A Stronghold S2 roaster on the RoasTronix sales space in San Diego. Each day Espresso Information photograph by Howard Bryman.
South Korean roaster maker Stronghold has launched international gross sales of its new and smallest roaster, the S2, designed for countertop pattern roasting, dwelling roasting and micro-batch manufacturing in cafes.
Standing about 2 toes tall and weighing roughly 60 kilos, the 300-gram-capacity S2 roaster applies the identical mixture of warmth and agitation as Stronghold’s bigger machines, together with convection from sizzling air, radiant warmth from halogen components and conduction from contact with agitator blades that stir the beans inside a vertical drum.
Each day Espresso Information photograph by Howard Bryman.
“The roaster has quantity of energy, so you are able to do a fairly quick roast, much like a pattern roaster,” Stronghold international ambassador and champion barista Ben Put advised Each day Espresso Information on the World of Espresso San Diego commerce present. “Nevertheless it additionally works rather well for small-batch, filter stuff.”
(Learn all of DCN’s WOC San Diego protection.)
New to the S2, and shortly to be included in the remainder of Stronghold’s lineup, is a finer decision of management. Whereas the warmth and air techniques in present Stronghold roasters have supplied a 20-step adjustment vary in increments of 0.5, the S2 introduces 0.1 increments, dividing its vary into 100 steps.
Put stated the finer tuning might enable for higher copy from roast to roast, whereas the machine itself is appropriate for environments requiring quite a lot of roast samples, similar to busy cupping labs, or at farms or mills because of the machine’s bodily robustness.
“We’ve additionally seen increasingly more cafes understand that, to be extra worthwhile, they should roast in-house,” Put stated. “If you happen to’re a really small cafe, this may be an excellent roaster to roast in-house.”
Each day Espresso Information photograph by Howard Bryman.
Customers can management all the S2’s variables in actual time, or they will obtain, design and execute full profiles through a built-in web-connected touchscreen console or a wi-fi-linked exterior machine.
A conventional handbook trier protrudes from one facet of the unit, and a small glass window offers a view into the roast chamber. Smoke-mitigation techniques can connect with the S2 on the exhaust port on its again, and the machine cools beans in its discharge tray.
Stronghold supplied an early sneak peek on the S2 at its sales space on the SCA Expo in Houston final yr earlier than launching gross sales of the machine in Asian markets. The official international gross sales launch coincided with World of Espresso San Diego.
Inside Stronghold’s personal portfolio, the S2 serves because the smallest and most accessible entry level in a lineup that presently consists of the S7Pro, S7X, S8X and S9X, which vary from capacities of 850 grams within the S7 platform as much as 8 kilograms within the S9 platform.
Each day Espresso Information photograph by Howard Bryman.
Throughout the broader roasting gear panorama, the S2 provides to a rising class of compact, feature-rich electrical machines that blur the road between pattern roasting, dwelling use and nano-scale industrial manufacturing. Current examples embody: the portability-focused Nucleus Hyperlink; Aillio Bullet machines; the brand new Ikawa Pro50X, Go and 100X machines; and the next-generation 200-gram Roest machine, amongst others.
Out there in black, inexperienced, white and ivory, the Stronghold S2 is promoting in the US for about US$9,000. Houston-based RoasTronix is the unique distributor of Stronghold machines within the U.S., whereas Calgary-based Eight Ounce Espresso not too long ago turned the unique Canadian distributor.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the affiliate editor of Each day Espresso Information by Roast Journal. He’s based mostly in Portland, Oregon.
