Any Word on the Artisan 6m or other Fluid Beds?

[southernroaster]

I have been roasting coffee for a while now and I am very interested in upgrading to a larger set up. I currently roast on a modified Whirley Pop (go ahead and laugh). Thats allo= I could afford at the time but the act of roasting on it is quite cathartic and I have gotten the hang of it quite well. There has been an increased demand for the coffee that I roast. I love in a town of 9800 and word traveled fast. The people love things that were prepared in their own town. My budget is a bit tight. I've looked at Ambex and other 2kg roasters and have had little strokes when I see the price. I recently stumbled upon the Artisan 6m fluid bed roaster. I love the guy (Ken Lathrop). He seems to have great love for coffee so his creation isnt from the standpoint of trying to find suckers to buy his chinese equipment. Ive been roasting about 3-4# a week. Which is time consuming on a Whirley Pop which roasts in 1/2# batches. To keep up with demand I need to be roasting about 10-12# per week.

Is this a good way to get started roasting?
Is there a considerable difference in taste and quality with using a fluid bed?
Any artisan owners out there that want to share?

 

[wwcove]

I have an Artisan I will sell you. I only used it for about 50lb of coffee and decided I like the drum roaster much better. Let me know if interested. Also have a nice 1.5 kg drum roaster.

 

[southernroaster]

How much would you want for it?

 

[ddakota]

wwcove, what is that drum roaster you wanna sell and how much do you want for it?

I'm in the market right now for similar size.

 

[wwcove]

I have a Arizona 1.5 model like new refurbished. $4500 It roasts up to 4lb. at a time and is all but new. Shipping about $300.

 

[wwcove]

My Artisan is sold- we used it for about 70lb. Coffee but did not really like the taste of the coffee it produced. Did not bring out the good flavors of the bean and left an aftertaste not found in drum roasters...

 

[seeingcoffee]

Roast development is not exactly a strength in fluid bed roasting. I roasted on a Sivetz for several years and didn't realize the drawbacks of fluid bed roasting until I learned how to cup coffee and what to look for. With that said, I wouldn't touch a fluid bed roaster if it was offered to me for free. There is absolutely no comparison between the two technologies. Get a drum roaster and you'll be a happy camper.

 

[wwcove]

I must say I agree completely- I lost about $1000-1500 in 6 months buying and trying to use one. At least now I will never wonder if it is good. I know. Coffee does not taste very good at all fluid roasted. It has a funny taste going down and an unpleasant aftertaste.
I cannot believe how much better drum roasting is plus it allows one to be the artist. Not just standing there "popping coffee"...

I love to develop my roast. There are so many variables in good roasting why throw it all away with a popper?
and price wise it does not save money. Not to mention the high electric bills and loud noise using fluid roasters---

 

[Thirdwave]

I have the original Artisan, and have received the majority of upgrades at no cost. Ken has provided great customer service and the roaster has performed superbly. I have read comments that indicate fluid coffee roasters leave an odd aftertaste. I have never had this issue or received a complaint from any customers. However, I do think that these people may not be paying attention to water quality or are using a cleaner that some how effects the cup taste. I have no issues with roasting City - Vienna roasts in my Artisan roaster. I would challenge anyone to conduct a blind taste test between a fluid air roaster any any other small batch system. It's a preference. I like the amount of control I have over the roast. I am up close and personal with my Artisan. I have used other roast platforms and enjoyed them also...however, for the money I chose to go with Artisan. I highly doubt you would taste a difference in a head to head blind comparison. I love coffee...if I really thought one method was more better I would use it. Instead, I went with cost and volume because they seem pretty close in other risk vs reward categories to me. My 2 cents from the peanut gallery. Hope it helps

 

[cheekygeek]

I realize this is an old thread, but in case anybody finds this Googling (as I did) I want to say that this thread contains misinformation on air roasters (Fluid Bed Roasters). Also, there are various types of air roasters - so you can't paint with such a broad brush.

I roast on an Artisan 6m and it is a very agile machine allowing long development times. Unlike a drum roaster, that has a lot of thermal mass, an air roaster like the Artisans from CoffeeCrafters can be very responsive to temperature changes (low latency compared to a drum roaster). I pair mine with a Mastech 6514, which allows me to read in 0.1F increments, and I can slowly start dialing down the heat when first crack begins and get the Rate of Rise down to 0.1F if I want to. That will definitely draw out the development cycle.

The negative comment about Sivetz is also funny. The smaller size Sivetz roasters (up to 12-14 lbs) were electric and similar to Coffee Crafters machines, in that they have a center spout, open top roast chamber, and are all-electric. Larger Sivetz roasters were gas and came in 1/4 bag, 1/2 bag, 3/4 bag, and full bag sizes. They were also closed roast chambers. I know a guy who took a vintage 1/4 bagger and has the gas control running on a PID that is run by Artisan Scope software and he can repeat any roast profile he wants.

There are other good Fluid Bed roasters, like those made by Ashe LLC and a new company out of South Africa called Air-Motion. Anyway, I started a Facebook group just for Fluid Bed Coffee Roasters because I wanted a place where they could be discussed and techniques shared without Luddite drum roasters chiming in about how you can't roast on them. To the contrary, they make roasting very accessible and I think this is what scares drum roasters the most. Anybody can become a roastmaster pretty quickly, and this has been proven by roast competitions (judges no knowing what kind of roaster was being used).

 

[JohnBoy73]

I'm new to this roasting on the artisan 3e. I'm trying to get dialed in the flavor notes but having some trouble getting there. I've already gone through about 40lbs of coffee and still can't hit the sweet notes. I either fall short=bittersweet or take it to long after first crack and the it tastes a bit ashy or burnt a little.
I've tried
More/less loft
Heat between 5-6 with roaster heat ending close to 500°F to 510°F
Keep the roast between 10 to 12 minutes
Let my roast off gas between 24 to 48 hours before trying.
If you got any tips I could try it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Charlie'sCoffee]

I'm new to this roasting on the artisan 3e. I'm trying to get dialed in the flavor notes but having some trouble getting there. I've already gone through about 40lbs of coffee and still can't hit the sweet notes. I either fall short=bittersweet or take it to long after first crack and the it tastes a bit ashy or burnt a little.
I've tried
More/less lo
Heat between 5-6 with roaster heat ending close to 500°F to 510°F
Keep the roast between 10 to 12 minutes
Let my roast off gas between 24 to 48 hours before trying.
If you got any tips I could try it would be greatly appreciate,d.

I roast on the artisan 6m and am not an expert by any means. I am told my coffee is pretty good and do offer it for sale to friends and family. Just a couple of questions for you not in any particular order. 1) Are you roasting the same amount each time? Depending on how much I roast will depend on my total roast time. 2) Heat setting for me depends on how much I am roasting. The more beans (weight) I roast the higher the temp. 3) I roast mostly by sight, smell and hearing. a) I peek at the beans around the 3 minute mark (give or take some seconds) to see if they are turning color. b) I listen for first crack (sounds like popcorn) once that starts I have a time chart that I use that has a time frame to pull the beans. Using that chart the beans will come out at the longest time a med-dark. If I want to go to second crack (dark) which I rarely do I just keep letting it roast till I hear second crack (sounds like rice crispies) and then pull a few seconds after that. You can go longer if you wish.

Just curious, what beans are you roasting. That will make a difference on your time as well.
I can share the chart if you wish just let me know. Good luck

 

[JohnBoy73]

I roast on the artisan 6m and am not an expert by any means. I am told my coffee is pretty good and do offer it for sale to friends and family. Just a couple of questions for you not in any particular order. 1) Are you roasting the same amount each time? Depending on how much I roast will depend on my total roast time. 2) Heat setting for me depends on how much I am roasting. The more beans (weight) I roast the higher the temp. 3) I roast mostly by sight, smell and hearing. a) I peek at the beans around the 3 minute mark (give or take some seconds) to see if they are turning color. b) I listen for first crack (sounds like popcorn) once that starts I have a time chart that I use that has a time frame to pull the beans. Using that chart the beans will come out at the longest time a med-dark. If I want to go to second crack (dark) which I rarely do I just keep letting it roast till I hear second crack (sounds like rice crispies) and then pull a few seconds after that. You can go longer if you wish.

Just curious, what beans are you roasting. That will make a difference on your time as well.
I can share the chart if you wish just let me know. Good luck

Thanks for the reply, I'm just recently running artisan with the co-pilot by Hermetheus. With artisan controlling the heat/Temperature I really feel my coffee is way better now. I was just roasting 1lb to 1.5lb to get the test results dialed in. On another forum in Facebook they suggested to use more beans which help . Not so ashy tasting and people actually liked it. Now with the co-pilot there is zero burn/ash taste.
I was roasting at the time Congo, and Brazil. I finished them both after tips from others without the co-pilot and they turned out pretty good.
Now on the beans I have Colombia, PNG, and Mexico Chiapas.
I just roasted the Colombian Tabi 2.5lbs Saturday to 411°F in 11min. It smells great now the hurry up and wait part .
Thanks so much for responding too my question it really means a lot. I would love to see the chart you use. Anything would help and I'm trying to be like a sponge and absorb any and all the information I can.
Thanks again for the useful tips.