Aluminum Foil Tray

[Aristotelian]

I am just getting into coffee roasting and want to do it as cheaply as possible. I have done a couple batches in the oven that came out OK but created a lot of smoke in the house. This isn't going to work long term with the wife. I was thinking of using the heat gun method. Could I do this outside with a disposable aluminum pan with holes poked/drilled in the bottom? Any reason to think there would be a health or safety concern with coffee roasting temperatures?

 

[kh54s10]

I don't know anything about roasting coffee beans but I would think if you are getting smoke you are doing something wrong. If you are getting smoke I would think that you are burning the beans instead of just cooking them.

Now if it is just the odor that is something else.

As to the heat gun, I guess it would work but it would be very difficult to control the temperature. I would think that you would want a certain temperature for a certain amount of time. That is how they make all the different malts out of the same barley, along with how the germinate the seed.

 

[Aristotelian]

I don't know anything about roasting coffee beans but I would think if you are getting smoke you are doing something wrong. If you are getting smoke I would think that you are burning the beans instead of just cooking them.

Now if it is just the odor that is something else.

As to the heat gun, I guess it would work but it would be very difficult to control the temperature. I would think that you would want a certain temperature for a certain amount of time. That is how they make all the different malts out of the same barley, along with how the germinate the seed.

Try toasting your barley to chocolate malt or roasted barley color. You will get a sh**load of smoke, believe me I have tried that too.

 

[kh54s10]

I guess this answers my question from a google search:

Q: Is there much smoke when roasting? I live in a small apartment, what roaster should I choose?

A: There is always smoke when roasting; less if you roast small batches to a light or medium roast, more with larger batches and/or a darker roast. If you don’t have much ventilation where you plan to roast, your options are somewhat limited. You can roast near your stove’s hood fan if you have one, or near an open window with a fan to blow out the smoke.

Some machines have ways to deal with smoke. The Nesco Home Coffee Roaster has the convenient feature of a smoke reducer, which is great but means that the roast is longer and slower since a faster roast overwhelms the converter. The Behmor 1600 roaster also has smoke reduction and so has very little visible smoke unless you are roasting a large batch or roasting very dark. The Gene Café has an exit air pipe on which you can fit a length of clothes dryer hosing to direct smoke out a door or window.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Go to the thrift-store and find an old air popcorn popper. Should be as cheap as that pan with holes in it, and then you can just run it outside.

 

[passedpawn]

There's a ****load of smoke when you roast coffee beans. You won't get around that. I love the smell, but it's pretty strong right after you've roasted.

If your wife doesn't like it, do it when she's not there! If that's not an option, just move your roasting outside. You can roast in a pan on a grill. I do all of my roasting outside.

Previous Whirley Pop that worked awesome, but fell apart, probably due to roasting over coals like this. Oh yeah baby, right on the coals like grandpa did it.



My current contraption (Stir crazy / duct piece / turbo oven):

 

[Inkleg]

My current contraption (Stir crazy / duct piece / turbo oven):

Please kind sir, tell me more of this "contraption" that you speak of.
It looks affordable, hands on, fun, DIY and roasts coffee. I'm a fan of all those things.

>Inkleg goes off to google Turbo oven<

 

[passedpawn]

Please kind sir, tell me more of this "contraption" that you speak of.
It looks affordable, hands on, fun, DIY and roasts coffee. I'm a fan of all those things.

>Inkleg goes off to google Turbo oven<

Do a search for SC/TO coffee roasters.

The stir crazy was a brand of popcorn makers. The base is the only part you'll use. I have a generic model that I bought on a whim at Walmart for nothing. You throw away the plastic top. The base has a hotplate, which I disconnected (not sure if everybody does this or not) and a stirring mechanism. The hotplate is not hot enough to roast the coffee alone because it is temperature-regulated. I did try bypassing the regulator, and it got very hot, but then it burned the coffee beans too easily. Some people make different mods to the stirring bars to get a better stir - I haven't done that (yet).

The heat comes from the Turbo Oven lid. I use a generic model I bought for nothing used. You only need the TO lid - just throw away the base part. The lid has a big heating element, fan, and timer. It blows pretty hard, and between that and the stirring action, you can get a fairly even roast on batches up to 1#.

The piece of ductwork in the middle is something I found at Home Depot. Just measure the diameter of the SC and look for something 2 or 3 inches tall. I had to modify it just a bit with some tin snips, but it was about 15 minutes of effort.

One fine mod that some people do is to connect a temperature controller (i.e., PID, SSR, and temp sensor) so that they can accurately set the temperature. The temperature sensor gets mounted in the SC base (drill hole, poke it through) and the PID/SSR control power to the TO. I haven't done this (yet ).

I do 1# batches by setting the TO to 400F and roasting for 20 minutes. Still works great for me. I've roasted a lot of coffee with this thing.

Jammin (on this forum) recommended it to me. He might have more info to add. Lots of people using them out there, so just google and absorb.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

That's an awesome setup.