Haha! Thanks David! Just pulled the first shots from a local roaster and it tastes amazingly fresh. Hey... my wife has already suggested the possibility of roasting our own. The adventure deepens... HB has really been a fantastic resource. Dennis

You will find that if you have a dedicated and serious roasting house near you that your roasts will pail by comparison for your first few years of home roasting. Not to mention you will spend well over 100 lb in "coffee bucks" to get somewhat OK coffee at home.

When I started roasting my goal was to be half as good as the two stellar roasting houses we have here in our little college town. It took me a year of roasting every week to get to that "half as good" point but as I said, these guys are stellar (one is runner up to roast magazine's roaster of the year award for 2016).

I'm now 4 years in with roasting at home and I fell that my roasts are getting very close to the best here in town. Was it worth it? Not in monetary measure as I now have 3 roasting machines, one of which is a commercial roaster. I could have just purchased the finest coffee in the country every week for 100 years and come out ahead money wise...

BUT

It was one heck of a ride and I enjoyed every failure and success to be where I am now.

I still only roast for myself and my wife. I don't even give away my roasts and in fact hardly anyone I know has any inkling that I am a coffee crazy.

Thanks for the reality check, Mick. The photo of your roaster set-up is very illuminating. I have a guitar practice room that rises to a similar level of gear accumulation... so I am intimately familiar with the phenomenon. I do appreciate the cautionary word. Haha...

I started my foray into espresso about 3 years ago I think, and now that I've moved to rural Japan I was sorta forced to start home roasting. Not being able to find roasted beans that I like locally for under US$60/kilo was a shocker. There are so many local specialty roasters, but only a few are to my liking - one extremely delicious and expensive in 100g increments.

I made do with some Kimbo for a short time while I built a test roaster and got it going. Now it's my beans for cappuccino and sometimes good enough for espresso, although I'm still working the kinks out of my roaster and methodology. After running through 10-15kg my roasts are quite palatable - although it's still not great.
Although I don't really have the place to put one I'd love to have a real roaster. Someday...

Finally found a very good roaster here in Connecticut within 30 minutes drive. Saccuzzo coffee in Newington does an excellent northern Italian blend (Originale) for a very reasonable price in 2lb bags (especially pickup). I am not affiliated in any way but others might benefit from knowing about them.