STiR coffee and tea magazine

36 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 2, 2022 (April / May) T he market for specialty coffees and roasting volumes oriented towards regional sales continues to develop. Many young roasters take a critical look at the complete production chain from green coffee cultivation to the distribution channel of roasted coffee in their business and show unprecedented openness to new technologies, which gives them more freedom to develop their coffee products. Neuhaus Neotec developed the NEOROAST for this particular market segment. With an output of up to 240 kg/h, the NEOROAST covers the capacity requirements of small to medium-sized roasting plant. The roasting system differs significantly from traditional roasting processes and uses RFB technology, which Neuhaus Neotec has developed over over many years. The origins of this technology date back some 40 years, when Neuhaus Neotec made a lasting impact on and changed the global coffee roasting industry with this ground-breaking technology. Instead of using mechanical elements to move the coffee and roast it via contact heat with the heated metal ele- ment, the coffee is gently moved and roasted in an air bed. This type of process control has many advantages. All mechanical components in the roasting chamber, which are subject to continuous wear, are eliminated. Roasting profiles with outmost flexibility Due to the significantly lower thermal inertia of the roasting system, roasting profiles can be run that are not possible in the traditional roasting process due to physical Hot Air Roasting Reinterpreted restrictions. The precise recording of the product temperature in the coffee bean bed as well as the short response time of the hot air as the transferring heat me- dium to new temperature pre-set values enable the roaster to make short-term changes in the profile even during the ongoing roasting process. Due to its many advantages, this er- gonomic process control is widely ac- cepted in the industrial sector worldwide, and Italian giants in the espresso business as well as globally operating companies with regionally adapted roasting recipes rely on RFB technology for many years now. In order to give smaller roasters also access to RFB technology, Neuhaus Neotec offers the NEOROAST in two variants with batch sizes of 5-15 kg and 10-30 kg. Like all roaster series at Neu- haus Neotec, the NEOROAST comes with a PLC to manage recipes and con- trol the roasting process. In addition, the control system offers the possibility to operate the roaster via tablet or to moni- tor the roasting process with in-house or external software tools such as Crop- ster or Artisan. In addition to the actual roasting process, the PLC also controls the filling and emptying process in the roasting chamber. Optional accessories such as automatic feeding, destoners, and further software tools extend the ease of operation. Unique design The separation of the single roaster com- ponents, i.e. external burner and fan, allows the roaster additional flexibility when setting up the plant. For example, in a roastery with a showroom charac- ter, the aggregates for energy supply can be spatially separated from the roasting chamber and cooler components rel- evant for operation by a partition wall. While the process-optimized design of the roasting chamber clearly differs from conventional roasting systems, Neuhaus Neotec relies on traditional look for the open circular cooler. In addition, a large inspection glass allows a view into the roasting chamber during the entire roast- ing process. If required, a bean sample can be taken at any time via the sampler. "However, experience shows that due to the high degree of precision of the roasting system, this function is used far less than is usually necessary with drum roasting," says Hendrik Rhein, roasting All Photos taken by Neuhaus Neotec. Neuhaus Neotec's NEOROAST 15 for 5 to 15 kg batches. Category is . . . Specialty Roasting Equipment

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