Any home roasters out there!

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creativewriting

creativewriting

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I was talking about coffee:eek::biggrin:!

Over the last few months I have been reading up on coffee, the roasting process, and single origin green beans. This past week I roasted a pound of Columbian Supremo and man what a difference. The coffee is clean, no after or off tastes, and the freshness is unbelievable.

My source for roasting the coffee was a $14 air popcorn popper that we bought at Target a couple years ago. There are several videos on You Tube of the process. It may sound crazy, but it works. You have to roast in small batches depending on the size of the popper. I may have to build a DIY roaster as things progress. My 4 pounds of 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain is next.......ohhh weee!

I didn't know if anyone else out there has taken the coffee plunge!
 
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I haven't roasted coffee beans myself but I have bought beans and had them roasted. Love Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, but it can be hit & miss. Some years the beans are great and other years not so much. When it's right, JBM coffee is pure greatness in a cup. Just my opinion of course. In fact I haven't had any in a year or more. Now you got me wanting.
 
creativewriting said:
I was talking about coffee:eek::biggrin:!

Over the last few months I have been reading up on coffee, the roasting process, and single origin green beans. This past week I roasted a pound of Columbian Supremo and man what a difference. The coffee is clean, no after or off tastes, and the freshness is unbelievable.

My source for roasting the coffee was a $14 air popcorn popper that we bought at Target a couple years ago. There are several videos on You Tube of the process. It may sound crazy, but it works. You have to roast in small batches depending on the size of the popper. I may have to build a DIY roaster as things progress. My 4 pounds of 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain is next.......ohhh weee!

I didn't know if anyone else out there has taken the coffee plunge!
Click to expand...

I've been roasting for a couple years now. I belong to a green bean buying club but get most of my beans from Sweet Maria's: http://www.sweetmarias.com/index.php

This is also a nice site to learn all about roasting and DYI roasters.

To each their own but as far as 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain goes...... yuck, patooeeee! Quite possibly the most overpriced mediocre beans of all time, but it's been promoted well to keep the hype and price high.:eek:

One of my favorites is Lions Gate Kona, http://www.coffeeofkona.com/
 
George,

Sweet Marias is a great site. I found them a few weeks ago and hit it everytime I have a question. The buyer on there doesn't like the JBM either. My wife and I went on our honeymoon at a resort in Jamaica at the foot of the blue mountain and it was the best coffee I had ever had. It is very overpriced here and I would not pay $30-40 a pound for it. They say most of the good JBM goes to Asia and the dregs come to the states. It has been over 10 years since I have had some so I wanted to give it a chance. Once I get it out of my system I will move on to Sweet Marias.
 
Been roasting for almost 2 years still playing with Central and South Americans and African. Not much on the Konas. Started out with Fresh Air, now using an I-Roast.
 
creativewriting said:
George,

Sweet Marias is a great site.....
Click to expand...

I like to order their "sampler pack" to try out different beans. You can either get 4ea 1lb bags of different beans or 8ea 1lb bags to try.

I'm cheap, I made my own roaster from the popcorn popper and convection oven as shown in several DIY articles. The setup works great Great and costs less than $100 to assemble.
 
The popper and convection oven set-up is the direction I am going too! I have been trying to find one of those cookers at the local thrift stores, but so far no luck. They have them on ebay, but I am a big cheapo and what to find one the hard way. My mother in law had one, but sold it at a yard sale just before I asked her if she still had it.

George how much can you roast in a batch with the setup you have?
 
I don't know anything about roasting the coffee beans but my favourite coffee shop has an Aeropress that I ask my coffee to be made in, it ends up to be something like an Americano (espresso and water) but as smooth as can be!! If you ever get a chance to try a cup of coffee made this way don't pass it up.
 
I've heard that you can use the other style popcorn poppers as bean roasters as well, like the "stir crazy" popcorn popper. Has anyone used that style before?
 
creativewriting said:
...George how much can you roast in a batch with the setup you have?
Click to expand...

I roast 1/2lb at a time. I could probably roast a whole pound but I never seem to be in a hurry when roasting. I don't mind roasting a few batches at a time because I usually am roasting one for a friend anyway. My builder loves my roasts! I've already convinced him to make my patio a bit larger so when HE comes over for morning coffee..... he'll have a place to sit!:smile:
 
glycerine said:
I've heard that you can use the other style popcorn poppers as bean roasters as well, like the "stir crazy" popcorn popper. Has anyone used that style before?
Click to expand...

I have the stir crazy but you don't use the whole thing. You toss (or sit aside) the top half then you need to modify the bottom half since the flimsy rotating wire piece may work fine for popcorn kernals, it's no good for heavier coffee beans. I fabricated larger copper "paddles" and connected the paddles directly to the drive motor with a 1/4" drive socket since the original plastic part would melt under the heat of the convection oven which sits on top.

I think these are some of the ideas I used when making mine:
http://biobug.org/coffee/turbo-crazy/

If you think wood turners come up with some ingenious gadgets, we ain't got nothing on the coffee roasters, check out some wild contraptions just for roasting that perfect cup, scroll down this page..... http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.php
 
Texatdurango said:
glycerine said:
I've heard that you can use the other style popcorn poppers as bean roasters as well, like the "stir crazy" popcorn popper. Has anyone used that style before?
Click to expand...

I have the stir crazy but you don't use the whole thing. You toss (or sit aside) the top half then you need to modify the bottom half since the flimsy rotating wire piece may work fine for popcorn kernals, it's no good for heavier coffee beans. I fabricated larger copper "paddles" and connected the paddles directly to the drive motor with a 1/4" drive socket since the original plastic part would melt under the heat of the convection oven which sits on top.

I think these are some of the ideas I used when making mine:
http://biobug.org/coffee/turbo-crazy/

If you think wood turners come up with some ingenious gadgets, we ain't got nothing on the coffee roasters, check out some wild contraptions just for roasting that perfect cup, scroll down this page..... http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.php
Click to expand...

Interesting. I bought my wife a stir crazy years ago for Christmas. She likes popcorn, but I think she still prefers just sticking a bag in the microwave and hitting a button. We haven't used the popper in years. I might just have to "recycle" it. I find all kinds of cool things to do here on the IAP, and half of them have nothing to do with pens!
 
glycerine said:
.... I find all kinds of cool things to do here on the IAP, and half of them have nothing to do with pens!
Click to expand...

Too true! Actually, it was at a local pen turning gathering where I tasted my first cup of really great coffee. When I asked around who brought the coffee, I learned that a member, Marty, brewed it and he roasted the beans, so if I had not been an IAP member, I'd still be drinking that starbucks burnt bean bilge water! :smile:
 
This is my favorite one I have found to date. If you read the whole article and see where this roaster started it is pretty amazing.

I have started roasting for several people at work so I need to figure something out pretty soon. My air popper can roast about 3 oz at a time. I can get through a pound in aobut 45 minutes. I would like to get to the point where I can roast 1 lb at time.
 
I just got half a pound of Nacimiento Del Jura (Dominican Republic) and half of Sidamo (Ethiopia) from Extract Coffee Roasters. They're refurbishing a roasting machine and I turned up a couple of mahogany handles for it.

Niiiiiiice!

Now, how the hell do I get the popcorn maker out of the kitchen and into the garage (or, maybe the office) without my wife noticing?
 
Been roasting for several years as well, My favorite is the Italian espresso blend from coffeebeandirect.com.(Roasted just past second crack..real dark) We get them in 50 lb bags..
Roaster is a Behmor 1600..does a pound at a time..
Man, when you smell the beans roasting you just gotta have a cup
 
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