Any Home Coffee Roasters?

[zinger1457]

I've been buying roasted coffee beans for years and grind what's needed each morning. One thing I noticed is the freshness of the beans purchased can be hit and miss. Decided a couple months ago to try roasting 'green' coffee beans at home. The benefit of buying green beans, besides being cheaper, is that they have a very long shelf life if stored properly. You can spend $100's of dollars for a specialized home coffee roaster but many get buy with a frying pan. I've been using a Whirley Pop popcorn maker to roast my beans and it works great. The roasting process takes about 9-12 minutes, maybe another 10 minutes to cool the beans down and remove the chaff. I roast enough to last me a week. It does take some practice to get the right roasting temperature but with practice it's fairly easy to adjust to your preferred roast type (dark, medium, light). Makes a great fresh cup of coffee.

Anyone else roasting their coffee beans at home?

 

[Freedom56]

Not roasting coffee at home but you should try Dunkin Donuts original blend ground coffee or beans. It makes a great espresso and cappuccino or regular drip coffee. I

 

[euro]

Never done it but I have been tempted to try - where do you buy the green beers?

 

[braumeister]

My palate is not sophisticated enough to appreciate that sort of thing, but I have a friend who is truly a foodie. He also roasts green beans every day to make his coffee and he says it made such a huge difference that he was amazed.

I probably couldn't taste any difference but he definitely can.

 

[Winemaker]

I purchase a lot of items for my passion at morebeer.com and morewine.com. They also have a morecoffee.com website that I'm sure has quality products as well.

 

[brewer12345]

Yup, for 3 years. I use a behmor 1600 and buy beans from sweet Maria's. It is such an amazing difference and much cheaper than buying inferior roasted coffee.

 

[zinger1457]

Some of the commercial roasters that sell roasted coffee beans also sell green beans. I'm new to it so still in the testing phase. I picked up a sample pack of 5 different coffee beans (2lbs each) from Bodhi Leaf Coffee, very pleased with what I've roasted so far. If going for a dark roast the beans will give out a lot of smoke, either need a real good exhaust vent on the stove or do it outside. I do the roasting outside using my camping stove.

 

[HFWR]

I alternate between Kirkland ground coffee and grinding Kirkland beans of various kinds, but I'm too lazy to roast/grind beans on any regular basis...

 

[zinger1457]

Yup, for 3 years. I use a behmor 1600 and buy beans from sweet Maria's. It is such an amazing difference and much cheaper than buying inferior roasted coffee.

The instructions I'm using for stovetop roasting came from Sweet Maria's. I could see myself moving to a specialized roasting machine before too long.

 

[ExitLeft]

I drink Turkish/Greek coffee and I was buying Sweet Maria's and roasting it in a popcorn popper, but I have all but abandoned that because a) I love the flavor of Dunkin Donuts coffee b) my local Dunkin has a 2 lbs for $12 special on Mondays, which is cheaper than unroasted from Sweet Maria's, especially when shipping is included, not even including the electricity running the popper and my time doing the roasting. To me, home roasting is slightly better taste-wise, but not enough to justify the expense and effort.
Dunkin's app also gives me free stuff. And AARP gets me a free donut!
No, I don't work for Dunkin, lol.

 

[brewer12345]

I drink Turkish/Greek coffee and I was buying Sweet Maria's and roasting it in a popcorn popper, but I have all but abandoned that because a) I love the flavor of Dunkin Donuts coffee b) my local Dunkin has a 2 lbs for $12 special on Mondays, which is cheaper than unroasted from Sweet Maria's, especially when shipping is included, not even including the electricity running the popper and my time doing the roasting. To me, home roasting is slightly better taste-wise, but not enough to justify the expense and effort.
Dunkin's app also gives me free stuff. And AARP gets me a free donut!
No, I don't work for Dunkin, lol.

I tend to find Dunkin coffee bland. A lot of the more premium coffees are extremely over-roasted to my taste. So roasting my own lets me pick what I like and roast it to the level I prefer. If your tastes are such that Dunkin does it for you, more power to ya.

 

[kevink]

As a ~28 year veteran of the coffee trade (and co-author of a book on coffee, "Coffee Basics") I thought I'd weigh in here with a bit of advice.

Home roasting is definitely the way to go if you want to have control of quality, degree of roast and freshness and don't mind a bit of work. If on the other hand you are happy with the beans you can buy at the supermarket or Starbucks just buy the big bags at Costco and freeze what you don't use in a week.

Sweet Maria's is not only the place to buy your green coffee, it is far and away the best source of info on coffee altogether on the web, including brewer and grinder info and much more.

As for roasters, one of the models of home air popcorn poppers Sweet Maria's sells, or the venerable Poppery 2 sold on Ebay, along with a starter kit of green from SM's, will give you an idea of whether home roasting is for you. You'll only get enough beans for one pot at a time though and the roast isn't super-even.

Next step up is the Behmor for just under $200 and it does a great job - as long as you aren't into super-dark roasts.

I favor the Kenyas and Ethiopians that Sweet Maria's sells and those coffees in particular sell very quickly. For $6-8 a pound including shipping and in-roaster shrink you can be drinking coffee that is as good or better than the $20-25 for twelve ounces stuff sold by your local boutique roaster, with no side serving of attitude or $5 pour-over brews required.

 

[MichaelB]

A very helpful post, Kevink. Thanks!

 

[brewer12345]

A side note on the behmor is that you can get darker roasts by slightly reducing roast weight, such as 7.5 ounces for the 8 ounce roast setting.

 

[Souschef]

Roasting Coffee

If you go to the sister site Discuss Cooking, there is a thread on roasting coffee.
If you ever wanted to roast your own coffee... - Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums
It is quite informative.

 

[euro]

If you go to the sister site Discuss Cooking, there is a thread on roasting coffee.
If you ever wanted to roast your own coffee... - Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums
It is quite informative.

Thanks for the link, souschef! Very helpful

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

I had a pal, who got for an engagement gift a MR coffee type pot with a grinder for the whole beans. Was the morning coffee good? yes it was. it was very good. The grinding noise at 530 am was loud enough to wake the dead.

 

[kevink]

A side note on the behmor is that you can get darker roasts by slightly reducing roast weight, such as 7.5 ounces for the 8 ounce roast setting.

Yes indeed and Sweet Maria's offers a good tip sheet on how to do this safely. However (as a long-time former employee of "Charbucks") I do want to caution that "dark" on the Behmor means a bit into the Vienna roast range - which in Starbucks terms is "medium" - think House Blend or Pike Place. Seriously dark roasts like Italian or French will result in a roaster fire. Those kinds of roasts can be done on a Gene Cafe or Hot Top, but honestly if you like your coffee French Roasted you're better off buying it at Costco as what you're tasting is carbon (Starbucks and Peet's French is ~21% by weight) not coffee.

The Gene Cafe, by the way, is a big step up from the Behmor in process control and you can really see the beans during roasting and stop the roast whenever you choose, but at $585.00 I can't honestly recommend it over the Behmor for 90%+ of potential home roasters. In truth if you take the time to get good at using a hot-air popcorn roaster you may need to go no further. Sweet Maria's has tip sheets (and probably You Tube videos) of all of this stuff.

 

[brewer12345]

Yes indeed and Sweet Maria's offers a good tip sheet on how to do this safely. However (as a long-time former employee of "Charbucks") I do want to caution that "dark" on the Behmor means a bit into the Vienna roast range - which in Starbucks terms is "medium" - think House Blend or Pike Place. Seriously dark roasts like Italian or French will result in a roaster fire. Those kinds of roasts can be done on a Gene Cafe or Hot Top, but honestly if you like your coffee French Roasted you're better off buying it at Costco as what you're tasting is carbon (Starbucks and Peet's French is ~21% by weight) not coffee.

The Gene Cafe, by the way, is a big step up from the Behmor in process control and you can really see the beans during roasting and stop the roast whenever you choose, but at $585.00 I can't honestly recommend it over the Behmor for 90%+ of potential home roasters. In truth if you take the time to get good at using a hot-air popcorn roaster you may need to go no further. Sweet Maria's has tip sheets (and probably You Tube videos) of all of this stuff.

Agreed on all counts. I don't understand the huge amounts of money people spend for what amounts to single origin, sustainably-sourced charcoal. By the time you roast stuff as far as Starbucks does, almost all the interesting varietal characters have been burnt. Why bother?

The other plus of the Behmor is that it will do a full pound of green beans at a time. The other hobbyist roasters generally do half a pound at most.

 

[zinger1457]

Next step up is the Behmor for just under $200 and it does a great job - as long as you aren't into super-dark roasts.

Is there more than one Behmor model? I could only find the 1600 and that goes for about $370 new.

 

[brewer12345]

Is there more than one Behmor model? I could only find the 1600 and that goes for about $370 new.

Yeah, they ain't 200 bucks.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

As a ~28 year veteran of the coffee trade (and co-author of a book on coffee, "Coffee Basics") I thought I'd weigh in here with a bit of advice.

Home roasting is definitely the way to go if you want to have control of quality, degree of roast and freshness and don't mind a bit of work. If on the other hand you are happy with the beans you can buy at the supermarket or Starbucks just buy the big bags at Costco and freeze what you don't use in a week.

Sweet Maria's is not only the place to buy your green coffee, it is far and away the best source of info on coffee altogether on the web, including brewer and grinder info and much more.

As for roasters, one of the models of home air popcorn poppers Sweet Maria's sells, or the venerable Poppery 2 sold on Ebay, along with a starter kit of green from SM's, will give you an idea of whether home roasting is for you. You'll only get enough beans for one pot at a time though and the roast isn't super-even.

Next step up is the Behmor for just under $200 and it does a great job - as long as you aren't into super-dark roasts.

I favor the Kenyas and Ethiopians that Sweet Maria's sells and those coffees in particular sell very quickly. For $6-8 a pound including shipping and in-roaster shrink you can be drinking coffee that is as good or better than the $20-25 for twelve ounces stuff sold by your local boutique roaster, with no side serving of attitude or $5 pour-over brews required.

Wow, I love coffee. Im not an aficionado who really knows high end stuff like the Kopi Luwak. Ive tried Kona & Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, they werent memorable but maybe I really got a weak/knockoff blend, I wouldnt know the real deal. I look for 100 % Arabica, and usually buy Gevalia when its on sale. Am I on a good track looking for the 100 % Arabica? Thank you

 

[kevink]

Yeah, they ain't 200 bucks.

Yeah, my bad - you can tell 's been a LONG time since I bought mine. I see Amazon has them for $320 at the moment. Still a good value, but OTOH that's about the price of 10 West Bend Poppery 2 hot air popcorn poppers on EBay.

 

[kevink]

Wow, I love coffee. Im not an aficionado who really knows high end stuff like the Kopi Luwak. Ive tried Kona & Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, they werent memorable but maybe I really got a weak/knockoff blend, I wouldnt know the real deal. I look for 100 % Arabica, and usually buy Gevalia when its on sale. Am I on a good track looking for the 100 % Arabica? Thank you

Glad you survived the Kopi Lowak (for those who don't know, that's the "recycled" coffee made when the Palm Civet, a cat-like denizen of Indonesia, eats ripe coffee cherries, excretes the coffee beans and the latter are collected [how about that job?] and roasted).

Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain are what we in the trade sometimes call "honeymoon coffees," in that they're sold to tourists on honeymoon in those places (at very high prices) and the context and high price creates the perception that they're something special. In reality, tasted alongside the truly great coffees of the world, from top Kenyas and Ethiopians to Panama Gesha, Sumatra, regional Guatemalans, etc. Kona and Jamaican wouldn't even register as anything more than barely drinkable.

100% arabica should pretty much be assumed - even Yuban can meet that standard - as the harsh-tasting robusta species is really only fit for the worst canned and instant coffees. For most consumers just buying a grinder, even a $25 blade grinder (though a burr grinder is much better) and whole beans in valve bags from Costco and grinding just before brewing is going to make the biggest difference in the quality of their coffee. Home roasting is more of a lunatic fringe hobby (says this unrepentant lunatic) and if you're going to go into that world you probably already have a fancy grinder, Aeropress or Behmor Brazen brewer, scale for weighing your beans and all the other accoutrements of true addiction.

 

[ERD50]

Good to see kevink join the thread, when this started, I was thinking, "wait, there's a real coffee expert that posts occasionally, haven't seen him in a while, some 'k's in his handle I think - kevin/karl/ something?"

...
Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain are what we in the trade sometimes call "honeymoon coffees," in that they're sold to tourists on honeymoon in those places (at very high prices) and the context and high price creates the perception that they're something special. In reality, tasted alongside the truly great coffees of the world, from top Kenyas and Ethiopians to Panama Gesha, Sumatra, regional Guatemalans, etc. Kona and Jamaican wouldn't even register as anything more than barely drinkable. ...

Man, I better find some those coffees. I have had the Hawaiian 'honeymoon coffee' you mentioned, from a couple vacationing there (they aren't coffee drinkers, sometimes they drink a sugar/cream/flavored thing with coffee in it), and I thought it was really wonderful.

But since I'm someone who 'appreciates' good coffee, not a real geek/expert, I wonder if the coffees you say are great would be something I would fully appreciate? It seems to me the coffee 'geeks' (and I use the term with admiration and respect), go for the very light roasts (city roast?) and when I've tried those, they seem more acidic and maybe vegetal to me (it's been a while so maybe my descriptors are off). I guess I'm more of a full bodied, medium roast kind of guy. I guess the lighter roasts are an acquired taste for some. I certainly agree that so much coffee is roasted too dark to have any real character, although occasionally I find a dark roast is enjoyable for what it is.

What do you think of the 'dog bowl heat gun' method (gee, maybe I asked you this years ago?). That's what I tried, just to experiment. It's a fair amount of effort for a small batch, but I kind of like that you can see how the roast is progressing (definitely done outdoors, or at least in the garage). But IIRC, the Ethiopian was too acidic by my method, Costa Rican was closer to what I like. And pre-roasted, I think the Sumatra is also more my style. Does that make sense?

-ERD50