STiR coffee and tea magazine

30 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 2, 2017 (April/May) "You can give them the tools but they're still left to the art of using the roaster." Dennis Vogel T By Dan Shryock echnology plays a key role in most every aspect of daily life so it should be no sur- prise that software programming is increas- ingly making its way into the art of coffee roasting. Roaster manufacturers continue to develop ways to make their equipment more efficient and that curve includes roasting profiles. The concept of integrated roasting control sys- tems is not new. Probat-Werke launched its reflec- tion roast control system in 2001 so a computer system could follow a precise roasting recipe and manage bean temperatures and other variables without external help. Computer roasting profiles have come a long way over the past two decades. Probat, for exam- ple, now offers its PC-based Pilot Roaster control system to manage the roasting operation. The Pi- lot Roaster talks with the reflection roast control throughout the process to make sure the entire process stays on curve. Probat is not alone in developing new con- cepts in roasting profile management. "Profile roasting technology has improved a lot during last decade," said Rodis Ferrari of Bra- zilian roaster manufacturer Lilla. "Nowadays there are roasting curves based directly on coffee beans temperature, giving the roasting control better consistency and making easier to achieve the de- sired cupping when designing the roasting recipe," Programming the Profiles Loring roastmasters Joe Marrocco, left, and Rob Hoos monitor the V2 control system display panel on a S15 Falcon roaster he said. Lilla includes its own coffee roasting sys- tem in many of its machines. "The future development of this know-how will probably lay on the capability of super flexible roasting curves. The coffee beans temperature is the key to control all the chemical transformations which happen along the roasting process," Ferrari said. "Therefore, the modulation of this tempera- ture leads the path to chemical reactions to follow, influencing directly the roasted coffee chemical composition, aromas, and cupping. Hence, flex- ible curves bring more possibilities to enrich fla- vors and aromas," he said. Loring upgrades control system Loring Smart Roast is now introducing what they believe is an even smarter way to roast. The com- pany announced this month the release of the new Loring control system V2, an upgrade that allows roast masters to establish a roasting profile and then reliably use it again and again no matter the batch size. "The key significance of this system is to pro- vide our customers with greater control, better results with repeatability," said Dennis Vogel, the company's marketing and sales director. "We're giving them the ability to create profiles that then deliver consistent results for different batch sizes or different roasters."

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