I'll be one of the unique ones here. I do not roast, although obviously considering since I have found myself in this section of the forum.
I have two reasons with the first being a lack of space in my one bedroom apartment. I don't have a great exhaust hood where I am and would rather not have to sit outside in freezing weather. I don't know how much my apartment neighbors would enjoy the smell of weekly coffee roasting either.
Additionally, roasting is a large investment to get the same quality I can buy from my local shop that carries PT's
Down the road when life circumstances are different, I hope to get into it. As of now I suppose I will keep reading and collecting information!

One time while visiting Portland I was determined to get my hands on some freshly roasted beans for my new V60. I had no idea what I was doing - up until then I had been buying stale bulk beans from the supermarket.

So I walked into Mr. Green Beans PDX and asked what beans they had in stock. The response, of course, was "we don't sell roasted beans, we only sell green beans. You should try roasting. It's easy." In my effort to support a local business and hellbent on getting beans while in town, I bought a pound of Bali Kintamani Natural with no intention of getting into the hobby.

A year later and I can't picture my life without roasting. It's therapeutic. (and I've learned so much!)

I started out using the oven which I somehow managed to get semi-even results, but it took a lot of work. Finally I bought a $3 air popper and my life was changed forever. Since that rainy day in Portland I've learned so much by roasting. My plan is to eventually pick up a used Bullet R2, but for now I'm running this air popper until it goes up in flames!

Lambretta58 wrote:Started with Lavazza, it was what my Italian friends drank. Talked to someone who told me I should try home roasting with a popcorn popper.

My home roasting was also preceded somewhat closely by Lavazza as well (perhaps 18 or 19 years ago). I had a new La Pavoni Europiccola and was desperately trying to make a straight shot from it that didn't suck. A business trip had taken me to Italy a few years prior and provided me with quite a lot of espresso. Even now I still have a strong memory (who knows how realistic at this point, but a strong memory nonetheless) of a single shot of espresso at a small walk-up stand in a little town in northern Italy. It was an epiphany; I was truly astounded at how amazingly good it was (and I also was totally baffled by the Italians who were dumping large spoons of sugar in their own cup before drinking).

Some years later I, probably mostly by accident, pulled a shot with some Lavazza beans that instantly took me back to that espresso in Italy. It was really quite an amazing experience. But I couldn't consistently get good shots and was getting rather annoyed by it. Some research led me to understand that part of the problem was the lack of fresh beans. I started roasting my own and pretty quickly was making fantastic espresso on a regular basis.

I don't roast despite being on this forum for a number of years. I bet I'm like others in that I don't roast because:

1. My spouse says no.

2. It wouldn't be fresher for me with the availability of great online roasters (My usual gets to the door literally the day after they roast)

3. I still feel I have a lot to learn about tasting espresso, dialing it in, and getting to know the various regions of the coffee world, so my knowledge growth hasn't "staled" yet

4. The initial cost, especially since:
A) I still would like to spend more money on my espresso setup before thinking about a roaster
B) the cheaper roaster options seem to be held with a certain degree of derision on H-B and I'd like to start on something better because after my Silvia/Cheap grinder I realize starting cheap can be challenging on the learning curve

5. It's a little daunting. An online community is great but starting out some in-person might be nice. I am close to Mill City Roasters so maybe getting some training their would be the way to go. If only one could rent time on a roaster somewhere... that would be fun.

So that's where I'm at! And at the two H-B gatherings I've attended I think there was only one person out of 20 who roasted. But many who would like to.

1. My wife didn't like it until she tasted it.
2. Can't argue with that!
3. It's a journey, not a destination as the saying goes.
4a. You have a Pharos grinder, so you're fine there. Miss Silvia used to be considered great, now it is "just" good.
4b. You can make great roasts with sub-$1k roasters with practice and time. Don't let H-B derision affect your thinking if you want to explore roasting on the "cheap".
5. Find someone locally who home roasts and buddy up to learn more about it. If you are up north in Minnesota that might be harder, don't ya know. If your local roaster has classes or such, jump on it!

Coming up on 10 years now! Also about to turn 30 so 2/3 of my life roasting

Chingachgook wrote:One time while visiting Portland I was determined to get my hands on some freshly roasted beans for my new V60. I had no idea what I was doing - up until then I had been buying stale bulk beans from the supermarket.

So I walked into Mr. Green Beans PDX and asked what beans they had in stock. The response, of course, was "we don't sell roasted beans, we only sell green beans. You should try roasting. It's easy." In my effort to support a local business and hellbent on getting beans while in town, I bought a pound of Bali Kintamani Natural with no intention of getting into the hobby.

A year later and I can't picture my life without roasting. It's therapeutic. (and I've learned so much!)

I started out using the oven which I somehow managed to get semi-even results, but it took a lot of work. Finally I bought a $3 air popper and my life was changed forever. Since that rainy day in Portland I've learned so much by roasting. My plan is to eventually pick up a used Bullet R2, but for now I'm running this air popper until it goes up in flames!

Bali Kintamani--that was a crazy fruit bomb of a coffee.

fiechtl5 wrote:I'll be one of the unique ones here. I do not roast, although obviously considering since I have found myself in this section of the forum.
I have two reasons with the first being a lack of space in my one bedroom apartment. I don't have a great exhaust hood where I am and would rather not have to sit outside in freezing weather. I don't know how much my apartment neighbors would enjoy the smell of weekly coffee roasting either.
Additionally, roasting is a large investment to get the same quality I can buy from my local shop that carries PT's
Down the road when life circumstances are different, I hope to get into it. As of now I suppose I will keep reading and collecting information!

Get a Behmor. No vent needed

I live in a pretty coffee-hip town but started roasting because I was a little ahead of the curve so to speak many years ago. I'm not only frugal but also pretty hands on. I had a reputable local roaster selling to me wholesale but I never could keep up with their upper end rotation which they were a little reluctant to sell that way.

Air popper-1 year. Small batches, inconsistent. Didn't want to hack or rewire its a many have done successfully.

Behmor - 2 years. Larger batches, more consistent. Missing a lot of quality though.

Huky - 2 years. Larger batches, as consistent as I make it, and way better quality than with the Behmor. I can get close to what my professional roaster buddies get but still room to improve. The machine isn't holding me back anyway nor is bean quality.

I still buy from local and regional/national roasters for QC.

This question brings up a larger question. Wouldn't this forum benefit from a great survey that can provide details of the membership? I'd be interested to see machine ownership, main brew type, region, age, some kind of coffee preference analysis. Dan? haha