Drums

Craig Jensen:
(Posted at www.coffeegeek.com)

I have been looking at coffee roasters for well over a year, but have been disappointed by the current options.  Basically, most of the current crop of home-use roasters (with possibly the exception of the Behmor) seem somewhat flaky and poorly constructed.  I looked at more than a few of them, and they just didn't seem likely to last out the year.  It seemed to be stretching things to pay the amount of money that many cost if I wouldn't get that much use out of them.  Also, all of the posts about voltage problems in houses with these roasters had me pretty alarmed.  I read posts about people needing variacs and line voltage problems with the roasters, and that combined with the construction problems I had seen were just too much of a red flag.  So I put off getting any of the roasters.

But then I noticed www.rkdrums.com and it seemed like a very good solution.  The drums looked well built and unlikely to fall apart in a year.  Also, since it used a propane grill, no worries about voltage issues.  My only concern with rkdrums was assembling the thing.  This was solved very easily though when Shane Lewis (see buying experience below for more details) agreed to assemble one for me.

I have done 6 roasts with the unit so far, and that seems to be enough at least to get a review started I think.  Using the unit is very easy:

  Just did my first two roasts using your profiles. The results are beautiful!
 Thanks for a great product!!

I've had my RK Drum for less than a month and just love it! Just
 minutes ago I also ordered the 50rpm drive motor. Silly thing just
 happened to me today. I was looking at my stash and trying to come up
 with a blend. I had completely forgotten that I have other methods of
 roasting available to me (popper..iRoast..hg/db..sc/to) and was becoming
 frustrated because I was thinking in terms of roasting pounds instead of
 ounces to make the trial blend. Duhhhhhh! I love my RK Drum. I love
 my RK Drum. I love my RK Drum.
 
 Have I mentioned..... I LOVE my RK Drum.
 
 Jerry

I've only been roasting coffee since June of this year (09). I needed to get a larger roaster, seems like every week I roast more and more. I did alot research and just did not want to pull the trigger on a $3500.00 plus roaster.

I contacted Shane and talked to him about a drum. I ended up ordering the 4# roaster, bought a new grill and did the sheet metal mods. Shipping was fast and correct. The drum is built to last a lifetime, the only thing that I should have done different was to get the 6# drum for $90.00 more. (Shane should have talked me into getting the 6# roaster.) LOL

It was simple to set up and get it going. I've more than maxed it out a couple of times, beans came out great.  You can see the mods i've made to the grill and the simple bean cooler I built on Shane's web site.

Bottom line is that the drum is top notch, works great and is well worth the money! Shane is also a great guy to talk to and will treat you right.

Dale

Eureka!  2 pounds of Mocha Kadir at 500 degrees.  1st crack at 11m30s, cut back to 480 -  second crack at 14m - finish roast with a nice Full City + at 15m 30 sec. - no signs of divots.  Thanks for the suggestions.  It does baffle me though.  It seems that everything I read on the subject suggested that somewhere in the process I was too hot and that was what caused the divots - some suggested too fast into 1st crack - others suggested too hot (therefore too fast) going from 1st to 2nd.  Whatever it is, this seems like a nice profile.

Thanks again Shane.
Dick