Roasting Guide

Every once in a while, the blind hog finds an acorn. Such was the case when Ron Kyle offered one of his RK Drums as a "Tradition" gift on the Sweet Maria's Homeroast mailing list. The Traditions are one-string-attached gifts where the giver offers some item(s) free including free delivery. Usually there is random choice involved in selection of the recipient. The only "string" is that the recipient is obligated to offer a Tradition of his own.

In Ron Kyle's tradition, he offered one of his custom-made RK Drums for coffee roasting. I WON! All I had to do was add my own gas grill and rotisserie. Ron sold these drums for $210 through his website.

First roast with my RK Drum was 16oz of Rwanda Masaka "Seven Lakes" from Sweet Maria's. I really like this coffee and had

Mike Simanyi wrote:
 Just had to post. I received my RK drum and 50rpm motor setup last
 week and fired it up for a few small roasts (1 to 1.5 pounds each). I
 slightly over-roasted the first batch while trying to dial-in my
 thermometer readings and reconcile them to the instructions I found at
 Ron's site, but the next batches went like clockwork.
 Three words: Oh. My. Gosh!

 The scent of the roast is amazing. Using the I-roast, 2nd crack was
 always exceptionally subtle. With the drum it's like firecrackers.
 And darn near the most entertaining part is pouring the smoking mass
 of beans into the sifter and holding them over the fan for cooling.
 Within about 75 seconds they were almost to ambient temp... and
 smelled AMAZING! One of my neighbors came

I just wanted to let you know I did my first roast on my 8lb. drum yesterday. It went really well. I was able to get the universal rottisserie to work with a little modifying. I tried to follow the 6lb. drum roast profile from the roasting guide. I did experiance a uneven roast for my first try, but the coffee was still, delicious! It is very exciting roasting with this system. My cooling tray will blow the beans up in the air if its not on low! Otherwise the fans air swirling motion actually stirs the beans like there was a sweeper arm. I cant wait to give it another go. I can really see a perfect profile that will easily be developed with a few more times. Thanks alot and I'll get you out some photos soon. Jay S.

Thanks to all who steered me right after my poor experience with the Ronco 4000. A genuine RK drum arrived in the mail today. It's a beefy rig---no joke! I headed out to the local welder's supply store for a pair of good gloves, then returned home to test the drum out. I fired up the BBQ, burned off the oils etc. from the drum for 15 minutes, and let it cool. Once it was safe to touch, I got the grill back up to heat, added a pound of the Zambia AA to the drum, and was off. A bit farther off than I'd hoped, as it turned out...took 22 minutes to get to second crack, but the emptying & cooling went E-Z. And man, those beans taste great! Thanks, Ron!
 
 --Paul

 Hi,
 I whole heartily agree! I bought a motor off of Ron and what a difference it makes. the shipping was super fast and all questions were answered promptly. I am really enjoying BBQ roasting!