Coffee roasting methods
AssigneePraxis Werke, Inc.
InventorJoachim Eichner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Coffee beans and the like are roasted in an enclosed, pressurized roaster under conditions which provide rapid heat transfer and close control of roasting time-temperature profiles. The roasting chamber desirably has a bottom screen, a top screen and a shutter adapted to momentarily occlude flow through the various portions of the top screen. Roasting gas passes upwardly through the beans, entrains some of the beans and forces them against the top screen. The beans drop back into the chamber when the shutter occludes a particular portion of the top screen holding the beans. Time-temperature profiles can be controlled by monitoring process conditions such as inlet and outlet gas enthalpies.
Claims45
A method for roasting beans comprising:
- charging a charge of beans into a roasting chamber having a top and bottom;
- directing a hot inlet gas into the chamber to thereby supply heat to the beans and cause the beans to be roasted whereby the gas flows upward toward the top of the chamber;
- trapping beans which are carried upward in the chamber by a screen disposed adjacent the top of the chamber;
- discharging an exhaust gas including roasting byproducts from the chamber;
- arranging a movable shutter above the screen capable of blocking gas flow through the screen;
- moving the shutter to selectively block gas flow through different portions of the screen such that beans held in engagement with the screen by the flowing gas are released from engagement with the screen at that portion of the screen at which the shutter is blocking the gas flow and fall downward to the bottom of the chamber;
- and
- discharging the roasted beans from the chamber.
A method for roasting beans comprising:
- charging a charge of beans into a roasting chamber having a top and bottom;
- directing a hot inlet gas into the chamber to supply heat to the beans and cause the beans to be roasted whereby the gas flows toward the top of the chamber;
- discharging an exhaust gas including roasting byproducts from the chamber;
- reheating the exhaust gas;
- passing the reheated exhaust gas to the chamber as part of the hot inlet gas, said reheating step and said step of directing hot inlet gas into the chamber being performed by passing a charge of gas through a substantially closed gas circulation system including the chamber so that the charge of gas is substantially retained within the circulation system;
- and
- discharging the charge of beans from the chamber, reloading the chamber with a new charge of beans while substantially retaining the charge of gas within the circulation system, and repeating cyclically so as to roast a series of charges of beans while substantially retaining the charge of gas within the circulation system.
A method for roasting beans comprising:
- arranging a top screen and a bottom screen inside a closed, pressurizeable vessel to define a roasting chamber in the vessel between the top and bottom screens;
- pressurizing the vessel;
- charging a charge of beans into the roasting chamber through an aperture in the vessel;
- directing a hot inlet gas into the chamber through an aperture in the vessel to thereby supply heat to the beans and cause the beans to be roasted whereby the gas flows upward toward the top screen, the beans which are carried upward in the chamber being trapped by the top screen;
- discharging an exhaust gas including roasting byproducts from the vessel through an aperture in the vessel;
- discharging the roasted beans from the chamber through a transfer valve formed in connection with the vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.