roasting beans

Anyone ever hear of a farm-built soybean roaster?
New ones are too pricey for my small farm, and roasted non-GMO beans are something like $26/bu before shipping. I have a local source for Non-gmo beans, but need to devise a way to coook'em.
The nearest roaster I know of is 2hrs+away, and mobile roasters aren't available here (s IN).

So, I'm thinking a 4" auger with a geared down motor over propane burners.
Another thought is to run the auger through a larger pipe, cap the ends and fill the chamber full of oil and heat with electric elements like the larger Dilts-Wetzel cooker (too big and too $$)

Thoughts?
Anyone ever try to do this?

I'd like to be able to roast at least a 1000# a day.
Any input is appreciated (unless it's to tell me to buy soy meal and go with the flow

Go with the flow. Roasting was a fly by night idea- didn't catch on- good reason....so easy to ruin the protein in the beans by over heating....destroying the nitrogen (protein). Just like running soybean meal through a feed grinder- heat destroys the protein. Even with commercial roasters, too much material lost in starting up and adjusting the equipment. With HM equipment, how would you test for results? Beans are too expensive to ruin protein and amino acids.

I found this from an extension article.

Urease enzyme is also destroyed by proper heating and can be used as an indicator of proper processing. To test for underheating, combine 1 part urea, 5 parts water and 10 parts soybean meal, extruded soybeans or ground, roasted soybeans in a small plastic bag. Close the bag and wait 30 seconds. If soybeans are undercooked, the urease in the soybeans will convert urea to ammonia, which can be detected by placing your nose close to the open plastic bag.

Doable stuff.
I suppose I could just go with the flow and work in town...
My hair-brained ideas do keep my family farming though!

I assume the fella that bought ear corn from me roasts beans for his cows too, he was buying beans from someone too. It's not totally unheard of still. I don't know much about it tho.

--->Paul

You are not in a dairy area as here in WI 1000's of bu of beans are roasted every year.A friend has two portable roasters and is busy year round and there are two more within 30 miles that are busy as well.PA is another dairy area that has dozens of custom roasters they even roast corn and barley for hog and steer finishing lots.My brother inlaw in KY is half owner in one and has plenty to keep him busy as well.We roast all the beans that we feed here on the farm to our dairy herd.

Where is your brother-in-law at in KY? We're near the river, maybe he would be closer than the other roasting outfits.

Are you saying soy beans aren't roasted any more? If not what is done to them? In my younger days in the early 70's I worked in a feed mill when growing soy beans came to our area and the owner bought a soybean roaster.We munched on a lot of roasted beans while working there.

He is located in the Somerset area.

Read the msg- I didn"t say beans are not being roasted anymore. But,,,big but- roasting on a commercial scale is still going on, although the typical end user of beans is still buying soybean meal......dairy, hog, poultry farmers. The little guy, running a roaster, is probably going to waste/ruin more beans than what he successfully roasts with his home unit. Cuz of the lag time between starting up and getting a good product. It parallels the concept of buying an extruder to make your own bio-diesel.
spend boo-coo bucks to make a few gallons of fuel.

Very difficult to control temperature. Need enough to destroy the tryptophan inhibitor but not "burn" the tryptophan and other amino acids making them worthless. Also need to control how much of the end product is fed to hogs. Hogs tend to put on fat similar to how it is digested. So if you feed a bunch of liquid or unsaturated fat, the hog fat will tend be more "runny" which many find objectionable. More healthy but not appetizing. Tough project to successfully accomplish and feed properly.

I grow Non-GMO corn and sell to a local feed mill. I would like to roast Non-GMO soybeans and do the same. Looking for a roaster or a design to build one. All that is needed is to heat to 240-260 degrees for 3-5 minutes to destroy the antitrypsin in the soybean that will produce 38% protein and 13% fat.

(quoted from post at 18:27:05 02/22/13) Anyone ever hear of a farm-built soybean roaster?
New ones are too pricey for my small farm, and roasted non-GMO beans are something like $26/bu before shipping. I have a local source for Non-gmo beans, but need to devise a way to coook'em.
The nearest roaster I know of is 2hrs+away, and mobile roasters aren't available here (s IN).

So, I'm thinking a 4" auger with a geared down motor over propane burners.
Another thought is to run the auger through a larger pipe, cap the ends and fill the chamber full of oil and heat with electric elements like the larger Dilts-Wetzel cooker (too big and too $$)

Thoughts?
Anyone ever try to do this?

I'd like to be able to roast at least a 1000# a day.
Any input is appreciated (unless it's to tell me to buy soy meal and go with the flow

Click to expand...

This appears to be one of those things that seems simple, but isn't all that simple. Time/temperature profiles in the literature vary widely, for one thing. Then there's the pesky bit of control and heat transfer - it's not enough to pass beans through a zone of the temperature required for the required time - the beans take time to actually get to temperature. An efficient system (as far as fuel costs) would also be set up to use the hot beans exiting to pre-warm the cold beans entering. Direct flame offers the ability to overheat easily, and control will be a complex issue. For a system that spends a long time running, you can afford to muck up a little product getting a simple system tuned - the smaller the process, the more that "tuning waste" is affecting your overall yield - which then leads to a need to increase the sophistication of the control system to minimize waste.

IF you are shooting for 240-260 F, you could possibly set up to use 15 lb steam (250F) as a controlled heat source so you don't overheat. You would need to limit the size of the operation to whatever size low-pressure boiler is permitted without needing a boiler operators license, but "home heating" steam boilers do run in that range - and as with any steam operation, lots and lots of care, attention, redundant safety devices, and you should probably get a boilermaker to deal with any welding on the steam side of the system, or (more likely better) just use fittings that don't require welding for those parts.

Some of the literature suggests that boiling (for a longer time) also works - obviously not suitable where you are looking for a roasted product you can move and store easily, but probably simpler for smaller on-farm direct feeding arrangements.

Depending on what your local market looks like, another possibility is to BECOME the guy with a portable roaster on a truck or trailer that other folks call upon.