Okay, maybe just mildly perturbed Colorado winter. Anyways, everyone doesn't find the smoke from roasting coffee beans as aromatically pleasing as the finished product so I am banished to the back porch. The problem I face is the effect of ambient temperature on my Air Crazy Popper/Roaster. Currently the temperature is 42, about average for Longmont in December. Since the popper sucks air in from the bottom vents and passes it over heating coils, starting with air that cold would make for a long slow roasting process.
The daring, brilliant, maybe crazy solution I arrived at is an igloo.
An Igloo Ice Cube cooler that is. Although in this case it functions as a warmer.
That is my colander for cooling the beans and a box of wine behind the cooler for refreshment. I also use a large heavy duty rimmed cookie sheet which works great in 40 degree weather. The Igloo also nicely contains the husks that fly off the roasting beans. This did present a problem in my original configuration.
The intake on the bottom of the roaster began to get clogged by the husks that collected at the bottom of the cooler. So the next design improvement was a cardboard box to keep the vents above the fray. Et Voila! A toasty fast roast regardless of the outside temperature. If it gets really cold, I just close the lid. So far, nothing has melted, burned, or exploded.
Damn! Why didn't i think of the cookie sheet in the freezer! yer wicked smaht
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