Newbie Coffee Roaster: Skillet vs. Air Popper

[cmush]

A few weekends ago, TLML took me to her sister's baby shower in KC. After the obligatory helping get the party ready, by brother-in-law and I ran away as fast as possible and ended up at the Rosterie, a local coffee roaster/coffee house chain. Turned out it was fitting as I have been toying with the idea on roasting our own beans at home. According to them, air roasting provides a far superior end product due to the even consistency in the roasting. The local coffee shops that roast their own beans all do so in a conventional roaster and seems to say that works best for them. And now the quandary.

I have a flat top gas powered two burner Coleman camp stove that I was going to fire up and just keep agitating the beans with a whisk or other tool in either a cast iron skillet or dutch oven. I like this idea as it gives me ease to set up and tear down outside. The other option would be to find an old popcorn air popper and extension cord at a garage sale. I have seen a few around for a few dollars at most varying in size from 1150 watts to 1400 watts. One of the questions that I would have on this is whether everything would have to be timed as I would think the noise from the blower/heater would make it difficult to hear the beans crack.

Which method have you used and why is it your preferred? Anyone tried both? What size of Air Roaster are you using and what would be an average time to roast?

 

[JohnYaddy]

I've never tried a skillet. I use a West Bend Poppery II and love it. You can definitely hear the cracks over the blower sound. Search around in this forum and you'll find some other threads with similar debates.

 

[JohnYaddy]

Try these: http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/454299-Home-Roast-First-Attempt and http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/454660-West-Bend-Poppery-II

 

[TheDude82]

I use a $12 air popper from the local hardware store. Works great. if you get one just make sure it doesn't have the air grate in the bottom. It needs to blow from the side.

 

[jzuzphreek]

I got started with a dog bowl and heat gun. I tried the popper, but I fried it on my first attempt. Used money received for my 30th birthday to acquire a Behmor! Roasting sounds easy, and IS easy. Getting reliably consistent and delicious cups however, is a life-long process of frustration, headache, delight, and reward!

 

[oakeshott]

I started with a cast iron skillet that I already owned. You can get amazing results IF you treat it as something more than just heat the pan, dump some beans and stir. On my setup, it took trial and error to learn the maximum weight of beans for the size of the skillet as well as the right size skillet to keep an optimum even temperature across the whole of the pan. You also need to change the heat during the period of the roast. If you pay attention to the smell, sight and sound of the beans, then you'll get some outstanding results. I also think it's a good way to start no matter where you end because it puts you in intimate contact with the beans. You get a better understanding of what's going on at different heat settings.

The real problem with cast iron wasn't the results as much as it was the volume. I found the best results came in a #5 pan which had an optimum quantity of about 3-4 ounces of beans per roast. That's not much. If you go to a much bigger pan, you'll find that the results are even more uneven unless you have a gas stove with a much bigger burner than I have on mine.

I now use an 80 dollar stainless steel popcorn popper from Zippy. It works great and I can do about 12-14 ozs at a time in anywhere from 11-15 minutes. Two roasts and I've got enough for the whole family for at least a week. No electronics, no usb port and almost nothing to break. Simple and reliable.

Nothing you do on the stove will match in consistency what a commercial roaster can do, but it will still be pretty fantastic. Whatever you choose, you'll enjoy it.

 

[GreggJ]

West Bend Original Poppery for me. I Love it.

 

[cmush]

I use a $12 air popper from the local hardware store. Works great. if you get one just make sure it doesn't have the air grate in the bottom. It needs to blow from the side.

Out of curiosity, how does the air flow coming from the side impact the roastings quality/consistency? I would think that it would be preferable to have the airflow from the bottom center lifting the beans to the top so the ones on the bottom/side can flow into their place.

 

[TheDude82]

Out of curiosity, how does the air flow coming from the side impact the roastings quality/consistency? I would think that it would be preferable to have the airflow from the bottom center lifting the beans to the top so the ones on the bottom/side can flow into their place.

Not sure about air flow, but chaff can get through the grate of a bottom blower and start fires.

 

[JohnYaddy]

Out of curiosity, how does the air flow coming from the side impact the roastings quality/consistency? I would think that it would be preferable to have the airflow from the bottom center lifting the beans to the top so the ones on the bottom/side can flow into their place.

This isn't based on any scientific knowledge, just speculation based on my experience. I think it's because the side vents encourage a vortex action that keeps the roast (or popcorn popping) more consistent because each bean passes through the hot and cold spots, rather than sitting in one place and over or under roasting. With the bottom vents you get a "pop corning" action, which is great for, um, popcorn, but not so much for coffee.

 

[cmush]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to keep an eye out for something along these lines. The only thing with the air roaster is that knowing myself, I'll be tearing it apart and putting some sort of variable control on the main coil in an attempt to control the heat more. I stumbled across a few threads that were discussing the merits of putting on thermocouplers and automating the controls. Made for some fascinating reading, but probably a little beyond what someone dipping a toe in is looking for. For these reasons, I think I'll probably try a few skillet batches and see how it goes. If/when I get bored with that, I will have to start looking for an air popper to upgrade.

 

[imatabor]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to keep an eye out for something along these lines. The only thing with the air roaster is that knowing myself, I'll be tearing it apart and putting some sort of variable control on the main coil in an attempt to control the heat more. I stumbled across a few threads that were discussing the merits of putting on thermocouplers and automating the controls. Made for some fascinating reading, but probably a little beyond what someone dipping a toe in is looking for. For these reasons, I think I'll probably try a few skillet batches and see how it goes. If/when I get bored with that, I will have to start looking for an air popper to upgrade.

After tearing apart my air popper a few times I decided to just use spare parts and build my own.

 

[jzuzphreek]

John, that is cool! Details please!

 

[imatabor]

I won't hijack the thread so I'll post my own.