Using Batch Size to Control the Roast (Shelby Williamson of Huckleberry Roasters)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Hey coffee roasters - do you ever wonder how much coffee to put into your machine? If so, this video is for you. It's the first video in a 4-part series about batch size for coffee roasters.
I wrote an article about batch size for Roast Magazine’s September/October 2023 issue, and these interviews were research for that article.
In this first video, I interview Shelby Williamson (2019 US Roasting Champion and head roaster at Huckleberry Roasters in Denver, CO). Shelby roasts on two machines - a 15kg Giesen and a 70kg Loring roaster. I love this interview because she’s a working roaster and talks about the practicalities about batch size as it pertains to production roasting, rather than getting in the weeds about theory. Shelby gives key insights into batch size, including adjusting roast weight as a way to control roast time (aka: hitting her marks), determining batch size based on inventory management needs (ie: basing batch sizes on bag weights), and much more.
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Other Videos in this Series:
Part 2 w/ Scott Rao of Prodigal Coffee: • How to Calculate your ...
Part 3 w/ Cameron Heath of Counter Culture: • Batch Size for Product...
Part 4 w/ Bill Kennedy of The San Franciscan Roasting Company: • The Physics of Heat Tr...
Thanks for watching!
Roaster Kat
This was great. I can identify with this mind set. In training others we have to have a system that can somewhat be replicated. Our drum roaster is only a 7k. I've had great success training high schoolers while mentoring our small business model. We are about production and meeting deadlines. We roast quite a few origins and drop temps vary . It's great watching how these young people pick up quickly. But we have some guidelines and rules to keep them focused and we change up chores to keep them interested and not bored. The perks of this industry!!
That’s awesome! They’ll have a huge head start when they get out into the real world. Keep up the good work!
Batch size is important
True! Do you have a general rule when determining your batch size?
Great talk. Super insightful.
How would faster roasts on sample roasters work? Typically roasting from 10-13 minutes does not taste great for smaller batches imo.
To phrase the question differently: smaller batch sizes have typically tasted better with shorter roast times, and vice versa. So wouldn't a bigger batch just take longer, and a smaller batch take lesser time to hit its ideal taste targets?
That's a good observation, and I think you're onto something.
I'm not entirely certain of the specifics, except to say that heat transfer happens differently in different environments and a sample roaster is built differently than a production roaster. So a sample roaster might only take 7 minutes to hit your taste targets, whereas a production roaster (whether it's 5kg or 70kg) needs 10-15minutes to hit those same targets. I believe it has something to do with the size of the bean relative to the size of the mass of beans, relative to the size of the drum/roasting environment itself. But again I don't know the exact scientific explanation.
Only to say, sample roasting and production roasting are different things, so they work differently haha!
@@roasterkat that makes sense. So I think timing would make a lot of sense in the context of individual experiences with the machines itself, like discussed very early on in the interview.
So I think even if you had 2 of the same makes of machines, the only difference in them being size, with a matching fill capacity (let's say 70% of max capacity), you'd still probably have to find different ranges for the ideal roast time, because the heat application might differ slightly from the difference in the size of the roaster. Or perhaps it's even possible that the difference in heat application is so minute that it does not have a significant effect on roast timing for the same amount of relative fill.
I haven't had the opportunity to roast on two machines of different batch sizes so this is just me theorizing!
Would you have any thoughts/experience on this?
It’s mean size does matter 😂
lolz