Home Coffee Roasting (1 Viewer)

[Jin E]

Title says it all... my new Hobby...
After doing a lot of research on Coffee roasting I bought a White-Westinghouse hot-air popcorn popper and some green beans from sweet Marias. I wanted to give home roasting a try to see what all the fuss was about... and the hot air popcorn popper was cheap enough for me to give it a shot ($15). Well I finally received my green beans from Sweet Maria's today and started a-roastin!
I bought the 8 pack coffee sampler and a lb of Sumatra Lake Tawar Mandheling (Love those Sumatras, and Lake Tawar is one of the best IMHO). I took out the Ethiopian Ghimbi Dry Processed and decided to "roast" this first... since I was never a fan of Ethiopian coffees I wouldn't fret if I F%##ed this one up. I started out 6 minuted in the popcorn popper and was rewarded with a nice Full City roast. I set that aside to let them off-gas and did a 5 minute batch of the Ghimbi and got a nice City Roast. Man this was easier then I thought!!!
From what I've been reading you are supposed to wait a full 12-24 hours to let the beans properly off-gas. Since I'm an impatient sort of guy I did a grind and brew on the City Roasted Ghimbi for starters. Man what a cup of coffee!!! I was rewarded with an excellent cup of Jo... fruity with a hint of Cocoa. Not as much body as I usually prefer but excellent non the less. I next G&B'd a bit of the Full City roast. Even better! This cup was a bit less fruity and a bit more bitter... but the extra roast time added added a good bit of punch which really made for a great cup of coffee. I can't wait till tomorrow when my beans have had the time to properly off-gas.
Anyhoo... if you're a coffee buff like I am, I would definitely suggest doing some home roasting. It's really very simple even with a cheap $15 popcorn popper. Any other coffee roasters out there? I'd love to hear some of your experiences and get some tips on beans/ roasts.
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-Jin
My Theater

 

[McPaul]

I'm not a home roaster, nor do i drink coffee, but am very suprised that you could do your thing with merely a popcorn popper! and to think the gourmet coffee shops charge $$$$ for it.... kudos! and enjoy
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McPaul.

 

[Jin E]

I'm not a home roaster, nor do i drink coffee, but am very suprised that you could do your thing with merely a popcorn popper!

Ain't it amazing the ammount of information out there on the internet!?!?!
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-Jin
My Theater

 

[Steve T]

Jin,
I have been roasting coffee at home for over 3 years now and would never go back to anything else. Sweet Maria's has been my green coffee supplier mostly, but now and again I'll get some from Coffee Bean Corral (they have one of my favorites: Maui Mocca).
If you have a thrift store or two near you I suggest looking for a West Bend "Poppery", which is the original hot air popcorn popper. It works great at roasting coffee. I also suggest the Proctor Silex "Popcorn Pumper", it works great in colder weather.
Recently I bought my first good espresso machine, and am now experimenting with it. There are alot of variables to good espresso. If you have any questions or want to talk about coffee roasting don't hesitate to email me. You may also want to join Sweet Maria's coffee roasting mailing list.