# Cormorant vs Kaldi



## Johnnyburns (May 21, 2020)

Hey I have a question that I could really use some help in. I'm thinking of getting a Kaldi coffee roaster... my original plan was to buy the Kaldi wide and modify it a bit to add temperature probs etc.... I then started looking into getting the Kaldi wide400 or the Kaldi fortis. The fortis obviously costs a bit more. That lead me to entertain the idea of the cormorant roaster. I guess my concern with getting the cheaper Kaldi is that I might sacrifice some taste with the type of drum that is used or maybe not get as good of a reading with the temperature probes and not really sure if having a different heat source is as reliable as a built in heat source like the cormorant has. I'm really new to coffee roasting so I'm trying to learn as much as possible through pros like you all. I think I'm kinda hitting a wall tho with knowing all the advantages and disadvantages. What are your thoughts on those roasters?


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## iroko (Nov 9, 2012)

No idea on the Kaldi, but I went from Gene cafe to the Cormorant and have been very happy with the roaster, and you will get good support from Johan.


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## Johnnyburns (May 21, 2020)

Thanks for your response iroko!

is the cormorant very responsive? Do you know how accurate the temperature readings are?


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi Johnny

If your talking about the built in analog TC then - you will find this slow - but a good guide and one can certainly achieve decent roasts with this - there are many people who forgo the whole digital set up in favour of a more hands on smell/visual approach. It's certainly what attracted me to the Cormorant when I first got mine.

However my obsessive nature has led me down the digital probe route - and in answer to your question the yes the Cormorant is incredibly responsive to both gas and air adjustments - as regards temp readings there are a myriad of options out there - Johan builds his own TC's now too.

I'm currently investigating the use of RTD's instead of K type thermocouples - (albeit in a different larger roaster) they are more accurate, less noisy - but slower in response. The question is whether they are ultimately fast enough...

Here's a comparison I did running 2 probes - the blue line BT probe is a 3mm PT100 RTD and the red line which is labelled ET is actually a second BT probe with a 2mm K type. All smoothing was turned off and Delta Span set to 6s.

Cheers Phil


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## Johnnyburns (May 21, 2020)

Beeroclock

 thanks for this info! Did you get a different TC then the original one that came with the cormorant? I'm really new to roasting but I guess I gotta start somewhere. I really want to try and create really consistent roasts so just the hands on approach might not be the best for that


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## Beeroclock (Aug 10, 2015)

Hi Johnny

when I got my Cormorant - I just used my existing probes that I had from another machine - Quest M3. Also Johan wasn't making his own then. I subsequently bought some 2mm probes from Mill City - in part because there were a few American Owners who were running them too.

There is a ton of info out there - worth checking the Mill City tutorials and heading over to Home-Barista's roasting forum.

cheers Phil


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## iroko (Nov 9, 2012)

Johnnyburns said:


> Thanks for your response iroko!
> 
> is the cormorant very responsive? Do you know how accurate the temperature readings are?


 I'm roasting with the analog gauge on the roaster, I presume the analog dial is much slower than digital but once you get used to the roaster you get great roasts.

I haven't got a permanent place to put my roaster, when I have I might look into going down the digital path but I do like to keep things simple. the digital route might take the fun out of what i'm doing.


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## Johnnyburns (May 21, 2020)

Thanks for all the feedback! It's much appreciated! Looks like I'm gonna have to just take the plunge and get this roaster! I've heard a lot of great things and looking forward to roasting


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