Does anyone roast their own coffee?

So I somehow just got this magazine called Imbibe (anyone seen this before?) and it had an article on roasting your own coffee beans and my roommate and I are thinking about giving it a whirl using the old popcorn maker style.

Anyone done this? Is there anywhere to buy the beans here in town (Chicago Metro)? Or is it all mail order?

Any tips?

Kit, an infrequent member of this forum, got me started on this a few years ago and I am hooked. I get my beans (and roaster) from http://www.sweetmarias.com which has a large variety of high-quality beans at very low prices. The beans I like best go for less than $5 per pound. The service is excellent - they always seem to ship the same day I place the order.

The difficult part is finding the variety you like best and then figuring out the times and temps best suited for that bean. But you can buy just about any bean they sell and roast it using the default settings in your roaster and it will be much better than you can buy already roasted. I roast beans about three times per week and grind just before brewing.

Bill/SFNM

The little Ethiopian grocery store next to Ras Dashen on Broadway sells green Ethiopian coffee beans. Ras Dashen (and I would guess most Ethiopian place in town) buys green beans and roasts as needed--in a skillet. I keep meaning to buy some and try this, as I think their coffee is just about the best I've ever had. I would imagine it would take some practice to get an even roast to the desired darkness, but the kitchen will smell great in the process.

Anyone tried this?

Kristen

I just got an 8 lb order from Sweet Maria's of some the COE beans they have available...promptly stuck them in the freezer, which apparently is okay to do to green beans, according to George Howell and the crew at Terroir.

I am completely and utterly addicted to roasting my own beans. I roast every weekend now - but I use an I-Roast 2 so that I can control the temperature curve a little better.

I recommend sweet maria's as well -- it is an invaluable resource for everything from green beans to the how-tos of home roasting.

Yeah -- I just started -- got a air popper for $10 at walgreens and the 8 half pound sample from sweet marias and have been roasting my own for about a month now -- it's very fast -- can only do half cup green at a time, and it's done between 3.5 and 5 minutes. I also got an aeropress coffee maker -- even when I don't quite hit the mark, the coffee seems better than metropolis or intelligentsia -- I'm drinking much much more

Slight hangup -- ever since mgt at my apt building checked the smoke detectors last week -- my "roaster" sets off the smoke detector which I now have swathed in muffling devices & have every fan in my studio going.

PS Roasting coffee does not smell delicious like roasted coffee ...

Ok. So today the ambition got the best of us.

So we headed up to that Ethiopian store, but it did not exist or it was not directly next to said restaurant.

A little detective work later and we were able to buy some beans right up the street at Metropolis coffee. 2lbs of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe for $13.

Bought a air popper at walgreens (thanks for the tip) and have now roasted our first batch. Insanely easy.

In the coffee maker as I type.

Well after three brews I have a question. I should inform you all that I am not a coffee drinker. In fact I had stopped drinking caffeine, but I said I would rejoin the crowd if we started roasting our own coffee.

We have brewed three times in a drip coffee maker and all three the liquid has come out rather light in color (my roommate drinks coffee everyday). However, the first two were from a batch that were roasted about 4 minutes and 35 seconds in the popper and then the last batch was about 5 minutes and 30 seconds (pretty dark).

Do some coffees always come out lighter in color? Or is this always dictated by how much they have been roasted?

SGFoxe wrote:PS Roasting coffee does not smell delicious like roasted coffee ...

To each her own, I guess. The chef/owner of Ras Dashen (Zenash) will often walk around the dining room with a flaming hot skillet of just roasted/still roasting beans and wave the smell towards diners. I think it smells fantastic and can attest to increased coffee sales directly after her little tours.

jpeac2 wrote:So we headed up to that Ethiopian store, but it did not exist or it was not directly next to said restaurant.

It was there last Friday. It's one door (or two? under the same green awning) South of Ras Dashen, on the same side of the street. I can't think of the name, or I would look up the address. It's kind of a store/cafe/video store/hangout rather than a grocery store proper, but they do have things like teff, coffee, spices and other Ethiopian goodies for sale.

Glad you found what you were looking for at any rate.

Kristen

You are smelling ROASTED coffee -- the roasting coffee has chaff in it and does not smell like a good coffeehouse -- it's not an EW sort of fragrance, but it is not the exotic perfume of roasted coffee.

kl5 wrote:The chef/owner of Ras Dashen (Zenash) will often walk around the dining room with a flaming hot skillet of just roasted/still roasting beans

SGFoxe wrote:You are smelling ROASTED coffee -- the roasting coffee has chaff in it and does not smell like a good coffeehouse -- it's not an EW sort of fragrance, but it is not the exotic perfume of roasted coffee.

I agree it smells nothing like coffee out of a grinder. It smells like something is burning. Like coffee beans are burning. I was simply making the point that it's a smell I (and clearly others) enjoy.

jpeac -- the first crack/2nd crack stages -- apparently time can be idiosyncratic -- i get first crack starting at about 2.45-3 minutes & then I watch it carefully -- what do your beans look like roasted? sweetmarias has a page or two w/the colors of each stage -- City Roast, Full City, whatever, check that out.

my coffee does not come out light and transparent, but rather full bodied & since I've been using the aeropress -- really smooth and addictive, though I think I'm only getting 25 cups per pound.

Anyone using a drum roaster on a BBQ?

All -

So the roasting has been going well. Usually roast a batch on the weekend and enjoy good coffee during the week.

I am curious, does anyone know anyone locally who might be more of a commercial roaster that I could outsource some 20lb batch roasting too?

I have given some of my coffee to some of my clients and would like to keep giving them some if at all possible but the popcorn popper (or any of the smaller home roasters) are not large enough to keep up with the gift giving I am looking to do. Anyone know anyone I could reach out to that could roast the beans I bring them?

Thanks for your help!

I got some beans at the little place on Broadway and into the popper they went. I posted about it a while ago and while I'm late to this party I can recount the fun I had. I liked the husks floating around my porch.

http://www.chicagofoodies.com/2005/03/t ... rd_co.html

For larger batches, I'd seriously get a second hot air popper.