Roasting Coffee

[LadyLocust]

To anyone on here who roasts their own coffee, how do you do it?

I did my first batch today. I don't think I over-roasted, but am suspicious. I've found contradicting info. on the internet (go figure ) so am interested in what others do. A couple of questions:
Do you use a roaster, skillet, oven, other?
How long?
Flavor?

 

[joel]

We had an roaster at work, so the lab samples could be roasted, it hold about one gallon of beans & rotated over an open gas flame. it is so old that it does not have grease nipples, only oil ports, some are over 100 years old. The one we had is still in use today, in Pontiac S.C.

 

[LadyLocust]

We had an roaster at work, so the lab samples could be roasted, it hold about one gallon of beans & rotated over an open gas flame. it is so old that it does not have grease nipples, only oil ports, some are over 100 years old. The one we had is still in use today, in Pontiac S.C.
View attachment 74897

That is sooo cool! Probably a little over the top for just Hubby and me but way cool.

@poltiregist I'm tagging you is this too

 

[poltiregist]

I use an electric coffee bean roaster . A wide variety of roasters can be found on amazon . The one I use is made by " Nesco " . Roasting coffee needs to be precise to get the flavor you want consistently . Trying to roast coffee beans in a oven or over an open flame likely will give a different result almost every time . The " Nesco " coffee bean roaster I use looks sort of like a coffee pot with only three buttons . One button for medium roast , another button for dark roast and the third button is a cool down button for finishing off the roasting process .---- I have a cup of fresh roasted and ground coffee sitting on the table beside me as I type this .

 

[Caribou]

I use an electric coffee bean roaster . A wide variety of roasters can be found on amazon . The one I use is made by " Nesco " . Roasting coffee needs to be precise to get the flavor you want consistently . Trying to roast coffee beans in a oven or over an open flame likely will give a different result almost every time . The " Nesco " coffee bean roaster I use looks sort of like a coffee pot with only three buttons . One button for medium roast , another button for dark roast and the third button is a cool down button for finishing off the roasting process .---- I have a cup of fresh roasted and ground coffee sitting on the table beside me as I type this .

If you recommend this roaster, a link would be nice. thanks.

 

[LadyLocust]

If you recommend this roaster, a link would be nice. thanks.

I think nesco is an available brand at most "marts."

 

[777funk]

I use an old 1980s West Bend "The Poppery" popcorn air popper. This unit seems to be the popular one for coffee but I think most will work. I installed a solid state relay to control the heating element (via a very fast duty cycle from an Arduino (using the Blink program modified for on/off times)), but it worked fine as is, just a little too fast for my preferences. You can get very consistent by looking and listening (beans crack a couple times) even with the stock popper. I fill only to the line or until the beans almost just stop moving. More than that and you'll burn the bottom and not roast the top beans.

There are different grades of coffee beans out there. Also there are roast preferences. My father in law seems to prefer the taste of medium to dark roasted cheap coffee (Folgers or other big can brands) which is most likely a Robusta blend. To me this coffee tastes so stale compared to freshly roasted beans that I can hardly drink it. But... he feels the same about what I consider good coffee (100% Arabica light to medium roasted whole bean from the store or better yet from my roaster).

So before diving into roasting, figure out what you like. Duncan Donuts whole bean (from Duncan) is pretty close to what I try to roast. You can save a little money by roasting yourself vs expensive whole bean. But big can brands will likely be the same or cheaper than DIYing roasting.

 

[poltiregist]

If you recommend this roaster, a link would be nice. thanks.

I took your suggestion and went back to try to find the roaster . I went through my purchase archives , Searched the Amazon listings and All the E Bay listings and didn't find the roaster . What was a shocker to me was the price increase on those roasters . Whereas I paid only around $40 to $50 dollars for my roaster , roasters are for the most part selling for hundreds of dollars . The closest match I found to my roaster was selling for over $1,000 dollars . -- I suppose the Democrat file up , causing all those ships to not be able to get their goods delivered to distributers is the reason . --- I may search some more .

 

[poltiregist]

I went and searched some more for the coffee bean roaster on the computer . Still I didn't find one like I use . I suspect it is no longer made . What I did find was the prices for coffee bean roasters were much lower on E Bay than they were on Amazon . Honestly the one I use is the only coffee bean roaster that I have ever used , though well satisfied with it , can not say whether it is any better than the many other roasters on the market .

 

[SheepDog]

I just use coffee grounds and water. I used to buy beans whole but roasted. I would pick the beans to get the flavor and then grind them at the store.
Now I just use the decaf in the can.