I admit it, this week’s Ask the Alchemist is kind of a cop out but they ARE valid questions I’ve been receiving and these are all things I’ve been wanting to update everyone on, so here we go.
Do you teach classes?
When will your next Roasting seminar be?
OMFG….COVID. Right?! We had our biggest teaching year yet planned for 2020 and….’nuff said. I know everyone, their brother, sister, dog, sourdough starter and their aunt jumped onboard for virtual classes….and I didn’t. There is only so much you can teach virtually when you are depending upon your senses so much. So we just hunkered down and carried on.
Covid certainly isn’t over, but we are (kind of) learning to deal with it. That said, I am so very glad to announce our next Roasting Seminar on November 4th in Seattle (and maybe the 3rd).
All the deets are here: Roasting Seminar
Is the new winnower available?
It is taking me a little longer than I had hoped to get the Flux winnower up to 88 mph (so curious who gets the joke). The plan originally was to have the designs finished in May, the machine shop starting them in June and the first Beta users getting them in August. Alas the design required a little bit of rework for both functionality and manufacturing. Both are (fingers crossed) now sussed out, the drawings are to the metal shop and we are getting up to speed. October??.....crossing another set of fingers. Really I won’t know until the units arrive back and we field test them. Also, the Flux will be backward compatible with the latest version of the Aether. You will need to align and drill a couple holes but that is about it. As of yet, we do not have a target price. Part of the time in design was nuance and subtle. One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
I’m not calling myself a genius. I did push back the timeline to simplify and shrink the design, and with that, hopefully reduce the price and maintenance while increasing efficiency and throughput.
I’m concerned about getting the deluxe cracker with Champion juicer has gone out of business. Can you recommend another cracker?
Yeah, Champion shutting down tossed wrench in things. As a result, we have been gathering a collection of used but not abused Champion Juicers. To actually answer your question, no, I don’t have any other pairing suggestions. I don’t care for any other cracker out there. The Deluxe cracker and Aether (and Flux) winnowers were designed to go together. I mean, come on, you would never ask for another pairing of Morticia. It is Gomez or nothing. She’d raise him from the dead before moving on….and so am I. We have a new prototype of the Champion style motor to pair with the Deluxe Cracker so our happy threesome can continue (ok, I might be a little punchy….just enjoy it).
There you go folks, short and sweet. If you are interesting in the Roasting Seminar, I suggestion checking it out on the sooner side. Space is limited and I rather expect the slots to fill up fast.