Post by ogeezer on Jul 21, 2007 12:00:48 GMT -6
One of my neighbors, done the road, won't drink anything but gourmet coffee made from freshly roasted beans but doing so can, besides being habit forming, be quite expensive. One day, last year, he dropped by the house to see if I had any ideas about roasting coffee beans, he bought from an online supplier without spending a wad of cash for one of those expensive coffee roasters. We tinkered around with some ideas, and he went home to consider alternatives. Yesterday, he invited me over to see what he'd come up with. That's what this project is about, considering there are some WCUnleashers out there, such as Dirty Don, who are like my neighbor.
Before you read further, I should warn you of a few things. The system used here deals with using a high temp (500* F non-conventional roaster) which might cause you to get burned. Second, you may run a high risk of becoming a coffee snob, finding yourself wondering how you could stand to drink coffee from the wonderful locally owned micro-roaster in town when what you make at home is world's better. And you are pretty much guaranteed to stop considering Starbucks swill to be coffee, if you have not already.
If you are willing to take these risks, then proceed.
STEP 1 - SOMETHING ABOUT ROASTING
Before roasting, you need to gather beans and gear, and prepare a place to roast. But if you are like my neighbor, then you are too impatient to wade through that to get to the fun stuff. So first I'll tell you how, then I'll tell you all the hard stuff.
Roasting is actually really easy. You pour green coffee in a bowl, heat it with heat gun for a while while stirring it with a metal spoon. When it is roasted enough, you stop and cool it off. Really, it is that simple.
Ah, but how much coffee? Well, that depends on the capacity of the bowl, and on how much you want to do. Each bowl has a maximum amount of beans you can reasonably stir before spilling out. Using a measuring cup, determine the capacity of the bowl. Usually about 1/2 to 2/3 full is all you can stir. Do a dry run, without apply any heat. Measure in some green coffee beans and stir. If they begin to spill out, readjust your measured amounts or use a larger mixing bowl.
The maximum amount you can ROAST in a bowl is about half the amount it can hold. Because here is an unexpected coffee fact -- coffee grows when it roasts. Some coffees grow only 25% larger, others (like most Kenya AA) will double in size. So if your bowl can hold 3 cups, and you expect the coffee to double in volume, you can only put 1-1/2 cups in when green. Got that so far?
Bowls also have a minimum amount of coffee they can hold. Generally speaking, you have to cover the bottom about 1/2" deep. You know it is enough if the coffee beans fill in over the bottom of the bowl behind your spoon. Since most bowls have a very limited range they can hold, having a variety of bowls is a good idea. One 3/4 to 1-1/2 cups, one 1-1/2 to 2-1/2, one 2 to 3-1/2.
Finally, since some of you might forget, the bowls need to be heat resistant. Plastics won't do, and Corning ware is just too expensive. From experience, my neighbor discovered those thin, cheap multi-set stainless steel bowls sold at Dollar stores and Wally World are perfect.
It is kind of hard to describe how to point the heat gun at the beans to cook them but basically, point the gun at about a 45 degree downward angle, towards. This allows the air to swirl around the bowl, across the tops of lots of the beans at once. If you do it right, most of it will come shooting back up out of the bowl somewhere in the vicinity of the heat gun because of the deflective movement of air. Wearing a heat resistant glove is suggested, though my neighbor admits, he hasn't quite perfected the technique enough to need one.
This VERY HOT air will rapidly heat the surface beans. So, to heat the beans heated evenly, stirring them immediately is required, and don't stop until they are done. My neighbor sez, how you stir isn't as important so long as all the beans are stirred and roasted evenly.
STEP 2 - KNOWING WHEN TO STOP
A 'green' coffee bean may be a number of shades of green, from a pure green to almost blue to a slightly greenish tan/yellow. Once you start roasting, they slowly change from green to yellow to mildly tan, then slowly darken through a series of browns. If roasted long enough, they turn very black and oily, though even Starbucks rarely overcooks them that far.
The range of colors can be seen on the Degree of Roast Pictorial found here: www.sweetmarias.com/roasting-VisualGuideV2.html
Once the beans start turning from tan to a true brown, they will begin to make a cracking noise, known among roasters as "first crack". (Roasters are not always a creative lot.) It sounds like a mix between popcorn popping and walnuts cracking. The bean is rapidly expelling moisture, giving off a cracking noise. This happens at about the same time that the sugars in the bean begin to caramelize. First crack will begin with just one or two cracks, then will quickly gain momentum. Some batches will seem like only a few crack, while others will seem like every bean cracks twice, all at once. But after a few moments, the cracking will slow to a stop. At this point, if you want a light roast, stop roasting.
If you want a medium roast, keep going until you begin to hear another cracking noise, creatively dubbed "second crack". This one sounds like more of a snap, somewhere between snapping a pencil in half and tapping fingernails on a metal desk. This crack is due to the beans cellular structure cracking apart. When you first hear a second crack, you can pull the roast for a medium/dark medium roast. Or you can keep going. At this point you can bring it into a rolling (continuous) second crack, which gets you into the range of a dark roast.
The outer surface of the beans get oily at this point, and as you keep going you can go past dark to extra dark roast, then Vienna roast, then French roast, then pure charcoal, and finally on to a Starbucks roast. Eventually they can literally just catch on fire.
When you have reached the level you want, turn off the heat source, empty the bowl into a cooling device, and cool away.
STEP 3 - LOCATING A COFFEE BEAN SUPPLIER
In order to roast coffee, you will need to get some green coffee beans to roast. There are actually more types of beans than a person can reasonably keep track of, and they can be obtained from many different places.
Many local coffee roasters/shops (not chains) will sell you green beans if you ask. Typically they will charge you almost as much for the green ones as the roasted ones. This is not all that great of a deal, but it can be good to get you started.
My neighbor buys all his beans online, or trades beans with a few roasting friends who also buy online. The Cadillac of online green coffee stores is Sweet Marias, found here:
www.sweetmarias.com
My neighbor sez Sweet Marias carry more types of beans than anyone else, carry only the best beans, have great customer service, and allow you to buy as much or as little coffee as you desire. They also are fairly priced to match all that service. In addition, they have some of the best information available on home roasting anywhere.
Since he likes to spread his money around, he also gets beans from:
www.coffeeproject.com/
because of the reasonable price, decent selection, 1 pound or 5 pound increments, and the cool burlap bags they come in. And sometimes he gets beans from:
www.coffeebeandirect.com/
The point is, you need beans to roast, and you will end up wanting a lot of them. My neighbor now buy about 3 kinds of coffee at once, and 5 or 10 pounds of each. Lots of coffee. The good news is that green coffee keeps a very long time, so long as it is kept dry and out of sunlight.
STEP 4 - LET THE ROASTING BEGIN
This is going to be messy. Roasting coffee gives of a lot of smoke and a lot of chaff (the thin skin of the bean), so you probably want to do this outside, in a garage or shed, or anywhere else your wife does not mind you making a mess. Also, the surface you set the roasting bowl on should be heat-resistant if possible.
You will need to gather the following tools before you begin:
a heat gun
a metal bowl
a stirring spoon
something to cool the beans with.
STEP 5 - USING A HEAT GUN
A light (City) roast finishes at approximately 425* F. A true French roast can get as high as 475* F. In order to get to these temperatures, we need to have a heat source that can put out 500+ f heat. There are a variety of sources which can produce this, but none so inexpensive, portable, or prevalent as a heat gun.
If you don't have a heat gun already, you can purchase one at any hardware store. Floor installers use them when seaming carpeting or removing stuck vinyls. They range from about $15 US to well over $100. My neighbor spent $17 on his and has no troubles roasting a lot of coffee, so there is no need to buy the expensive one if you are on a budget. These are basically a serious tool version of a hair dryer; they kick out serious heat and a lot of air. If there's a drawback, it's that they use a lot of electricity.
STEP 6 - STIRRING & COOLING
You will need something to stir the beans with while they are cooking. While some people have hacked together various automated methods -- my neighbor has toyed with something based on a power mixer for drywall mud. Until then, he uses what most people do - a wooden spoon - with a long handle.
You will need to dedicate a spoon to this task, because the spoon will turn black. It never catches fire, but after just one batch it will be permanently darkened, and after 5 batches it will impart a slightly smoky taste to your favorite dishes. And it is not a good kind of smoky taste.
I also recommend gloves, especially for the mixing hand, and especially in the summer. This is going to get HOT, and you need some protection. Plus the gloves come in handy when dumping out the super-hot bowl.
You will also need to cool the coffee when you finish. There are lots of ways to do. When my neighbor first started roasting his own bean, he would dump the hot beans into a metal colander and flip them around a lot until they were cool enough to touch. Then, he tried spreading them on a cookie sheet to cool more while roasting another batch. He finally came up with the idea he now uses, an ingenious contraption consisting of a metal screen (small mesh hardware cloth) attached to the bottom of a 2x4 frame, put on a box fan which is elevated off the ground, that blow air up through the beans. It cools very fast.
And when you get it working, invite me over for a cup of DD's best roasted...
Before you read further, I should warn you of a few things. The system used here deals with using a high temp (500* F non-conventional roaster) which might cause you to get burned. Second, you may run a high risk of becoming a coffee snob, finding yourself wondering how you could stand to drink coffee from the wonderful locally owned micro-roaster in town when what you make at home is world's better. And you are pretty much guaranteed to stop considering Starbucks swill to be coffee, if you have not already.
If you are willing to take these risks, then proceed.
STEP 1 - SOMETHING ABOUT ROASTING
Before roasting, you need to gather beans and gear, and prepare a place to roast. But if you are like my neighbor, then you are too impatient to wade through that to get to the fun stuff. So first I'll tell you how, then I'll tell you all the hard stuff.
Roasting is actually really easy. You pour green coffee in a bowl, heat it with heat gun for a while while stirring it with a metal spoon. When it is roasted enough, you stop and cool it off. Really, it is that simple.
Ah, but how much coffee? Well, that depends on the capacity of the bowl, and on how much you want to do. Each bowl has a maximum amount of beans you can reasonably stir before spilling out. Using a measuring cup, determine the capacity of the bowl. Usually about 1/2 to 2/3 full is all you can stir. Do a dry run, without apply any heat. Measure in some green coffee beans and stir. If they begin to spill out, readjust your measured amounts or use a larger mixing bowl.
The maximum amount you can ROAST in a bowl is about half the amount it can hold. Because here is an unexpected coffee fact -- coffee grows when it roasts. Some coffees grow only 25% larger, others (like most Kenya AA) will double in size. So if your bowl can hold 3 cups, and you expect the coffee to double in volume, you can only put 1-1/2 cups in when green. Got that so far?
Bowls also have a minimum amount of coffee they can hold. Generally speaking, you have to cover the bottom about 1/2" deep. You know it is enough if the coffee beans fill in over the bottom of the bowl behind your spoon. Since most bowls have a very limited range they can hold, having a variety of bowls is a good idea. One 3/4 to 1-1/2 cups, one 1-1/2 to 2-1/2, one 2 to 3-1/2.
Finally, since some of you might forget, the bowls need to be heat resistant. Plastics won't do, and Corning ware is just too expensive. From experience, my neighbor discovered those thin, cheap multi-set stainless steel bowls sold at Dollar stores and Wally World are perfect.
It is kind of hard to describe how to point the heat gun at the beans to cook them but basically, point the gun at about a 45 degree downward angle, towards. This allows the air to swirl around the bowl, across the tops of lots of the beans at once. If you do it right, most of it will come shooting back up out of the bowl somewhere in the vicinity of the heat gun because of the deflective movement of air. Wearing a heat resistant glove is suggested, though my neighbor admits, he hasn't quite perfected the technique enough to need one.
This VERY HOT air will rapidly heat the surface beans. So, to heat the beans heated evenly, stirring them immediately is required, and don't stop until they are done. My neighbor sez, how you stir isn't as important so long as all the beans are stirred and roasted evenly.
STEP 2 - KNOWING WHEN TO STOP
A 'green' coffee bean may be a number of shades of green, from a pure green to almost blue to a slightly greenish tan/yellow. Once you start roasting, they slowly change from green to yellow to mildly tan, then slowly darken through a series of browns. If roasted long enough, they turn very black and oily, though even Starbucks rarely overcooks them that far.
The range of colors can be seen on the Degree of Roast Pictorial found here: www.sweetmarias.com/roasting-VisualGuideV2.html
Once the beans start turning from tan to a true brown, they will begin to make a cracking noise, known among roasters as "first crack". (Roasters are not always a creative lot.) It sounds like a mix between popcorn popping and walnuts cracking. The bean is rapidly expelling moisture, giving off a cracking noise. This happens at about the same time that the sugars in the bean begin to caramelize. First crack will begin with just one or two cracks, then will quickly gain momentum. Some batches will seem like only a few crack, while others will seem like every bean cracks twice, all at once. But after a few moments, the cracking will slow to a stop. At this point, if you want a light roast, stop roasting.
If you want a medium roast, keep going until you begin to hear another cracking noise, creatively dubbed "second crack". This one sounds like more of a snap, somewhere between snapping a pencil in half and tapping fingernails on a metal desk. This crack is due to the beans cellular structure cracking apart. When you first hear a second crack, you can pull the roast for a medium/dark medium roast. Or you can keep going. At this point you can bring it into a rolling (continuous) second crack, which gets you into the range of a dark roast.
The outer surface of the beans get oily at this point, and as you keep going you can go past dark to extra dark roast, then Vienna roast, then French roast, then pure charcoal, and finally on to a Starbucks roast. Eventually they can literally just catch on fire.
When you have reached the level you want, turn off the heat source, empty the bowl into a cooling device, and cool away.
STEP 3 - LOCATING A COFFEE BEAN SUPPLIER
In order to roast coffee, you will need to get some green coffee beans to roast. There are actually more types of beans than a person can reasonably keep track of, and they can be obtained from many different places.
Many local coffee roasters/shops (not chains) will sell you green beans if you ask. Typically they will charge you almost as much for the green ones as the roasted ones. This is not all that great of a deal, but it can be good to get you started.
My neighbor buys all his beans online, or trades beans with a few roasting friends who also buy online. The Cadillac of online green coffee stores is Sweet Marias, found here:
www.sweetmarias.com
My neighbor sez Sweet Marias carry more types of beans than anyone else, carry only the best beans, have great customer service, and allow you to buy as much or as little coffee as you desire. They also are fairly priced to match all that service. In addition, they have some of the best information available on home roasting anywhere.
Since he likes to spread his money around, he also gets beans from:
www.coffeeproject.com/
because of the reasonable price, decent selection, 1 pound or 5 pound increments, and the cool burlap bags they come in. And sometimes he gets beans from:
www.coffeebeandirect.com/
The point is, you need beans to roast, and you will end up wanting a lot of them. My neighbor now buy about 3 kinds of coffee at once, and 5 or 10 pounds of each. Lots of coffee. The good news is that green coffee keeps a very long time, so long as it is kept dry and out of sunlight.
STEP 4 - LET THE ROASTING BEGIN
This is going to be messy. Roasting coffee gives of a lot of smoke and a lot of chaff (the thin skin of the bean), so you probably want to do this outside, in a garage or shed, or anywhere else your wife does not mind you making a mess. Also, the surface you set the roasting bowl on should be heat-resistant if possible.
You will need to gather the following tools before you begin:
a heat gun
a metal bowl
a stirring spoon
something to cool the beans with.
STEP 5 - USING A HEAT GUN
A light (City) roast finishes at approximately 425* F. A true French roast can get as high as 475* F. In order to get to these temperatures, we need to have a heat source that can put out 500+ f heat. There are a variety of sources which can produce this, but none so inexpensive, portable, or prevalent as a heat gun.
If you don't have a heat gun already, you can purchase one at any hardware store. Floor installers use them when seaming carpeting or removing stuck vinyls. They range from about $15 US to well over $100. My neighbor spent $17 on his and has no troubles roasting a lot of coffee, so there is no need to buy the expensive one if you are on a budget. These are basically a serious tool version of a hair dryer; they kick out serious heat and a lot of air. If there's a drawback, it's that they use a lot of electricity.
STEP 6 - STIRRING & COOLING
You will need something to stir the beans with while they are cooking. While some people have hacked together various automated methods -- my neighbor has toyed with something based on a power mixer for drywall mud. Until then, he uses what most people do - a wooden spoon - with a long handle.
You will need to dedicate a spoon to this task, because the spoon will turn black. It never catches fire, but after just one batch it will be permanently darkened, and after 5 batches it will impart a slightly smoky taste to your favorite dishes. And it is not a good kind of smoky taste.
I also recommend gloves, especially for the mixing hand, and especially in the summer. This is going to get HOT, and you need some protection. Plus the gloves come in handy when dumping out the super-hot bowl.
You will also need to cool the coffee when you finish. There are lots of ways to do. When my neighbor first started roasting his own bean, he would dump the hot beans into a metal colander and flip them around a lot until they were cool enough to touch. Then, he tried spreading them on a cookie sheet to cool more while roasting another batch. He finally came up with the idea he now uses, an ingenious contraption consisting of a metal screen (small mesh hardware cloth) attached to the bottom of a 2x4 frame, put on a box fan which is elevated off the ground, that blow air up through the beans. It cools very fast.
And when you get it working, invite me over for a cup of DD's best roasted...