Great job explaining the complexities and impossibilities of controlling the variables involved in roasting coffee. Like you said, the Roaster (him or herself) is THE most important factor in decision making and must use all of their senses; sight, sound, smell, intuition, and experience in determining when to stop the roast.
Great video. Nothing like modding stuff to suit our needs. I just got my roaster and sample beans last night. Can't wait to try the setup over the weekend! I will try to wait a bit to go crazy and add a thermometer, but we'll see how long I can hold up...
with the "raw" thermocouples (as you called them), there's a very simple, non-invasive, minimal tools required way to add it into the bean mass - simply cut & bend a coat hanger to "hug" the lip of the popcorn popper very tightly, as well as the inner walls of the popper, and wrap the thermocouple around it & poke the tip into the bean mass ... i did drill a very tiny hole in the lip of my popper that the coat hanger slide down into to hold it very tightly -- but it worked like a champ ... i started getting much better results using a TC & plugging the popper into a regulator to "tame" it down -- mine would ramp up the heat like a fox on fire! :(
I have so far used my air popper twice for home roasting coffee. I didn't check temperature at all in the process. But this is an interesting idea that perhaps I should try.
Sounds interesting. Are you able to control the heating element and fan independently ? Could you share with me a list of what you bought to modify your popper ? Thanks.
Thanks for the great video, and also thanks for selling great equipment like this (at a reasonable price). This seems to me like a great way to put a quality thermocouple into a popper. Stable positioning (won't move a lot), good placement, good thermocouple, easy to do. Can easily be hooked up to artisan if that is your thing, might be funny on a popper. I will buy some of these thermocouples and try out. I have some simple mods to control voltage to my poppers, will be interesting to connect to artisan and see what I can learn about using the voltage dial (reduces heat *and* fan). It seems worth noting, while this TC won't measure the early roast well, arguably the early roast is the least sensitive, fine temperature details don't matter so much...
I added a probe to a popcorn unit in "Coffee Roasting: A fireside chat" at 20:00 by shaping a piece of coat hanger wire and draping on the rim to set down into the coffee mass works great.
excellent video (including the barracuda cameo). i have the sr800 and had been wondering about adding a thermocouple. how would you do it? the chamber is glass so that's out for drilling. is there a way to snake it down thru the lid? and even if so, the two strands of exposed thermocouple wire would get 'beat up', i'd think. but surely you found a way : ) again, thanks for the video on this.
Yes, some of our customers drill a small hole through the screen to insert a non-rigid thermocouple that will "float" along the top of the bean mass. A more permanent/stable method is to drill a hole in the center of the chaff collector and install a rigid chaff collector so the tip sits right above the bean mass. The readings won't measure the bean mass itself but you will at least get consistent, repeatable measurements.
i saw a hungry dog walked past. One important thing about popcorn popper is that, there is a temperature sensor which may trip off when it gets too hot, but not hot enough for darker roast. You can consider to bypass it.
Wouldnt some high temp food safe silicone around the roast chamber to the heater assembly help prevent air loss. Causing more airflow into the roasting chamber?
would this work for trying to roast white coffee? knowing the roasting temp is important but how would I then be able to keep temp where I'd want to keep at 325deg F?
Thanks for this Tom. What do you reckon to using an infra red thermometer gun to save all the drilling out? I'm new to all this but learning fast, great video, Roy UK.
A lot of our customers use them and they work well. One downside is we have heard of irregular readings if the gun itself heats up if held over the popper for too long.
Tom, this was an excellent video!. I have already done this with my Poppery II, but I don't get consistent results. Does the Poppery II have on of those sensors, like the one you had to pry off? Sometimes my beans don't get hot enough! ( Stalls at 395). Also if you could show how to do this on your new "Popper is a coffee roaster", so I don't drill through any wring, that would be great! I also love your striped 70's T shirts you wear.
The Popper 2 is a little different. See link below for photos from another website. popperyii.blogspot.com/2011/01/completing-hiros-journey-poppery-ii-mod.html
@@SweetMariasCoffee Nuts, I guessed wrong. I thought the car was a 'Cuda at first. To stay on topic ... I bought a popper from a thrift store years ago - but a used iRoast2 appeared locally the next day. I still make popcorn with my popper :-).
Tom takes the mystery out of drilling a hole into an electrical appliance ! "two thing method" :) Rock-On Major Tom !
So thankful the dad from Back to the Future has found his passion project in coffee. Also this video has been really helpful.
Great job explaining the complexities and impossibilities of controlling the variables involved in roasting coffee.
Like you said, the Roaster (him or herself) is THE most important factor in decision making and must use all of their senses; sight, sound, smell, intuition, and experience in determining when to stop the roast.
Great video. Nothing like modding stuff to suit our needs. I just got my roaster and sample beans last night. Can't wait to try the setup over the weekend! I will try to wait a bit to go crazy and add a thermometer, but we'll see how long I can hold up...
Thanks.... ❤️
with the "raw" thermocouples (as you called them), there's a very simple, non-invasive, minimal tools required way to add it into the bean mass - simply cut & bend a coat hanger to "hug" the lip of the popcorn popper very tightly, as well as the inner walls of the popper, and wrap the thermocouple around it & poke the tip into the bean mass ... i did drill a very tiny hole in the lip of my popper that the coat hanger slide down into to hold it very tightly -- but it worked like a champ ... i started getting much better results using a TC & plugging the popper into a regulator to "tame" it down -- mine would ramp up the heat like a fox on fire! :(
Sounds interesting. What type of regulator are you using ?
I have so far used my air popper twice for home roasting coffee. I didn't check temperature at all in the process. But this is an interesting idea that perhaps I should try.
Thank you for doing this video. I have always wondered the best way to do this.
this is great! I added a small box with Solid State relays and have control over the heating element and fan to my popcorn popper!
Sounds interesting. Are you able to control the heating element and fan independently ? Could you share with me a list of what you bought to modify your popper ? Thanks.
Thanks for the great video, and also thanks for selling great equipment like this (at a reasonable price).
This seems to me like a great way to put a quality thermocouple into a popper. Stable positioning (won't move a lot), good placement, good thermocouple, easy to do.
Can easily be hooked up to artisan if that is your thing, might be funny on a popper.
I will buy some of these thermocouples and try out. I have some simple mods to control voltage to my poppers, will be interesting to connect to artisan and see what I can learn about using the voltage dial (reduces heat *and* fan).
It seems worth noting, while this TC won't measure the early roast well, arguably the early roast is the least sensitive, fine temperature details don't matter so much...
Could you share a photo? I'm curious about this.
I added a probe to a popcorn unit in "Coffee Roasting: A fireside chat" at 20:00 by shaping a piece of coat hanger wire and draping on the rim to set down into the coffee mass works great.
For the plastic shell I used 7/32 drill bit instead of 13/64 in popper. I couldn't thread M6 thingy through the shell with 13/64.
excellent video (including the barracuda cameo). i have the sr800 and had been wondering about adding a thermocouple. how would you do it? the chamber is glass so that's out for drilling. is there a way to snake it down thru the lid? and even if so, the two strands of exposed thermocouple wire would get 'beat up', i'd think. but surely you found a way : ) again, thanks for the video on this.
Yes, some of our customers drill a small hole through the screen to insert a non-rigid thermocouple that will "float" along the top of the bean mass. A more permanent/stable method is to drill a hole in the center of the chaff collector and install a rigid chaff collector so the tip sits right above the bean mass. The readings won't measure the bean mass itself but you will at least get consistent, repeatable measurements.
Has anyone ever tried drilling the hole at a downward angle to the probe penetrates above the fan area but reaches down into the bean mass?
Asked and answered! Thanks.
i saw a hungry dog walked past. One important thing about popcorn popper is that, there is a temperature sensor which may trip off when it gets too hot, but not hot enough for darker roast. You can consider to bypass it.
Wouldnt some high temp food safe silicone around the roast chamber to the heater assembly help prevent air loss. Causing more airflow into the roasting chamber?
It probably would but there's not that much pressure loss to start off with as the top collar sits pretty snug onto the fan housing.
it's cool
would this work for trying to roast white coffee? knowing the roasting temp is important but how would I then be able to keep temp where I'd want to keep at 325deg F?
You might want to look for a machine with temp/airflow controls. Regulating exact temperatures with a popcorn popper is extremely difficult.
Thanks for this Tom. What do you reckon to using an infra red thermometer gun to save all the drilling out? I'm new to all this but learning fast, great video, Roy UK.
A lot of our customers use them and they work well. One downside is we have heard of irregular readings if the gun itself heats up if held over the popper for too long.
Tom, this was an excellent video!. I have already done this with my Poppery II, but I don't get consistent results. Does the Poppery II have on of those sensors, like the one you had to pry off? Sometimes my beans don't get hot enough! ( Stalls at 395). Also if you could show how to do this on your new "Popper is a coffee roaster", so I don't drill through any wring, that would be great! I also love your striped 70's T shirts you wear.
The Popper 2 is a little different. See link below for photos from another website. popperyii.blogspot.com/2011/01/completing-hiros-journey-poppery-ii-mod.html
How do you _use_ the thermometer to roast well?
A thermometer will help you determine where you are at in your roast profile and can also help you anticipate when the next stage will happen.
The car! Tell us about the car! Avanti? - and also, what happened to the two(?) Bella Taiwan roasters? (I roast on a 1kg BellaTW.)
Those roasters are in the Bella room. This video was shot in the 1965 Barracuda room. Tom will chime in with more details about it if time allows.
@@SweetMariasCoffee Nuts, I guessed wrong. I thought the car was a 'Cuda at first. To stay on topic ... I bought a popper from a thrift store years ago - but a used iRoast2 appeared locally the next day. I still make popcorn with my popper :-).
( ) " " ;)
Egads! 😂