Hello everyone. I am new to the site as well as roasting. I am interested in roasting coffee without all the technological advances. I prefer to roast over a wood fire. I am currently leaning towards a cast iron wok. Are there any other ancient or artisan methods to roasting coffee that I should check out. Thank you for your help and guidance.

You may want to check out this thread: Array/forums/bedouin-cast-iron-coffee-roaster-t21414.html, near the end you'll see my camping setup which is an old fashioned fireplace popcorn popper with some metal spit holders to take the weight and strain of the wrists as my technique of roasting over an open fire entails a lot of shaking to keep the beans moving. For an perforated drum (or open mesh basket) roaster like this, it's probably best to let the fire burn down to coals, surprisingly I never noticed the coffee picking up a smokey flavor from roasting this way, but when I tried to roast almonds in this same basket they were too smokey to really enjoy.

A Google image search of "chestnut roasters" also came up with some interesting results, but you'll have to make sure any holes are not too large for roasting coffee.

@PureRoast

You'll find a lot more responsiveness if you can provide some more detail about what specifically you are looking for. It's a little daunting to have to guess when the field of options is so huge.

For example:

If you just want to avoid having to use electric plugins, my current setup may be a good option. I use a gas grill with rotisserie that I hand crank.

Or if you want an even closer tactile relationship to the roasting experience, Yakster's camping setup looks very cool. I started out roasting with a cast iron skillet and a wooden spoon over a charcoal fire. The process was fun, instructive, and the coffee tasted great, too!

I believe there are also professional commercial size roasters on the market brand new which use wood as the fuel for roasting. Like I said, the field of options is huge! That's what makes this fun for me.

So.. what say you?

Andrew

Sorry about being vague. I am new to the entire home roasting experience. I did check out Yaksters set up and I thought it was very cool. I suppose I'm looking for the most original way of roasting coffee beans. Everyone uses electric roasters and high tech gadgetry. I prefer a more romantic, original approach.

Regarding your experience with the cast-iron. How do the results compare to your new method?

Wow that Finnish roaster I saw when I clicked on the Bedouin link from Yakster was way cool, and the roast looked very even.

I was roasting in a cast iron pot roaster for over a year before I got the Huky.
I wrote a bit about it in this thread: Pan roasting - "grainy" smell & no crema
Please ask if you want to know more

Summer,
Thanks for the link. It is interesting to see some of the similarities between the pan roaster and my DIY Stainless Steel Pot roaster. If you look at the picture by my profile, you can see it sits on a Coleman camp stove. I am able to finish a roast to Full City in 15 minutes give or take only one minute. Only the wind can mess me up, as I roast in the garage with the roll up door open. Hope your having fun with the Huky

PureRoast wrote:Sorry about being vague. I am new to the entire home roasting experience. I did check out Yaksters set up and I thought it was very cool. I suppose I'm looking for the most original way of roasting coffee beans. Everyone uses electric roasters and high tech gadgetry. I prefer a more romantic, original approach.

Regarding your experience with the cast-iron. How do the results compare to your new method?

No problem on the vagueness. From one newbie to another, folks here just like to see more details.

On comparisons between my old approach and new, I like the coffee much better as do all my guests. I'm manually cranking a home-made BBQ spit over a gas fire so I feel like the feel is still very "romantic" and tactile. However, I must admit that the alure of having my hands free to focus on other aspects of the roast is very real.

I heard once from a civil war reenactor that would roast coffee over a campfire and cool it in muslin.

I enjoy campfire roasting when I'm camping, but don't go out of my way to use such a hands-on approach all the time, but it does have a bit of a draw, similar to manual pour over.