Hi ya HBers.

I've tried my hand at roasting for the first time, using a stainless steel pan on gas-top.
The first roast (50 g) went past Full City+ and 18 hours later it doesn't have that yummy coffee smell. More like a grain, in fact similar to when I dry-toast oats for muesli.

The espresso was not good, also because it ran way too fast. For some reason the grind I use for my cafe bought (and old) beans was too coarse for the beans. (Why would that be? Fresher beans need a finer grind?)

I cranked the grind finer and it ran a semi-decent time, approx 20 sec for a shot, but looked watery completely lacking in crema. Didn't taste good as a shot (just a little sip) but strangely tasted pretty ok in a latte - much better than the old cafe beans.

I roasted a second 50 g micro lot. This time I pan roasted slower and stopped it shorter, being meticulous to stir almost constantly. It has better colour - still not homogeneous. But it still has a grainy / beany smell.

(On the left, first roast. On the right, second roast)
Looking for advice on how to attain a yummy coffee smell, good crema and more homogeneous colour.
I'd prefer to stay will the pan for now but will see if I can source a cheap popcorn maker.

Thanks I advance guys...
BTW beans are El Salvador La Joya

Unfortunately, you're likely only cooking the outer portion of beans before getting the center of the beans to a proper temp. Roasting for espresso is significantly more of a challenge compared to roasting for coffee IMO.

I've made good coffee that is nicely developed and not grainy, using something as simple as a whirly-pop, so it is possible and I wouldn't discourage you. Stick with it and see if you can get something that brews sweet first, then consider playing with it as espresso.

Enough steamed milk can cover any flaw. Try to lower the heat, or the distance from your heat source, a bit, and agitate your beans a bit more. They are quite scorched in areas, and under-roasted in others.

Hi Tom
Thanks for the reply. Makes sense about not cooking right through.

Do you think it is still possible to roast through with a pan?
I also have cast iron if that would be better...I guess possibly more evenly distributed than the stainless steel??

Or would oven roasting be a better option? I also have available a toaster oven (big enough for a large chicken).

I just looked for a pop-corn maker in a few stores but couldn't find one (I'm in Singapore....guessing its a bit specialty for the normal stores).

Looking forward to drawing on other peoples experience.

I've used a lot of cast iron, on it's own and in conjunction with 1/4" solid copper plate heat diffusers. Since I'm stuck with electric ranges in my home, I still have hot spots that even the copper can't fix. That being said, I think you could try it out and hope for the best. I have no specific advice on roasting directly in a cast iron pan, simply because I never have tried myself.

If cost savings are your biggest matter to focus on, then using the tools you've described above, I'd go with whichever method you can control the best. Mind you, you'll likely be throwing out a lot of bad roasts during the learning phase regardless, so don't get discouraged early on. But that's why I'd suggest sticking with the method that offers the most control, for consistency sake. If that means roasting them in an oven, so be it.

Keep an eye out at discount stores for simple used air popcorn poppers. They will work far better, and you might actually save money when you average in all the money saved not throwing away bad coffee.

There are many threads dedicated to home roasting on an pop corn popper.

The stovetop method isn't much different from the Heatgun/Dogbowl method, which I used for a year before buying a hottop, and the results got pretty darn decent towards the end. The Hottop really brought things to life, but I made good coffee with a heatgun, a spoon and a bowl plenty of times. Towards the end of my HG/DB roasting, I added a portable stovetop to the setup. I placed the mixing bowl on the top the burner which would be on low to medium, and had the heatgun mounted above the bowl. So, in essence, its pretty similar to what you're trying to do.

I quickly searched youtube and found a video that has got some issues, but which will illustrate what I think a couple key points are(I think the problems were caused by trying to film, he seems to have the right idea about what hes doing): -Vessel is a sauce pan, not a saute pan. Personally I liked mixing bowls, but the point is a high sided vessel instead of a low sided saute' pan(I assume thats what you're using)

-The bean mass. This is key, and will take a couple roasts to get it right. Too little, and you can't heat the mass, but rather you're heating the individual beans and your not roasting them, your cooking them. Too much, and you wont be able to evenly heat the mass of beans enough, or at all. Keeping the mass of beans at the right temp is the goal.

-Stir Speed. He starts out stirring pretty slow. Too slow IMPO. At around 2:36, the speed shown is just about perfect for this vessel/bean mass. See how the entire mass of beans is A)staying as a mass of beans and B)in a near constant state of motion? This is key. You don't want beans leaving the bean mass because your stirring too violently and throwing them up the sides, but you DO want the entire mass in near constant, or fully constant motion.

-DONT EVER STOP. Always keep the beans moving, even more so with a stovetop instead of a heatgun. This is just the quickest way to ruin the roast. Early on in the roast, stopping the bean mass completely will cause the temp to plummit. Later in the roast, stopping completely will literally scorch the outer shell right in front of your eyes. ALWAYS keep things in motion.

-There will be about 3-4, maybe even 5 minutes before ANYTHING happens. First time I was ever roasting coffee, there I was, with $100 worth of greens and some random kitchen utensils and a heatgun, and Im stirring away at these green beans holding a glorified hair dryer above them, and NOTHING is happening.. It smells faintly of dry grass. And here Im thinking, "I must be out of my mind to think I cou...." And just as I was thinking that, this toasty aroma came out of nowhere and the beans started turning a yellow color. So, don't be discouraged, it takes a minute to get the going, but once they get going, watch out. You can blast right from 1st crack into a rolling smoking 2nd crack if you're not careful.

-Wear a hat. Chaff goes everywhere.

Thanks for your replies folks.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for a pop-corn popper but I'm not getting my hopes up. I have a wide range of rice cookers to choose from in Singapore but not so much pop corn is consumed.

I just saw a site on 2-stage roasting:
http://sciencefare.org/2012/02/22/bette ... two-stage/

Any thoughts on this as a hybrid approach?

The least expensive way to roast coffee in a kitchen with existing cooking utensils is probably with mesh. The pan roasting requires too much stirring that is not efficient to roll the beans to avoid scorching. From the pictures, the roast is uneven.

The mesh colander does have to be flattened at the bottom so the beans are not stacked upon each other to facilitate more even heat transfer. Often at Asian cooking stores, flat bottom mesh colanders are easily found.

Lay only enough beans of about one layer. Shake at frequency of 1-2 per second over gas stove. I tried both over charcoal and gas stove, and it worked. Try to reach first crack in 10 minutes, then another 2-3 minutes for roast development.

Charcoal Roasting

Well been a busy day for me with a lot of reading and trying another batch.

This time I used our cast iron pan with the electric oven.
With oven on max I didn't reach first crack even after 15 min (yes, too long...I know). So obviously I can't do the full process in the oven.
But the "base roast" shall we call it, was quite homogeneous.

Then I whipped the pan into the gas. First crack came quite fast and second followed shortly after. I went a bit past second crack trying to make sure that the beans were roasted and not just scorched.

SUCCESS...roasted beans that actually smell like coffee. I'm so happy.

You can see there is still some scorching, but I am heartened.

For only my third batch, I'm encouraged.

Any thoughts on the 2-stage process I linked above? Would getting a good base bake in the oven contribute to a more even 2nd stage pan / colander roast? Or would you judge that it could only be detrimental?
Keen to leverage from your collective knowledge.

Edit: the 3rd batch doesn't smell 100% . . . doesn't make me go "ahhhh" . . . but still better that batches 1 & 2

Hi
Im roasting in a cast iron pot, and here's my experiences.
I start roasting when the pot is 130-135 Celsius warm (266-275 F), measured in the inside bottom (115-120 Celsius measured on the side of the pot).
When I start the roasting, I start a stopwatch to keep track of time. I keep stirring the pot medium tempo during the whole roasting, and I keep a lid on top of the roaster during the roasting.

On the medium gasburner (1.9kW) and 180 grams of beans, I start on less than half power: 30% for the first 4-7 minutes, while the beans are drying.

When the smell of hay is almost gone (4-7 minutes - the temp on the side of the pot is 145-150 Celsius), I up the burner to 40-50%.

Around 1st crack (anywhere from 7.30 to 12 minutes - pot-temp is 160-165 Celsius measured on the side) I normally go down to 30% burner again.

I then roast to around full city (judging by color (before 2nd crack) - this is happening from 11.30-16 minutes).
I cool the beans pouring between two colanders outside the house - and then I let beans degas (not airtight) for minimum 24 hours, and wait 72 hours from roasting before tasting.

Normally I try to hit these time and temps (taste and adjust):
0 minutes: 115 on the side: start roast, burner 30%
5 minutes: hay gone: 145 on the side: burner 45%
9 minutes: just before 1st crack: 160 on the side: burner 30%
13 minutes: nice color: dump/cool

Some beans likes fast (short) roasts, some dont.
I found that harder beans, grown in higher altitudes, likes a slower (longer) roast - but really the best way to go, is to roast, taste - adjust - roast again, taste again and note every experience in your roasting book

The roaster:
http://www.espressobar.dk/forums/attach ... 1348134609