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Hi Hokan,
We have been working on something like this, casually lately. I may have a solution for you in the coming weeks. Email me about it next week to check on the progress.
Thanks
-ShaneAdditionally as a final point. The dynamic of infrared is that you heat up the plate to temperature then that plate does the cooking. So as you turn on the grill your heat up times will be extended. Maybe by 1/2 the time as opposed to heating the air in the grill directly with the flame or having a skimpy diffuser below. Similarly, the heat adjustments during the roast will take longer to show in the coffee area as you must heat the plate first. This is less favorable as you can’t ramp the heat as quickly or cool it down as quickly. But when you go to roast #2 this plate retains much of the heat between roast and that is good as any subsequent roasts will come to temperature quicker. If you didn’t have this plate below, then heat trapped in the grill dumps out when you open the lid. So. The infrared is good for retaining heat for subsequent roasts but less ideal for control. The converse is true for having no plate.
The best balance, in my opinion, is a standard 45,000 btu grill with a steel plate in the bottom with 1.5″ of space between the plate and all walls. This gives you a little of both worlds.
Note that electric infrared burners installed on the rear of the grill are an entirely different subject and to my knowledge, those are just fine provided the BTU is present.
Thanks
ShaneHi Dan, thanks for the note. The infrared grills work well in the sense that it has a very nice method to evenly distribute the heat. Infrared basically means using radiated heat to cook as opposed to direct heat from the flame. As far as I can tell, the CHARBROIL red series and similar is a tad gimmicky. Basically, instead of having a standard diffuser with burners below, they instead have a rounded concave plate that seals off the coffee from the burner itself, relying on that standard burner to heat the metal curved plate and then that hot plate does the cooking. I would consider it a net plus, as the plate does a good job of spreading the heat out and evenly cooking the coffee with it. That part is good. The bad part is that these grills seem to suffer from lower BTU. Not sure why this is, but 30,000 will not be enough to get you where you want to be happy. We actually used a 30000 BTU CHARBROIL red with an 8lb drum. By blocking off 80% of the rear vent to trap heat in, we finished the roast at 28min. In my opinion about 7min too long.
We then capped off the rear vents totally. And we got roast times down to 22 min. Not quite 21, which is my limit, but close enough, and that was at 100% gas. So we pulled it off just barely.
It will be slightly better with the 6 or 4lb on this unit due to lower mass.
In short, it’s possible but it leaves you no room for maneuvering. Accelerating the roast if need be… As you will already be at max output.
My recommendations are these:
4lb 35,000btu
6lb 40,000
8lb+ 45,000-60,000So you see it’s less a factor of the infrared itself. The coffee doesn’t care about the heat method. It’s actually better in the sense of heat distribution. But these grills seem to suffer more from low btu and that is where the problems seem to lie. If you can find an infrared grill with the adequate BTU, this would be preferable.
Curiously, there is an article I think on page 2 of the home page regarding getting better roast consistency, and it also proposed to place a metal sheet over the burners thereby evening out the heat some. So the infrared in that sense is preferable.
Can you do it with that grill? Yes. Will you be thrilled with it? Not as much as if you had the higher BTU. Hope that helps and do let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks
ShaneThanks, Shane. Greatly appreciate your quick reply. I’m now cautiously optimistic 🙂
My grill (a built-in 36in DCS) allows me to remove all the grilling elements (grates, ceramic rods, etc), so maybe I can minimize the food odors by getting all that stuff out before roasting. I’m not a hard-core purist, but I’ve been using roasted coffee from Sweet Maria’s for a while. They’re only 30min from our house, so we tend to get pretty fresh roasts. My goal is to replicate their Liquid Amber roast at home and save a few bucks. Do you think this is a realistic goal?
Thanks again,
-DaveHey Dave,
just stumbled across your post here, not sure why only now I got a notice you responded. I think it’s absolutely realistic. RK roasters at various roasting guilds have beat the Probat’s and Ambex’s of the world in terms of quality, so I have every reason to believe given the right technique you will be very happy with the results.
-ShaneJust a clarification. The tray over the flames was to be put in a gas grill so that temperature control could be had while simultaneously smoking the coffee. Water would be applied to the flavoring wood in the tray. Just like a smoker.
-ShaneHi Chris! Thanks for the question. Seems like there has been a run on fire roasting lately. Maybe the 5th person in 2 months to ask that question. I would say if there was ever a person to have a natural fuel source for this it would be you. From that standpoint, there are a number of people that do indeed roast over an open fire. One fellow in Big Lake Texas has quite a following roasting by hand over mesquite wood. While I’ve never personally roasted with this method, and I’ll invite others here to comment on their experiences with it, I do feel that good temperature control is preferable to poor temperature control. For example, roasting at too low a temperature for the mass to be roasted can result in an extended roast and a baked taste to your coffee where it doesn’t jump in the mouth but rather falls flat. So you would need to have some way to understand how much heat is generated and how to focus it or not. That would be my only point that would give me pause. Mind you, I don’t mean to discourage at all, but rather to point out that, if you are a very picky roaster then you may find your roasts not as reproducible as with gas methods. I have recently encouraged people to roast with a sort of tray over the flames filled with wood that can produce the wood flavored taste. Similar to how smokers work. If you are wanting to roast with this method to not buy propane and save money there, I would say the net loss of control to be more critical than the cost of the gas. If you are doing it to impart the wood flavors into the coffee to capitalize on a niche then that would be a better plan in my opinion. There are plenty of folks that do this for the flavoring it provides. My .02 cents!
-ShaneHi Chris,
It’s probably not the best platform, but it very well may work.
The rotisserie rod, on the standard drum without modifications (we do make custom drums) must be 5/16″ square. The motor RPM, for even roasts, should be at least 6RPM+ and ideally between 25-60RPMIt does look like you can accommodate any drum and the 4LB and 6LB for sure.
Also be aware the oven may need to vent a good deal of smoke, and it will likely smell like coffee at the end. 🙂
-ShaneJoe, yes you should be able to use the drum for other things with minimal or no cross contamination. You may want to run the drum at a high temp to burn any residue out between roasts
-ShaneHi Anjanee. Yes. Things like soybeans can be roasted very effectively, though for finer grains such as wheat you may want to use one of our custom solid drums.
Thanks
-ShaneHi Pat!
Yes! This part should work for you!
https://blackbalsam.co/rkdrums/index.php/products/misc/coupler
Let me know if you need anything else!
-ShaneHaha… that autocorrect gets you every time! That is hilarious! I guess I should restate “We’ll build absolutely anything you want!” haha 😉
Let’s get you in the system then? Total plus customization $159. You can either send that to slewis@rkdrums.com via PayPal (I’ll know it’s you) or…. send your PayPal email address to the above email address and I’ll send you a request from PayPal.
Meanwhile, if you have any questions at all on any subject, then please don’t hesitate to ask!
-ShaneI misspoke earlier if you modify the drum to fit your 3/8″ rod everything will NOT be cross compatible if you wish to upgrade to bigger drums or components at a later date, therefore to keep everything standard, 5/16″ is recommended… But as of this time, the customization charge is $40… We’ll build absolutely nothing you want
-ShaneGood Morning Steve,
Let me give you a bit of background on the vanes so that things make sense. Initially, we had thought we had a solution pretty close at hand, to allow the user to install vanes him/herself. As a result of this, a number of coolers went out, including yours.
We later realized that what the cooler needed was a bearing assembly to allow for the easy, frictionless stirring of coffee. And we realized it would not be possible. or practical to have the user install a bearing assembly with common tools, as it would not be able to be securely installed, or at least not enough so that it would withstand the forces on the hand crank and that of the coffee…
All newer starters have a reinforcing bracket and a bearing assembly installed in the center whether you order the vanes or not.
The upgrade process involves us welding that bracket and bearing assembly into your cooler, which allows you (or us in this case) to install the vanes into the cooler.
Thus the upgrade program is essentially this:
1. You return the starter cooler to the shop with insurance for $200
2. We install $170 worth of parts, materials, and labor into the cooler (Bearing/bracket/vanes/labor/materials)
3. I can extend you a 25% discount on the work, as a result of that unforeseen necessity.
4. I pay to return the cooler to you with insurance.
5. Turn around time, approx 4 days.Let me know if that sounds good.
Thanks!
-Shane
