Building a machine is very much like cooking. You are taking simple things putting them together in such a way that the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
Next, Next Video: I awaken my ancient bloodline of the divine creators of our mortal plane and use my newfound unlimited power to create cocoa beans without husks
I use an old farmer blower (used to blow husks from wheat and other types of farm products) to remove that. Tho, that's cause i already own one, blow drier on a sieve with decently large eyes should work too, i s'pose.
I have a dust cyclone in my woodshop ..it's a smaller one that attaches to my shop vacc....it looks almost exactly like part of that apparatus he showed....(and the bag on the "end" .look like it was attached to one of the smaller capacity dust extractors...
I winnow my coffee beans on a piece of window screen set on top of a box fan that's resting on two lawn chair. If I have to do it inside, I use a second fan to blow the chaff out the window. Seems like it should work for cocoa beans.
It works but is ungodly messy. When using a fan, I do it outside and it looks like I got hit by a cocoa husk hurricane. Doing it inside like he is attempting to do is a recipe for disaster without a proper winnower.
It's easy.. first you have to measure the resistance of the husks and nibs. Then you divide those values by their weight in relation to the humidity. Then you put everything in a stainless steel bowl and connect it to a flux capacitor, that you configurated with the calculated values. It's just a bit hard to get the plutonium for the flux capacitor.. the rest should be easy-peasy
Hi Alex I was recently rewatching some of your old videos and stumbled upon the " 5 courses 10$ menu ! Trader Joe's challenge " In this video u use a technique to separate squash seeds from the pulp which might be a solution to your problem: putting the whole thing in water The nibs , being more dense and heavy, will sink to the bottom and the husk will float on the suface
It won't work on these type of material Cocoa, like coffee bean and tea leaf Will release some of their property to water What's the point of buying super premium beans if you going to dilute it at the end
If they have different densities you could separate them in a water bath. Preferably, a cold water bath so you don't extract any flavors from the nibs. I don't know a thing about chocolate making, just giving ideas.
NO!! Water is the absolute enemy when it comes to chocolate making. The nib WILL absorb water almost instantly and require an additional step to dry at a minimum. You will still end up with a tea though as some flavors will be extracted no matter what. Problem is I am pretty sure the nib floats too.
Alex, I'd recommend searching "seed cleaner" as a basis for your contraption. Basically screened trays at a slight downward angle that you can shake back and forth so the heavy nibs slowly slide down, while a fan blows the husks up and out. I'd imagine a tote bin with a hole and an adjustable fan blowing in the bottom corner, and a vacuum in the opposite top corner. Multiple passes are expected and normal. I grew up on a farm watching my dad and grandpa adjusting the fans and speed of the sieves of combine harvesters for wheat, barley, soy, etc. and the concept is identical
Seed cleaners are in fact the basis for most small scale cocoa winnowers. Instead of using a fan though, the most common technique is actually to use only a vacuum (shop vac) and pull the air through the husk/nibs as it is falling. The lighter husk gets pulled off into the vacuum leaving the nib to fall. Having the mixture bounce off obstacles on the down path helps to separate it out too. The key to the system is being able to adjust the amount of vacuum applied to the falling nib/husk mix.
Alex~I'm deeply impressed! Video posted 3 minutes ago. 302 views and 55 likes! You are indeed a lucky man (the hard work paying off kind of "lucky") and we, your fans are so grateful for you. Your hard work and dedication is recognized and revered. Thank you. Jenn 💖 a huge fan in Canada 🍁
I have a recommendation. You know how cereal tends to separate when you shake it? How about putting the beans it all in a large container and attaching a motor with an unbalanced counterweight (aka your drill) and running it for a while (the vibration will shake the container and separate the denser parts from the lighter parts). Greetings from Germany!
You could use dry panning techniques for extracting the husks, the same technique used to separate gold from sand and dirt, u could build a machine for doing that
Search “Zig-Zag Seed Separator” on RU-vid. It will work perfectly for you, very simple, and can be built for less than $40 USD... unless you have to buy a shop vacuum. You can adjust the power to match the weight of husk you are separating by how much you open the inlet baffle.
There is a pretty cheap and efficient solution to winnowing, a lot of bird people do it. You see, parrots eat the seeds but leave the husks in the feeder, so a lot of the uneaten seeds go to waste when you replace their food. So people came up with a box that has two tunnels and a fan that blows the husks away in the second compartment but lightweight seeds drop to the first one. Simple but it works. You would need some plywood a computer cooler and a few nails. Try Goodling "bird seed separator machine"
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe" - Carl Sagan *video cuts* "What's up guys, it's Alex and today we're going to make our own miniature universe to truly make... Our own... EVERYTHING!" *video cuts and editing showing some spoilers* "Waaaaaaaah!?" "Ouiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" "Oh no. No no no..." *jump cut* "... They were not supposed to nuke each other..."
This Old Tony could likely build something that would do this. And it would be another very interesting collaboration. But you would have to do the initial design, of course. Great stuff, Alex, and thumbs up!
ok so, Dyson vacuums use a series of cones to separate particle sizes (they got the idea from the filtration methods that have been used for decades in mines). Perhaps something like that could work for winnowing? Either that or the principles for chromatography, where you basically send particles around a curve, and the heavier bits fly to the outside of the curve. Either way lol, I'm really enjoying this chocolate series, and I can't wait to see what you come up with! For me, I was intrigued by the wet grinding of the chocolate, so I would like to see the difference between wet ground raw chocolate and wet ground roasted chocolate.
Next week on French Guy Cooking: I immigrated to South America, began cocoa farming labor force, recruited seasonal workers to militia, held coup d'etat, ceased government, became President for nine terms, established chocolate republic.
this machine looks like a Woodwork dust collector. or a cyclone. which is an addition to a normal vacuum cleaner to remove the heavy sawdust from the air before reaching the sawdust. i know a german woodworker and youtuber did bild one or two himself. Michale Homberger if i remeber correct. good luck with that.
Well, since I am from the middle east I used to see ppl doing the "Winnoing" to the BULGUR🌾🌾 in the first steps of its making. By holding the crushed bulgur in a big bowl at their head's level then slowly let the grains drop from it (almost like you did with your hands), the air flow will help the separation and a fan would help alot with this too. But yeah as you said you have to do it outside because it is messy Good luck!
I always thought the best way to seperate chaff by hand was to have a broad bowl with the seed and husk, and to toss it gently in the air and catch it again. The moment where it is suspended above the bowl allows the wind to seperate chaff while maintaining control of the nibs.
@@addledhead Wow, that reminded me of my grandma😬. She did it this way. So yeah there are two methods, but yours is a bit hard for someone who never did it before. Take care (:
I spent some of my youth on a "living history" farm....there was a platform, (often doubling as a dance floor, and occasionally as a shearing floor)...that was always called "The Winnowing floor"...it was about 30'-40' across. freshly harvested wheat, was spread out to dry a bit, then threshed with a flail or wooden roller ....swept back up into a pile on corner closest to the windward, we would take a wide coal shovel full, and "loft" it into the air...the breeze would catch the chaff (the husks) and carry them further downwind than the heavier, denser grains. if you did it right, the two would have a pretty well defined separation.... one of the tasks I got tapped to do, was sweeping the chaff up and disposing of it, and pushing the grain back to the main pile so it could be "run again"....
Hi Alex! Although it's a little late for this advice - we do something like this in India a lot when trying to separate the peanut husk/skin from the peanuts themselves. What works in households is that you can place this in a big tray and kind of jerk it upwards in order to get all the particles to rise in the air. While this is happening, blow on it. It works perfectly!
Hi Alex, I enjoyed watching your new video! I’m using a regular juicer to crack the beans. It’s a really efficient method. As a inspiration I want to send you the link of the winnowed I use: shop.chocolatealchemy.com/collections/equipment/products/sylph-winnower Works great, still a bit messy but it’s not too bad. I winnowed quite a while with a hair dryer. Nibs and husks in a bowl, blow into the bowl and shake it a bit. But it’s creating a huge mess. Looking forward to what you come up with! Angi :)
The way that machine is layed out, there's no way it isn't using a cyclone. There's a stainless looking cone on the left of the machine that makes me think of the DIY cyclones you can buy on Amazon, which would be a pretty straightforward solution if it worked. EDIT: Alternatively, you could build one using a food grade 5 gallon bucket. I've done this for woodworking and there are many slight variations and tutorials people have come up with.
You should do the subtitle text with a black outline. White letters with a black outline can be easily seen on top of any image. That's why memes use font like that
How about pvc pipe with hopper that shakes the mixture slowly toward the downward chute and vacuum line from above? The vacuum catches the husks, catch tray below for nibs
Lots of folks have already recommended looking at cyclone dust separators, as you have in the short clip at the end. You consulted This Old Tony, now you need to get back the the original build it yourself guy RU-vid jockey, Matthias Wandel. His cyclone separators are great. I built one for my shop and it works perfect. I didn't make the blower though. His and Marius Hornberger's are great builds.
heavy separated from light particles? Like a uranium centrifuge maybe? Mechanically speaking, I'm not suggesting you make potentially radioactive chocolate. That would really ruin yoUr day!!! Aha! -_-
I like to eat cacao beans of all kinds. I like them raw and unfermented, I like them raw but fermented, I like them fermented and roasted. I like cacao :)
How about a low quality vacuum?? Certainly if it’s a Dyson, everything will be sucked up. But, a low quality vacuum will suck up the husks. Otherwise, have you considered reversing the suction on a vacuum? Blowing away the husks onto a canvas or tarp will stop the creation of a mess. Merci pour tout Alex!!
Use gravity+wind resistance to shoot nibs+husks across row of buckets. Central buckets are pass-through, nearer buckets should be nibs (higher mass/wind resistance), further blown pieces should be husks. The pass-through could contain a further light chopping before re-processing. Or... Use a kids popcorn maker without the heat on! ☺️
I tried to build a winnowing machine out of a 5 gallon bucket and a bunch of PVC. Ended up purchasing a pre-fabricated winnower that I didn't have the tools to recreate. Before that, I was blowing the husks off my 2nd story apartment balcony and onto the sidewalk in Oakland. The sidewalk would stay crunchy for weeks.
🤪 ...hey, Alex man...... Can you hook me up w/ a few grams of beans.... I'm trying to get my chocolate fix.... Also, Can I roast the beans on a spoon in your bathroom¿? I got a spot in the park to take the nibs and conch them on a rock w/ some high grade sugar from Pakistan. 🤣🤣🤣
I built a powerful blower fan out of a broken air conditioner, hot glue and free cardboard shipping boxes when I was younger. God bless the USPS. Anyway it seems that's the scale of power you could use. Something between 50 and 100 CFM would make short work of this job. You could levitate the husks away into a filter inside a box then tweak the speed until it isn't also blowing the nibs away. Granted I am an American and excessive power sort of gets my juices flowing in precisely the stereotypical fashion you are imagining.
Alex, I have been unable to find a francophile pronouncing "culinaire". I told my daughter that the english "culinary" stems from the French Culinaire, and the proper pronounciation in English should follow the French and be "cue-lin-airy" (cue like the synonym for hint or the white ball in billiards) rather than "cull-in-airy" (like "cull" as in removing part of a population to thin it out). Actually from my high school French studies I think the French pronunciation is "koo-lin-aire" rather then kyu or cue as I wrote above. So what do you think? Can you tackle this in a video?
Hi Alex, I love your videos. I don't normally write to creators, but I just had to ask why you changed your channel name? It seems like you will now be incredibly hard to find. Thanks!
The tangy notes you are getting in the raw beans is vinegar. The bacteria responsible for the fermentation of the cacao beans creates vinegar as a by-product. Your crumbling of the bean when trying to peel the beans is largely because you aren't being very delicate. We can peel ours as a whole bean about 80-90% of the time. It is however VERY slow. Hand peeling takes hours to get a reasonable amount ready to process. A winnower is definitely the way to go. Chocolate Alchemy has some good DIY plans for building a winnower. Using the airflow to blow out the husk is effective but yes it is VERY messy!
As I was watching, I thought, how about a cyclone separator? Mattias Wandel has made them with 5 gallon buckets and has some great videos on the topic. And then I saw the last shot of you watching someone using a cyclone separator. I guess we know where this is going then.
Just heard your interview on Milk Street radio NPR. I heard him introduce a French guy named Alex, and had a feeling it was you, always a welcome voice.
While it's fun to build a machine to winnow things (looking forward to the next episode), it's not THAT hard to manually separate the husks from the cocoa nibs. If you gently press the roasted beans, they can come up almost unbroken or may be broken into 2-3 pieces which you can easily separate by hand. Agreed this method will take a little longer and doesn't involve power tools, it's totally doable.
first thought... im curious how close it would be..... chip separator, the type used in woodworking shops conncted to a vacuum. the heavier parts nibs will fall to the bottom of the container, and the lighter parts husks will suck out into the vacuum.... but then again.... im probably very wrong
Different solutions I saw in the comments: 1) Use the static electricity from a balloon 2) Pan it like gold 3) use a low suck vacuum 4) put the nibs and husks in water- the husks should float. 5) put the nibs and husks in a tumbler of sorts. The lighter husks should come out on top
Salut Alex! In Finland they clean berries after picking them up with vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner sucks all the light leaves and another trash. Here is video for that ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NBVkkBPz71A.html or search for "marjojen puhdistus imuri"
You're becoming the modern day Willy Wonka. You just need a sweet tophat. Whoever figured how to do this with chocolate deserves a Nobel prize. It's more complicated than I ever imagined
Alex, I hope you see this.. I used to help my mom do this with other grains.. Its a simple procedure, 1 flat pan is all you need.. Just make it jump and blow a little.. 0:27 in ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-92OcCcj7jCE.html Good luck!
You need a small centrifuge- you can make one easily. :) a perforated canister inside a centrifuge. I've seen them. (ask these guys, how they did it (www.charleys.com.au/contact-us/)
Hey Alex! Try to use a metal pan ( "comal" in México ) to "almost" burn the shell of the beans, that way you can pull it out with your fingers, later you can bake the cocoa in the oven! I used this method to make traditional chocolate in México.
Try using a hot air popcorn popping machine with the heating element removed. It is designed to separate particles by the difference in surface area/density which I think is what you have here.
I think you could build simple cyclone and connect it to the Y shape tube, where through long side you will throw (i do not know proper word) mix, and throuh the branch you must connect cyclone with vacuum. Light parts should fall down, while light will be sucked in cyclone. I use this method for separating cranberry and blueberry from the leaves
There is a youtube channel by Aaron Sylvester in Grenada where they go through the chocolate making process from growing beans to making chocolate. They have an elaborate DIY winnowing machine made of pvc pipe and a vacuum but the video shows the principles of how the machine functions.
It might sound stupid... but would a gold pan work (no water)? Can you agitate it enough in a gold pan to separate the heavy from the light? Like how codyslab separated lead bullets from dirt by dry panning.
So, I am in Ghana right now, and I can only buy the raw cocoa. What you have there is dry or is it fermented and dried ? Because the fresh cocoa is different. Please Alex help me! Btw, love this Channel. I wondered how all the french viewers must feel when he talkes french ... must be kinda nice.
Use a big container, put your crumbles inside and vibrate the conatainer. I am not quite sure what the physical term is but through the vibration bigger particles will move upwards and lighter particles will move downwards because the get "compacted". Here is a video showcasing what i mean. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uKAMpz--3IE.html (not my video)
Sounds like you're making a fluidized bed! Check the falling velocity of the husk and the nib, that is, the velocity of upward air needed for the particle to be suspended in the air chute. Control the air such that it can blow the husks up and out, but the heavier nibs remain. Good luck and much love to you!!!
How about something simple... like a device similar to an air popcorn popper? Blow air upwards through the mixture, and based on the length of the vertical pipe and velocity of the airflow, you should be able to separate out the husks from the nibs.
Alex, use a filter and pass the cocoa nibs and husk mixture through. Then as they fall, use a hair dryer to blow out the lighted husk pieces. Rinse and repeat. It maybe more time consuming but it could help it you don't have the industrial equipment.
Maybe you could try decanting? It’s used in chemistry. If you do some research it’s very simple. You basically use water to separate the two, since the husk are less dense than the nibs, the husk will probably float and the mobs will sink.
