Okay, time for a dumb newbie observation. I've never considered doing my own roasting because there's a place here in town that roasts on large scale, and if I drive by at the wrong time, it smells horrible! I love my coffee and love grinding my own, but my assumption has been that in getting from the green beans to the roasted state some very unpleasant smells are released. But with so many of you enjoying doing your own roasting, there must be something wrong in my thinking here. Is the roasting aroma pleasant when done at home scale?
-
-
Okay, I surrendered to MCS and now have a Fresh Roast SR800 on the way from Sweet Maria. Looking forward to learning the at home coffee roasting game.Comment
-
My SR800 was delivered today and I got my first roast done shortly after opening the box. I did it outside since I wasn’t sure how smoky the process would be. It was 60degF outside which affected the roast a little bit. I roasted 225g of beans. It took about 9mins to reach first crack which was about 2mins slower than I wanted which was partially due to the outside temperature and partially due to my inexperience. I finished the roast at 12 mins. I’m going to call this roast a success but will know for sure in about two days when I grind up enough beans for my first cup.
Comment
-
Keep us posted. I've avoided this since I can get good beans and don't really need another thing to DIY (and I don't have a good outside space to roast in when it's raining outside). But the price of roasted beans is getting silly and if I can source good unroasted beans a decent air roaster pays for itself in a year or so.Comment
-
Hmmm... From Sweet Marias:
"In our experience, all the small roasters generally last an average of two years. They’ll last longer if you use the machine less, roast lighter and clean the unit regularly; shorter if you use the machine heavily, roast very dark (the coffee oils tend to build up and clog the machines) and don’t keep the screens clean. Drum roasters can last longer because parts are available; you can replace a heating element or fan, for example, when that part goes bad."
I'm not replacing a several hundred dollar machine every 2 years.
EDIT: Hmm. the comments on that post are kind of mystified, saying they have FR units for 10+ years. DAMMIT I do NOT need another toy....
EDIT#2: Oh screw it. They offer this cool little thing and it's $100. Ordered. Y'all are bad influences.
Last edited by rickgregory; March 4, 2022, 07:54 PM.Comment
-
I've been roasting coffee for 8 years using a Gene Cafe roaster. It's been reliable and troublefree all these years. I buy my beans from Sweet Maria's, Burmens, Rhoads, and Bohdi Leaf. Typically it's about $6/lb. Roasting is a natural complement to BBQing and I often do both together. Needs to be done outside or if inside with lots of venting. The results are as good as any professional roaster company, plus there's many more bean options. Highly recommended and easy to do,Comment
-
This is my motivation. I can get a bunch of different coffees here in a wide variety of styles.... but prices are trending to $20/lb for the good stuff, esp single origin. Even relatively generic but still small roaster coffee is in the $13-15 range. The Popper I ordered (not a popcorn popper, but something like it, reengineered to work for coffee roasting - https://www.sweetmarias.com/popper.html) will pay for itself in ~3 months. If I like doing this and need more capacity or just want to upgrade, I can.Originally posted by BBQPhil View Post
Comment
-
Comment
-
Difference in flavor is minimal. Hot fire is a clean fire.
A popper can roast 5-8oz max, depending on model and won’t work outside in the cold because the incoming air cant get heated enough
I can do 2 pounds in one batch with this and it works well outside where the smoke and mess should be. Of course I plan to cook something else also because there’s plenty of heat left in the kettle to use after. -
PolarBear - Any tips on hearing first crack? I have a similar setup on my gasser. The problem is that I can't seem to hear that first crack! Second crack is clear as day but by the time it's there, the beans are getting darker than I want.
I've had great results so far, but it's a much darker roast than I expect. I have the grill around 500 degrees, and the first sounds I get are apparently second crack based on color, usually around 14 minutes. -
I can hear the first crack and if you use a lot of beans at once they don’t all go at the same time. I had to time a few batches and check them.
I did a batch of decaf an burned them mercilessly. Since they are different they go much faster and I didn’t hear the crack.
-
-
I think there a real opportunity for a coffee roaster product using a charcoal grill as a heat source. A coffee is roasted at temps up to almost 400F.Comment
-
So, I got my Popper is a Coffee Roaster, er, roaster from Sweet Marias with some samples (they're very generous with the samples). Did the first roast last night, made some coffee from it this AM.
The Popper is basically a popcorn air popper that's been redesigned to roast coffee. See the link above for more, but it's the same basic idea - move the beans around a hot chamber with air until they roast.
Verdict - super easy to roast. I obviously have more to learn but getting a good city+ (medium) roast was straightforward and fast. The Popper by default assumes a 7 minute roast with a 3 minute cooldown so the whole process takes just 10 minutes. You can adjust fan speed and heat level to vary how fast it roasts and you can increase or decrease time, so you're not limited to the defaults. They give some settings for newbies like me and I just used those.
Taste - I roasted some Costa Rican and it smelled fantastic. Flavor is a bit muted but as I understand things, you want to let coffee sit for a few days after roasting and it gets better over that time. We'll see. It's perfectly acceptable now, so while there's room for improvement, it's not like it's a disaster at all.
Limitations - really the only one I can see right now is that you can only roast 100grams at a time (about 1/2 of a cup). That's about 2-3 days worth of coffee for me (I make 2 large mugs). However, while you don't want to roast one batch right after another you can always just roast 3-4 batchs over the course of a day or two and get a bit ahead. You likely WANT to do this since you want the coffee to degas and 'age' a bit.
People talk about the smell but this initial batch, at least, didnt throw any smoke and while there is a smell, I don't dislike it at all. The Popper has a chaff collector that works well, too.
I'll post photos and a video from the next roasting session, but for $89 I think this is a great entry into home roasting for people who aren't 100% sure and just want to try this thing out. If you decide roasting isn't for you, you CAN use it for popcorn.
Last edited by rickgregory; March 18, 2022, 01:30 PM.Comment
Comment