Home coffee bean roasters.

[Bill Douglas]

I've roasted beans before in a stainless steel bowl with a hot air paint stripper gun. It worked quite well and the coffee was good.

But, I've heard (well, read as we do here on the internet) that popcorn makers do a good job. Do any of you home roast coffee beans and if so what machine are you using.

[ben parrish]

We do..use a roaster made for a rotisserie...actuall works well.
COFFEE ROASTER DRUM for Ronco and Foreman by coffeeroastersclub

[krichard]

I've been using an earlier version of this roaster once a week for the last 6-7 years. It roasts as good today as it did new. They're pricey but averaged out over the lifespan I think it's worth it for unbelievable coffee.

HotTop Roaster Basic - Drum Roasters - Coffee Roasters

[sketchers356]

I use the westbend poppery 1. I found it at a salvation army for $3. They are selling on ebay for $60 since home coffee roasters are convinced it is the best. It is a 70ish design that is very robust. Apparently modern poppers will burn out quickly with the 10 minute roast time, whereas my popper can withstand it.

[RWebb]

some friends have a drum coffee bean roaster for sale - might be hard to transport tho

yo could build one to get top notch roasting of each & every bean

propane tank hooked to a curved fire grate that matches the drum circumference

then rotate a stainless steel drum with a remote reading thermometer - sensor head in the drum

hopper infeed & out feed

after that, it just skill in the roasting & good beans.

[sketchers356]

Originally Posted by RWebb

some friends have a drum coffee bean roaster for sale - might be hard to transport tho

yo could build one to get top notch roasting of each & every bean

propane tank hooked to a curved fire grate that matches the drum circumference

then rotate a stainless steel drum with a remote reading thermometer - sensor head in the drum

hopper infeed & out feed

after that, it just skill in the roasting & good beans.

What are you going to do with that? Roast 20 lbs of beans that last for 2 weeks? Talk about a redeye. Home coffee roasting is about small batch and experimentation.

[RWebb]

nobody said to build a big drum - use a small one

[EarlyPorsche]

Dunkin donuts coffee is so good!!!

[Bill Douglas]

I think I'd like a cheap one. I seem to be spending lots of money on things. You know, you start off with an interest then it's got to get better and better and better until it cost too much. I think I'll try the popcorn maker level even if it kills the machine after a few goes.

But, let's keep talkin' coffee.

[thencamebronson]

I'm still using the hot air gun/stainless steel bowl method. I have been looking at roasters on sweetmarias.com.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

... let's keep talkin' coffee.

in my small town (small city), there are lots and lots of people starting shops & roaster operations all the time - there's even a consulting group for coffee (this is in a town of 160,000 people, most of whom seem to be heavily involved in beer or wine making, or growing something) yet there is plenty of room for coffee

people that have roaster operations tell me the #1 thing is good green beans - they can be stored ok for a pretty long while

it's after they are roasted that you need to grind them (properly, carefully, yada yada) and without much delay

so, if you were going into this for a home roaster, I'd think you'd want to size everything so you can do small amounts - a couple of days worth at a time

problem is, that when you do such small amounts, you need very good control over time & temperature - much easier to do with a large quantity

I'd look for a small rotating stainless steel drum - as that seems to be the way the best roasters are designed

fitting a curved heating element to the circumference of the drum will help avoid hot spots & bean burn

[ben parrish]

Good points Randy..that's another reason I really like the one for our Ronco rotisserie...easy to keep it consistent for each batch. We normally roast about 3/4# at a time.

[djmcmath]

I found an old Kitchen-Aid stand mixer and adapted it to the purpose. It's still the old "stainless steel bowl and heat gun" method, but now it's essentially automated. I go out to start the process (2 minutes), then come back about 20 minutes later to watch the finish. I do about a week and a half's worth at a time. Simple, effective, and not worth the upgrade to something "better."

Dan

[Bill Douglas]

Well done Dan.

Thanks for those tips Randy. I've heard beans are best between four days after roasting and ten. Mind you I have "emergency" beans in case I run out of the good ones and these can be six months old and I sometimes get a GREAT coffee.

The beans I use are Brazilian, which are descibed as being something along the lines of cheap filler type beans that are blended with better ones. They are the only beans I use and have had very good results with them.