Minimalist Coffee Roasting Equipment and Techniques?

[Slash McCoy]

A straight razor can be honed with sandpaper, a barber hone, and CrOx on paddle, but nobody actually does it that way, at least not on an everyday basis. A DE razor can be as simple as two popsicle sticks stapled to a blade, but you won't see that actually done, except maybe on my youtube channel. You can use hair conditioner in place of cream or shaving soap, but why would you? Well, all of those things actually could have their place in certain situations. So keep this in mind when I ask what is the minimum equipment and method required for roasting coffee. Is roasting beans in a dry skillet really so WRONG? Or a cookie sheet in an oven? Talking about maybe a week's worth for two persons, ground in the existing superautomatic machine and made into cappuccino every morning. I have never roasted coffee and I am not going to buy any equipment I don't already have, at this point in time. Think about the guy who bought a GD66 online and has a Spyderco or Lansky system for honing, that's it, and a weightlifting belt for a strop, and is determined to shave, and is asking for advice other than "buy the right stuff, then come back and we will help you." That's where I am, I suppose. Any advice? Temp? Time? Just past first crack? Just beginning second crack? What's a stubborn sheapskate to do?

I have been using Eight OClock Columbian beans, and liking them WAY better than TarMucks coffee, and GF agrees with me 100% on that. Tried a lot of different roasted beans and for us, nothing touches 8:00 Columbian. We just kinda feel like roasting a bean or two and seeing how it comes out. Impossible? How did the cowboys do it on the range, before preroasted, preground coffee? Inquiring minds, and all that.

 

[Hoka Hey]

A few thoughts.
You probably won’t save any money. Green beans, at least locally available to me, were only discounted 10% over roasted. For the double burn, consider the water weight in green beans. So technically you’re paying more for green over roasted. Maybe the situation has changed since I did it years ago, what with the internet.

I had a really cheap roaster. Basically a heat gun element pointed up at a stainless bowl, with a chaff catcher basket that sat on top. Crude but effective. I mostly roasted by ear. It was fun, and of course the smell was wonderful! Trouble was I had to drive 40 miles to the only shop that would sell green beans. Being young and broke, I couldn’t do it that often.

Now that I’m old and broke, it will be interesting to see what kind of suggestions you get!

 

[Mick]

Basic tools are

1) pan
2) heat (stove top, fire, etc)
3) spoon (or other siring device)
4) green/un-roasted coffee

This is how coffee was roasted in people's home before roasted coffee was common.

My local coffee roasting house sells green coffee for half of their listed roasted price.

I can find green coffee online for as low as $3.xx a pound.

Low cost should not be a factor in roasting your own coffee.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Not really trying to save money. Just want to try roasting some beans in small batches and don't want to buy any equipment we don't already have. Our consumption is pretty low. We each have a quad shot cappuccino in the morning and that is all the coffee we drink all day long. A bag of Eight Oclock lasts us too long. Tried freezing but what a bother. Even in the fancy valve bag with the bag folded down tight, there is still a subtle difference between the first day and last day out of the bag and I thought I might get more better coffee with beans a couple days after roasting than what we end up with at the end of a bag of pre roast. Just an idea.

I just did some googling and found some methods that include popcorn poppers both stovetop and hot air, heat guns, and even the cowboy method of shaking a covered skillet full of beans over the fire. We will NOT NOT NOT be buying any equipment. No problems with buying green beans and paying for the water weight. But we have enough gadgets. I am trying unsuccessfully to rid the kitchen of all the doodads GF has collected that haven't been used literally in decades. So, no roasters or even popcorn poppers. Looks like cookie sheet in the oven isn't going to work well for us but the skillet method might. In lieu of any sensible sounding advice, that's what I will do, cooling as soon as second crack just begins. The Sweet Maria site had a lot of advice and pics of different roasts and we like anything from the Eight Oclock medium roast to a dark but not quite French or Espresso roast. I figure the very beginning of the second crack stage would be a very good and repeatable benchmark, and should fall just within our taste range.

 

[Mick]

Put some green coffee into a pan on your stove and see how it comes out.

If you have a direct read/IR temp reader this would be VERY handy with open pan roasting

 

[Hoka Hey]

Basic tools are

1) pan
2) heat (stove top, fire, etc)
3) spoon (or other siring device)
4) green/un-roasted coffee

This is how coffee was roasted in people's home before roasted coffee was common.

My local coffee roasting house sells green coffee for half of their listed roasted price.

I can find green coffee online for as low as $3.xx a pound.

Low cost should not be a factor in roasting your own coffee.

That sounds much more reasonable, doable. When you’re broke, cost is always a factor.
When I was doing it in the early 80’s I only had the one shop. No internet or easy access to information/advice. You know, the dark ages.

 

[StillShaving]

I believe roasting in the oven would result in failure on par with stapling a Feather Professional AC blade to a Popsicle stick and using it as a straight razor. Meaning only an experienced roaster might be able to make it work but would not really try (no real way to stir the beans in order to keep the temperature more or less consistent on the top and bottom of each bean).

Roasting in a pan is much more reasonable, similar to your analogy of shaving with hair conditioner. It requires effort to continually stir and has a higher learning curve in figuring out the optimal bean load and temperature to use for your specific setup (amount of burner heat and size of your pan), so it is not for the fainthearted. But if you want to avoid purchasing new hardware such as a hotair poppery, wire mesh drum to use on your gas grill rotisserie, etc. then it is probably the best idea. Certainly worth doing as fresh coffee is so important in making a good espresso.

There was frequent poster on this subforum who shared his experiences on pan roasting (his firstname was Jim but I cannot recall his screen name at the moment to look up some older threads).

 

[AlphaFrank75]

The minimum roasting equipment that I think you can get away with and get worthy results is a Stir Crazy/Turbo Oven setup. Using any kind of method where you have to manually stir the beans will get old quick. Also keep in mind that roasting coffee produces A LOT OF SMOKE so might want to do it outdoors.

 

[malocchio]

I've had great results with this cheap stainless steel Japanese hand roaster... Outdoor Hand Coffee Roaster Pan Camp Hiking Light, High quality Made in Japan 4562159372095 | eBay

 

[Mick]

Getting to close and roasting in a confined space can be dangerous (read, standing over a pan in your kitchen stirring with a spoon). The smoke and gasses given off from roasting coffee, besides being stinky, are not very good for your health which is why I do all of my roasting OUTSIDE

 

[GC77]

You might have a Westbend type popcorn popper in the basement. If not you can get one very cheap at any number of places. They make very nice coffee. When you get hooked you will separate out the fan and heater for more control and then spend big bucks on a roaster. Another rabbit hole to slip into.

Here is a quick link
Air Popper Method

 

[StillShaving]

@gearchow was the member whom I was trying to remember earlier. I could not find the thread where he posted a video of his overall pan roasting process, which he did outdoors on the gas grill. But I did find this thread about "Roasting in cast iron" which includes an image of his pan during the yellowing stage of the roast process. Once the beans reach that point in the roast they require a lot of agitation to get a uniform roast. You can see from the blur in the photo (post #2) that it is not a casual process. I believe the earlier stages of a roast do not require constant stirring so there were times one could relax for a few seconds during the mixing, but not very long. But once the beans start to yellow as precursor to getting into first crack it requires the roasters full attention to stir or agitate. A very hands on activity if doing it manually.

 

[Mick]

If you have a gas BBQ grill there are roasting baskets you can put on (requires a motor or manual crank)

 

[Slash McCoy]

You might have a Westbend type popcorn popper in the basement. If not you can get one very cheap at any number of places. They make very nice coffee. When you get hooked you will separate out the fan and heater for more control and then spend big bucks on a roaster. Another rabbit hole to slip into.

Here is a quick link
Air Popper Method

We don't have basements in New Orleans. But I am thinking my induction hot plate and large cast iron skillet and steel whisk, outside on the welding table, will work for us. If we find that home roasting small batches using that method is worth all the bother, then maybe we will invest in a popcorn popper from goodwill. Something that we can cheerfully toss if later on we change our mind again. We seriously have too much junk we never use already.

 

[Villalobos]

Been roasting coffee for many years. Burman coffee is a good site. I use whirly pop, stove top popcorn popper. I use my cheap gas grill’s side burner. 14oz. Green beans yields 12oz roasted. Takes about 11 minutes. Constant cranking and a little shaking. After roasting i toss them between 2 screen type strainers with handles and chaff blows away. Put the beans in a paper bag with closure rest over night then grind fresh. When whilry pop breaks down I buy a new 1. Usually about $20 at local farm supply store. Also better quality stove top poppers with metal gears available. Amazon has good prices on poppers. I tried hot air poppers but can only roast about 4oz of beans. I roast 2 batches once a week.

 

[GG1]

Not being a coffee drinker. I see things with green coffee bean extract. What would happen if you tried to make coffee with the green beans?
Dumb question I know, but again, I don't drink coffee.

 

[Mick]

Might not taste very good.

 

[TexLaw]

I haven't tried any green coffee bean extract, so I have no idea what it tastes like. I bet it would be rather grassy and not at all sweet (or very little). It's the roasting that brings out the aromas, flavors, and sweetness that we associate with coffee. The first analogy I thought of would be like eating a raw sweet potato instead of a roasted one.

I'm terribly curious, now, though. I wonder if I could sweet talk the roaster nearby me into giving me a handful of some green beans that they also sell roasted, so I could do a side-by-side. @Mick, you certainly could do that, too.

 

[Mick]

Might gave a difficult time grinding un-roasted coffee. it is much harder than roasted coffee

 

[old_school]

Slash McCoy:

Home roasting, including pan roasting, is like eating from the garden vs the grocery store. Sweet Maria's is the source for all things green, you can trust the advice you find there. Your instincts are right, Full City then adjust as needed. Please roast outside.