• Sep 16, 2013 roasting

Roasting coffee beans at home

Apparently, an air popcorn popper makes a decent home roaster for coffee beans. We'll try it out.

On Sep 5, 2013, we received our first shipment of green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's.

Sweet Maria's

• blog
• forum
  • air roasters forum

Our first batch of coffees:

• El Salvador Finca Matalapa Bourbon
  • Outside Finca Matalapa
  • Arrival date June 2013 Arrival
  • Appearance .0d/300gr, 16 - 18 Screen
  • Grade SHB/EP
  • Processing Wet Process (Washed)
  • Region La Libertad District
  • Varietal(s) Bourbon
  • Intensity/Prime attribute Medium intensity / Malic fruits, mild citrus, cocoa
    RoastThis coffee does great in the City+ to Full City range, but will hold up to Full City+ as well.
  • The cup tastes of fresh caramel and almond, and with a subtle bittering cocoa quality. Complexity builds in the cooling cup, and notes of apple, pear, and mild citrus 'pop'. Layered chocolate notes are dominant in darker roasts, while still retaining aspects of malic fruit. This is such a great option for a "classic", SO espresso.

• Panama Organic Duncan Estate
  • Ricardo Koyner, the farmer behind Duncan Estate
  • Arrival date July 2013 Arrival
  • Appearance .2 d/300gr, 15-17 Screen
  • Grade SHB EP
  • Processing Wet Process (Washed)
  • Region Boquete, Panama
  • Varietal(s) Typica
  • Intensity/Prime attribute Medium intensity/Big sweetness, brilliant acidity, lightly fruited, toasted nut
  • Roast This is a flexible coffee that will show well anywhere from City to Full City. Dark roasts will make a great espresso.
  • Duncan Estate is a uniquely sweet coffee. The sweetness in the dry grounds runs the range from graham cracker to honey and with wafts of dried stone fruits. Dark roasts bolster the smell of sweet baking spices and burning sugars. Diverse honeyed sweetness permeates the wet grounds and there's a delicious smell of maple butter and blackberry syrup (which is intensified at darker roast levels). The cup is so sweet, which comes through loud and clear, even when the cup is hot

• Guatemala Huehuetenango Baudilio Castillo Micro-Lot
  • A blog post from late July or early August mentions this lot arriving at Sweet Maria's, but no other information about this bean exists on the Sweet Maria's website. Maybe they sold out of the small lot and removed info about it.
  • From Google cache/search results: The cup has balanced sweetness, acidity, great body and mouthfeel. There's a caramel flavor along with a bit of milk chocolate. It's fruited too, but they don't dominate the profile. As the cup cools spiced aspects of cinnamon, mace, and all-spice develop nicely in the finish, with a touch of orange rind. Darker roasts have some dark berry notes, along with well developed sugars - toffee, caramel, and even a bit of nougat. This makes an excellent single origin espresso, with our shots producing intense caramel sweetness, high % dark chocolate, and bracing, berry-like acidity. City to Full City.
  • City to Full City.
  • Balanced sweetness, spice hints, dark berry notes, developed sugars, good SO espresso.

Sep 16, 2013 roasting

• roasted Panama Organic Duncan Estate coffee beans.
• two batches.
• 2/3 of a cup of beans per batch.
• used our Orville Redenbacher Air Popcorn Popper.
• roasted outside.
• placed popper on patio table.
• plugged big, yellow, outdoor extension cord into garage outlet.
• put on one oven mitt.
• plugged popper electric cord into extension cord, which turns on the air popper.
• started stop watch.
• added 2/3 of a cup of beans to popper.
• put on the other oven mitt.
• began stirring beans immediately.
• stirred beans with the skinny handle of a wooden spoon down in the beans.
• stirred constantly and vigorously. hand, wrist, forearm gets a little tired.
• the thin, paper-like outer husks of the beans begin coming off and floating up out of the popper within the first minute. a light amount of these husks.
• still stirring fast to keep beans evenly roasted.
• at approx the 2 min and 50 sec mark, first crack begins.
• a lot more of the outer bean husks float up after first crack.
• first crack continues for 30 seconds or so.
• then it quiets down.
• for the first batch, i pulled the plugged, stopped roasting at the 4:25 mark.
• for the second batch, i stopped roasting at the 4:10 mark.
• the popper had cooled between batches.
• i think second crack was beginning at the 4:15 to 4:20 mark.
• after roasting ended, quickly dumped beans into a colander.
• toss hot beans in colander until beans can be easily touched or grabbed with bare hands. this tossing and cooling will take 5 to 10 minutes.
• place beans in an open glass bowl or jar.
• let beans rest overnight with no lid on the bowl/jar. CO2 gasses need to escape.
• grind and brew the next morning. aeropress is our favorite method.
• place unused beans in an airtight glass container, and store at room temp on counter.

Notes:

• if continuing to roast through and after second crack, then that will produce a dark roast or a French roast, meaning the beans will be near-black and a bit oily.
• i try to stop before a French roast, producing a mocha-colored bean.
• later this week with these same beans, I'll stop roasting at the 3:30 to 3:45 mark to produce a lighter colored bean and a different flavor.
• normally, i buy French roast beans at the store, but through our initial experimentation of roasting at home, the lighter at-home roasts taste better and have more interesting and complex flavors than the darker at-home roasts.

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