Power Outage

Roasting on the Bullet
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I feel like a dodged a bullet (ahem) yesterday while roasting.

I had just finished roasting my standard 440 g batch of some new Java beans from Sweet Marias (Sundra Tambak Ruyung, to be precise) and started a Back-to-Back roast of a pound of Robusta I had just picked up (Java Pulp Natural Gambung. The Robusta is worth a comment in another post. Let me just say I like to add about 20% Robustas to my espresso blends. Gives you some kick)

This being Houston, as the machine started telling me “Charge” (maybe they can change that to a cavalryman’s voice?) it started pouring down rain.

I didn’t think too much of it until less than two minutes later, the lightning flashed and we lost power.

My immediate fear was for the PCB, quite frankly 235 C is pretty hot for those components, and if the fan has stopped I had no idea what would happen.

I was about to dump the beans manually, but then realized that the beans create a pretty good heat sink (better than air) so left them in. Luckily the power came back on after about 20 second.

So I continued to roast, rather than dump and cool the roaster.

And, of course, I lost power twice more.

Not being one to learn from my mistakes, I kept roasting both times.

Other than losing a record of the roast, everything looks OK.

I have not tried the beans yet, and I dumped them 100% by color and crack. I think they will be OK, too.

Who says this hobby is not dramatic?

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Optimism and hope are what keeps us going until we encounter reality. Please let us know how the reality part was.

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Dodged a BULLET?! Where’s the animated GIF with an eye-roll when you need it! :scream:

Good job saving the roast. Our power outages seem to run 2 minutes, 10 minutes or forever. So no joy trying to save a roast here- I had to upend the roaster to drop the beans. I bet you have an Overlay on the screen to help guide if you have to do a save. I’ve had to use it more than once when I failed to launch the Recipe properly (“whadayuh mean I have to start the recipe before I start the roast?!” Oops!)

Bruce

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So I’ve been blending in the Troubled Robusta Roast for my espresso blends. (I will not try it on its own ever again. Tastes just like old Folgers)

Seems to fit the bill, but it is only about 20% of the blend by weight.

I hope that never happens again, but it seems to be OK.

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