Cafe Verde roasting

Otto up and running

Cafe Verde's new roaster is now up and running, and today is the first day of the espresso off the new machine! Cafe Verde green and black were the colors of choice. The paint is almost fully curred after a week of heating the machine while experimenting.

Besides the paint job we've re-worked the gas and increased the airflow. It took some searching but we located the gas gage we were looking for and improved the gas line.

The first batch of espresso was a pre-blend, roasted in just over 16 minutes and today has 6 days rest. This 100% Peruvian espresso has a light chocolate initial flavor profile, and ends with sweet bright raisin notes.

The experiments will continue, but were off to a good start. Hopefully in a week the roaster will be fully installed in the shop!

Enjoy

Painting Otto

Papered walls, paint dust through the building and funny fumes; The joy of painting has come.

Here the roaster's base was just finished and was being prepped for highlights.

Tomorrow I'll begin the assembly process; testing the new pieces on Monday. With all luck and a bit of help from my buddy Marty Curtis will have the stack installed and the roaster in the retail space by next week's end.

Roaster-refab fun

A week of elbow grease, sanding and white vinegar has brought the roaster re-build to the next step. The humidity of Lima (80-95% and at the same time a desert!?!)rusts anything metal, and after 50 years of existence the Otto Swadlo roaster drum wasn't an exception.

Otto Swadlo Victoria Werk Roaster

Cafe Verde obtained this 5 Kilo Otto Swadlo "Victoria Werk" Viennese roaster yesterday. Apparently Mr. Otto Swadlo retired in the 60's and thus the end of Otto Swadlo roasters. Interesting historical note, during World War II his plant was taken over by the German's and he was forced to fabricate weapons, which he purposely produced at poor production quantities :)