The Aillio Bullet: My End-Game Roaster?

[@LivingTheLifeRetired]

Thanks for going through your thought process.

[@jessiewissman697]

I started with a popcorn roaster two years ago then upgraded to an air fryer with a rotating basket. Now I have the Ikawa home roaster and Kaleido M2, both of which I love. I was thinking about getting something larger as I was looking to start selling beans part time as a hobby. I enjoy sharing my coffee with friends and family and the coffee I make for the most part tastes better than what I can get at the store, maybe because I’m biased and am proud that I was able to make it. If not, it makes me want to try harder to get better at roasting. I still love trying new coffee shops and tasting new coffees.

[@brookrice2222]

I graduated from a popcorn roaster one year ago and purchased the hand-cranked version of the Kaldi mini. At the time, I was thinking about the Kaldi wide. But I wanted to really get to know the roasting process. I never thought about how the closed version would affect the flavor, but I realize now that you are right. The downside, as you can imagine, is temperature control. But, I actually use mine indoors on my kitchen stove with the fan on. I love the results, but my palate is still developing, so perhaps I will upgrade in a few years.

[@coffeechronicler]

The Kaldi Mini is charming little thing. A good device to learn on and get close to the bean!

[@marklewis6764]

I agree. The mini is great and so easy to use. Using mine inside. 1 year now and still learning. No airflow control of course. Not sure of the effect of that, but the perforated drum helps remove chaff and gases/smoke.

[@GillesTrepanier71]

Hello Asser, I just received my new Aillio Bullet and I must agree with you, it’s an incredible machine. I enjoyed your video, thank you.

[@VirtualCoffeeLab]

Hello Asser, thank you for sharing your home coffee roasting journey. Like you, i have experienced a natural progression to desire more control, higher volume, and better tasting coffee while roasting coffee at home. I have a friend who owns an Aillio Bullet and is very happy with the quality and capabilities of the roaster. Thank you for the time and effort to grow your channel and provide quality content for home coffee enthusiasts! - Mike

[@eddiefrere9759]

Actually just started roasting coffee this past summer! Got the Popper is a coffee roaster from Sweet Maria's and have loved the journey so far. The ability to change the temperature and fan speed definitely offered the control I was looking for as a beginner and has allowed me to roast some pretty tasty coffees so far!

[@coffeechronicler]

Popper looks cool, I'm sure it's a lot better than the modded basic one I was working with bach then!

[@bibber514]

I started I. The Mr. Fresh fluid bed coffee roasting. I then jumbled up to the Aillio. I love it and love roasting as often as I can!

[@coffee3470]

Mine is from 8.2016 - still happy!

[@andreamunari5800]

TY

[@murphtoncoffee]

Currently Roasting on the bullet aswell!

[@barnardalbert]

Appreciate your sharing of your roasting journey! Thanks

[@deankayser8428]

Thanks for your video. I used a Hottop roaster for 2 years before “biting the bullet” and buying an Alleo unit. Though it scared me at first, I am now comfortably doing roasts via the computer interface. I suspect this will be my last roaster. Expensive, yes, but the build quality and experience of using seem to justify it all. Dean in Iowa.

[@dimaangert]

I am roasting at home since 2005 I think, went all the way from Air Popper->HWP->I-Roast 2->Coffee-Tech Torrefattore 1kg->Bullet. Up until now it was difficult to find a commercial coffee which I liked more than my own, but with my shift towards lighter profiles I find competition, especially for pourover and especially from DAK roasters. Left you a comment on your Scandinavian profile, will definitely try it the next time. I have personally never roasted that light.

[@coffeechronicler]

Good luck with the profile, it should give you a result quite similar to lighter scandinavian roasters! Remember it will work best with high density fruity beans such as washed Yirgacheffe.

[@marklewis6764]

Hi Asser, very informative, thanks. I'm considering the Bullet, so your viewpoint is valuable. I've been through the cast iron pan and popcorn popper stage and now on a Kaldi mini; it's simpler than the wide and works fine inside but the airflow control (lack) is a potential issue, as is the heating control. So, art but not science. I recently tried some great lightish roasts (as espresso) in Tokyo and tried to replicate in the Kaldi. Could get a light and fruity flavour but not quite the smoothness that the professionals produced. Could be the smoke/airflow issue..Anyway, thanks for your work.

[@jamesbrightman3997]

Been roasting on my Bullet for over two years now. It's a great machine! I'd love to see more videos on your journey with roasting on it and what you've learned for different profiles, etc, especially as you can't translate traditional thermocouple approaches necessarily, as you noted.

[@coffeechronicler]

I'll definitely share some more profiles and ideas. I love how it's actually precise and useful to share data and not just pointers with the Bullet.

[@jamesbrightman3997]

@@coffeechronicler Hey, I just looked at your profile on RoastWorld for the Sidamo bean, and I'm wondering if you marked Yellow correctly? 177 on the IBTS seems like it would be late, very much into the browning phase. I typically mark YP around 165 on IBTS. I'm also curious if you believe messing with drum speed is necessary. I've always left it at D9, and I think Rob Hoos does the same.

[@coffeechronicler]

@@jamesbrightman3997 No, yellow isn't marked correctly, so just ignore that :) I know several authorities don't think it's a good idea, but my roasts really became a lot sweeter when I started experimenting with the drum speed. It might also have to do with the batch size as well (0.5kg), so may not be necessary for a full batch.

[@grey8544]

Hey James! I have had the bullet for a few months now, but still struggling to figure out how to roast best on it. Could you help me be a better roaster? Haha

[@Fullcity_]

Thanks for the video! I started on a kaldi wide and upgrading to a bullet tomorrow!

[@coffeechronicler]

Enjoy! It's a completely different league

[@richardrandolph9794]

I use a Big Green Egg with a rotisserie and basket. Fun stuff. The Aillio Bullett looks really interesting. Maybe I should invest in one and save the BGE for ribs and chicken.

[@ronaldreid2185]

I went through a similar process, starting with a cheap motor driven perforated drum over a gas stove, to the same Kaldi wide with thermocoupler mod for Artisan. I now have the Kaldi Fortis with chaff collector. I considered the Bullet, but I judged it too pricey (I regret that now). The Kaldi Fortis serves me well, the chaff collector is essential to make it a conduction/convection roaster, and a needle valve controlled gas burner is needed to get consistent results. The Fortis isn't nearly as much work as the Kaldi wide, but controlling the gas needs your attention all the time. I'm struggling to eliminate the flick & crash at the end of the roast. From time to time I order some beans from Square Mile Coffee to see how I'm doing, and while I'm not unhappy with the results, there's always room for improvement.

[@coffeechronicler]

I was also eyeing the Fortis and New Wide 400 for a while, and they do look significant improvements over the original Kaldi Wide. But the jump from one of those to a Bullet is probably the same as going from a La Pavoni to a Decent. So both are fun but very different UX!

[@wookieface]

Very interesting video! Would love to hear more about where and how your source the green beans you roast. I myself was roasting for many years on a popcorn popper, settling on a recipe doing 200 gram batches, with the "stop and stir" method you also described. With an empty can on top of the popper, and with vigorous stirring especially in the first parts of the roast, I had some pretty good results with batches that size, as the bigger mass of beans would hold on to higher temperatures. I did still end up with smoky or roasty beans though. Now I'm roasting on a Boca Boca 500, which is very hands on as well, with bigger batches and better results, but would love to one day upgrade to the Aillio.

[@coffeechronicler]

Bocaboca is pretty cool for the price and size! The next step up is an expensive one. I source green beans from a range of places and directly from farmers as well. Royal Coffee is definitely worth checking out for greens.

[@darylfortney8081]

Regarding batch size it really isn't so difficult to just run 2 roasts back to back on something smaller like the Kaffeelogic. I mean we are talking about 12 minutes for a roast. Also doing it this way avoids too much smoke and makes maintenance much easier in terms of chaff removal and cleaning the unit.

[@KettleRiseRanch]

Been using behmore for years. Just destroyed my third. Now that it’s at 500 bucks I am going for the bullet that’s much more expensive and joining your journey.

[@stemazzo84]

Great one Asser! What a beast the Bullet! I started from a popcorn popper after reading on your website 😁 I always found very interesting also the Quest, the Huky 500 (both from Asia), and the Cormorant from UK! Nothing as smart as the Bullet though! The ROEST from Norway is also pretty amazing! Best bang for my buck became the Kaffelogic which does great for my 1kg of beans consumed per month 😁 And I can roast in my kitchen if I place it close to the open window! Curious to know what’s your monthly consumption 🤣

[@coffeechronicler]

Thanks Stefano! There are indeed some other cool options out there now. Hope to test Kaffelogic one day. My coffee consumption, it's probably around 2 kg per month including everything.

[@hur-kan]

Yeah, I remember my first homebrews, which my friends liked. For me, they were disasters.

[@abiggs]

Love my Bullet!

[@maximiliankiy7916]

Hey, first of all great video! I am considering buying an aillio bullet at the moment to learn more about roasting and eventually grow that into like a small commercial thing. One thing I've noticed is that the bullet's power setting are only in steps from 0-9 whilst on the big commercial roaster I am roasting on at work has gas from 0-100 where I could choose any setting in between (let's say 73). How does that compare? What if I have to slow down the roast after first crack in order to stay close to my desired end temp but I could only go from P1 to P0. Any experiences or advice? would highly appreciate it. Cheers

[@sebastiangrasst3326]

Hi, is there any chance you could make a short video while roasting? I am quiet interested in this roaster, for starters for some home roasts, but as well for selling my beans in the future. So i am really interested how much dust it will produce with 600gr / 1 kg green beans. I appreciate your awesome vids & would be really glad if we could get in touch somehow

[@JonFairhurst]

Now that some time has passed, are you getting better roasts? I’ve heard that the Bullet mainly uses conduction, which doesn’t necessarily produce the best roasts. So, I’m wondering if you’ve mastered it to the point where you are really happy with it, or if you’ve hit a ceiling when it comes to quality.

[@coffeechronicler]

I have made a decent number of exceptional roasts. But I have also made many that were not great or too dark or light. But honestly, I attribute that more to me keeping experimenting or bad greens rather than the Bullet. I tend to buy a lot of different origins in small bags, and in these instances, it can be hard to tell where the fault lies if I just do 2 x 500 g roasts of a given bean. I should probably just stick to a rotation of a few beans to get a better grasp. But regarding the conduction question, I don't think it's an issue.

[@JonFairhurst]

I recently got the Kaffelogic Nano 7, but unfortunately, the temperature probe developed a fault yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll get it sorted soon. I also have a variety of beans, so I hadn’t perfected a roast either. I’ve had many good roasts, some that were a bit light or dark, and some failures when the roaster detects a runaway temperature and stops the roast. I’m looking forward to getting my roaster repaired. But if it doesn’t work out, I might look at alternatives…

[@JuliusSP1]

Can one easily transition from the bullet to a larger commercial roaster? Also is the quality nearly equivalent that you can produce with this bullet compared to a larger commercial roaster?

[@coffeechronicler]

Easily is probably a stretch. But you can take most of what you learn and apply it. And yes, roast quality is fully on par with "commercial".

[@caffeinated_slacker]

Fun and informative, thanks! I’ve been roasting for about a decade on a Behmor 1600+ drip roaster, and getting good results with my preferred roast levels (med-dark, stopping right around 2nd crack). My main interest in upgrading is getting a roaster with greater capacity. Have you tried med-dark roasts with the Bullet? Also, what’s the smoke like? Can you roast indoors with a hood?

[@coffeechronicler]

Thanks! I didn't roast many 2nd crack batches. For half-capacity & nordic light roasts, I can clear the smoke with passive venting near the window easily, but there's definitely more smoke with dark roasts.

[@zenASDF]

Is this the V1 or V2 version?

[@coffeechronicler]

V2

[@coffeechronicler]

🔥☕ *Get my Scandinavian light roast profile here* : coffeechronicler.com/aillio-bullet-review/

[@DemirJPN]

Great video! I was kinda hoping to see the Bullet on your channel! And thanks for sharing your recipe! I was actually about to comment and ask. I’m a bullet owner who had the same journey as you but compressed in 2-3years 🤣 I stared with a popcorn machine(as I had one already), modified it with thermocouple and was roasting about 50g/roast. I moved on to build my own 500g roaster, because the popcorn maker could not keep up with consumption. I used a floursifter, heatgun and drill and the roaster kept going for a while until some parts melted 😅 I was in a good economic state at the time so instead of repairing I just decided that I wanted the Bullet so here I am 🎉 I’ll give your recipe a try as soon as I get a hold of same kind of beans. Cheers and keep it up!

[@coffeechronicler]

@@DemirJPN Thanks! I could and should probably have upgraded a few years earlier since I'm enjoying the Bullet and the coffee it produces so much now. Hope the recipe works out for you, please let me know if there any technical problems with getting it from roast.world.

[@wright.boy_]

Did you consider the Roest? Was its capacity too low?

[@coffeechronicler]

Yes, exactly. Not really what I was looking for.

[@tesha8202]

Can't wait to get 250g coffee beans from you (:

[@ThatHz-]

I wish the display was white instead of red

[@coffeechronicler]

I'm okay with that. I'm annoyed by the yellow sticker :)

[@Coffeecrops]

It is not expensive

[@T.H.Kim94]

Bullet is 5.4k here lol. Shame!

[@coffeechronicler]

Yes, unfortunately roasting is a niche hobby, so most models tend to be pricy.

[@IamMotionMedia]

anyone considering a bullet should probably purchase a Roest instead. They offer far greater functionality and flexibility, with their numerous sensors and features.

[@coffeechronicler]

They have completely different batch sizes and price ranges, so they should appeal to different types of users. For me, the Bullet is a better fit.

[@fuzion1094]

Totally different price bracket....

[@zsvrljuga1]

My roasting journey start with GeneCafe cbr101, than i go to KafeLogic and I hope soon will be Bulet. No way you can save money with roasting, but you learn a lot and it bring satisfaction, also your coffee drinking friends are happy too. Roasting business is so big project that for most of us is too far from reality.

[@oojichan]

Agreed. Been roasting on Gene Cafe for almost decade. Perhaps my roasts are good or my taste buds haven't matured, but can't yet find desire to change to Bullet. Might consider if I start business since cost prohibits.