brewer12345
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2003
- Messages
- 18,085
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
What I like about home roasting is that I can pick what I like (similar to homebrewing, cooking, etc.). However, first you have to know what you like. I usually shoot for what is known as a "City" or "City +" roast level. Roast levels go to Full City, Full City+, and then into the increasingly ashy realms of Italian Roast, French Roast, etc. Similarly, coffees can vary considerably depending on source, how they are processed, etc. I tend to prefer Ethiopian and wet-processed coffees from Central America and parts of Africa. Dry processed Indonesian and Brazilian coffees of whatever stripe, not so much. Different strokes, but you have to sample a bunch to really learn your preferences.
Traditional Ethiopian roasting is on a pan over the fire (and I am not going to argue with the place it came from), so I think just about any way you get to a decent roast level with enough control to get what you like is perfectly valid.