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Home coffee roasting

#281
You guys have to check out these beans from the folks at Slate Coffee Roasters: [This invalid link has been removed]. They aren't cheap, but they are excellent. The shop in front of the roaster is great too, staffed with people passionate for coffee from how it is farmed to how it is prepared.

I don't much care for fruity type coffees, but wow is this one good. We stopped by the roaster this past Saturday with some friends on the way to the coffee show. They do a 'coffee flight' where they take a bean and prepare it three ways so you can get a feel for the flavor profiles in the different preparations. We chose the Aricha, and it was an excellent experience. For me, the blueberry notes were pronounced and it almost tasted more like a tea as a pour over. I'm more into the big bold flavors from Mexican coffees, but I think this is a taste profile I am going to spend more time exploring. It's very different from what I am used to, but a good different.

-Mike
 
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#287
Art Araya said:
So stumbling on to this thread picqued my interest. After some research I purchased a used Fresh Roast SR500 and some Sumatra. Ive roasted several batches already. I really enjoy it!

Thanks guys
Click to expand...
Congrats and welcome to the club! Sumatra is a great region to start with, IME it is very hard to roast badly. I have done a whole lot of roasting since my son was born, but I'll be starting up again soon.

lowsound
 
#288
Welp, I decided to jump back in the home roasting game. For now, just the popcorn popper method. I'll be building my roaster over the next few months as I accumulate parts. I'm using the BBQ grill design with a cooling system.

I've spent the last few months gaining a more thorough understanding of the various coffee growing regions in the world, the harvesting and washing process, as well as the chemistry around roasting a coffee bean. I think I am better prepared to roast my own coffee now.

-Mike
 
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#289
Two weeks into my coffee roasting adventure. So far, so good. I have my popcorn popper dialed in, and a sifter rigged together to rotate the roasting beans. I have handed out several samples to friends, and received good feedback. I had a local roaster, who I really like, give my beans a try. He said I am on the right path.

I may eventually upgrade to a larger roaster, but I really prefer this completely manual process. I am now roasting by sight, sound, and smell. The larger ones that I'd want are mostly automated. Maybe I'll build the BBQ roaster.

-Mike
 
#290
Another few weeks under my belt and some more tweaks to my roaster. I'm sticking with the air popper for now. The automated machines look like they take the fun out of it.

I am working through a couple pounds of the Guatemala Gesha from Sweet Maria's right now. Wow, this coffee is so good.

-Mike
 
#291
Awesome, Mike. My best roasts ever were when I was using a heavily modified SC/CO roaster and basically micro controlling the temp during every minute of the roast using planned profiles. Then I acquired more responsibilities and less time to hover over the process with increased responsibilities and then I just ran out of time for roasting altogether. I keep thinking I might start roasting again and then I think, "Am go insane?!" Just don't have any kind of time for it these days!

If I do start back up At some point down the line I may upgrade my Behmor with the Behmor Plus control panel. Brings back some more of the customization of the old days with the advantages of the drum and automated cooling and temp monitoring.

For the time being I've mostly settled on Topeca Coffee in Tulsa as my main roaster with occasional orders from Counter Culture and Klatch. I love topeca's coffees and business practices. The main guy there has pretty incredible knowledge and qualifications.

Keep it up, man! Some day maybe I'll be ordering a few lbs of Mike's Melange. ;)
 
#292
Almost two years roasting my own coffee and I don't have any plan to look back, I am still using the SR500 but I would love to upgrade to a bigger roaster, I would like to be able to roast 1 pound per batch. Any recommendation?

By the way, I just ordered a great selection of Ethiopia beans from Sweet Marias:

Ethiopia Agaro -Nano Challa Cooperative
Ethiopia Dry Process Yirg Adado Sulula
Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Baraka Buna
Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Kela Kochore
Mexico Org. La Lagunilla Coop
 
#293
Good call on the Nano Challa. I get good results with that. I picked up a Natural Limu from Ethiopia that is amazing with the blueberry notes.

For a roaster, I moved on to this, and had it since May.

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I'm turning out coffee people are paying me $20 for 12 pounces for. It's a Huky 500T, handmade by a man in Taiwan. It cost me $1800 shipped, about five weeks from the day you order/pay to you receive it.

-Mike
 
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#295
pedroims said:
wow...that roaster looks awesome, I am sure it works great too. I am ready to move to a different roaster, any Behmor 1600 plus user here? I only need be able to roast .5 - 1 pound and seems this one fit the bill.
Click to expand...

Thank you. It makes great coffee.
The Behmor's are great machines, but they don't offer a whole lot of flexibility when roasting. The Gene Cafe roasters are cool, but won't do a pound. I almost went with a Gene Cafe, I tried one out before I bought the Huky.
Hottop is popular, but misses your one pound request.
I went round and round before I paid for the Huky. I am glad I got the Huky. It is basically a mini commercial roaster. I can go through 3-4 pounds an hour and it doesn't break a sweat.
You can also build your own roaster from a BBQ. I started down that road twice, but never finished. They aren't all that expensive, but require good DIY skills.
There is a new player about to hit the market, the Bullet R1, more expensive than the Huky: BULLET R1
They are taking pre-orders for it now, up until 1/10/2016.

-Mike
 
#296
OMG, the Huky and the bullet are big toys, I showed them to my wife and she told me that I can get one only if am planning to start a business :(

I gave few samples to my workmates, lets see what happens, for now I ordered the Behmor, I think it is going to be a good improvement over my SR500.
 

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