Home Coffee Roasting

[HSTFixed]

Just posted a blog about my first experience roasting my own coffee with a 5 dollar second hand popcorn popper. I did it today so I won't be able to drink any till the morning but the process was really easy and i'm really excited. I'll follow up here with more roasts and a report on how it tastes.



City on the left. City+ on the right.

[lukasz]

I was about to post this thread. I'm going to do my first roast tomorrow. Going to use a stainless steel dog bowl and a heat gun. I've got two thrift store bread machines laying around to act as agitators, but have been too lazy to get the non-stick coating off the inside. I hear the bowl/gun works just fine.

[notoriousdjw]

I roasted for many years and tried a bunch of methods. The Behmor roaster was very good and produced consistent results. The real goal seems to be getting to first crack fast enough to avoid "baking" the beans and then controlling the roast to your desired level of roast. I was always in love with roasts between Full City and Vienna roast. HST your beans look great. Good luck!

[WadePatton]

Source for unroasted beans? I have a hard time finding un-ground coffee sometimes.

[HSTFixed]

I got my beans at Uncommon Grounds in Burlington Vt. They roast on the premises and sell un-roasted beans for 2 bucks less per lbs than roasted. I know that makes me spoiled. If I didn't have a shop downtown to buy beans I'd order them from Sweet Maria's. there are various other sources for Green beans on the interwebs, but Sweet Maria's was the one that told me to do it with a popcorn popper, and they have good info and videos on their website.

In addition to that i'm drinking the stuff I roasted yesterday.....It's really f'n good. What I thought was a City roast, might have been, but it was not enough for this variety of bean. Flavor is not there, and there's still and unroasted almost like a grain taste to it. Like there's wheat or something in it. The City+ which was timed to 4:45 before dumping out of the machine is really good. I think I'll try to do 5:00 next time or 5:15. Things happen fast with an air powered roaster, much faster than with a drum roaster. All in all i'm thrilled with my 1st roasting experiment, and i'm excited at the additional variables that I have control of now. I want to roast different varieties to the same level, and take one variety to 3 or 4 different roast levels and taste all the differences.

[Too Tall]

HSTfixed, mind adding your blog link to your signature? What brand of popcorn popper?

[HSTFixed]

HSTfixed, mind adding your blog link to your signature? What brand of popcorn popper?

Good idea about the link in my signature, thanks.

The popcorn popper is a Rival which originally came from Walmart. It's Model PC-830.

Here's the view inside and I'll tell you why this is not the most desirable machine.



The video I watched on the sweet maria's website had a different machine. When you looked down into it, the bottom was solid, no perforated screen. Around the bottom edge of the wall there were vents where the hot air came in in a circular motion. This spun the beans and heats them more evenly. Mine does a great job at Blowing them right out of the top. I stirred almost constantly with a bamboo skewer and it kept the bean loss to a minimum while circulating the beans for an even roast. As long as it's an air powered popcorn popper it'll work, but one style is slightly preferable.

Still drinking my freshly roasted beans and damn are they good.

Got myself a second hand milk steamer two days ago, also 5 dollars. It's been a pretty good weekend for my coffee kit.

[notoriousdjw]

sweetmarias.com is my go-to spot. The website is an encyclopedia and sells beans and equipment.

[jamesand]

HSTfixed, mind adding your blog link to your signature? What brand of popcorn popper?

YO Grandmaster Flash TT, we (or I) are blocked from viewing HST's blogables...What gives my tall pal?

...Awesome to see you roasting, HST.

Mr. Kellogg recommends CCM coffee for green beans, but I've only tried their roasted ones. Spot on - excellent, even.

[Too Tall]

YO Grandmaster Flash TT, we (or I) are blocked from viewing HST's blogables...What gives my tall pal?

...Awesome to see you roasting, HST.

Mr. Kellogg recommends CCM coffee for green beans, but I've only tried their roasted ones. Spot on - excellent, even.

Try viewing now.

[jamesand]

Try viewing now.

NOPE, no love. I'm going to occupy Wall Street if this keeps up.

[Too Tall]

At the risk of pulling back the curtain of doom. Can other folks see HSTs blog?

[jamesand]

jamesand, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1.Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
2.If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
3. Go forth and occupy Wall and Broad with just a man-kini, a riser stem and your wits.

( I did log out and log back in, FWIW).

[lukasz]

Tools:



Result:



Don't think I did a very good job. The first one is the really dark one and it took me 12 minutes to take it there. I had a lot of trouble hearing first or second crack. Next time I will be getting the beans to temperature a lot quicker. The second attempt produced lighter beans and took 14 minutes, since I was toying with heat gun positioning. Good thing I got these beans for free.

I'm placing an order at Sweet Maria's today. But yeah, you don't even need a popcorn popper. I think using one of the poppers with the bottom screen is really dangerous because you might get chaff into the holes and set the whole thing alight, no?

[WadePatton]

jiminy cripes crickett if this doesn't open another door for me to get lost...

i do like the "coffee tasting" beers, hmmm now i can make my coffee more coffee-er? yippee!

this year has been spectacular for my putting pleats in my toque. thanks?

[Too Tall]

jamesand, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1.Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
2.If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
3. Go forth and occupy Wall and Broad with just a man-kini, a riser stem and your wits.

( I did log out and log back in, FWIW).

What was it Don said about a man with enemies....
It was complicated, in otherwords I eff'd it up.
You are good to go.

T.K. started it, I've been thinking about dipping my toe into roasting.

[HSTFixed]

But yeah, you don't even need a popcorn popper. I think using one of the poppers with the bottom screen is really dangerous because you might get chaff into the holes and set the whole thing alight, no?

The air is blowing up out of the bottom of the popper the whole time, so i'm not worried about chaff getting down in there. After completing 4 roasts I only saw 1 single speck of chaff that sparked/ignited. I am planning on buying a more appropriate model, but for 5 dollars I'm satisfied. It also took significantly less than 12 minutes to roast the beans with a popper, more like 5 or 6 minutes max. The faster the roast the cleaner the flavor (or so I've read). I did 2 roasts today one just past 1st crack, and the next one into second crack. I'll let you know how they turned out tomorrow.

[lukasz]

I've read that 7 minutes to first crack is good, then 9 or so to second. Past that I am lost, for now.

[HSTFixed]

I've read that 7 minutes to first crack is good, then 9 or so to second. Past that I am lost, for now.

Totally agree with the being lost beyond second crack. Things seem to happen real fast with the popper I have and the longest I went was into second crack, like a symphony of pop-rocks on yr tongue only louder. I panicked slightly and dumped them. There is a little oil development on the beans 24 hrs later, but nothing major. Could have gone longer. I"m impressed with the evenness of the roast you were able to get with the heat gun/dog bowl method. Let me know how it tastes.

[lukasz]

I mean that I'm lost in general except for those two pieces of time information. The times differ based on method though. With the popper you are going to get to a given roast much quicker, from what I've read. What I am trying to get more info on is at what speed I should be getting to first crack (for this method I keep hearing 7 minutes), and if I should then try to drag things out a bit, which I can do by moving the heat gun further from the beans or switching it to the low setting. I've got 5# of espresso blend coming my way from Sweet Maria's so I will have plenty of beans to experiment with.

If anyone is curious about the heat gun/dog bowl thing:

Heat Gun Dog Bowl Coffee Roasting

Heatgun Home Coffee Roasting

I chose this method mostly because I got tired of looking for a good popcorn popper or bread machine to work with. It seems that while this method is more messy than others, it gives you a lot of control (and more chances to screw something up). Having said that, it is painfully easy if you've got any intuition at all. I'll report back with known good beans in a few days.

edit: this is what I read about using a popper designed like the one you have http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpop/airpopdesign.php