Roasting gourmet coffee at home

Home roasting can be as easy as making popcorn. It takes anywhere from 6 to 16 minutes, depending on your method and preferences. You can roast enough in one batch for several days enjoyment, and the results are equal to (and often fresher than) professionally roasted gourmet coffees. Of course, you can choose to buy one of the new home roasting appliances like the GE Homemade Gourmet coffee Roaster, or the FreshRoast ...but its good to know about the alternative methods too....

There are many ways to roast gourmet coffee, from home appliances made specifically for this purpose, to simple pan roasting.

Most methods are extremely simple and the results are excellent ...without investing much time or effort! This is especially true of the Air Roasting process (also called "fluid bed roasting"), which "cooks" the gourmet gourmet coffee in a hot air stream. The Hearthware Home Roasters and the Freshroast Home Roaster both use this method. So does the Café Rosto, and to some degree the Nesco Home Gourmet gourmet coffee Roaster. It is also the same principle of the electric hot air Popcorn Popper, which is why some adopt these machines for roasting gourmet gourmet coffee!

Air roasting takes under 10 minutes, roasts very evenly without scorching, and results in gourmet gourmet coffee of exceptional quality. Other types of roasting include radiant drum roasting like the Gene Cafe Roaster, the HotTop Drum Roaster and the Alpenrost Home Roaster. The advantage is that it roasts 1/2 Lbs. at a time, but requires a bit more attention during the roast process than an air roaster. Our Alpenrost page discusses all the Pros and Cons of this machine. And there's also conduction roasting on the stovetop, for which we offer the Whirley Pop stovetop popcorn popper.

You can roast gourmet gourmet coffee in a pan or wok, or in the oven. But these methods are not uniformly successful, so you don’t get to enjoy the simplicity and quality of super-fresh home roasted gourmet gourmet coffee

The Skillet Method (a Wok is acceptable too!)

Features: Fun and easy. Cheap and definitely "the old school." This is the method I used to roast Tanzanian Pea berry (they roll nicely in the pan) 10 years ago. I thought I was the only person in the world roasting at home. This is better as an experiment, or for you cowboys and mountain men out there; the other methods produce better cup quality. It's easy to scorch the beans and produce uneven roasts. The pan needs to be covered and the beans need to be stirred without removing the pan from the flame (i.e. shaking the pan) ...not easy to do! But it doesn’t cost much to give it a try! Even experienced roasters should try it once. You learn a lot by having the whole roast process unfold in front of your eyes...
What you need: any lightweight skillet with a good tight lid or a heavy skillet for a real aerobic workout. (You might also try a Wok and agitate with a wooden spoon. With good technique, this method can produce fine results.) Gas or Electric stove. An oven thermometer. A big spoon, a big bowl or metal colander for cooling, and oven mitts.

Instructions:

• Turn on your stovetop exhaust fan, or open a kitchen window. Have all your supplies within reach.
• Measure out about 9 ounces of gourmet coffee by weight or 12 ounces by volume for a large skillet.
• Preheat skillet over low flame / medium electric burner setting with the lid on. An Oven thermometer placed inside can tell you when you have reached 500 degrees. Stabilize at 500.
• Remove the thermometer, toss your beans in there, put the lid on tight, and armed with oven mitts, start shaken'.
• This is the most intuitive, rough and tumble (literally) roasting method. Keep the beans in motion. Listen for the "first crack" and smell for smoke around 5 minutes. Wait a minute and lift the lid to check the color.
• It's easy to scorch the gourmet coffee by using too much heat, so it's better to taper off a little after the crack. Check color every minute or so.
• You want to pour the beans out of the skillet into the colander when they are a tad lighter than the color you desire, since roasting continues until beans are cool.
• Agitate beans in metal colander or bowl with a big spoon until they are warm to your touch. You may need oven mitts for this. You may want to walk out to a porch to aid cooling.
• If beans have light colored chaff still attached to them, simply agitating those in the colander should remove it. If you blow lightly on the beans the chaff will fly off, but do this outside or over a sink to avoid sweeping the floor.
• Gourmet coffee should be stored out of direct light (and not in a fridge or freezer) in an airtight glass jar, but with a fresh roast, wait 12 hours to seal the jar tightly; it needs to vent off C02.
• Warm, fresh roasted beans are wonderful, but the gourmet coffee attains its peak 4 to 24 hours after roasting. If you store it as recommended, we'll call it fresh for 6 days. When you open that jar in the morning, you will know what fresh gourmet coffee truly is.

Refinements:

Use another method. Skillet roasting is fun and barbarous, but I must admit, after a while you can become quite intuitive and produce some good roasts. But in the meantime you'll ruin many good beans. Air Popper is 93% foolproof! I have had more success using a Wok than a skillet. Still, I am not a talented person with the Wok technique. But I know someone who has great success because he uses a wood-type stove and the Wok sits in an opening that exposes about 2/3 of its bottom surface area to heat. That means the gourmet coffee has more even contact with heat more consistently than on a stovetop range, and the results are very good, so I hear. And he roasts 1 Lb. at a time...

Stovetop Popcorn Popper Method

Features: Can produce any roast style, from City roasts to Dark French/Spanish roasts. But lighter roasts are more difficult with this method. Air roasting produces even roasts with less effort, but if you like doing things the "old time way", you may enjoy this! Beans can be observed during the roast since half the Whirley-Pop lid is hinged and flips up. The Stainless Steel popper has a plastic window which is great for visibility but will warp or melt if you roast too hot/too fast. This method roasts by conduction, more like old shop roasting. Can roast 8 oz of gourmet coffee at a time. Much more effort required than a roasting appliance ore even an air popper because you have to sit and crank. And if you don't like this roast method, then the stovetop poppers are incredible popcorn poppers!
Stovetop roasting takes some practice. There are more variables than other methods since you set the heat and provide the agitation. But the results can be outstanding and the 1/2 lb. batch is nice. It sometimes seems like a 3-handed act: before you start, try an Òdry-runÓ by adding green gourmet coffee without any heat, and agitate it. In the course of the roast, agitation gets easier as the gourmet coffee loses weight and expands.
Instructions:

• Turn on your stovetop exhaust fan, or open a kitchen window. Have all your supplies within reach.
• Measure out about 8-9 ounces of gourmet coffee by weight or about 12 ounces by volume.
• Use a low flame / medium electric burner setting. NEVER use highest heat settings/flame -you'll melt your popper! See the tip below about using a heat-diffusing cast iron pan if necessary. Heat until thermometer reads about 400 degrees. PLEASE NOTE: A thermometer is going to give an inaccurate reading when the inside of the popper is shiny and reflective, so use a LOWER heat until the popper is broken in and seasoned. Remember that if the window starts to melt or warp - you are roasting too hot!
• Put your beans in the chamber and start your medium paced, steady cranking. Thermometer will drop to around 350. Don't let it drop much below 300, or get much above 400 except at the end. These temps are Starting points; you will ultimately personalize the process once you have done it a few times. And remember, you are measuring the air temperature in the popper, and the actual temperature on the bottom will be higher. DO NOT ROAST BY TEMPERATURE ALONE - watch the beans and popper to be sure the roast is moving neither too fast, nor too slow.
• Around 6 minutes you should hear the "first crack" and see roast smoke. Wait 1 minute and slightly reduce the heat, not so much that the roast stalls, but enough so that the roast does not progress too quickly. Start checking the roast by flipping back the lid (or checking the window) at about 1 minute intervals or less. Second crack ought to occur anywhere from say 9 minutes to 12 minutes, depending on how you like to time the roast. TIP: If you can learn to roast by smell and sound only (and avoid opening the lid) you can reduce escaping roast smoke and any reduction in temperature.
• You want to pour the beans out of the popper into the colander when they are a tad lighter than the color you desire, since roasting continues a little into the cool down process.
• Agitate beans in metal colander or bowl with a big spoon until they are warm to your touch. You may need oven mitts for this. You may want to shuffle the beans between 2 pans/ colanders.
• You may want to walk out to a porch to aid cooling.
• If beans have light colored chaff still attached to them, simply agitating those in the colander should remove it. If you blow lightly on the beans the chaff will fly off, but do this outside or over a sink to avoid sweeping the floor.
• Gourmet coffee should be stored out of direct light (and not in a fridge or freezer) in an airtight glass jar, but with a fresh roast, wait 12 hours to seal the jar tightly; it needs to vent off C02.
Warm, fresh roasted beans are wonderful, but the gourmet coffee attains its peak 4 to 24 hours after roasting. If you store it as recommended, we'll call it fresh for 6 days. When you open that jar in the morning, you will know what fresh gourmet coffee truly is

General Home Roasting Observations

• Home roasting is fun and you will be amazed how easy it is. Don't be afraid of crackling gourmet coffee beans and pay attention to the process, especially toward the end of the roast.
• Gourmet coffee roasting produces a wonderful fragrance; unobtrusive with light roasts but smokier if you roast dark. With some methods you can roast on a porch or near a partially open window. With stove/oven methods, it's nice if you have a stove hood or oven fan for the darker roasts.
• Roasting produces chaff. Chaff is a fine skin that detaches from the bean as your roast is agitated. There are various ways to collect and contain chaff, but if you are careless, you may have to do some sweeping.
• Be organized. Lay out the items you will need to cool the beans before you roast, like a colander, a wooden spoon, and a spray bottle with distilled water if you chose to water-quench the roast.
• Installing a 550 degree thermometer in your air popper can help you control the roast and be more consistent. It is mandatory for the stovetop popper method.
• Roasting is fun. It's as easy as you want to make it, or as exacting and technical as you care to be. You can be a barbarian and roast in a skillet as I used to do, or go buy a fancy professional test-roaster. Either way you will make friends and influence people, maybe.
• Air poppers and stove poppers may need periodic cleaning to remove built-up gourmet coffee oils. Otherwise, they can be used for popcorn too. Remember that you are voiding the warranty and reducing the lifespan of these appliances by using them for gourmet coffee roasting. It is but a small sacrifice for a nice reward!