Coffee-Home Roasting (the other green bean)

Call it what you will. I've had enough bad coffee and I've been to the light. T.K.s roasts and most recently a secret V salon Santa sent me a bag of his finest put me over the edge.
January 20 I should have a small roaster to start the learning process.
The machine is a Stainless Steel Drum fitted into a modified Rotisseri with an exhaust duct/fan built into the side. Also, I'm making a bean cooling device from a 5 gallon bucket attached to my shop vac.
Chances are good I'll ruin some beans before I get the hang of it and after that I'll be forever chasing the amazing stuff T.K. makes.

There is a small chance I will be able to import some large bags of green coffee from Costa Rica. My best pal's wife is relatives with the owner of a terrific operation perched at close to 5500F. Fingers crossed on that yah?

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Originally Posted by Too Tall

Call it what you will. I've had enough bad coffee and I've been to the light. T.K.s roasts and most recently a secret V salon Santa sent me a bag of his finest put me over the edge.
January 20 I should have a small roaster to start the learning process.
The machine is a Stainless Steel Drum fitted into a modified Rotisseri with an exhaust duct/fan built into the side. Also, I'm making a bean cooling device from a 5 gallon bucket attached to my shop vac.
Chances are good I'll ruin some beans before I get the hang of it and after that I'll be forever chasing the amazing stuff T.K. makes.

There is a small chance I will be able to import some large bags of green coffee from Costa Rica. My best pal's wife is relatives with the owner of a terrific operation perched at close to 5500F. Fingers crossed on that yah?

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Did you fab that roaster?

No I did not. This is from a guy who has been doing this for years and sells them to rubes like me. The current iteration of these units gets solid reviews from hobbists. Proof is in the roasting, I'll have more to report after ruining some perfectly good beans. Now, I need a $20 shop vac. to dedicate for cooling and learn to duck T.K.'s right hook for buying this.

Impressive. No such thing as ruining a roast unless you completely burn it. Looking forward to hearing about your outclomes.

Cooling beans rapidly. I've got most of the bits lying available.
A basic setup is to use a shop vac, insert the suction tube into the bottom of a bucket and place a collander ontop. Dump beans and stir until cool.
FWIIW these minimalist wet/dry vacs are better than expected.
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You guys are pissing me off! I'm in my own little coffee bubble, happily buying beans from a local roaster and then I read this thread. Now I'm OCDing about home roasting. Thanks a lot!

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Originally Posted by LarryA

You guys are pissing me off! I'm in my own little coffee bubble, happily buying beans from a local roaster and then I read this thread. Now I'm OCDing about home roasting. Thanks a lot!

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Winter is coming. Did you get your Moose?

with that roaster, how do you dump the beans from the drum to your cooling setup?

but yeah, it's not rockets science. sweet marias website has lots of info regarding roasting. best thing is to get about 5lbs of green coffee and get to roasting. keep notes, figure out what your under raosted coffee tastes like, and your over roasted coffee (you taste the roast instead of the beans)
i consider over raosted to be any bean you can see oil on but that's me...

This

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+ this

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+ this

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= this

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Using heatproof gloves remove the front heatshield and lift the drum out....dump.

Brother, your green bean stash is formidable.

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Originally Posted by Cookietruck

with that roaster, how do you dump the beans from the drum to your cooling setup?

but yeah, it's not rockets science. sweet marias website has lots of info regarding roasting. best thing is to get about 5lbs of green coffee and get to roasting. keep notes, figure out what your under raosted coffee tastes like, and your over roasted coffee (you taste the roast instead of the beans)
i consider over raosted to be any bean you can see oil on but that's me...

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Making dough, grilling pizzas, grinding coffee, making espresso, stretching and gluing tubulars and "playing" with bikes in general, are all activities that currently test the limits of Mrs. RW's sanity. Might I add that I'm exploring the process of growing mushrooms in stacked logs when Spring comes around. Given all of this, after seeing the roaster and the shop vac cooling apparatus, I hereby vote to elevate Queen's status to the title of Saint.

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Originally Posted by rwsaunders

Making dough, grilling pizzas, grinding coffee, making espresso, stretching and gluing tubulars and "playing" with bikes in general, are all activities that currently test the limits of Mrs. RW's sanity. Might I add that I'm exploring the process of growing mushrooms in stacked logs when Spring comes around. Given all of this, after seeing the roaster and the shop vac cooling apparatus, I hereby vote to elevate Queen's status to the title of Saint.

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I married up and you too. Full stop. LOL I went thru the Shitake phase at our last house. It was a huge success. Order plugs from Paul S., drill your logs and insert the fungi. Wow, I looked...Fungi Perfecti is still in business. Fungi Perfecti - Fungi.com Goes to prove that old hippies never quit being awesome.

Details on my bean cooler. Consists of 2 all purpose buckets, home depot vaccum top "Bucket Head", bulkhead fitting - Amazon.com : *1-1/4" Slip x Thread Bulkhead Fitting, 1.25" High Quality : Pet Supplies , colander.
In theory this will work great. All I need now is the roaster!
Approx. cost: $25 (vacuum), 2 buckets $6, bulkhead fitting $4.50

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The "Let's Do This" slogan on the bucket is so appropriate and oh so priceless.

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Originally Posted by rwsaunders

The "Let's Do This" slogan on the bucket is so appropriate and oh so priceless.

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I know, had to have it.

The roaster arrived and is setup for first roast tomorrow. I should be able to setup the roaster to vent directly into the addition kitchen's vent hood which means I can setup shop and leave it in place for good.

Call the fire department. Pics. and details to follow.
STOKED!!!!

Pro tip: tell your neighbors before you start doing this so they don't think that you are either burning your house down, running a meth lab, or both. The smell is a bit pungent.

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Originally Posted by Too Tall

......drill your logs ......

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Now wait. Don't you mean drill your lugs, and your shift levers and your chain rings and your derailleur arms and your seatpost?

a nice reference....

Using Sight to Determine Degree of Roast | Sweet Maria's Coffee Library

First run with a 1/2 lb of inexpensive beans. I'll let them sit for a day and see how I did. No clue. I let the roast go 2 mins. past first crack which was pretty easy to detect.
Did not burn the place down and my exhaust scheme worked really well. Need to work on the cooling setup, it has too much surface area and the mesh does not allow enough chaff to fall thru AND silly me did not anticipate the fact hot beans give off some smoke. Woops.
Looks like Full City + The green you see is from the light and is not present on the bean.
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what was the total roast time? for 1/2 lb in my roaster i'm usually around 12-13 mins.

those beans look nice, a little darker than i would go for most things but that's personal preference. over roasted is better than under roasted unless you really like a green tasting cup...