Very interested in seeing if anyone else has done this. I was just reading Robs lighter method review where he goes over some of this. I also just ordered his field notes book, so I am looking forward to that.
https://hoos.coffee/blog/the-lighter-method

@Slimfl08 said:

Very interested in seeing if anyone else has done this. I was just reading Robs lighter method review where he goes over some of this. I also just ordered his field notes book, so I am looking forward to that.
https://hoos.coffee/blog/the-lighter-method

You should join the mentorship group, we have weekly office hours with Rob and a monthly meetup. Only a couple of people generally join office hours so it's like almost one-on-one consulting for $40 a month

@raccroasters

I will have to check that out. I actually juts reached out to Scott Rao in regard to one of his sessions so I can try to figure out where I am getting stuck. Thanks for the additional input! When are the office hours?

3:15-5 PM Pacific on Fridays

Consultants frequently recommend static airflow to eliminate a variable and simplify machine control for their noob clients.

Too, a lot of roasters are built with much less less precise and less repeatable airflow control than is found on our roasters.

We realized that VFD control over airflow was good, but not always consistent because of vent and fan fouling.

In other words, at any given Hz, when the fan or venting or vent cap is crudded up, you are moving less CFM.

BTW, that's the reason the fans are overpowered. They'll allow you to move enough roast air even when you are overdue for maintenance.

If you are on a MCR roaster with a digital drum pressure gauge, you are measuring 1/248 of 1" of water column. That's not just window dressing. It delivers the kind of precision allows you to dial in an optimal conductive to convective heating ratio for every roast.

You can go static airflow if you want. It will simplify the operation of your roasts, but it will do it at the expense of both cup quality and the development of your craft.

Hello everyone,

We have tried it... the result was a medium-body coffee with reasonable sweetness and a pronounced acidity without being astringent, in addition to the color of the beans, which was very even. I particularly enjoy bright acidity (Pedro). We use an MCR-1 and agree that the airflow in these machines is quite powerful and, if not properly controlled, can have the opposite effect. Basically, what I did was monitor the ET reading to verify there was enough energy and began modulating the airflow as much as possible until the temperature stabilized as consistently as possible. It worked for me.

Best regards.

@sgreen said:

Consultants frequently recommend static airflow to eliminate a variable and simplify machine control for their noob clients.

Too, a lot of roasters are built with much less less precise and less repeatable airflow control than is found on our roasters.

........

You can go static airflow if you want. It will simplify the operation of your roasts, but it will do it at the expense of both cup quality and the development of your craft.

Spotted this convo a bit late but wanted to chime in as a fellow roaster with similar experiences, and support these 3 main points Steve made here.

One thing I always recommend with our co-roasting clients (and anyone I'm teaching 101 type concepts to) is to aim for a SIMPLE and REPEATABLE profile. Make the minimum gas and air changes necessary to accomplish the roast you want. Once you are 70-80% there, diversify your adjustments on your production batches in an intelligent and predictable manner to fine tune a great coffee into a greater coffee.

In practice, this means avoiding too many variables to chase down. If you have 20 different air and gas changes it's more difficult to figure out what went wrong - or stated in the affirmative, find out what "could" be better.

At the end of the day, not a single one of us has a bunch of spare coffee to roast, so you don't want to waste more time and product on profiling than you must. And during production, you don't want your consistency to be too variable from one batch to another when you're roasting an otherwise reliable production profile.

In my experience, total # of air flow adjustments is more negligible than gas pressure - but it's still not actually negligible. So even though I'm in no real position to argue with a guy like Rob Hoos, I'd still say that my experience has shown that a *thoughtful and considerate* approach to airflow changes is preferred to *no* airflow changes.