Any coffee heads?

I roasted indoors last week due to cold and rainy weather. Big mistake! I normally screw up once every winter...lol Thankfully the smell goes away after 3-4 days.

I use the old hand-cranked popcorn popper over a "hot pad" method. It takes 8-9 minutes to do one cup of coffee, and because of the cleanup, I normally do two back to back roasts.

Not sure if there are "high power" air poppers on the market today. That would be much cheaper than using a table top dedicated roaster. The highest wattage hot air popper I found on Amazon was for a Presto. Some said their poppers had "1440 watts" on the bottom, and others said their machine had "1475 watts." It wasn't the only 1400 watt popper, but most were in the 1200 watt range.

 

You guys ever try a subscription to try some different stuff? I used Misto Box for awhile and liked it. https://www.mistobox.com/

 

I've been enjoying my subscription with Trade. Get a lot of coffees I can't find at a grocery store.

 

Not sure if anyone here orders beans from Blue Bottle, but they have been my go to since I always liked them when I lived in CA. Anyway, they recently pushed their prices up by like $3 per 12oz bag. I'm thinking of switch to Ritual, since they were my actual favorite shop/roastery in SF. Keen to hear any other suggestions - this is for espresso btw.

 

I had some of this coffee when I was in Texas back in April. We've ordered some and now it's our go weekend coffee. I think it's well worth the price.

 

I roast my own beans as well - been partial to a Hatian-Blue and Guatemalan mix.

 

Fun to read. I live on a coffee farm , located in Kona Hawaii ( town is call Holualoa). We do the whole process, most of it. From picking to bagging and selling. Only the coffee grown on this farm is use 100% pure Kona coffee. We live in the coffee belt.

Note: Buyers be ware! Hawaii tax office show 20 million lbs of pure Kona coffee sold. BUT Kona can only produce 3 million lbs in a good year.

17 million lbs of coffee sold as pure Kona coffee is FAKE! Most comes from South America. We have arabica trees so does South America. Hawaii allows a 10% bend Kona coffee (10% must be 100% pure Kona). 90% can be from anywhere. Because of it popularity and shortages, many farms are using South America coffee and selling them as pure Kona coffee. Huge PROFITS!

Pure Kona is often sold for over $50 a lb up too and over $100 a lb, South America is $5.00 a lb (guessing )
70% of Kona coffee in stores maybe fake. Buyers beware!

Ours is a estate coffee farm. We use only the beans that is grown here. Our coffee is sold in only two retail shops , Hamakua Macnut farms $56 a lb, a Holualoa store and my sister-in-law hair shop. Rest is on line.
Customers all over the USA and Japan . A astronaut friend even had our Kona coffee in space ( space station) .
No I am not allow to promote our coffee. We sell out almost every year, meaning fresh coffee beans.

Season to pick and harvest starts in August ,ends about Jan. But some trees are having ripe beans now.

 

I'm going to try my hand at roasting and am looking at a Behmor 1600. Does anyone have any experience with it or can point me to something better for a starter unit?

 

Joining for the follow. Love me a good cup

 

I'm in Ahwatukee - I use the Freshroast 500 with good success. I buy my beans from CoffeeBeanCorral ( excellent service!! ).

The Freshroast is half the price. I drilled a hole in the chaff collector and inserted a probe to measure the temps.
It's all about the heat...
You want a steady rise up to about 405~415 when first-crack occurs.
This is the most important part of the process - you do NOT want temps to drop during this time.
If temps drop that's called a STALL and the result is horrid.

After first-crack you want to crank up and push the process hotter and faster up to about 550 into what's called second crack.
This is also a critical point - just a few seconds into second crack you want to cool it down - otherwise your roast is toast.

Some people never let their beans reach second crack, I always do.

You gotta get temps to drop to below 100 within 4 minutes or it will 'bake'...

Then you bag it and let it rest a day or two - grind and enjoy.

Anywho - I've been doing it for a few years - it's fun - and in general it is good and when it is really good you'll have Kings and Queens bowing at your feet.

Perhaps some time I can ease up with my 'stuff' to your place and give you a first-hand-roast.

 

Thank you for all of the info. I'm just stepping into this and have a ton of homework to do. I may take you up on that offer thanks.

 

Do a bunch of research - look at videos etc etc.
You can probably find someone with the Behmor that will give you a walk-around.

When it comes to the beans - that outfit in Mississippi (coffebeancorral) has good stuff.

It's a fun thing to do.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CREkniaBPVh/

 

If you want to go with a basic setup and you don't mind a little work, look at popcorn poppers with hand cranks. It takes me about 8 1/2 minutes of cranking to do one cup of beans. Since I have to wash everything, I'll do two roasts back to back. That's good for about 2 1/2 weeks of beans before I have to roast again.

Sweet Maria's is a valuable source of roasting information, as well as supplies and beans:

Roasting (sweetmarias.com)

This is my current roasting setup:


Since I roast every 2-3 weeks, I just leave the setup next to the back door. Just a warning, roasting coffee smells like burnt popcorn in a microwave. You don't get the "fresh roasted coffee" smell until the next day. That's why I roast outside.

 

And Home Roasters Forum.

https://homeroasters.org/forum/index.php

 

I apologize but I haven't read the whole thread yet but I'm working on it.

My coffee adventure started with the AMC series Breaking Bad. It was the episode where Gale Boetticher had erected a complicated-looking chem-lab coffee maker and Walt's response, "This is the best coffee I ever tasted" piqued my interest and now I wanted to taste great coffee (video clip here):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojQB7PYaU28

I usually drank whatever was around and since we didn't have a coffee maker, we usually drank instant (don't hate me). We do have a French press but it's so messy and the coffee usually came out too oily and thick for my taste.

I settled on a Chemex as the filters claimed to trap most of the oils and deliver a "clean" cup of coffee (whatever that means). I also got some beans from a local roaster, Tony's Coffee as I read that fresh beans are best. Bought an OXO grinder and pouring kettle and I was on my way.



I immediately fell in love again with coffee and regretted not going down this path earlier. I've been trying beans from roasters all over the country but I'm finding that Tony's is always my favorite (esp the Mexico Chiapas, Peru, Songbird blend and Cafe Carmelita).

Love my Chemex and thank you, Gale!

 

Technivorm Mochmaster daily.
Hario V60 occasionally.
Chemex 6 cup once in a while.
(Not my only choices)

Been buying from cooperative coffee roasters in Asheville, NC for a while now. Better than my home roast.
https://cooperativecoffeeroasters.com/

 

I find Mexican beans to be pretty darn tasty... as well as those from Peru. The Peruvians are large -
If you are in a mood try some PeaBerries - you will be pretty happy with them.

 

Well I'm hooked. I ended up picking up a Freshroast SR800...got a deal on a factory refurb and the ext tube. I burned my first roast by not paying attention and being a few beers deep. My next three roasts were a total success.

I started out with 2# Guatamela Huehuetenago SHP and 2# Brazil Daterra Pearl Bourbon Peaberry. The bourbon is by far the best dang coffee that I have ever had. I waited 48 hours to rest before drinking any. I've been buying roasted coffee for years and can now duplicate that while having something else to do in the garage.

to @2021SR5V64WD @EdgemanVA @2Toyotas @shmn for the information that you provided thanks.

 

Yahooooo

 

South Korea miners survive nine days underground on coffee - BBC News