Any home roasters?

[TexLaw]

if you are interested in the reactions in the roast and developing profiles I would suggest you look at (if you have not already) books by Scott Rao's book "The Coffee Roaster's Companion" and/or Rob Hoos's "Modulating the Flavor Profile of Coffee". Many consider those as must reads if you are roasting for a living.

I completely agree with reading these books.

I don't know why I have such an aversion to spending 45 $ for each of those books by Mr. Rao.

Which leads me to this. I also completely agree with looking into getting Rao's book through your local library. At the very least, split the cost with a buddy or two, share it, and take your own notes for future reference. Otherwise, quite frankly, you may find that isn't worth the price. The sales blurb oversells the contents, and a good deal of the cost went into the hardback cover, the glossy pages, and the pretty pictures that adorn both. It should have been titled "A Coffee Roasting Introduction." While Rao provides a great deal of information on the basic chemistry of roasting, selecting a roaster, cupping, and a couple of other introductory topics, he withholds a great deal of information about technique (which he has freely admitted), and his book often reads like an advertisement to take one of his advanced classes or hire him for consulting (which he also has freely admitted is why he's held back information--he is concerned about disclosing his knowledge through a book and, then, losing business). Hey, more power to him if that's what he wants to do, but caveat emptor.

I'm not saying it's not a good book and something you should pass by. On the contrary, it's a very good book. However, if you are expecting discussion of technique that goes much beyond Rao's "three commandments," you likely will be disappointed, and I just can't make the $45 price tag make sense at all. You can find just about everything (if not more and better discussion) in other places (not the least of which is this forum). I can't speak to "Coffee Roasting: Best Practices," as I've not even read a sample, but it does promise more advanced disclosure. Still, I think I'll see if I can get a chance to, at least, page through it before laying down $45.

Hoos, on the other hand, breaks the roast down into its stages and provides a great deal of data and discussion about the effect of different adjustments you can make. It's roughly half the price of either of Rao's books, and I've found it tremendously more valuable than Rao's "Companion."

 

[Merle]

My first move or three, taught me I would be in serious trouble if I were to attempt to maintain a proper Jeffersonian Library. Thank god for electronic versions. And Audible versions! (well, they are electronic too; but different!) Now it's more how to maintain intellectual rights to be able to 'forward through history' my library to offspring to follow.
...and how to keep track? Gawds, Dewey decimal? Someone else can compile the resultant catalog! Me I just let my eyes wander the stacks - real and virtual.

 

[Merle]

Thank you @TexLaw. This is the frustration I find with many 'how I did it' / 'learn it my way' books. If the world thought SciFi authors were such luminaries the world would truly be available only for the rich!

I am going to keep going to places where people talk about their hobbies and jobs they love. See if I can pick up the droppings on the floor, learn the language and form some thoughts, then maybe I'll be able to ask a fragile question here or there. As I gain a bit better understanding, have a few experiences of my own, join the concourse of civil coffee and see where I can go.

By the way, I found a bookseller on Amazon who was happy to charge twice that what Mr. Hoos' employer/business partners? "Noosa Familia Coffee" is offering to purchase "Modulating..." direct. (Remember kiddies, just because it's on the "river" doesn't mean it's offered at the best price!)

 

[Geordon]

I am going to keep going to places where people talk about their hobbies and jobs they love. See if I can pick up the droppings on the floor, learn the language and form some thoughts, then maybe I'll be able to ask a fragile question here or there. As I gain a bit better understanding, have a few experiences of my own, join the concourse of civil coffee and see where I can go.

That's kind of how I operate, too, @Merle: I hang around people who are into things that I'm curious or interested in, listen, ask questions, and interact. I'm also an inactive historical reenactor (medieval and American Civil War) and some of the things that I had the most fun with has been literally getting my hands on historical artifacts or functional replicas and actually fiddling with them. That's where I learned a lot about one of the things that I wish I could do more of: Hand bookbinding. In learning about that, I learned a huge amount about paper, printing, wood working, leather working, and even some passable knowledge (but no skill) of calligraphy, illumination, and even gold leaf application.

By the way, I found a bookseller on Amazon who was happy to charge twice that what Mr. Hoos' employer/business partners? "Noosa Familia Coffee" is offering to purchase "Modulating..." direct. (Remember kiddies, just because it's on the "river" doesn't mean it's offered at the best price!)

Ah, yes. Caveat emptor. Or, as P. T. Barnum is alleged to have put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."

 

[ruckin]

Thank you @TexLaw for the review. I have learned most of what I know about roasting from my brother and hanging out once in awhile with a couple folks that roast for a living. I have had both those books on my "to get eventually" list.

I shudder to think about how many books are at my house... When I got married my lovely bride came with more than 10k books which got merged into my about half as many books. We did some purging of duplicates but I am sure the numbers have grown over the years. I don't count audio or digital as they don't consume shelf space . My home office doubles as the library, we have several cases of other books scattered around and what I refer to as the "stacks" which are just a bunch of brick/board cheap shelves in the shop that contain books that we don't have room to keep inside. Those are currently twin 20ft shelves a bit over 6ft tall and about 18" wide with books stuffed in from both sides and most of the smaller paperbacks are double stacked in a shelf. We are working to reduce the stacks to something a bit more reasonable.

 

[TexLaw]

I'm pretty sure we're all a bunch of bookworms, just as I'm pretty sure we all have gained a great deal of knowledge by hanging around, chatting with, and showing some degree of truly amature interest.

 

[StillShaving]

@StillShaving the real idea with the Ikawa is to learn subtlety through Malliard - beans dried and proteins/sugars compounding - and that what comes after the first crack - the further caramelization of what sugars are present or destroyed, or pushing past Vienna. I've heard many other hobbyists become happy with a basic curve they like. That it is one they can develop for other beans be it a difference between high mountain or low land, Ethiopian or Brazilian, and so on. I'd like to see if I come to believe the same thing or discover there is room for wide differences in drop temperature, the rate of rise, time through yellow to the first crack, dependencies of type, density, loss of moisture while in caramelizing, and so forth.

I also need time with eyes on the bean stocks to become more familiar with their nominal conditions at delivery. A vendor can say one is this, another is that. I want to know what I'm looking at and become an informed buyer. Not that I'll be going in-country, just there are many different kinds of folk in the world and I want to know the signs.

So, at 50 grams per roast and changing only one thing at a time, even though I might work at it through a few hours per day, I should see some form of progress in my knowledge base without having to expense and use 250 or 800 grams of green coffee per roast (or more!) on larger equipment. Yet, when I do start believing I know a thing or two, I could even go up to a 2 or 5 kg roaster and take the data forward, apply it, and see what comes. I'm told by those who use the Ikawa fluid bed design that it is scalable to drums. I'll either see it or learn why/why not.

If you've done your research on the small machines, and it sounds like you've given it at least a start, I'd be interested in what you might suggest I consider in the 1 kg scale equipment. I'm open at the moment and realize - without a significant upgrade to my current HotTop - I need to invest in a new system that is more data accessible, has a built-in level of computer-controlled roast reproduction, or can be driven by a computer using one of the roasting softwares available.

Experimenting with the Ikawa should be fun. I don't really have any better roaster suggestions as I have been using a Behmor 1600 for years which offers no control beyond the preset profiles. That is another reason I am interested in the Aillio Bullet...as presumably one could leverage profiles that have developed by others. In a perfect world I imagine some kind people posting their favorite profiles for a given coffee origin, and after you find a roasting trailblazer with whom you share similar taste preferences, you could then get very good roasts without too many failed experiments.

 

[Geordon]

Can anyone give me a recommendation on some lower cost roasters? The ones that I've seen are over the $400.00 mark and that's just way too rich for my blood. I'd like to be able to roast more than 150 grams at a time, and I'd like to be able to better control the heat than over my camp stove. It's working passably at the moment, but there's a whole lot of guesswork happening.

 

[Merle]

Oh,...way back when. I picked up what was to be one of the modern epoch's first fluid bed roasters for the homemaker, it was a Melitta Corp offering and called the AromaRoast. Since then people have either created roasters out of air poppers for popcorn or tried offering similar to the 1980's Melitta. I was just asking myself whatever happened to that device. Even though I could only draw a small fraction of a measuring cup it was still my very first piece of equipment! (I couldn't imagine using a cast iron pan in the house, that was the basis for horror stories.) Either finding an air popper regarded by folks like SweetMaria's or purchasing one of the Fresh Roast brand machines they offer would be a good start and in your budget. SweetMarias.com is a great one-stop-shop for talk, documents, YouTubes, equipment, beans, and 'stuff!'

 

[TexLaw]

Can anyone give me a recommendation on some lower cost roasters? The ones that I've seen are over the $400.00 mark and that's just way too rich for my blood. I'd like to be able to roast more than 150 grams at a time, and I'd like to be able to better control the heat than over my camp stove. It's working passably at the moment, but there's a whole lot of guesswork happening.

You can usually find a used Behmor for under $400. They roast up to 1 lb (450g), but they do their best work when roasting no more than about 12 ounces (about 350g).