After trying half a dozen roasters across the country, and not really enjoying any of their roasts, I decided to dive in and try roasting coffee at home. Living in an apartment, I was worried about the smoke that roasting can generate. I decided against a fancy, expensive roaster, just in case it turned out not to be practical to roast at home. These considerations led me to get the Nesco roaster, with its built-in smoke reducer. For me, the major downside of this roaster, aside from the lack of advanced features, is the small capacity of 5 ounces for lighter roasts and 4 ounces for darker roasts, which means I'll be using it 3 or 4 times a week. To be honest, I'd be ecstatic if I really end up using it 3 times a week, since I'm not really expecting this to be a rousing success. I bought the Nesco from Sweet Maria's along with their 8 pound green coffee sampler. (Along with a few other coffee toys--I just couldn't resist.)
I washed out the removable parts of the machine as directed in the instructions--yes, I read the instruction manual... Well... a couple of pages, anyway. Sweet Maria's always includes helpful tip sheets with their products. For the Nesco roaster, there were tips on how to get the best use of the roaster. Things like fill it right to the line, no more or less, and how to figure the roasting time. The best part of the tip sheet was the section on what to expect. After waiting seemingly forever for the cover to dry (and helping it along by pulling a towel through), I got down to business.
My preference is for light roasts, American coffees, and filtered drip, although I also do other coffees, typically in a press or stove top espresso. For my first roast, I decided to be just a little adventurous--as if a first attempt at roasting at home isn't already cracked up to be an adventure--us newbies hear so much about thick smoke and heavy aromas--so I went with the Rwanda Gkongoro Nyarusiza. As a compromise, I decided to set the roaster two minutes higher than the minimum time, or for 22 minutes.
In my excitement, I forgot to weight the beans, so I can only guess by comparing the weight of the bag against the full bags. It looks like about 140 grams, which is the expected 5 ounce capacity for light roasting. So I reassembled the machine, plugged it in, dumped the beans in up to the fill line, pressed the up arrow twice to get to 22 minutes, and pressed the start button.
After 2 minutes, no visible change
3 minutes in, not much happening, just the turn of the screw
6 minutes in, the beans have become pale and tan, and start to smell like hay
8 minutes in, and the beans are starting to lightly brown
10 minutes -- starting to crack
11 minutes -- watch them expand and fill up the container
12 minutes -- they're still cracking up
13 minutes -- you can see the chaff and how dark they're getting
They cracked a second time and grew even more
The machine goes into a fast spin cooling cycle for the last 5 minutes
20 minutes in, spinning fast and cooling off
done -- note they go way above the fill line
Here they are resting up
Now that the beans were cooling off, I was able to leave the immdiate vicinity and copy the pictures to the computer. The house smelled like something was roasted heavily, but not near to burning. I'm gonna need a window fan or two if I expect to do this three times a week.
Well, I couldn't wait anymore, so 45 minutes after roasting the coffee, I went to brew it. Decided to go with a press pot. Measuring out 1/3 cup, I was happy to find it weighed exactly the expected 1 oz.
1 oz of coffee goes well with about 20 oz of water.
Once I poured the water on, I discovered one reason you want to wait after roasting before you brew the beans. Unlike beer, coffee is not supposed to have a head.
A little stir with a spoon and all is well.
But, the head did come back a couple times, so a little more stirring was in order
4 minutes later...
And not daring to take my first roast black...
Hey! That's not bad. Not very good, but not bad at all. A little weak and dry. It could probably use a little more carmelization--a few more minutes. The final weight of coffee (which I remembered to weight this time) was 112 grams or 4 ounces. Given a starting weight of 140 grams (5 ounces), this is a yield of 80%. Put another way, a pound of green beans should yield 12.8 ounces of roasted coffee. Of course, this probably varies by a lot of things I'm as yet unaware.
In my recent attempts to find a consistent roaster that I really like, I've had beans that were over-roasted, under-roasted, old & dried out, oily, or just not to my liking. This first attempt was definitely under-roasted, and the beans would not be my first choice. In comparison, I'd say my first roast was below average at best. To be fair, I'm rather particular. But aren't we all? I mean all of us that would consider roasting at home? I like lighter roasts than is typical, and prefer a limited and perhaps odd selection of beans. Heck, some of the best coffee I've had in the past has been from the much maligned Brazil. The roasts I've been trying recently have been from the most frequently recommended roasters on B&B. To produce a half decent cup at that level on a first attempt is quite encouraging.
In case anyone's curious about the Nesco, there was no smoke whatsoever, and the roasting aroma was mild, not overpowering. But that's what I was warned to expect at the lighter roasts. This was a 17 minute roast, followed by a 5 minute cool down. The Nexco is known for not being able to do really dark roasts, at least not consistently.
I washed out the removable parts of the machine as directed in the instructions--yes, I read the instruction manual... Well... a couple of pages, anyway. Sweet Maria's always includes helpful tip sheets with their products. For the Nesco roaster, there were tips on how to get the best use of the roaster. Things like fill it right to the line, no more or less, and how to figure the roasting time. The best part of the tip sheet was the section on what to expect. After waiting seemingly forever for the cover to dry (and helping it along by pulling a towel through), I got down to business.
My preference is for light roasts, American coffees, and filtered drip, although I also do other coffees, typically in a press or stove top espresso. For my first roast, I decided to be just a little adventurous--as if a first attempt at roasting at home isn't already cracked up to be an adventure--us newbies hear so much about thick smoke and heavy aromas--so I went with the Rwanda Gkongoro Nyarusiza. As a compromise, I decided to set the roaster two minutes higher than the minimum time, or for 22 minutes.
In my excitement, I forgot to weight the beans, so I can only guess by comparing the weight of the bag against the full bags. It looks like about 140 grams, which is the expected 5 ounce capacity for light roasting. So I reassembled the machine, plugged it in, dumped the beans in up to the fill line, pressed the up arrow twice to get to 22 minutes, and pressed the start button.
After 2 minutes, no visible change
3 minutes in, not much happening, just the turn of the screw
6 minutes in, the beans have become pale and tan, and start to smell like hay
8 minutes in, and the beans are starting to lightly brown
10 minutes -- starting to crack
11 minutes -- watch them expand and fill up the container
12 minutes -- they're still cracking up
13 minutes -- you can see the chaff and how dark they're getting
They cracked a second time and grew even more
The machine goes into a fast spin cooling cycle for the last 5 minutes
20 minutes in, spinning fast and cooling off
done -- note they go way above the fill line
Here they are resting up
Now that the beans were cooling off, I was able to leave the immdiate vicinity and copy the pictures to the computer. The house smelled like something was roasted heavily, but not near to burning. I'm gonna need a window fan or two if I expect to do this three times a week.
Well, I couldn't wait anymore, so 45 minutes after roasting the coffee, I went to brew it. Decided to go with a press pot. Measuring out 1/3 cup, I was happy to find it weighed exactly the expected 1 oz.
1 oz of coffee goes well with about 20 oz of water.
Once I poured the water on, I discovered one reason you want to wait after roasting before you brew the beans. Unlike beer, coffee is not supposed to have a head.
A little stir with a spoon and all is well.
But, the head did come back a couple times, so a little more stirring was in order
4 minutes later...
And not daring to take my first roast black...
Hey! That's not bad. Not very good, but not bad at all. A little weak and dry. It could probably use a little more carmelization--a few more minutes. The final weight of coffee (which I remembered to weight this time) was 112 grams or 4 ounces. Given a starting weight of 140 grams (5 ounces), this is a yield of 80%. Put another way, a pound of green beans should yield 12.8 ounces of roasted coffee. Of course, this probably varies by a lot of things I'm as yet unaware.
In my recent attempts to find a consistent roaster that I really like, I've had beans that were over-roasted, under-roasted, old & dried out, oily, or just not to my liking. This first attempt was definitely under-roasted, and the beans would not be my first choice. In comparison, I'd say my first roast was below average at best. To be fair, I'm rather particular. But aren't we all? I mean all of us that would consider roasting at home? I like lighter roasts than is typical, and prefer a limited and perhaps odd selection of beans. Heck, some of the best coffee I've had in the past has been from the much maligned Brazil. The roasts I've been trying recently have been from the most frequently recommended roasters on B&B. To produce a half decent cup at that level on a first attempt is quite encouraging.
In case anyone's curious about the Nesco, there was no smoke whatsoever, and the roasting aroma was mild, not overpowering. But that's what I was warned to expect at the lighter roasts. This was a 17 minute roast, followed by a 5 minute cool down. The Nexco is known for not being able to do really dark roasts, at least not consistently.
Last edited:
I noticed the beans seemed to be higher and higher in the cylinder the longer the roast progressed, I guess this is because the beans are progressively drying out and are lighter and therefore rising higher in the airflow? Your roast looks pretty good and even, so the agitation must work well.
