I remember my first time seeing Aillio Bullet on the internet; it was even before my roasting carrier. I was amazed by all the possibilities that Aillio was giving to the person behind it, and I fell in love with how it looked, unfortunately, at that time, it was only available on certain markets. Now, it looks quite different. I see Bullets at homes of roasting enthusiasts, in cafes that roast their coffee, in roastery environments as a trial roaster, and sometimes even as a small production roaster for new businesses. We use it in a roastery as a trial roaster whenever we receive new beans or we’re creating new blends.
But! What is Bullet? Aillio Bullet R1 is a small coffee roaster that allows its user to roast up to 1 kg of coffee in one go (or a batch as roasters say). It allows the user to get full control of what is happening to coffee inside of its roasting chamber by adjusting three parameters:
– Heat
– Airflow
– Drum speed
Changing each of the parameters will determine how quick or slow your roast will be. It means that Aillio has all the possibilities of bigger commercial roasting machines. A very important feature of Aillio is its way of measuring temperature. Like most coffee roasters out there, R1 measures bean temperature by temperature probe, but like almost no other roaster, Bullet also measures bean and drum temperature using its infrared bean temperature sensor, which gives users the ability to create and repeat their desired profile. What is also important to note is the fact that you can simultaneously roast a batch of beans and cool down the previous one. This will speed up your roasting session.
Apart from R1s hardware, Aillio offers software that is available for Macs and Windows. RoasTime offers everything you need from roasting software: roast control with all the data you need, history of your roasts, roast automation, green coffee management, roast profiles database, and more.
If this is not enough, Aillio offers an amazing roasters community that connects its users in one place – Roast. World. If you find any issue with the roaster itself, you need help with a particular coffee, or you have questions about the maintenance of your beloved roaster, this is the place to look for answers and ask your questions.
This amount of possibilities might give you a headache at the start, but believe me; it is easier than it looks. I will walk you through the journey of roasting on Bullet step by step.
“Ok, but is this for me?” is the question you can ask yourself after reading this short introduction to Aillio Bullet. Let me get that straight with a couple of scenarios.
If you’re deep into brewing coffee at home and you want to explore the world of coffee roasting, then yes! Features of R1 will give you all the freedom and consistency that you are looking for, and you will get enough coffee to share with your family and friends.
If you’re a café owner who would like to sell your beans and, maybe, in the future, start a commercial roastery, then yes, again! Consistency, ease of use, and automation will be your best friends.
You are a professional roaster, but your production roaster is too big for testing and developing your product range, so yes, one more time! Decent size, all the data you can “transfer” to your production machine, and all the similarities to the classic roasting machine will help your business grow and develop.
Our step-by-step roasting guide has been design for you by Aleksander Smet, 2022 Polish Roasting and Cup Tasters Champion.
