OT Question for n Re: Drum-style Coffee Roaster

[Guest guest]

Hi n,

I'm curious to know the brand name of your drum-style coffee roaster. My

husband would enjoy roasting his own coffee beans but there seems to be many

functionality issues with roaster's in the $300.00 price range.

Cindy

son w/ suspected Crohn's

SCD March 2008

no meds

[Guest guest]

> Hi n,>> I'm curious to know the brand name of your drum-style coffee roaster. > My husband would enjoy roasting his own coffee beans but there seems to > be many functionality issues with roaster's in the $300.00 price range.>> Cindy> son w/ suspected Crohn's> SCD March 2008> no meds>Sure. It's the Behmor 1600, the only drum-style coffee roaster made for home use. I highly recommend it. A very sophisticated machine and works beautifully. It was invented/designed by an engineer, Joe Behm (thus the name). He runs the company and they provide great customer service. It's available to buy on a number of coffee sites online. No functionality issues with this one and it costs $299 (at various websites; retail price is more). Some sites throw in 6 or 8 pounds of green coffee, as well, at that price, and free shipping. That's a big deal; the thing weighs ... I'm not sure exactly how much, maybe close to 15 pounds. That said, it's not hard to handle or move around; its rectangular and has easy hand-hold spots. It looks nice too: it's black and stainless steel. It's very cleverly designed, part of which is its smoke suppression technology. That's major, as most coffee roasters give off a lot of smoke -- enough to set off your fire alarms unless you've got the windows open or are roasting outside or in your garage (not too practical in my cold climate!). It also has an efficient chaff collector. And another big-ee: it's the only home roaster that allows you to roast as much a a whole pound of beans at one time; you can choose 1 lb., 1/2 lb., or 1/4 lb. amounts. (You will need a kitchen scale or postal scale to measure beans, unless you always throw in a one-pound bag of beans.) That means you're not forever roasting beans like you are with other roasters. There are four roast profiles which allow for roasting at different pre-determined temperatures and different amounts of times, according to how you like your roast, how moist your bean-type is, etc.We bought ours from www.roastmasters.com which has lots of pictures of the Behmor and explains pretty much everything you'd need to know (and offers the free coffee and shippin). It talks about not leaving the roaster while it's on, as I recall. That's not entirely true. I mean, you don't have to sit there watching it do its thing for 18 or 20 minutes straight. You do need to check on it, though, as it nears the end of a roast cycle. There's an interior light you can turn on to see how the beans are doing; and a + and - button which lets you add or take away seconds/minutes from the cycle, if you feel the beans need a little more roasting or are done enough to suit you. It's also easy to clean, and a soft natural-bristled brush is included to let you sweep out chaff that may be left after you pull the chaff collector out.  One thing it's not meant to do is roast really dark-roast or espresso-style beans. It won't let you roast that dark (you can if you re-roast a batch, but that's not recommended). I think that's probably because there's just too much danger of fire for in-home use (and smoke seeping out, despite the smoke suppression technology, because there's so much smoke when you roast beans that dark).n________________ Now available. A fine gift for cat lovers:Confessions of a Cataholic: My Life With the 10 Cats Who Caused My Addictionby n Van Tilwww.wordpowerpublishing.com ; signed copies; free shipping in U.S., reduced shipping elsewhere