Financial benefits of home roasting?

[davidsikes]

Hey all. I'm a fan of coffee in almost all of its forms, but the cost of a good roast is undeniably expensive to be a daily ritual. Been considering roasting at home to save money and indulge in the hobby a little more. Anyone had experience doing this? Does it save a significant enough amount of money, and are the results worth it, as in does it taste as good as buying a good roast?

As a point of reference, a "good roast" to me is Starbucks at minimum and goes to places like Stumptown Coffee.

 

[Stevew443]

I home roast mainly because I like lighter city roasts that places like Starbucks just do not know how to make. Also, I live in a more rural area and do not get into town enough to have a daily cup of coffee. Coupled with the fact that I work night shift and the fact that my first "morning" cup of coffee is taken at a time when shops are closed, home roasting just is the main option for me. There is an excellent coffee roaster just a few miles from me, and even though his coffee is excellent, his hours and my hours are just out of sync. I guess I am saving some money. I purchased 20 pounds of green beans for about $90 and that same 20 pounds of coffee bought from my local roaster would cost double to almost triple what I paid. Anyway, I roast not to save money but to get a coffee that I like, so that makes it all worthwhile. My home roast is better than ANY canned coffee that one can purchase from the store and is comparable to the professionally roasted coffee from the high ends shops.

 

[Mick]

the cost of a good roaster is going to offset the cost of good fresh roasted coffee locally.

If you do not have a good specialty roasting house in your area where you can buy fresh roasted beans then you should look into roasting yourself.

If you think you want to get into it, start with some green beans and roast them in an iron pan on your stove (make sure you have a GOOD ventilator fan as it will get smoky and stinky)

 

[StillShaving]

I think there are financial benefits, but only if you are dedicated or consume a lot of coffee. When buying coffee online from a coffee club, you should expect to pay at least $5/$6/$7 per pound when buying in quantities of 15/10/5 pounds respectively (meaning $35 for 5 lbs, $75+ for 15 lbs). Those are very rounded numbers and only put forth as a low end reference point for getting good but otherwise inexpensive central/south american coffee delivered to your doorstep. Most good coffee cost a little more than that, and one can easily pay twice that amount without getting into anything exclusive.

A roaster such as Behmor cost roughly $300, so if you roasted a pound a week that is about $6 per roast to pay for the roaster after one year. So if you bought green beans for $6/lb it would cost $12/lb for the first year of operation. Spread that out over two years then it becomes more economical at $9/lb, which is probably getting closer to the break even point.

But that does not include your time. It takes me 45+ minutes to roast with the Behmor, that includes setting up and letting the machine cool down afterwards. It is not hard work, and one can do other tasks at the same time, but there is a critical 4-5 minute window at the end of the roast cycle that needs your full attention. Cleanup is messy and its best to have a dedicated space to roast in. It can be done indoors with the proper setup, but otherwise it should be considered an activity for outdoors or a well ventilated garage.

In summary, I don't believe there is much financial benefit when looking at the bigger picture. The more important reasons to home roast is access to better quality coffee, more coffee variety, control over the roast level, roast level variety, and FRESHNESS. The fact that one can break even home roasting or even save a little after a few years is a side benefit.

 

[ANeat]

+1, I roast coffee because I like it. I enjoy the process, I enjoy the results. The savings is a plus as well but thats not the "why". I bought pre roasted from Redbird and his stuff is great, and a bargain, I believe usually about $10 a pound for stuff roasted the day you order it. But I missed the roasting part of it.

I usually try to order 20 pounds at a time, lasts about 6 months for me, less that $6.00 a pound delivered

 

[Mark_M]

I am glad to see this question asked. I did the math based on a Behmor @ $300, and to recover that cost, based on my consumption, it would take me over a year. I haven't jumped on board yet, but still thinking about it. Fortunately for me I have great locally roasted coffee at about $50/5lbs delivered the next day.

 

[jazzguy]

You're going to get coffee that is significantly fresher than Starbucks. It will also be cheaper in the long run than mail ordering the likes of Stumptown or Intelligentsia. But it will take many roasts worth of savings to pay for the roaster. Also for those calculating savings, a pound of green beans does not yield a pound of roasted beans. My recollection is that it's more like 12-14 ounces.

 

[gearchow]

I think it may be cheaper as compared to getting into traditional shaving as a cheaper alternative to buying cartridges and that may have been the original reason I got in to it a decade ago, but it quickly turned into I actually prefer good -fresh roasted- coffee. Time wise for me, home roasting is equivalent to getting into my truck and looping to a shop to buy a bag. Now my setup isn't as good as using a real roaster or buying from craft folks who roast for a living - and where I live, I have choices - but it beats the snot out of Starbucks, McDs and buying "specialty" coffee off of the shelves at the grocery.

You could try hand roasting like the video Mick linked to and if you do, you should try it enough times that you get a feel for the process. Buy as cheap a bean as possible for the first few roasts. Trust me on this. Don't put your $30 Gesha beans into the frying pan on your first outing. Then if you decide it's just not for you, you aren't out any significant $.

Buying a bag of greens and tossing some into a pot and stirring is something anybody who likes drinking good coffee ought to do at least once in their life just to experience what our near term ancestors had to do.

-jim

 

[kaliandee]

I've roasted all of one batch so far, so I'm not an expert by a long shot-

That said, so long as you don't get sucked into it as a hobby and spend several $K on a fancy roaster, I've no doubt you'd save money. Green beans are cheap, and you can buy them in bulk as they keep a lot longer than roasted coffee. If you have a well-ventilated place to do it, stove roasting is worth a try.

-John

 

[shakin_jake]

so long as you don't get sucked into it as a hobby and spend several $K on a fancy roaster, I've no doubt you'd save money. -John

~~~sounds like some of the same arguments for trying wet shaving, starting with a DE safety razor....wet shaving is going to save me money, right?<LOL>

so, if you buy a chintzy roaster...say for a buck and a half (plug & play, fluid bed) the payback is faster? Many factors come into play like longevity, how much are replacements parts (going to cost you?), the time you put into roasting, on and on. The initial cost of the roaster is only one part of the equation/ How do we know what we know?




Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

 

[Cricket1]

~~~sounds like some of the same arguments for trying wet shaving, starting with a DE safety razor....wet shaving is going to save me money, right?<LOL>

so, if you buy a chintzy roaster...say for a buck and a half (plug & play, fluid bed) the payback is faster? Many factors come into play like longevity, how much are replacements parts (going to cost you?), the time you put into roasting, on and on. The initial cost of the roaster is only one part of the equation/ How do we know what we know?




Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

I've been home roasting for years with just a hot air popcorn popper. You can pick them up on fleabay for $25 or so. Works great. It takes me about 1 hr total to roast 2 lbs of coffee. You want to get a West Bend Poppery. Made only in the late 1970's. The Poppery II works ok, but the motor is not as powerful.

 

[kaliandee]

I have two last brushes to get, and a new hone, THEN wet-shaving can start saving me money

You'll probably never get a really even roast, or be able to play around with "roasting profiles" in any kind of vaguely scientific way, but you can get pretty good coffee with a decent saute pan and some careful stirring. If I can find the website who's instructions I followed when I last tried it, I'll post the link.

As it happens, I currently have 2 bags of coffee I've been meaning to roast all week.

 

[shakin_jake]

the poppery2 was my 1st roaster...moved on to the Behmor...used it for 100 roasts, next and current roaster, Hot Top B model...five hundred twenty some roasts so far w/the Hot Top

@ the OP-

you can buy, make, use a coffee roaster for all the right reasons. To justify economically isn't necessarily one of them, but if you roast long enough and have good luck with your equipment, you may end up ahead of the curve. speaking strictly for myself, I roast or have kept up with this past time for 5 + years now as I enjoy the process


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

 

[Cackal]

I'm running a Behmor, I think it's like straight razors, a big outlay at the start to save in the long run. But I do it much more for the experience of roasting my own and wanting to be able to control every aspect of my coffee at home. Only about 10 roasts in I'm getting way better coffee than I can buy in a supermarket!

 

[shakin_jake]

another reason to roast your own vs. buying from a local roaster...so long as you have some back stock of green coffee beans, you can have fresh roasted coffee anytime you want, w/o having to schlep over to yet another store. I don't begrudge anyone wanting to buy roasted coffee from a local business...heck, I'd want your business too if I was selling my roast, but I'm not, I'm just into roasting my own. And yeah, I use straight razors to shave with...and I take care of my own edges too!



Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.

 

[azshooter40]

Love the Behmor and hit 500 roasts with mine this week. I enjoy good coffee and like the idea of having control over the roast and what varieties I have in stock. I do believe I am saving money now. It also helps that a group of 5 of us purchase our green beans through a broker and get great pricing. We have to buy 50-100lbs at a time but with 5 people that roast/drink a lot of coffee it works out pretty good.

 

[RondeB]

I was looking at getting a roaster as well. I was thinking either the Behmor or the Gene Cafe. The Hot top is cool but not something I think I can swing or really justify for a pound a month coffee habit. Do you guys have any suggestions?

 

[life2short1971]

The financial benefits of home roasting are equivalent to using DE razors or straights to save money on shaving. You can become quite frugal and actually save a great deal or I started with a PIF'd PopperyII popcorn popper and then graduated to a Behmor roaster. Last week I ordered a new Espresso machine,grinder, and Hottop roaster although my Behmor still works fine.

 

[life2short1971]

I was looking at getting a roaster as well. I was thinking either the Behmor or the Gene Cafe. The Hot top is cool but not something I think I can swing or really justify for a pound a month coffee habit. Do you guys have any suggestions?

I cannot say enough good about the Behmor. Unless you like very light roast I would say its max weight 3/4 lb. If you have better than average electrical supply to your lines it may be higher.

The behmor is a great roaster but unless you have hood on your stove that vents to the outside I would not roast in the house over 1/4lb batches.

 

[shakin_jake]

Last week I ordered a new Espresso machine,grinder, and Hottop roaster although my Behmor still works fine.

~~~talk about AD's



Best,



Jake
Reddick Fla.