Home Roasting thread

Krusty_Clown · 07-03-2021 1:27pm #1

There hasn't been a thread on home roasting for some years, and given that many of us are at home and in need of lockdown hobbies, it's probably a good time to start a new discussion on the subject. So who is home-roasting, and what equipment do you use?

My motivation for home-roasting is largely around having freshly roasted coffee on demand. I get the irony that ideally you still need to roast about 4-5 days in advance to allow the coffee to degas properly - this is particularly noticeable with the popcorn roasted which tastes a little grassy for the first couple of days after roasting. I like having a couple of coffee varieties available too, without worrying about the beans going stale too quickly. Cost is also a factor, but more from a value for money perspective. Happy to invest in a better coffee roaster if the return is worth it.

Equipment:
I have been using a pocorn popper for a few months, and have been very impressed with the results, though the slowest I can get a roast completed is 5 minutes (with the popper turned off for one of those minutes), so I don't think I'm getting the best out of the beans. I've roasted about 4kgs at this stage (80g batches), so I think I'm about ready to step up to the next level and invest in a Behmor 2020SR+ or a Gene Cafe. While the Behmor is a horrific looking machine, the larger batch size slightly cheaper price and better reviews put it ahead of the Gene cafe for me. Anyone bought the new model and care to share their experience?

Green Beans suppliers:
So far I've had green beans delivered from Badger and Dodo (too expensive), CofeeMojo (best option so far, if buying 2+ kg) and Adams and Russell (UK - great variety, but slow and slightly more expensive). Happy to buy larger quantities (5kg+) if the cost is reasonable. Any other suggestions?

Enrico Palazzo · 08-03-2021 4:16pm

I've given up on home roasting. Never made it beyond the popcorn popper, which, at least with my techniques, I felt was holding back the quality a lot. I was able to produce two types of roasts: bad ones, where the grassy taste would never leave and soft, milky-choc flavoured (I only went for light to medium roasts) Although the latter was lovely, I could never get any stand-out notes, which I love in coffees. There was no complexity whatsoever. I had thought about upgrading to a proper roaster, but eventually did not, because I found the market for green beans was too small, at least if you consider the cost of shipping to Ireland. The few roasters that offered high quality beans charged for them almost the same as they did for the already roasted versions and given their equipment and expertise it would be difficult to match their quality anyway, at least for filter coffee. The rest mostly offer commodity beans. You are in a better position there as you are willing to buy larger quantities. Well, good luck on your journey. I might roast another batch someday to see if I can still reproduce that simple, but delicious milky, nutty bean from the remainder of my well out of date green beans - I believe it came from www.redber.co.uk

caol ila · 08-03-2021 5:43pm

I have the gene cafe machine. I havent used it in a while, over a year but it was fun to use. I bought my beans in bulk from bellabarista in England.

donnacha · 08-03-2021 9:27pm

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

There hasn't been a thread on home roasting for some years, and given that many of us are at home and in need of lockdown hobbies, it's probably a good time to start a new discussion on the subject. So who is home-roasting, and what equipment do you use?

My motivation for home-roasting is largely around having freshly roasted coffee on demand. I get the irony that ideally you still need to roast about 4-5 days in advance to allow the coffee to degas properly - this is particularly noticeable with the popcorn roasted which tastes a little grassy for the first couple of days after roasting. I like having a couple of coffee varieties available too, without worrying about the beans going stale too quickly. Cost is also a factor, but more from a value for money perspective. Happy to invest in a better coffee roaster if the return is worth it.

Equipment:
I have been using a pocorn popper for a few months, and have been very impressed with the results, though the slowest I can get a roast completed is 5 minutes (with the popper turned off for one of those minutes), so I don't think I'm getting the best out of the beans. I've roasted about 4kgs at this stage (80g batches), so I think I'm about ready to step up to the next level and invest in a Behmor 2020SR+ or a Gene Cafe. While the Behmor is a horrific looking machine, the larger batch size slightly cheaper price and better reviews put it ahead of the Gene cafe for me. Anyone bought the new model and care to share their experience?

Green Beans suppliers:
So far I've had green beans delivered from Badger and Dodo (too expensive), CofeeMojo (best option so far, if buying 2+ kg) and Adams and Russell (UK - great variety, but slow and slightly more expensive). Happy to buy larger quantities (5kg+) if the cost is reasonable. Any other suggestions?

KC, I've a Behmor 1600 up in the attic gathering dust if you are considering 2nd hand? I bought it late 2009 when Hasbean started selling them. Had a check there and the last time I bought green was summer 2013 so hasn't been used I say since 2014. More than happy to take it down and let you have a play with it at home for a few weeks. Then if you liked it I'd be open to offers -it should be pretty much perfect nick. Also think we are within the 5km of one another if it was of interest.

Krusty_Clown · 08-03-2021 11:21pm

That'd be great Donnacha - and if nothing else I can give it a good clean for you and get it market-ready! Will drop you a pm. Cheers!

Krusty_Clown · 09-03-2021 1:51pm

Enrico Palazzo wrote: »

I've given up on home roasting. Never made it beyond the popcorn popper, which, at least with my techniques, I felt was holding back the quality a lot. I was able to produce two types of roasts: bad ones, where the grassy taste would never leave and soft, milky-choc flavoured (I only went for light to medium roasts)

Yep, similar experience, but I managed to get to a stage where I could at least get consistent tasty results, albeit without those finer notes, which you just can't expect on something like a popcorn popper. I don't know what your experience/popper was like, but first crack for me was always 3-4 minutes, and total roast time around 5 minutes, which is just too quick to expect anything other than a chocolatey medium roast. I too got grassy flavours but I found that if you let the coffee de-gas for a few days, (you can pretty much smell when it's ready), then those grassy vegetal notes were gone. To get good results, I reckon you really need to order green beans in 1kg+ capacities, because your first couple of 80g roasts are not going to be great - you need to keep tweaking until you get a consistent process. You also have to let the popper cool down completely (30+ minutes) so if you want to produce a 240g bag, it's going to take a few hours, albeit with just 15-20 minutes of actual labour.

Best thing about buying green beans? No VAT and they have a long term shelf-life, so you can buy them from anywhere where the delivery cost is reasonable. I love having a couple of different varieties of beans on the go, so really looking forward to having a crack (pun!) at the Behmor.

Hodors Appletart · 09-03-2021 2:30pm

just to say, all coffee beans are zero rated for vat, not just green

Enrico Palazzo · 10-03-2021 5:56pm

I used an infrared thermometer and paused the roasting, while continuously stirring in an attempt to control the temperature curve, but the results were still underwhelming. I mostly lacked the patience to wait several days to taste the results.

Anyway, not a long time ago I got a mailer from Bella Barista advertising a roasting machine called "The Sandbox". It looks sort of like the roaster equivalent of the Decent Espresso machines. App controlled, with temperature curves and fancy, modern looks. Very expensive though at £699 and only 100g capacity, so some people would have to roast several batches per day, I guess.

I wouldn't mind getting to play with it, if it only cost like 1/3 of the current price. :rolleyes: But then again, I suppose it's a sign of things to come.

Krusty_Clown · 10-03-2021 7:35pm

Good idea. I hadn't thought to use an infrared thermometer (possibly because I don't own one!). My process was:
1. Small preheat of popper - 30 seconds
2. Dump in 80g beans and turn on the popper
3. After 2 minutes (actually starting to get an early adopter sporadic crack) turn off the popper and stir frantically with a wooden spoon for 1 minute to slow down the roast process
4. Turn back on popper for another two minutes, after which first crack is well and truly done.
5. Tip into a colander and shake for about a minute or two outside.
6. Let the popper cool down for a good 30 - 60 minutes and repeat.

The Sandbox looks great, but at 100g capacity, I'd be roasting daily and that price! And that smoke!

Krusty_Clown · 10-03-2021 7:47pm

So I picked up Donnacha's Behmor (cheers mate!) and gave it a clean last night after it had spent some time in his attic, and gave it a go at lunchtime today with 115g of Brazilian Santos (natural). The Behmor is pretty straightforward to use - horrible UI design (which persists with their newest models), and after 20 minutes, I had my first roast (90g out). The goal would be to move up to 250g roasts, once I've thrown away a few burnt roasts done a few practice roasts on smaller batches. Popcorn popper (same coffee) is top left - Behmor roast is bottom right. Looking forward to giving it a try in a couple of days.

Squidgy Black · 10-03-2021 8:03pm

Enrico Palazzo wrote: »

I used an infrared thermometer and paused the roasting, while continuously stirring in an attempt to control the temperature curve, but the results were still underwhelming. I mostly lacked the patience to wait several days to taste the results.

Anyway, not a long time ago I got a mailer from Bella Barista advertising a roasting machine called "The Sandbox". It looks sort of like the roaster equivalent of the Decent Espresso machines. App controlled, with temperature curves and fancy, modern looks. Very expensive though at £699 and only 100g capacity, so some people would have to roast several batches per day, I guess. I wouldn't mind getting to play with it, if it only cost like 1/3 of the current price. :rolleyes: But then again, I suppose it's a sign of things to come.

I was contemplating getting a sandbox but never pulled the trigger, it looks decent and they say they've done 150g batches without any issues. The great thing about it is you can save and load profiles too so if you get a certain bean dialled in you could just load a profile and roast a batch pretty easily.

Krusty_Clown · 26-03-2021 3:12pm

Since my last post, I've roasted around 1.5kg of coffee in the Behmor (now officially my Behmor - thanks donnacha!) and today marked a significant landmark, as I had an amazing cup, where I was able to taste the floral notes from some naturally processed beans (Brazil Santos), reproducing the subtle flavours I'd normally associate with commercial roasting. Ironically, these beans were from the same batch where I managed to start a small fire in the coffee roaster. No damage done, just a warning shot that you never leave a home roaster untended for a second and regular cleaning and maintenance are essential.

I'm almost through the 5kgs of green beans I've ordered over the the last 3 months (my son has taken a few bags), so have placed an order for 6kgs of green beans from a pretty new roast-specialist site in Germany: RoastRebels. Based on reports of world coffee shortages (because of a shortage of containers), looks like I'm getting in there just in time.

If anyone else wants to try their hand at home roasting, I have a nearly new popper (only used for coffee!), and if you live in a 5k radius (South Dublin/Bray), you're welcome to it (free), along with some green beans. Only condition is that when you're done with it you pass it onto some other unsuspecting fool potential roaster. PM me if interested.

donnacha · 26-03-2021 7:04pm

Fair play! What size roast are you settling on? Sounds like I may have a new local roaster.

Krusty_Clown · 26-03-2021 10:26pm

donnacha wrote: »

Fair play! What size roast are you settling on? Sounds like I may have a new local roaster.

I haven't gone any greater than 225g (yielding around 200g). It seems like a perfect batch size, though I reckon we get through around 450g coffee per week, so I might tweak it upwards and try and do just two roasts per week. In theory it can roast up to 450g. Did you ever try a batch that size?

donnacha · 28-03-2021 5:28pm

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I haven't gone any greater than 225g (yielding around 200g). It seems like a perfect batch size, though I reckon we get through around 450g coffee per week, so I might tweak it upwards and try and do just two roasts per week. In theory it can roast up to 450g. Did you ever try a batch that size?

I did try the 1/2kg batches with good results also. Had started gifting bags to clients at the time so it was necessary if I was to avoid being stuck staring at the roaster all weekend ðŸ™႒

Krusty_Clown · 30-03-2021 12:38pm

I'm sure the local post-office is deeply suspicious. Enough to keep the household going for three months (assuming I don't mess up any roasts):

adrian522 · 30-03-2021 2:31pm

Myanmar? That's a first for me. Never heard of coffee from there before.

Krusty_Clown · 30-03-2021 3:13pm

Me either, but I bought it as I had come across roasters selling Myanmar beans in order to the help the plight of the Myanmar people during the political unrest.
I'm not sure my purchase helps in any way (it probably doesn't), but they are positively rated coffees.

Home Roasting thread

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