Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The hopper is glass, so you can see it the whole time. It has a timer on it, but you can adjust as needed, and/or end the roasting and start the cooling on demand. It's a pretty slow roaster (25+ minutes for a darker roast), so one of the plusses to that it's pretty forgiving. I like to get them pretty dark though, well into the second crack.
25 minutes is good. I was just concerned that if you tried to roast in a pan you would scorch the outside before the whole bean is roasted. But it sounds like you have a good method.
May I suggest that you save a tablespoon of so of beans each time you roast in a little paper cup and then see just how dark you really like it? I tested roasts of every color against each other in blind panel testing and there comes a point (notwithstanding Starbuck's success) where the roast is just too dark for sensitive tastes. Women over 50 from the upper midwest who smoke can handle a cup of coffee that looks like sludge from the bottom of the oil pan on your truck and tastes accordingly. But the rest of the world reaches a limit and that limit is actually quite a bit lighter roast than Starbucks.
And the roasts tested were so close in color that only a trained eye could put them in the right order of darkness. A piece of lab equipment was used to sort them out and still there were preferences between them by taste.
Just some sort of rotating roaster that can constantly move the beans to evenly roast.. They sell generic ones on Amazon. Cheap is considered under $500 in my experience. I have an off-branded one (under $100) that gets the job done, but last season (I like to roast in the winter so that's my "season") the rotating arm inside the drum stopped moving in the middle of the roast. Needless to say the beans were unevenly roasted. Took it apart put it back together and it worked again
I'd add that it is somewhat of a science. Roasting time changes with temperature and you should be listening believe it or not for the sounds that the beans make, telling you that they're ready for the next phase (temperature level). Also, degassing following a roast comes into play.
Another great benefit of roasting your own is the economics. Coffee prices keep inflating. Un-roasted coffee beans last years. My last order of 29 lbs totaled $120 including shipping. Compare that to the cost of freshly roasted beans at the store, and the hassle of having to buy weekly for freshness.
I usually buy Cafe Bustelo and feed it through my drip maker. Not as good as I think it would be using an espresso maker but I like my sh** dark AF. Weak coffee sets the tone for a not so good day
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57728
About 6 years ago my indoor bonsai Coffea Arabica blossomed and I hand pollinated it. When the beans ripened I googled how to prepare them for roasting, and used an air popper to roast them. Since there were only 6, I made the world's smallest cup of coffee. While I got some satisfaction out of taking it from tree to cup, it was not very tasty. I'll stick to buying the beans already roasted.
So I got into roasting my own in a roundabout manner. A local guy who was into roasting advertised on NextDoor. He was offering individual roasts (i.e. not bulk roasting) for about $10-12/pound. So I bought a couple of pounds and was very impressed with the quality and flavor of freshly roasted beans. I started buying all my coffee from him, developed a bit of a friendship, and even picked up green beans on my travels for him to roast. All was good!
Then the SOB moved out of the neighborhood. Got me hooked and left me without a source. I tried to go back to buying roasted beans, but it just isn't as good. So about a year ago I bought a Gene Cafe home roaster (~$600). And source my own green beans. Overall, I'm pleased with the equipment and love having great tasting coffee every morning. I can source green beans for ~$6-7/pound. Though I don't do it for the cost savings. It's all about the flavor. I also bought some other equipment like a cooling unit that cools faster than the cooling cycle on the Gene Cafe. My only complaint is that the capacity of the Gene Cafe is 1/2 pound per cycle. I usually have to do two cycles to get a pound, which is really the minimum amount to roast.
It's fun to source beans from all around the world and roast them to different levels, different cycles, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
