Cheap air popper

Khannie

Lidl's are selling cheap air popcorn poppers. 11.99 each. I bought one for popping popcorn. Haven't tried it out yet but it looks fine. Think I may buy another for roasting beans. At 12 euro I think it's worth the risk.

Anyway, just thought I'd let y'all know.

Mr Magnolia

Make sure you let us know how you get on. There's a couple of guides on roasting beans that will still apply, I'l try and dig them out.

Edit/ Here's one anyway: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=54312055&postcount=20

Khannie

I'm actually going to try it for popcorn first. If it's crap, or the popcorn tastes like styrofoam, I'll just use it for roasting. Otherwise I'll invest in a 2nd one for roasting.

Green beans here I come!

Gran Hermano

Here's a useful guide from Coffee Geek on roasting using a popcorn
popper.

Be careful roasting this way - with the temperatures involved it's
very easy to quickly start a fire.

Khannie

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Here's a useful guide from Coffee Geek on roasting using a popcorn
popper.

Nice one. Cheers.

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Be careful roasting this way - with the temperatures involved it's
very easy to quickly start a fire.

Righto. We have a fire extinguisher (long story) so I'll keep it to hand.


edit: Is there anywhere to buy green beans in Dublin?

Mr Magnolia

Khannie wrote: »

edit: Is there anywhere to buy green beans in Dublin?

Not to my knowledge. I can fix you up with some if you want. I'll also be ordering from Hasbean tomorrow so if you want to pick something from there I'll tag it on to my order.

Khannie

_Really_ generous offer. Thanks. I'll probably take you up on it. I'd only want a small amount of stuff. A few of their 250g bags just to test it out. Happy to meet up to and give you cash or just transfer to your bank account. Whatever's handiest for you.

Mr Magnolia

Grand so, have a look and see what you'd like. I'll drop you a PM later

Khannie

Big thanks to Mr. Magnolia who got some green beans for me with his order from hasbean. I'll be roasting them tomorrow with the popcorn popper when they arrive. I'll video some of the process and stick it up here, though I expect my first few attempts to be pure disaster.

For what it's worth: The popper makes nice popcorn. The salt wont stick to it though.

Mr Magnolia

No bodger, hope it works out for ya. Look forward to the photos/videos.

JIZZLORD

hmmm, i must check out lidl in the morning. iff the results are bad i'll still end up with good popcorn

Khannie

Too late. They've moved on to the next deal.

TKK

Ah sure you might be lucky - I find they often have stuff hanging around for a week or so after the deal finishes.

Khannie

True enough. Also, I'm pretty sure you can pick them up in argos and the like for 20 euro.

My green beans arrived today (Thanks again Mr. M). I didn't get a chance to do my roasting at lunchtime. Definitely going to do it this evening. I'll post up pics / vids.

Mr Magnolia

That was quick. They only went in the post yesterday at ~11am. Fair play An Post.

Khannie

Well....it worked a charm. Pics coming.

Khannie

The bould machine in action:



The end result (NYOM!!):



Total weight went from 85g down to 71g.

Looking forward to tasting it. I stopped it at the start of the 2nd crack. Cooled it off fairly quickly in the collander and swapped in / out a seive to let the collander cool off. Overall not much hassle, but not a lot of beans either. I think the popper can take more. I'll try 100g next time.

Mr Magnolia

Congrats Khannie. Delight it worked out. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, you'll need to leave them rest for 24hrs though. They look good.

Khannie

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Congrats Khannie. Delight it worked out.

Cheers. Couldn't have done it without you.

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, you'll need to leave them rest for 24hrs though. They look good.

My god do they look good! I nearly threw caution to the wind but I'll wait the 24 hours.

Mr Magnolia

TBH, I've ground beans just a few hours post-roasting. Make sure you let me know as soon as you've tried them. I've raosted a batch of that cuban yesterday, I've had several today and the machine's heating up as we speak, love it.

Which bean did you roast?

Khannie

I did the espresso one. Didn't want to chance the cuban on my first roast. I'll roast some of the cuban later.

Khannie

Roasted some of the cuban last night. Did 100g this time. I'm pretty sure this is the max. It came out as 82g after roasting. There was some slight melting of the hood of the popper which was a bit of a pain. I may settle on 90g.

Learned that I hadn't properly done the espresso blend one (my first attempt) properly to 2nd crack (there is a more distinctive noise than that article I read implied). Anyway, I tried some of the espresso blend this morning. Very nice. Bit of a light roast for my liking but really delicious none the less. I did the cuban to a dark city and I'm really looking forward to that.

On the downside, the smell / smoke has the mrs. gagging even though I did it directly under the extractor fan. She's right, it's pretty stinky. I may try to do a few batches outside today since it's such a beautiful day.

Overall:

Pro's:
Delicious coffee.
Even roast.
Easy to do.
Cheap as chips.

Cons:
Stinky job.
Not a lot of coffee per-batch.

Khannie

Probably the final report:

The cuban produced (unquestionably) the best coffee I've ever had. I've had 4 mugs today already. Savage gear.

I did two roasts back to back outside yesterday. The first roast melted the lid of the popper a bit more, so I took off the lid until first crack for the 2nd roast. This resulted in a much longer roast time to hit 2nd crack (close to 10 minutes in total). Didn't seem to affect the beans visually and did save the lid from further melting. The melting's occuring just at the join of the butter melting bit and the lid. I may stick some water in the butter melter bit to help keep it cool (in theory at least the evaporation of the water should keep the plastic a lot cooler).

fourmations

i assume you know that beans need to rest for at least 36-48hrs
to taste their best

i tried the popcorn thing but it broke a couple of roasts in

i did the heatgun/stel bowl sucessfully for a good while
until i got a gene roaster

best of luck, you are on the path to the best coffee

rgds

4

Khannie

fourmations wrote: »

i assume you know that beans need to rest for at least 36-48hrs to taste their best

I had read 24 as a minimum (on sweet marias) but the coffeegeek article says 48 alright. There is a noticeable taste difference between 12 hours later and 24 hours later for sure.

Could someone tell me: Would grinding them shortly after roasting shorten that timespan? I'm thinking it might just help with degassing.

fourmations wrote: »

i did the heatgun/stel bowl sucessfully for a good while until i got a gene roaster

Never heard of that. Will have a google for it.

fourmations wrote: »

best of luck, you are on the path to the best coffee

Cheers.

fourmations

hi

no dont grind them, that defeats the purpose of having fresh grind

if you grind them they lose their character really really quickly
thats why coffeeheads always grind on demand

just have patience, work out how much coffee you use
and then roast to suit, i roast twice a week and my coffee is
always between 2 and 4 days old which is perfect

the heatgun/bowl thing is as simple as it sounds
put beans in a heatproof bowl and point a heatgun at them
and stir constantly (i used a whisk and an oven glove)
this is an outdoors task

its a bit of a pain, but you can do fairly big batches (300-400gms)
you can also hear the cracks really easily and all the chaff just flies away

rgds

4

Khannie

That sounds really interesting. Would you say you can get a consistent roast with that? I'm drinking more coffee than the popper will reasonably facilitate. It's just a bit of a pain in the bum to be getting it out so often (though I was out of the office 5 days over the last week, so I drink more coffee at home then. Usually I wouldn't drink any at home on a normal working day, just because I get home too late).

Khannie

One final update......the water in the butter melter worked well to keep the butter melter from melting, but the plastic around the side of it (on the hood itself) was still melting so I made a bit of a "heat shield" by lining the inside of the hood with tin foil.

This worked a treat. Did 3 roasts back to back and there was no damage. I was a bit put off at not being able to see the roast progressing initially but using your ear is actually grand. Also, I did cut a hole in the "heat shield" where the butter melter is so I could see in. Pretty dark. Anyway, I'll probably continue with this method until I upgrade to a proper roaster.

edit: Oh....and the popcorn from the popper is savage.

Khannie

Useful tip: If roasting indoors, put some water in the bottom of your chaff collecting bowl. This stops it from flying away (all over your kitchen).

Another useful tip: Cool with your collander directly under your extractor fan. In fact, keep everything under your extractor fan. This helps minimise the stink in your kitchen.

Also......I've overcome the melting lid issue without the need for a mental heat shield that stops you seeing anything.....

Dampen a piece of kitchen roll and put it (flat) around the hottest part of the lid. This effectively lets the lid "sweat" so it loses heat through the evaporation of the water on the kitchen roll. Just did 4 roasts back to back. No melting. Nice one. edit: If you do this, don't be bothered if you see steam coming off the kitchen roll....that's the idea.

Khannie

MMMMMMEGA BUMP!

Lidl are selling those poppers again for 12 euro on Thursday next week (6th).

Link.

They're actually very decent popcorn maker devices too.

Doodee

Deffo gonna give this a go

Just have to get an extension lead to do it out the back!

I must give those Cubans a try, they sound good.
Highly recommend the Perfetio blend. Finding it a very sweet cup.

Khannie

Cool! Interested to hear how you get on. I highly recommend the wet kitchen roll thing along with a little bit of warm water in the butter dish. It will keep your popper in good condition for longer.

Doodee wrote: »

I must give those Cubans a try, they sound good.

They're decent alright. No Cachoiera though.

donnacha

Bought my popper on the way home this evening.

Any recommendations on the best green beans to buy to test with? Was thinking of the Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira Bourbon 2008-2009 Crop as I love the stuff and its only £2.50 for 250g of green.

Doodee

I bought some Cubans and got the Cachoeira pre-roasted to tie me over

Need to find a metal colander now.

r0ibeard

donnacha wrote: »

Bought my popper on the way home this evening.

Same here and bought 2 just in case

Dying to get started but doing the right thing and trying to read up first. Have a nice little mixture of green beans from HasBean to try (Cuban, Brazil, Yemen) so think I'll take the plunge and dive in tomorrow night. Now to be patient!

Doodee

Seeing as we will all be using the same machine might be an idea to create a table of roasting times for beans

Also I just noted that in the manual it says not to use for more than 6mins at a time :E

Khannie

Doodee wrote: »

Need to find a metal colander now.

I mostly used a large metal saucepan. Worked a treat. Dump them in, swirl around for a bit. Job done.

Doodee wrote: »

Also I just noted that in the manual it says not to use for more than 6mins at a time :E

Don't mind that*


*Khannie is not responsible for any damage to you or your property arising from this statement.

Doodee wrote: »

Seeing as we will all be using the same machine might be an idea to create a table of roasting times for beans

Just noticed this. It probably wont be possible I'm afraid. Roasting times will vary based on a few things. Ambient temperature for example is a big one. Winter roasting outdoors would take up to 4 minutes longer than summer roasting.

Khannie

Here's what I did (this may help others, but I'd suggest reading around a bit first. There are good guides out there)

What you need:
Green beans
Kitchen roll
Cup of water
Empty cup
Large metal saucepan for dumping the beans into
Weighing scales
Stopwatch / watch

My process was basically:
Measure out 90-100g of green beans and dump them in the popper (start with 90)
Add a little water into the butter dish
Wet some kitchen roll and wrap that around the front part of the popper hood. These two steps stop the plastic melting. The kitchen roll will steam. Don't worry about this, this is actually what you want.
Turn the popper on.
Start your timer.
After about 4-6 minutes ish, you'll hear first crack. It's very distinctive. It goes on for anywhere between 1-3 minutes. After about 6-11 minutes (depending on outdoor temperature etc., I always roasted outdoors) you'll hear 2nd crack. 2nd crack is a bit harder to hear with the noise of the popper, but you'll get used to it.

I always stopped at the start of 2nd crack because I felt I was getting consistency across batches. I'd usually do 2-4 batches at a time. You're better off leaving the beans to degass for at least 24 hours before using them (48 is better).

When you're finished, turn off the popper and dump the beans straight into the large metal saucepan (or a collander if you have one). Swirl around to get the heat out of them.

That's it. Good luck! Glad a few people are giving this a lash. Interested to hear the results.

r0ibeard

Happy to report all went well. Roasted 2 batches on Friday night and am amazed at how simple it was. Big thanks to Khannie for his guide, made the whole process a lot easier too!

Think I roasted them a bit more on the dark side than I'd have liked but have tried both batches and so far WAY better than any bought beans I've used. Can't wait to get cracking on another batch to start experimenting with different roast styles, I get the feeling this could get very addictive

Doodee

The Cubans arrived today.

Expect some results over the weekend

Slaphead07

A mate gave me a bag of Guatemalan green beans and pointed me towards Lidl. As it happens an order of 'ready to grind beans' from Hasbean arrived this morning so I'll put off the roasting for a day or two but thanks to all for the info, this could lead to a whole new level of addiction!

r0ibeard

I'm onto my 5th roast now and after a minor hickup (my first popper died from green bean overdose! ) each roast is steadily getting better. One thing I will say is that unless you like a dark roast you'll need to be ending the roast either at or just before the 2nd crack. These machines seem to roast the beans fairly quickly, so I've been hitting 1st crack ~ 3min and 2nd crack 1-2 mins after. So you really have to pay attention and listen carefully to get it stopped in time.

The 1st couple of batches of Cuban/Santos were a bit on dark side but still nice. The latest batch of Yemen I stopped just at 2nd crack was magic!

Happy roasting folks!

Doodee

Well I just completed my first roast using the lidl popper.

It appears to go rather quickly as said above. First crack was heard after 2mins in. Left it going anyways and used my eyes and ears to gauge when they'd be done.

In total is was about 6 mins. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure

Popper in action:
http://pix.sparky-s.ie/images/qzge3pr1cbzqbrjz3ya.jpg

End result:
http://pix.sparky-s.ie/images/8kta5upp8ao4452ginei.jpg
http://pix.sparky-s.ie/images/rax0vf7he4pv06j6le.jpg

I think next time I give this a try I'll take a video. It was much quicker than I had expected.
I also notice that one or two of the beans had black spots, so they might be on the dark side

I'm going to leave them sit and degauss until tuesday before giving them a taste. Will report back when I do.

Clinker

Doodee wrote: »

I'm going to leave them sit and degauss until Tuesday before giving them a taste. Will report back when I do.

Magnetic coffee beans! That's a new one on me!

Doodee

My coffee has started weeping 0_0

Khannie

Some oils appearing on the surface is natural enough. What kind of weeping are you talking about?

Doodee

the oils appearing on teh surface.
I grabbed a portion to bring in with me to work and I haven't noticed them on it. Will check the larger quantity when I get home. Tastes good though

donnacha

Well I finally got around to using the air popper this morning. I've attached a couple of pics - I'm looking forward to tasting the results on Tuesday/Wednesday!

donnacha

For those of you that haven't tried this I can heartily recommend it. The roasting process was simple - and I got to try the results yesterday evening and was very impressed - never seen crema like it. I am converted now, and just hope that my popper lasts - I might have to buy a spare

Gran Hermano

donnacha wrote: »

For those of you that haven't tried this I can heartily recommend it. The roasting process was simple - and I got to try the results yesterday evening and was very impressed - never seen crema like it. I am converted now, and just hope that my popper lasts - I might have to buy a spare

You do realise there is no going back now

Slaphead07

A sunny day on the patio and less than 250gm of pre-roast coffee in the press meant that today was the day I'd roast me beans in the sunshine.

A few weeks back a mate of mine, Ken, gave me a bag of green Guatemalan Oriente knowing full well I hadn't got a roaster.:rolleyes: On the way from Ken's I spotted a Lidl and they had 2 machines left so I bought both!

It really was quite simple - says he not knowing yet what the finished coffee will taste like. The extension chord allowed me to put the popper on a the patio table so I had kitchen roll, colander, saucepan water mister (those yokes for spraying a mist of water on plants... I had covered the top part of teh popper with kitchen roll and this allowed me to keep the kitchen roll damp and the machine remarkably cool).

I went with 90gr of greenies first and about 3 minutes heard first crack (or repeated first cracks to be exact), only about a minute or so later did I hear another type of crack... I let it run for 20 seconds or so and turning it off. I let it cool and settle for a minute then poured the coffee beans from the popper to a saucepan and then to a colander. A minute or so of passing the warm beans between the saucepan and colander got rid of a lot of the chaff and helped cool the beans down further.

After a few minutes I decided to roast another 100gr (when would we get this weather again!) and essentially repeated all the above. I think I got a slightly darker roast this time but as the 2 lots will all go into one jar that's ok.

I'll leave the beans until Saturday morning and report back..

This has been the most fun I've had on the patio this year.