Fred
06-19-2006, 06:53 PM
About 8 years ago my wife and stopped buying ground coffee and began grinding (and blending) the beans just before brewing. That was an important step in improving the quality of the coffee we brewed at home.
A couple years ago we took to steeping the ground coffee in French presses. We have about a 1/2 dozen of them now of every conceivable size. Another step upward in coffee quality improvement.
Just recently I've been experimenting with roasting my own green coffee beans. This allows us to have truly "fresh roasted" coffee but it also allows us to create coffees by mixing different levels of roast together as well as blending different beans either before or after the roast. It is a fairly complex subject and I'm certainly no expert but I've been getting some pretty good results and I'll share my experiences.
The unit I have is very inexpensive and works on the principle of blowing electrically heated air through the beans. There are two drawbacks. The first is the tiny amount of beans the unit will handle (about 43 grams.) The second is that, because it roasts such a small amount, it roasts very quickly (2 - 4 minutes) and it's hard to stop the roast at the point you wish to stop it and put it into a cooling cycle. But after roasting about 40 batches, I've gotten the hang of it and I'm ready to upgrade to a bigger machine. I'm going to get the Gene unit. It handles 1/2 lb. at a time and provides for computer controlled roasting curves. I'll get one ordered as soon as I can find a price that appeals to me.
basically, as the beans heat up and begin to turn color, they will start to snap, crackle and pop. This is referred to as first crack by the coffee roasters. Later on, the beans will undergo a second crack and very quickly begin to get really dark and oily and smoky. Most beans are roasted somewhere between the first and second crack. A cinnamon roast would be pulled right after first crack and a full city roast would be pulled just before the second crack. Right after second crack you would get dark French and espresso roasts. Results can be affected by the time and temp of the roast or by programming different temps at different times. On my unit there is less than a minute between the two cracks so I can't really do much other than get to level of roast I want. The new unit will give me a lot more flexibility and capability to customize my roasts.
This is a smoky and smelly process. I take the roaster outside and set in on one of the stainless tables of my gas grill where I have an electric outlet. That solves the smoke issue just fine. You need to let the roasted beans rest for a day before brewing to allow the last of the gasses to escape. The coffee can be a little bitter right after roasting but mellows out beautifully after several hours.
I started with some inexpensive Bolivian beans and, after a few burnt and ruined batches, I managed to make some pretty good coffee. I've done everything from a light city roast to an espresso roast with it and had good results. I then bought some premium beans. I got 5 lbs. of Ethiopian Harrar and 5 lbs. of 100% Kona from my favorite Hawaiian grower. The Kona is so good that it maintains its flavor right on into a French roast. At the French level you're normally tasting the roast rather than the coffee but the Kona flavor comes through every time. Really rich and creamy tasting. Green beans cost about 1/2 what you would pay for roasted beans.
The results have been spectacular, at least in my inexperienced opinion. You couldn't get better coffee at a high end coffee shop. I know I have a lot to learn about coffee roasting. I'm happy with the results I'm getting now and I know I'll only get better with experience. Any other coffee roasters out there?
A couple years ago we took to steeping the ground coffee in French presses. We have about a 1/2 dozen of them now of every conceivable size. Another step upward in coffee quality improvement.
Just recently I've been experimenting with roasting my own green coffee beans. This allows us to have truly "fresh roasted" coffee but it also allows us to create coffees by mixing different levels of roast together as well as blending different beans either before or after the roast. It is a fairly complex subject and I'm certainly no expert but I've been getting some pretty good results and I'll share my experiences.
The unit I have is very inexpensive and works on the principle of blowing electrically heated air through the beans. There are two drawbacks. The first is the tiny amount of beans the unit will handle (about 43 grams.) The second is that, because it roasts such a small amount, it roasts very quickly (2 - 4 minutes) and it's hard to stop the roast at the point you wish to stop it and put it into a cooling cycle. But after roasting about 40 batches, I've gotten the hang of it and I'm ready to upgrade to a bigger machine. I'm going to get the Gene unit. It handles 1/2 lb. at a time and provides for computer controlled roasting curves. I'll get one ordered as soon as I can find a price that appeals to me.
basically, as the beans heat up and begin to turn color, they will start to snap, crackle and pop. This is referred to as first crack by the coffee roasters. Later on, the beans will undergo a second crack and very quickly begin to get really dark and oily and smoky. Most beans are roasted somewhere between the first and second crack. A cinnamon roast would be pulled right after first crack and a full city roast would be pulled just before the second crack. Right after second crack you would get dark French and espresso roasts. Results can be affected by the time and temp of the roast or by programming different temps at different times. On my unit there is less than a minute between the two cracks so I can't really do much other than get to level of roast I want. The new unit will give me a lot more flexibility and capability to customize my roasts.
This is a smoky and smelly process. I take the roaster outside and set in on one of the stainless tables of my gas grill where I have an electric outlet. That solves the smoke issue just fine. You need to let the roasted beans rest for a day before brewing to allow the last of the gasses to escape. The coffee can be a little bitter right after roasting but mellows out beautifully after several hours.
I started with some inexpensive Bolivian beans and, after a few burnt and ruined batches, I managed to make some pretty good coffee. I've done everything from a light city roast to an espresso roast with it and had good results. I then bought some premium beans. I got 5 lbs. of Ethiopian Harrar and 5 lbs. of 100% Kona from my favorite Hawaiian grower. The Kona is so good that it maintains its flavor right on into a French roast. At the French level you're normally tasting the roast rather than the coffee but the Kona flavor comes through every time. Really rich and creamy tasting. Green beans cost about 1/2 what you would pay for roasted beans.
The results have been spectacular, at least in my inexperienced opinion. You couldn't get better coffee at a high end coffee shop. I know I have a lot to learn about coffee roasting. I'm happy with the results I'm getting now and I know I'll only get better with experience. Any other coffee roasters out there?