Hopesfall - I've never considered doing coffe in a kamado. In fact, I've never even heard of anyone doing that! I've a friend who is a fiend for all things coffe and he's a really great kamado cooker. I'll ask him and get back with you.
I've seen a view videos about roasting coffee beans on a grill, but I've never tried it. I roast my own coffee at home in a dedicated roaster that looks like a toaster oven with a rotating wire mesh drum inside. One key to coffee roasting is to keep the beans moving at all times, so that they roast evenly. If they sit, one side will burn while the other is still green.
If you figure out a way to do it, please post. Good luck!
A great question. I did a quick youtube search and found a number of videos. It appears to be fairly simple if you have a Weber with a rotisserie, so if your kamado type grill can use a rotisserie, it should be doable. Here are two videos. The first is very short video using a Weber kettle, and the second is a homemade rig, but has more detail.
I'd love to experiment with different woods (pecan, oak, cherry) to see if it imparted any smokiness on the flavor profile the way burning peat does with scotch mash during whiskey production.
You'll find some discussion of this over at homeroasters.org. Good site populated by people who are fanatic about their coffee. I use a Gene Cafe myself. It's more convenient, but more expensive!
Btw, not everyone knows that you can often get better search results from a site by using google to search that site specifically, like this: site:forum.homeroasters.org charcoal
edit: I just realized that the OP was asking about a Kamado specifically, but I can't see a difference for this purpose, You are NOT going to do this with the lid closed, and unattended. Not if you want any kind of useful result. That said, heat is heat.
Grills: 22" Weber (wood handles) (another Weber on the way), Lodge Sportsman "hibachi" Smoker: None yet, part of why I joined Thermometer: 10+ yr old Taylor digital thermometer with remote Sous Vide: Anovo Imersion Circulator (1st gen) Coffee Roaster: Hot Top Coffee Roaster Adult Beverages: Fighting Cock Bourbon, Leinny Shandy, Troegs Mad Elf
Cookers:
Stump's Baby
MGrills M1 SS
Weber Spirit propane
Vintage PK Grill
Gozney Roccbox propane/wood pizza oven
Frontgate portable infrared grill
Propane Lobster/Corn cooker
Magma Marine Kettle 2 Grill and Stove Party Size (boat)
Kenyon City Grill (boat)
Gadgets:
Looftlighter (original and wireless)
Weber charcoal chimney
Chimney of Insanity
BBQ Dragon
BBQ Guru Party Q
Flame Boss 500
iGrill2 and iGrill mini
Backlit Thermapen
Infrared Thermometer
Stainless smokebox for gas grill
sawdust "maze" for cold smoking
Looks like we have Behmor, GeneCafe, and HotTop all represented here. I use the GeneCafe and have a small perforated semi-covered pan roaster I bought at a discount as a reviewer. I've used it over a gas stove (lots of chaff!!) but not a wood/coal/charcoal fire. Not sure if I want a smoke taste in my coffee.
A guy from NH sells wood-fire roasted coffee at local farmers markets. He uses cast iron. I've tried his coffee but wasn't impressed and suspect it might have been the beans he used. Some smoke flavor but not as much as you'd think.
The downside I see in doing this on a Kamado is having to keep the beans in motion. Kamados work best when the lid is kept closed, so unless you had some sort of rotisserie it would be hard to do. The beans would roast fairly quickly and, with the lid open, the temps could get much higher than you really wanted. At least that's my experience with the Primo Jr.
PBC wouldn't get hot enough in normal mode, although with the bars out and lid off it could. Pretty awkward.
PK would probably work very well for this purpose, lid up. Doesn't get as hot as the Primo.
I'll have to try this next time I fire up either the Primo or the PK and see what results I get. Can't see that it would ever take the place of my GeneCafe, but could be nice for an exotic iced coffee...
Cookers:
Stump's Baby
MGrills M1 SS
Weber Spirit propane
Vintage PK Grill
Gozney Roccbox propane/wood pizza oven
Frontgate portable infrared grill
Propane Lobster/Corn cooker
Magma Marine Kettle 2 Grill and Stove Party Size (boat)
Kenyon City Grill (boat)
Gadgets:
Looftlighter (original and wireless)
Weber charcoal chimney
Chimney of Insanity
BBQ Dragon
BBQ Guru Party Q
Flame Boss 500
iGrill2 and iGrill mini
Backlit Thermapen
Infrared Thermometer
Stainless smokebox for gas grill
sawdust "maze" for cold smoking
Just thought of something mentioned in one of the other threads (the one about Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Using a wok for roasting beans could produce some good results. Constant stirring would be the key. If anybody has a wok for their kamado I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
Been roasting coffee for many years, currently use Gene Cafe roaster, Technivorm Moccamaster brewer and a Breville Dose control pro burr grinder, there are many homemade roasters on the Web including grills with modifications, because temp control and timing are very important to get the correct extractions from bean's a grill would be something I would not do for everyday consumption, it would be fun just for the experiment though.
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