I knew my journey would eventually lead me to here. I have what I feel for me is a good machine, Rocket Giotto Evoluziione V2, two great grinders, Vario and HG One and now looking at roasting my own to complete the circle.

The big three seem to be the Hottop, Behmor and Gene Cafe. Big difference in prices and features, I understand that. If I know myself, one of those three would be the one I would get.

My question is not a which one to get. My questions is if you put ego aside, do you find that your roasts are equal or better than what you can get commercially? Right now, in my very short journey, I could pull a better shot than most "Bucks" or other cafes. What have your comparisons been like with roasting? To put it out there, I am not too interested in hooking up computers, thermometers and other implements (at this time). I just want to buy good beans, roast a 1/2 lb at a time, hopefully better than what I can get locally or internet. After my due dilligence of course of learning the craft. I just want to know if this goal is equally obtainable as one with a decent espresso machine.

Would love to hear your results and your honest opinions of those results!

Thanks!

Home roasting will give you much more control over your inputs. You'll probably buy better beans than most commercial roasters can source and quickly figure out the composition and styles you prefer most.

You won't save any money and you'll definitely use up a bunch of time. You'll also gain experience and understanding. In the process your palate will probably undergo changes as you discover new coffees and new roasts.

Basically, for most of us, it's a heck of a lot of fun. Then too, my coffee is about as good as it gets and significantly better than what I buy anywhere else.

My advice is to get a Hottop and see where that takes you.

wrz0170 wrote:My questions is if you put ego aside, do you find that your roasts are equal or better than what you can get commercially?

Yes.

To put it out there, I am not too interested in hooking up computers, thermometers and other implements (at this time). I just want to buy good beans, roast a 1/2 lb at a time, hopefully better than what I can get locally or internet. After my due diligence of course of learning the craft. I just want to know if this goal is equally obtainable as one with a decent espresso machine.

Not if your goal is to roast beans at the same levels as the best contemporary roasters. Not the way you're handicapping it anyway.

There's a continuum which starts at browning greens at one end and goes on to sophisticated, artisanal roasting at the other. Times have changed, and really good, modern roast masters use more information than sights, sounds and smell. They also use machines (and have for a long time) with enough power, airflow and control over them to make corrections on the fly. The Behmor and Gene lack the telemetry, agility, and effective cooling for the control necessary to roast on purpose; i.e., with an artisan's level of control.

Although you can get good results with machines like a Behmor or a Gene, the least expensive roasters that allow modern, professional quality are the HotTop, Huky and Quest M3.

Rich

I've owned a behmor, hottop b2k, and now a Huky....The Huky is light years better than the previous.

+1

Make that +2, gas and real time BT probe monitoring take home roasting to another level.

+1 on the Huky. I only suggested the Hottop because he mentioned he wasn't all that interested in thermometry.

For that matter, my old Behmor probably did a pretty good job with espresso roasts?

Everybody has to start somewhere...

I agree to an extent.. Although I wish that I would have skipped the hottop and behmor stages.

My results are variable. At my best, I can match the best roasts of similar greens that are sold by leading roasters; at other times, I miss the mark and end up giving away the results to friends who aren't very discriminating. Part of that is that it takes time to learn to use new equipment to best effect, and part of that is the learning process that goes on when starting out with a new green coffee. As others have said, this isn't a direction you should pursue if the main goal is saving money. You may end up throwing away a lot of coffee in the early stages!

With that being said, I'd encourage you to go down a different route. Why not pick up a popcorn popper from sweet marias, install a thermometer, and learn to roast using cheaper equipment and smaller batches? If you are roasting 60g at a time, you can make more mistakes without feeling like it is too much of a waste, and you will learn more quickly. You can get fairly good roasts out of these if you are willing to go the extra step of wiring in a dimmer to control the heater. All of this should cost less than $100 (including the various accessories, which are more expensive then the actual popper). After you've played with that for a few months you will have a better sense of whether roasting is for you, and you can then decide whether it is worth upgrading to a roaster that manages larger batches.

And as a general rule: You will learn much faster with thermometers and manual control than if you are using machines with opaque inputs and guessing about your temperature profiles.

Make that +2, gas and real time BT probe monitoring take home roasting to another level.

I heartily agree with Keno... of course his setup is nearly identical to mine. Go with the Huky and Artisan!