Home roasting coffee bean notes

proposed tt post 22apr2015

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"I'd like to see someone with fresher roasts ..."

As usual, the DIY approach helps here.

Sure, you can buy an expensive home roaster, but you can also roast coffee beans rather nicely by using an old air popcorn popper.

I have not done any home roasting in a while because we buy our coffee beans on Saturday mornings at the Toledo Farmers Market from Bea's Blend who I think still roasts in West Toledo.

For home roasting, we buy the green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's. Select the beans that match your preferred roast type and flavors.

Roast outside. On our first try, we roasted inside. Besides the smoke, the outer skin or whatever on the beans floats up from the popper.

Some of my roasting notes:

• remove the plastic cover that you would normally use on an air popcorn popper.
• we added a tin can extender to the cylindrical hole that holds the beans (popcorn).
• added 2/3 of a cup of beans to the powered-on popper.
• began stirring beans immediately in popper to get an even roast, and stirred vigorously the entire time.
• the thin, paper-like outer husks of the beans begin coming off and floating up out of the popper within the first minute.
• at approx the 2 min and 50 sec mark, first crack began.
• more of the outer bean husks float up after first crack.
• first crack continued for 30 seconds or so, and then it got quiet again.
• I turned off the popper around around the 4-minute mark.
• dumped beans into a colander and tossed the beans to cool them to the point that I could touch them.
• placed beans in a bowl or on a plate, uncovered, overnight.
• ground and brewed beans in the morning. placed leftover roasted beans in an air-tight jar that rested on our counter.

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actual comment:

"I'd like to see someone with fresher roasts ..."

As usual, the DIY approach helps here. Roast in the evening. Brew in the morning. Pretty fresh.

Sure, you can buy an expensive home roaster, but you can also roast coffee beans rather nicely by using an old air popcorn popper.

I have not done any home roasting in a while because we buy our coffee beans on Saturday mornings at the Toledo Farmers Market from Bea's Blend who I think still roasts in West Toledo.

For home roasting, we buy the green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's. Select the beans that match your preferred roast type and flavors.

Roast outside. On our first try, we roasted inside. Besides the smoke, the outer skin or whatever on the beans floats up from the popper.

It only takes around 4 to 5 minutes to roast a batch of beans. A batch for me was 2/3 of a cup of green beans.

First crack occurs between 2:30 and 3:00 min. Mileage may vary, depending upon the air popper.

I would stop roasting around 3:50 to 4:10, which was short of second crack. If you like the French Roast (burnt) then roast through second crack. I tried this once. Never again. Disliked the taste.

I used sight, sound, and a stopwatch to determine when to end roasting. You'll figure it out after a couple tries.

#home #coffee #howto