Green bean 'picking' prior to roasting!!!!!
In our shop we are roasting with Ambex 1kg roaster, and we are 'picking' out the bad beans ( broken beans, weird colors, small beans, beans with holes in them, etc..).
However we have upgraded our roaster to Probat 12kg roaster. And now we have a problem with 'picking out' the bad beans simply because it is way too large.
When we are doing 1kg, we could just spread the beans on the table and easily pick out bad beans but now the batch size increased dramatically and it is just too much of a work to pick out bad beans.
So i wanted to know how other guys are tackling this problem.
Do you just
1. Not do the 'picking'?
2. Use the screener or destoner or other ways of doing this?
3. Or just do the 'picking'?
4 or just use good quality bean so that you don't really have to 'pick'?
Thanks for your time!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Williamson on
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4--Good quality.
I used to roast on a 2 kilo ambex at a shop I used to work for. We also picked, but we didn't buy the best green back then. Now I really don't need to.
Hope that helps. Picking defects sucks.
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Permalink Reply by Timothy Pellizzer on
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I agree with Daniel. Only purchase the best of the coffee offering. There is not enough time in the day to sort beans for a 12kg machine.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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As a tech, I definitely support the use of beans with fewer defects, especially foreign material, as well as robust visual inspection and magnets. Though most debris just makes lots of noise and possibly smoke, it can shut your customer down until the debris is removed (which in many cases, involves a tech). Most are pretty grumpy with their supplier when they find out what happened.
I've seen some pretty crazy debris in customer grinders, including some very large rocks (the largest was about the same diameter as a quarter). I've also had to replace burrs, which can be pretty pricey in the case of bulk and conical grinders.
I typically try to smooth things over and explain that coffee is a natural product, but this doesn't always work. This is easier when the debris is small and non-ferrous - missing a piece of large and/or shiny debris or something that a well-placed magnet would have caught gives your customer the impression that you aren't paying attention.
No, this doesn't answer your original question, but this is a side of the issue that I don't feel gets much attention. Figured I'd mention it as another consideration for why visual inspection and buying good greens are important.
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