Larger scale roaster

[Alchemist]

So, not unlike the Aether winnower poll of many years ago, I am starting to think about a roaster designed for the small to medium sized chocolate maker.

Price is to be as reasonable as possible, but before I even get to that, I'm curious of capacity and what people want, and what they can use.

The first thing I've heard is "I want 25 lbs with electric"...except when I run the numbers, it's a crazy amount of power that in reality is just not feasible for most people (50 amps at 220 V - I don't think so). The re-wiring costs would not justify the roaster in my opinion.

With that in mind, and with a number of years of home roaster building under my belt, the above are what I believe are possible. Now, what do you want?

[gretencord]

I assume you're planning for a drum roaster. I'd be interested to know if anyone has considered a fluid bed roaster for cocoa much like this: www.ashellc.com/coffee.htm

[Freddo]

Heres a guy using a concrete mixer to roast peanuts, could work

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GtiAtWXwy6Q#!

[chocogeek]

I looked into a custom fluid bed roaster. I even talked to Sivitz. For cocoa you would need a much bigger blower to loft the heavier beans up in the air. It's not practical for cocoa, but for coffee beans it works well.