right about as the timer is nearing it's end. Normally I can get 2nd to just start rolling during the initial 8 minutes, but every so often I need to re-up the timer.

All of the roasting is SO much more casual now with a nice 2 minute + coast between 1st and 2nd cracks. Immediately the few coffees I have tried are VERY much more opened up and easily distinguishable. Nuances are abundant. Darker roasts are now something that I enjoy. Where they used to seem dark and underdone at the same time, they are now much more fully developed with new flavors popping all over the place.

So thank you evazan for your timely and inventive endeavour and post. I am going nowhere near what you did (you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me you can't make me) BUT....well, maybe better you just excuse me while I go shred all of my previous roasting notes, as they are all now meaningless. VG 2nd crack is NOT VG 2nd crack from roaster to roaster ... maybe not even from day to day with the same roaster.

Either way - I am starting completely from scratch, armed with a fist full of fun experience behind me and looking forward to more madcap coffee adventures.

I'm real glad to see that you got something out of my post. The fresh roast is a great little machine but as you've noticed it is very temperamental to external conditions. That's an interesting way you found to deal with changing external temperatures, just have a different fan speed for each season.

novasurf · 06-04-2008, 04:47 PM

Evazan has taken coffee nincompoopery to a whole new level.

I too read with great interest your mod of the FR8. Very nicely done. I have several FR8's around and one day will take your mod on.

Geeks abound!