☕ Coffee ☕: Ingredients, Roasting, Grinding, Brewing, and Tasting

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I'm a coffee addict, and I bet a lot of other members here are also. I LOVE a rich cup of coffee.

I was just thinking how much similar the art of coffee and beer are. Buying raw ingredients, roasting, milling, sparging, tasting... pretty close to what we are doing with our beer obsession. And, it's funny that very similar equipment is used by electric beer brewers and coffee makers (check out Auber Instruments offerings). Even the nuances of coffee and beer tasting are analogous.

I'm just now thinking about getting into it. What do you guys use for roasting, etc? What equipment? Where to you get your beans? Do you filter water? What temps?

Any good sites out there?
 
I don't roast, but I have my share of coffee brewing equipment:

Rancilio Rocky Grinder
Rancilio Silvia Espresso machine with PID for temp control - Weekend workhorse
Technivorm Moccamaster - Daily workhorse drip brewer
Bodum French Press - used to be my weekend brewer before i got Miss Silvia
Bodum Vacuum pot
Stovetop moka pot
Chemex pour-over

I've been meaning to take the barista class at Intelligentsia, but haven't make the time for it. Maybe I should go look at that...
 
I started roasting a bit ago, mostly for a side hobby and saving some money. It's interesting and gives great coffee even if you mess it up since it's so fresh.
These are the methods I use: Cast iron skillet in oven then transfer to stovetop. Stir like crazy until you hear pops and looks good. Pour into mesh strainer and stir again to get rid of chaffe and cool the beans.
Don't forget to get good ventilation!
http://thehomemadeexperiment.com/how-to-roast-coffee-pan/
http://sciencefare.org/2012/02/22/better-home-roast-coffee-two-stage/
 
There is a homebrew store, Seven Bridges Co-op, that also features raw coffee beans and roasters. Its at www.breworganic.com

I've read mixed reviews of the popcorn popper method - you can also do it in very small batches on the stove. But a real roaster seems like the way to go.
 
I started roasting a bit ago, mostly for a side hobby and saving some money. It's interesting and gives great coffee even if you mess it up since it's so fresh.
These are the methods I use: Cast iron skillet in oven then transfer to stovetop. Stir like crazy until you hear pops and looks good. Pour into mesh strainer and stir again to get rid of chaffe and cool the beans.
Don't forget to get good ventilation!
http://thehomemadeexperiment.com/how-to-roast-coffee-pan/
http://sciencefare.org/2012/02/22/better-home-roast-coffee-two-stage/

OK, I'm pretty interested in giving this a try now. I had previously not done it because i thought that roasting gave off too much smoke to do indoors. Can you comment on what you have had to do to deal with the smoke? Does the typical range hood that vents outside take care of it?
 
Definitely will take care of it. I usually roast about 2/3 Cup at a time, using an aeropress it lasts me a few days at a time. I don't even have a vent hood where I'm at.
I opened a window, put a box fan on the countertop to the right of the stove pointed at the window, and a oscillating floor fan to the left of the stove pointing at the window. This was overkill.
Now I just open the window and use the oscillating fan to the left. Makes it a little smokey, but no alarms have gone off so far.
 
Getting ready to start roasting at home as well. Personally going to start with the popcorn popper method as in inexpensive way into the hobby and know several people that get very good results this way. Along with Sweet Maria's, Coffee Bean Corral has good prices on green coffee beans too. Also, Art of Manliness has instructions on how to roast coffee on a gas burner outdoors that I may consider trying when I want to make larger batches.
 
Getting ready to start roasting at home as well. Personally going to start with the popcorn popper method as in inexpensive way into the hobby and know several people that get very good results this way. Along with Sweet Maria's, Coffee Bean Corral has good prices on green coffee beans too. Also, Art of Manliness has instructions on how to roast coffee on a gas burner outdoors that I may consider trying when I want to make larger batches.

Hey, that thing they are using is just a fancy Whirley-Pop popcorn popper. I have one of those! I'm going to try that out. Very cool link. Thanks.

IMG_0911.jpg
 
Hey, that thing they are using is just a fancy Whirley-Pop popcorn popper. I have one of those! I'm going to try that out. Very cool link. Thanks.

IMG_0911.jpg

When I saw that article I thought to myself, I bet most of us here have some sort of out door burner and figured it was fitting for this thread :mug:
 
I placed an order with Sweet Maria's this week and verified that the air popper my wife had had for years is of the appropriate design for the job. I plan to run the popper on the stove with the fan in the vent hood running and hope that is good enough. That should at least give me a taste of what the roasting is all about. :)
 
I placed an order with Sweet Maria's this week and verified that the air popper my wife had had for years is of the appropriate design for the job. I plan to run the popper on the stove with the fan in the vent hood running and hope that is good enough. That should at least give me a taste of what the roasting is all about. :)

Did you get their sampler?
 
Did you get their sampler?

Looked at it, but decided against. I prefer single origin coffees for my drip brew and wanted to try their blends for espresso, so there wasn't a sampler that seemed like it really fit what i was looking for. Instead I ordered a pound each of Espresso Monkey Blend, Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Gedeo and Guatemala Antigua Finca Cabrejo.
 
Looked at it, but decided against. I prefer single origin coffees for my drip brew and wanted to try their blends for espresso, so there wasn't a sampler that seemed like it really fit what i was looking for. Instead I ordered a pound each of Espresso Monkey Blend, Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Gedeo and Guatemala Antigua Finca Cabrejo.

Good point. I just bought the sampler without even looking at it much. I'm more concerned with getting the roasting thing down, and I figure I'll be throwing a bit away before I get it right. Sampler was pretty cheap.
 
Good point. I just bought the sampler without even looking at it much. I'm more concerned with getting the roasting thing down, and I figure I'll be throwing a bit away before I get it right. Sampler was pretty cheap.

Well, when i started making espresso at home i figured i'd be throwing some away, but from day 1 it was at least as good as starbucks. When i started making beer at home I figured i'd be throwing some away, and while they haven't all been winners, I haven't had a dumper batch yet. So, with roasting I figured that I should probably start with stuff I think I'll like. :)
 
Well, when i started making espresso at home i figured i'd be throwing some away, but from day 1 it was at least as good as starbucks. When i started making beer at home I figured i'd be throwing some away, and while they haven't all been winners, I haven't had a dumper batch yet. So, with roasting I figured that I should probably start with stuff I think I'll like. :)

Yep. I'm trying to justify being an idiot and not paying attention to what I was buying. Argh.
 
Yep. I'm trying to justify being an idiot and not paying attention to what I was buying. Argh.

Realistically, it was probably a better move than my approach of spending hours looking at the offerings and roasting methods and comparing other vendors before finally spending $25 on three pounds of coffee. :drunk:
 
Realistically, it was probably a better move than my approach of spending hours looking at the offerings and roasting methods and comparing other vendors before finally spending $25 on three pounds of coffee. :drunk:

It all depends on what you like... I do not care for espresso or dark roasted coffee so the sampler makes sense for me but I think your approach is better for your taste. That's actually my biggest beef with Starbucks in particular and most mass-produced coffee is that they over-roast the beans.
 
It all depends on what you like... I do not care for espresso or dark roasted coffee so the sampler makes sense for me but I think your approach is better for your taste. That's actually my biggest beef with Starbucks in particular and most mass-produced coffee is that they over-roast the beans.

I'm also not a fan of very dark roasts, which makes it difficult to find good espresso blends since most roasters make them very dark. Intelligentsia's Black Cat is one of the very few espresso blends I really like.
 
Enjoying my first home roasted coffee today. I combined beans that i thought i may have under-roasted with some i thought i may have roasted too dark for my taste. Now that I'm tasting them, I don't think any of it was too dark. :)
 
Picked up a popper of the proper design last Friday and ordered the sampler from Sweet Maria's along with some valved ziploc bags for storage the same day. My beans will be delivered tomorrow according to UPS so I should be drinking fresh, home-roasted coffee by the weekend! It's gonna be hard to wait the 24-48 hours after roasting to use them, but I've heard enough people say the wait is worth it so I will. Still much faster than brewing beer!
 
Based on my experience purchasing freshly roasted coffee, I'm fairly sure what I roasted yesterday around noon will be better tomorrow morning than it was this morning, but I used the last of the coffee in the house on the same day the green coffee arrived, so it seemed like the better plan. I think I'll roast some tonight to use this weekend, and almost certainly go a little darker than what I did with the first batch.
 
I've been hoping to make a roaster using a method I saw online a while back, but I think the page disappeared. In short you repurpose an appropriate can (similar style to old-fashioned coffee cans) to fit on the spit of an electric chicken rotisserie. Seems ideal for grains, too. The main thing that's stopping me is finding a good (cheap) source of green coffee, but the design itself looked flawless. People unload rotisseries for pennies ("wedding present").

Of course I say an appropriate can because you need to find one that's unlined or truly remove any lining, unless you want a hot cup of charred bpa.
 
Using the popcorn poppers, how much of a hassle is separating the chaff from the beans when your done roasting?
 
Using the popcorn poppers, how much of a hassle is separating the chaff from the beans when your done roasting?

Uh, none? In my very limited experience, the hassle was cleaning up the chaff from the entire area. The popper blew it off the beans during the roast and it gets thrown out of the popper's chute, but it's so light is blows around easily.
 
My Sweet Maria's order arrived today. 8 valved ziploc bags for storage post roasting, and a pound each of: Brazil Fazenda do Serrado PN Yellow Bourbon(excited to try this one), El Salvador Majahual-Tablon Tempisque, Rwanda Karenge Coffee Villages, and Sumatra Grade 1 Mandheling. While I have enjoyed good coffee for a long time, I have only recently began paying attention to the origin and think this is a good start in trying some new things.

1392939083344.jpg
 
Lucky enough to know a guy who has some coffee on hand. Hops for coffee swap! I'm a total coffee rookie and wanted to sample. He hooked me up
 
So first batch is done and I learned a bit. My popper said max capacity is 3.5oz so I started with 3oz which turned out to be a little too much. I will try maybe 2 or 2.5 oz for hopefully a more even roast. Took a little over 4 minutes to get to 2nd crack. Lets see if I can wait until Saturday morning to try it

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1392953701656.jpg


1392953713943.jpg
 
So first batch is done and I learned a bit. My popper said max capacity is 3.5oz so I started with 3oz which turned out to be a little too much. I will try maybe 2 or 2.5 oz for hopefully a more even roast. Took a little over 4 minutes to get to 2nd crack. Lets see if I can wait until Saturday morning to try it


I bet you'll dig that coffee regardless. Looks tasty to me. Maybe pick out some of the obviously under roasted beans? Eat them!
 
So first batch is done and I learned a bit. My popper said max capacity is 3.5oz so I started with 3oz which turned out to be a little too much. I will try maybe 2 or 2.5 oz for hopefully a more even roast. Took a little over 4 minutes to get to 2nd crack. Lets see if I can wait until Saturday morning to try it

I roasted for the first time on Tuesday on my lunch break and first drank it Wednesday morning. It was not ready yet. Drank coffee from the same batch this morning and it was quite good. If you drink it early, reserve judgement until you give it time.

I'll be drinking the last of that batch tomorrow morning. Yesterday i roasted the espresso blend for Saturday and Sunday mornings.
 
Ive been roasting for a few years now - since 2009 or so.

I've roasted on modified bread machine/heat gun combo, hottop B and currently roast on a quest m3. I monitor and log my roasts with artisan software as well.

If you want to get into roasting and have some cash, a Hottop B is a great little roaster. If you reach out to Michael at Hottop, you might be able to snag a refurb for a discount.

If you're DIY'er, a heat gun/bread machine combo is a very capable setup. Just be sure a heat gun with adjustable power. Look for a bread machine with an AC motor and metal framed lid.


Anyone other home roasters here?
 
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