Home roasting equipment of choice Poll- kind of..

[mogogear]

So I started with a low grade modified Poppery 1( separated the fan and heater with a on-board rheostat) I had great success with the Poppery- running it on my stove - with the vent a hood on high- filters removed. A overall very nice roast.

I then coveted a "factory made" roaster and got a still in the box Caffe Roasto. which I am still struggling with, a bit to get more consistent roasts from. As per Jim suggestion I am going to downgrade my volume to slow my roast down( for more agitation to prevent hot spotting the beans as opposed to needing to slow the roast) It takes me about 12.5 minutes to get beans to the last half of the second crack on the Roasto. The Poppery would take a 4 oz batch to the same place in about 8.5 minutes.

I still have them both and if the StumpTown Annex wasn't 3 blocks from my house I would roast more.. but I roast about half the volume I use. I am an under-achiever in home roasting so even though the Gene looks great- I'll have to weight the need versus the want- Oh - practicality rears it's ugly head...

[luca]

I know what you mean. I've got a heat gun at home, but work is only ten minutes' walk around the corner, so I tend to just grab coffee from there or use the sample roaster there. Whilst I love roasting my own, I think that it requires some effort to develop roasting skills and build up a store of the beans that you actually want in a blend. There's more than enough on the extraction side to keep me busy, so I'm quite happy to support my local roasters. I kind of wonder whether people who start roasting and making espresso at the same time ever really get to taste a good shot at home.

Cheers,

Luca

[cafeIKE]

I kind of wonder whether people who start roasting and making espresso at the same time ever really get to taste a good shot at home.

Every freaking day!

Every so often, I purchase a coffee from various well respected specialty roasters to make sure I'm still on track.
To date, I've no regrets on home roasting except for the time it takes. It's taken me 6 roasts to zero in on the blend and profile for this crop of beans, but I think I'm good to go for the next few months.

Additionally, I get to enjoy several SO that are unobtainable elsewhere. Just the other day I enjoyed a semi femented El Salvador plum jam fruit bomb.

[another_jim]

Personally, I've moved from a Hearthware Precision, which had a decent off-the-shelf roast but was built like a joke, to a Freshroast, which was well built but had to be tweaked for a good roast, to a PI, which is built like a tank, but needs to be modded quite extensively for a good roast.

I have no problem getting good roasted beans; Intelly and Metropolis are in town, Paradise is 1 day away by UPS ground, all the other great roasters are two to three days away by 2nd day air or Priority Mail. Yet I get very nervous not having a bulletproof homeroaster. I guess it's an addiction for me.

When I started homeroasting, I was getting far better coffee and espresso at home than at cafes, despite not knowing squat. Most roasters didn't care for quality and freshness, most cafes didn't care about prep. The situation has changed with the the coffee internet, and its help in bringing the top roasters and consumers together. At the Atlanta SCAA in 2004, I was still kind of smug. There were a few places doing great coffee, but on the whole, the amateurs had the pros comfortably beat. By Seattle, this had changed; the number of cafes and roasters doing terrific coffee, as good or better than anything I could do, had gotten larger than I could comfortably count on my fingers and toes.

Some people, like Marshall, gave up homeroasting at this point; since they could get great coffees close by. Being quite competitive, I felt depressed at being outdone by the pros. I think others had a similar shock. It's around this time we all got a lot more demanding of our roasting, adding better controls, learning about the theory of roasting, etc etc.

So now I like to think of myself as a "nanoroaster" rather than an amateur. Of course, I'm being a vain, competitive jerk reacting in this way; but it has some socially redeeming value. Keeping up with the pros teaches me the nuts and bolts of what is required for good coffee; and that, in turn, transforms the competitive urge into respect.

[mogogear]

I am such an amateur roaster! I have roasted quite a few batches over the last year ( maybe 75 or so) which is paltry .... all in all I would say that even my mediocre roasts have made the single biggest difference in my espresso quality.

But a busy life keeps letting the empty bean jar slip up on be and then I am slipping down to Stumptown to have a store bought shot and a pound of beans( also a good escape from my home -basement office- tomb!!)

But I digress- The Cafe Roasto seems pretty well made and the old Poppery 1 -What can I say- I have enormous respect for what such a simple device( even modified with out a Variac and big home made console etc) it is and how almost flawlessly it does when I use it. I have to say that the exposed roasting chamber make it so easy to hear exact start of 1st / 2nd cracks that I struggle with the muffled sounds from the Roasto.. that second crack is soooo subtle.

By the way I place a 1/2 gallon plastic pitcher under the "snout" of my Poppery as a chaff collector. Using the adhesive qualities of the water surface to grab the chaff as it is blown down on to it. I fashion a aluminum foil hood around the Poppery's removable top where it hangs over the pitcher This really keeps the chaff and smoke directed on to the water surface. I will post a humble shot of this - I roast in my kitchen on my stove top, under the vent hood , and my wife doesn't beat me about chaff everywhere and the smoke alarm doesn't go off.... Also I have gone to Marble slab Creamery style of bean cooling. As soon as my roasters are done, and I have at least let the unheated fans go for a minute or so. I dump my beans on to the Granite counter top in my kitchen. I then turn the roaster back on to continue the cooling cycle.

The counter top draws the heat out so fast it is incredible.

Shutting up

[Abe Carmeli]

I started with Fresh Roast three years ago, moved to Iroast for two months and then HotTop. I gave away the poppers to friends as they became totally useless after the HotTop. I used the Gene Cafe for a short time. It has its own problems beside unacceptably long cooling - I could hardly hear first crack, let alone second. The upcoming programmable HotTop will allow home roasters to have almost all the controls professional high end drum roasters have with perhaps only one element missing: controlling airflow. I'm excited about it.

[mrgnomer]

I kind of wonder whether people who start roasting and making espresso at the same time ever really get to taste a good shot at home.
Cheers,
Luca

It took a while with an iRoast but after over a year of 300 roasts and blending I've got some pretty darn good blends. Yeah, the iRoast is a popper and the roasts are bright and lack the deep character of drum roasts. I've just tried a local micro roaster's fresh espresso blend and it definitely tastes toastier and fuller. Still, blending different varietals at different roast stages makes up some for the compromised roast character.

Instead of buying fresh roasted I buy green and the stock gradually has gone up.

I'm really looking to change from the iRoast to a good drum roaster. The Hottop, no pun intended, is on the top of the list.

[miKe mcKoffee]

So I started with a low grade modified Poppery 1( separated the fan and heater with a on-board rheostat) I had great success with the Poppery- running it on my stove - with the vent a hood on high- filters removed. A overall very nice roast.

I then coveted a "factory made" roaster and got a still in the box Caffe Roasto. which I am still struggling with, a bit to get more consistent roasts from. As per Jim suggestion I am going to downgrade my volume to slow my roast down( for more agitation to prevent hot spotting the beans as opposed to needing to slow the roast) It takes me about 12.5 minutes to get beans to the last half of the second crack on the Roasto. The Poppery would take a 4 oz batch to the same place in about 8.5 minutes.

I still have them both and if the StumpTown Annex wasn't 3 blocks from my house I would roast more.. but I roast about half the volume I use. I am an under-achiever in home roasting so even though the Gene looks great- I'll have to weight the need versus the want- Oh - practicality rears it's ugly head...

I say control the roaster don't let it control you! If you want to get all the potential the Caffe Rosto has to offer it is very simple to split wire the heater and fan, both are AC. Then can control both via boosted variable voltage for any profile you want from 5 minute French to 30 minute (or longer but that's the longest I played with) flat as a pancake Cinnamon roast. ~$25 for fan control ~$100 10 to 20A variac for heater. Decent analog thermometer with long stem down into bean mass works fine for very repeatable profiles. Currently using a Cooper 550f with 8" stem from SM, perfect. Played with using a TC but actually prefer the analog for this purpose. FWIW with 20% boosted fan I routinely do 1/2# batches. I guarantee a split wired Rosto with dual variable boosted voltage control can run circles around a Gene Cafe for flexibility and responsiveness in profile roasting. And much much quicker in roaster cooling, ~2 minute down to 200f, another 2 or so for ~100f (And that's with the over sized 1/2# batches!) Ease of use? Ok, Gene would win. Could do what Mike Dhabolt has done with his P1 UbberPoppers and control the heater via PID but I've chosen to remain a human PID.

You know I live just the other side of the Columbia if you ever want to check out what I'm talking about in person. Even bring a 1/2# of your favorite green bean/blend to see what a properly controlled Rosto can do with it! Or bring more greens to compare different profiles of the same or whatever.

Then again you do live only three blocks from Stumpy!

Then again I was recently told by a friend a shot I pulled them of my current blend Rosto roasted surpassed any they'd had at Stumptown.

[Martin]

I have to say that I'm a confirmed vicarious geek----I don't actually want to mod anything or wire it or split the wires. But I do like reading about what others do and why. About 4.5 years ago I upgraded from a dead Krups Something-Or-Other to an sick Isomac Venus that quickly got remorsed to an Iso Tea. And I read, pulled shots, and continued to visit my old espresso haunts.

I found it way too troublesome to keep a supply of fresh roast, caf and decaf, and experiment with different varietals. It wasn't a money thing, just an irregular schedule both life and coffee. So roasting seemed to make sense. Lots of reading. When I was ready for a decision, it happened to be at a time when there was a gap in the availability of machines. Most places were out, or had only an unimproved model. Batch sizes were small. Make a decision whether you wanted a dark roast or ? No peaberries in the Alp. Hottop had appeared but then vanished. What's-a-Drum?

To pass the time, I got some beans and stuck them in a popper. That made no sense at all unless I was prepared to go the whole mod route. But the concept stayed, and after some serendipitous events and mystical visions, heatgun/dogbow roasting was born. Determined searches turned up only the Sivitz 27 gram roaster, and a single and years-previous alt.coffee thread with no more than three comments. Over the years, I tried many "improvements" that people have suggested. I've figured out how I can monitor temps. I've filled spread sheets with data and cupping notes (I flatter myself to call them that). Funny thing about all that data. I never paid the slightest attention to it after I recorded it.

But nothing seems to improve that basic, HG, DB, stirrer.

For 4 years, now I've been waiting for a dial-and-set home roaster that would give me the profile control and batch-size range that I get with my HG/DB. I haven't seen it yet. But I do love shiney new machines, and if one comes along, I'll jump.

Martin

[another_jim]

For 4 years, now I've been waiting for a dial-and-set home roaster that would give me the profile control and batch-size range that I get with my HG/DB. I haven't seen it yet. But I do love shiney new machines, and if one comes along, I'll jump.

Hi Martin, I just finished building a dual PID box mated to a P1 for a friend. About $250, and a lot more work than I care to do. I'll post the instructions at some point, so that people so inclined can do it themselves. That's about as cheap as it can get right now. As soon as a usuable PRC low cost PID controller with ramp/soak hits the market, it'll be a good deal less.

The box profiles the hot air supply on one PID based on profiles used in industrial roasters and cuts the roast at the bean temp set on the other PID. It's about as auto as it gets, since the ramped supply air profile is overload safe, maintains stably rising rost temepratures, and doesn't require manual airflw manipulations.

[Martin]

Hi Martin, I just finished building a dual PID box mated to a P1 for a friend. About $250, and a lot more work than I care to do. I'll post the instructions at some point, so that people so inclined can do it themselves. That's about as cheap as it can get right now. As soon as a usuable PRC low cost PID controller with ramp/soak hits the market, it'll be a good deal less.

The box profiles the hot air supply on one PID based on profiles used in industrial roasters and cuts the roast at the bean temp set on the other PID. It's about as auto as it gets, since the ramped supply air profile is overload safe, maintains stably rising rost temepratures, and doesn't require manual airflw manipulations.

Sometimes we hear of a high-level, but sub-superstar athelete described as "he plays within himself." That's the sort of coffee roaster I am. Also, I've posted previously, somewhere, about anchoring my coffee endeavors in a principle of parsimony. So when I consider switching from HG/DB, I have to balance the new data and control I would get, with what I might actually use.

I suspect that roasters and methods that purport to add lots of useful data, actually add very little to HG/DB. For example, after weeks of monitoring temps of the HG/DB bean bed, I realized that temp was just an interesting data point that I could use to "describe" roasting decisions I was making that were based mostly on sensory cues. Over a series of highly replicable roasts (same blend, crop, varietys, etc) I might be able to decide within a few degrees an optimal degree of roast, but actual conditions make this unlikely; especially when considering my capable-but-not-brilliant cupping skills. Over time, the repetitions add up to increasingly informed intuition. To describe this process, as some do, as "Zen" roasting misses the point (unless you want to describe my bubbie as having made Zen strudel dough).

Now, of course, this does not apply to nano-roasting; in which case (and with great respect) the endeavor is not about getting some great beans roasted for tomorrow's breakfast. Finally, if a robust and nicely packaged dual PID box with mate becomes available, I'd love to own one. I also own "the ultimate driving machine" even though I'm not the ultimate driver.

Martin

[Walter]

After having used pretty much everything suitable to roast green coffee-beans, from camping gas stove, HG/DB, stovetop popper, Gene and Hottop I was at the one hand surprised that one could get pretty good results from almost everything, but at the other hand disappointed about the smallish batch-sizes and the lack of control even with such sophisticated tools as the Gene or Hottop. This may change now with the new Hottop, but my tool of choice has recently become a 2kg professional gas roaster and I think this is the kind of roaster I shall stick with...

[Taming]

You know I live just the other side of the Columbia if you ever want to check out what I'm talking about in person.

Hey miKe, is that offer open for me too, if I make our expected trip over the mountains from Alberta to BC this summer?

This is my first HB post. I've been reading for several months, and am now in a state of anticipation as my espresso gear just shipped and I am on the edge of falling headfirst into "the dark side". That means I am one of the crowd that started homeroasting, and only after some time doing that, decided to do espresso at home.

My first roaster was an IR2, and I still use that if it gets too cold to roast outside with my bread machine/heat gun set-up or if I have a new bean, and want to roast a small amount of it as a first roast.

For both espresso and homeroasting, I sometimes feel as if I am in that (original) Star Trek episode where Jim and the crew find a civilization that reveres a document and a way of life based on the US Declaration of Independence without a clue as to what it truly is. I live two hours away from a truly great roaster or truly great espresso. Unfortunately, the great roaster is north of me, and the great espresso is south.

I guess that makes me one of those who is forced to play within myself. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if anyone happens to be near Red Deer Alberta, and would like to raise a cuppa with me, I'd be more than happy to do the traditional toast of the truly uninformed, and salute you with " E Pugnistee". You are free to respond with "We the People".

Vicki

[Dooglas]

I started out in home roasting with a Caffe Rosto which I would still recommend to beginners as a tough and forgiving little machine. Last year I moved on to a GeneCafe and have been enjoying the larger batch size and spot-on consistency. As others have discussed how and why they homeroast, no one seemed to mention cost. I agree that absolute freshness and personal control of roasts are darned good reasons all by themselves. I've noticed, though, that my success at producing good roasts and darned tasty caps has resulting in my partner and I drinking more coffee. Now, I don't live too far from Stumptown either. On the other hand, I am able to obtain some of the best greens in the world through periodic trips to Mexico and purchases through the Green Bean Buyer's Club. I am generally paying $2 to $2.50 USD per pound for my coffee, not $10-$12 USD; and I'm loving the results. Life is good.

Dooglas

[DaveC]

Unusually, my first roasting experience was on a 40 year old 25kg gas powered Probat drum roaster....long story, but I realised immediately 2 important things:

1. You really don't want to screw up a roast on a 25kg roaster and you especially don't want to see what a roaster fire looks like!

2. I thought I wanted a Genecafe or a Hottop...but quickly realised I didn't

This led to my purchase of a 1kg Toper cafemino (electric variant) as a home roaster and I don't regret it at all. It produces a superior roast to a Hottop and (another long story), I roast about 30 batches per month in it and have done so for the last 5-6 months (using about 10 different varieties of coffee). However even from the pure home user perspective, it's nice just to throw in a kg of beans in and 15 minutes later have 826g of roasted coffee to last you the next couple of weeks.

[zapty]

Hello roasting gang,

i started out roasting quite a few years ago with some antique roasters I've aquired over the years.
A few years ago I bought a Hottop that I recently sold and then recently aquired a Maggiolino from Coffee-tech.
I still use the antique roasters also, they work well.
I love top roast my own beans, freshly roasted beans are the best...

[DaveC]

through periodic trips to Mexico and purchases through the Green Bean Buyer's Club. I am generally paying $2 to $2.50 USD per pound for my coffee, not $10-$12 USD; and I'm loving the results. Life is good.
Dooglas

Interesting, can you tell me more about how this works and any problems/pitfalls to avoid. I am trying to set up a "Greens Club" on my own Coffee forum for UK members and any advice would be appreciated.

I am doing this because I think in the UK the cost of Green beans for home roasters is scandalous and when you add postage on top of that you are paying a lot for fairly cheap coffees when bought by the sack, certainly we can get costs down to around $2-$2.50 per pound for decent coffees and only a little more for "specials". One thing I have found though is peoples reluctance to spend on 25kg of coffee in one go to save around 80% on costs!

[Dooglas]

Dave -

The Mexico part is simple. When I travel to western Mexico each winter, I stop in at a processing mill outside of Compostela in Nayarit state. I buy grade 1 beans from them and stuff my suitcase full. Several years ago the price was $25 pesos per kilo. It has slowly creeped up to $40 pesos per kilo (something like $1.70 USD per pound).

I have never brokered beans myself through the Green Coffee Buyer's Club. I've only purchased small lots. Great system though. High quality greens, modest handling charge, and lowest available shipping cost. If you go to the GCBC website (http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com), you can learn a fair amount about how it works. If no one has started up such a group in GB, it sounds like the assignment is yours. Best of luck with it.

Douglas

[DaveC]

If you go to the GCBC website (http://www.greencoffeebuyingclub.com), you can learn a fair amount about how it works. If no one has started up such a group in GB, it sounds like the assignment is yours. Best of luck with it.
Douglas

Thanks, I do intend to start it up, but for people who live near enough to collect or happy to pay postage for delivery of large lots. They will have to commit to about 25kg each. It's going to be completely non profit.

I think something like this has not been done in GB before, for 4 reasons:

1. Many people don't know what green coffee really costs.

2. People don't seem to want to make an effort and in the UK seem happy to pay whatever is asked and then grumble about it. It's why we pay more for goods and services and get far less value than in the USA. I have observed that in USA people are not frightened to either not buy, or do something about it rather than have high prices.

3. No has been willing to try and pull it all together for no profit.

4. Buying 25 Kg of coffee at once seems expensive in the short term, but costs 3 times less long term

[cannonfodder]

When I purchase coffee in the green, I usually go with 10 lb lots. If it is a very unique and extraordinary lot then I get as much as I can, or enough to last most of the year depending on availability.

I don't necessarily home roast for the cost savings, although $3 a pound is hard to beat. It is just fun to do and having no local roasters makes it even easier to justify. A pound of coffee ordered online plus shipping is nearly $20 a pound.