# A visit to see the Cormorant Roaster



## Beeroclock

Nestled in the heart of Oxfordshire in the village of Cropredy is a pub run by Johan Smal the designer and creator of a truly beautiful 600g gas drum roaster.

So, on a rare Tuesday off, I decided to see if I could meet up and see the Cormorant roaster in action and get a good blast through the Cotswolds on my Suzuki Vstrom to boot.

I arrived at 10.30 in the morning and was warmly greeted by Johan - turns out we have motorbikes in common, Johan having spent many months riding through Africa.

I was soon led through a maze of corridors and ended in a veritable Aladdin's cave sporting lathes, bench drills, shelves upon shelves of tools, components, welding and testing

equipment. On the work bench were 2 roasters in the process of being built - which was really handy as it gave me the opportunity to see the drum which really is a thing of beauty. Johan also showed me some interesting ideas he had incorporated into his design for chaff collection and airflow.

Great thought has gone into the production of the Cormorant Roaster and though Johan has built and produced upwards of 50 roasters, he is constantly looking at ways he can further develop and improve his product.

The CR600 is a manual roaster which is how Johan likes it. There is an analogue thermocouple located in the drum and allowances are made for digital thermocouples to be attached in the BT and Exhaust position.

If one decides to order a roaster, Johan indicated that additional positions for thermocouples could be accommodated should they be required.

A dc motor powers the drum and allows for 2 speed settings. An example of Johan's attention to detail can be seen in the design of the veins within the drum which have an almost wave like curve to them to further aid the motion of the beans. Heat is provided by a ceramic burner with a very frugal consumption of 0.08kg/h. There is a damping system in place to enable non-direct heat to the drum.

Airflow is powered by two large fans and a clever venting system to direct flow through the drum or draw air from the cooling bowl or a mix of the two. In operation I can attest that there was zero smoke in the room we roasted in and the Cormorant did a fine job of venting through the supplied hose. Beans were cooled rapidly in approx. 2 minutes and there is a handy easily accessible chaff collector which is a doddle to clean to boot.

Johan has paid particular attention to the switch gear beautifully made with surrounds reminding me of a steel bespoke lugged frame built by a master craftsmen.

I decided to bring some Brazilian Dulce beans I'd recently got from Redber. Johan suggested we get straight to it and roast a 600g batch as this what he normally does. He asked a few questions as to how I roasted them on the Quest and then we set to it.

Once the drum was up to temp we loaded the beans at 180c on the temp gauge, we hit 150c at 5mins, on our ramp to first crack Johan felt that things were progressing perhaps a little quicker than he would like and we backed off a little - still hitting FC at just past 8mins. I like my roasts on the lighter side - so we dropped just after end of FC at about 10.15mins. So, plenty of power to roast a 600g batch.

On reflection Johan said he would have drawn out the roast a little further. Beans had good aromatics but were perhaps slightly more uneven than he would have liked. We bagged them up and I will let them rest for 5 days before I try them out.

As you can gather I'm quite taken by this "little" roaster and I'm pretty convinced it will be my next step. Just need to secure the funds and put my order in. Interestingly the CR600 has quite a following in Denmark with some 25 or so units sold there, yet I only stumbled on it by accident from an American user who posted on YouTube.

I mentioned this to Johan and he seemed ok with this happy for the moment to keep his production at rate he can control. He was genuinely wants people to love his product and be happy - and from what I gather his after-care service is excellent.

The romantic in me couldn't help draw a parallel to a recent documentary I saw on the singer/writer Rodriguez - "Searching for Sugar Man".

So, if you're in the market for a 500-600g roaster that can be had for less than the cost of a Huky or Kaldi Fortis and is hand made here in Blighty - I urge you to check the Cormorant out.

Cheers Phil


----------



## Beeroclock




----------



## MildredM

Thanks for sharing









Love the attention to detail, the little cormorant cut-outs etc. It must be wonderfully satisfying to be able to create such a machine.

How were beans, have you tried a cup yet?


----------



## Beeroclock

Hi Mildred

will let them rest a few days..but I'm confident by their aroma that they'll be there or there abouts...will let you know..


----------



## iroko

Looks amazing.


----------



## JackHK

What a beauty


----------



## Dumnorix

Definitely a real work of art- just love the colour too!


----------



## Aidy

Beeroclock said:


> So, if you're in the market for a 500-600g roaster that can be had for less than the cost of a Huky or Kaldi Fortis and is hand made here in Blighty - I urge you to check the Cormorant out.


Any more precise pricing than that? Doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there about it.


----------



## Beeroclock

Hi Aidy

Johan mentioned that his website was in the process of being updated - but the price is just shy of £1400 as far as I'm aware.

cheers Phil


----------



## Drewster

I must remember to pop into the Brasenose next time I'm in Cropredy.

Which will be in August - although the bar might be a tad busy. (what with Fairport)


----------



## Mattius2

Wow. This could be the one that finally puts the bbq roaster out to pasture. Is it just standard calor blue bottle (butane i think) it runs off?


----------



## Beeroclock

Ceramic burner / LPG propane / butane with built-in 37 mbar regulator. - lifted from website, so yes..


----------



## Hom3br3w

Thanks for sharing this - looks really nice









Would it be suitable for a (very) small commercial operation? Can you use it with prof. software?


----------



## Beeroclock

Hom3br3w said:


> Thanks for sharing this - looks really nice
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Would it be suitable for a (very) small commercial operation? Can you use it with prof. software?


Well that's how Johan uses his - I suppose it all depends on how much you're going to roast - but I see no reason why you couldn't roast back to back on this and knock out 2-3 kg per session. Any more and I'd be looking at a 1kg plus size - a la the Bullet or Dalian Amazon - but of course the cost goes up..

Yes you can order the Cormorant with provisions for BT and ET probes.

Cheers Phil


----------

