refining

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Permalink Reply by Duffy Sheardown on August 25, 2010 at 1:43am

The "best" method depend on what you are trying to achieve and what throughput you are aiming for. I have a 30kg granite grinder and use that to refine the nibs for a good few hours before adding other ingredients and starting the conching part of the process. When supply cannot meet demand I might need to find something else but at the moment that is working fine.
My other concern was cleaning - as I use several types of bean and make small batches I only want to have to clean as few machines as possible to minimise losses. This way I only clean the grinder and. later, the temperer.

DUffy

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Permalink Reply by holycacao on August 25, 2010 at 3:01am

Quantity will dictate the best grinding method. We've used stone grinders in the beginning and now use a hammer mill and 3 roll refiner. The hammer mill quickly grinds the nibs into a rough liquor. The roll refiners take longer to refine but give the best results in my humble opinion. Having 2 refiners in series would speed up production - as would having larger rolls $$$. I think most chocolate makers would tell you that you make chocolate with what you have. Its possible to find a good deal, be prepared to fix up machines (a necessity in this business).

Jo

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Permalink Reply by Omar Forastero on November 22, 2012 at 8:31am

I stone grinded some chocolate the other day and realised it is the best method to achieve a better smoother tastier chocolate. Now because I am not using one at work and because I will need a large industrial refiner to match demand. I would love to ask you fine people. What's a good industrial refining machine?

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on November 23, 2012 at 8:12am

What's the best color car, red or blue?  Depends on what you value.  There are lots of ways to particle size reduce.  For me, the best one is a million dollar buehler refiner or an air classified mill.  That's not going to be the best for most of you because of the infrastructure, volume, and cost requirements.

if you're a little guy making 10 lbs a day, a stone roller mill is probably your best bet, or a small lehman or day pilot refiner.

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Permalink Reply by Omar Forastero on November 23, 2012 at 11:43pm

Sebastian, as I mentioned, I will need an industrial machine, to be exact I would like to have the flexibility to produce up to 4000 Kgs a day. So if I consider money not being an issue (since It will be coming out of my employers pockets :) ) are you recommending the buehler? 

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on November 24, 2012 at 11:20am

Buehler makes a mighty fine series of 5 roll refiners.   You may want to get a smaller pre-refiner (3 roll) to use in conjunction with the 5 roll.

I'd love for money not to be an issue 8-)  

Lebanon eh - i used to go hiking in the mountains there with a massive bear of a priest named Vartok.  Beautiful place.

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Permalink Reply by Omar Forastero on November 25, 2012 at 5:58am

AWesome I'll look into the 5 rolls and see what happens.

Yeah hiking in Lebanon is fun. Before moving to Dubai I used to go every weekend but I never met Vartok.cool name. it goes better on a psychedellic music artist if you ask me.  :-)

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on November 25, 2012 at 7:41am

Well, this was not a typical priest 8-)  

Dubai's just too hot for me.  Dune bashing's a lot of fun though 8-)

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