I love coffee, have since I was a kid delivering papers early mornings. Grew up on Folgers, then fell in love with coffee overseas when in the Navy. I've been searching for that perfect cup ever since, but for some reason I never considered roasting my own beans. I was perfectly happy buying roasted beans at the grocery store and grinding them for use.
Thanks to hillbillyjim and ljroller in a thread called Smoked Coffee, the seed of roasting my own beans was planted between my ears. I had no desire to buy an expensive coffee roaster, so I started watching YouTube videos about roasting coffee beans in a frying pan, plus dozens of other videos about home roasting coffee. Due to smoke and chaff, this is something you want to do outside. My gasser side burner was perfect.
All that was needed to home roast coffee was any type of frying pan, an infrared thermometer (and this isn't essential), something to stir the beans while roasting, a timer, and something to cool the beans quickly when they are done, like a fan and a strainer.
I had everything I needed except the beans. Went online to
Amazon and purchased 3 lbs of unroasted, Nicaraguan, Single Ranch, Specialty beans from Primos Coffee Company. Price was $18.99, or $6.33/lb.
I've always liked a darker roast with an oily finish. Extremely dark French and Italian roasts, which I have consumed for years, have an oily finish. Then I learned that's how bad beans are roasted to be sold. I decided to try something just a little lighter with my own roasting. The beans are still dark brown, but not black, and they have a satin finish, not oily.
Roasting process: Preheat the pan to 350F on a gas grill side burner, or over a hot charcoal fire (looking forward to doing the charcoal thing), add the beans to your pan, start the timer, and stir continuously, watching for color changes, listening for 1st crack (popcorn popping sound), second crack (Rice Crispies snap), and the color you want on your beans. If things progress a little too quickly, just lift the pan off the heat and keep stirring.
The majority of the beans should crack between 6-8 minutes, as late as 9-10 minutes. A couple minutes later, the second crack sounds. When you see the color you want, turn off the heat and cool the beans quickly over a fan, putting them in a strainer or colander while you stir the beans. They cool in a couple minutes. Put the cool beans in a Ziplock bag, not completely sealed, and let them outgas CO2 for a few hours (4 to 48, depending who you're listening to). Grind what you need for a cup or pot of coffee, and enjoy.
First roast ever: 10/20/17. 1/2 cup of green beans and a small frying pan. I over heated my pan, scorched the beans, but still ended up with great tasting coffee. Total roasting time was 12 minutes, then another 3 minutes to cool. Beans were inconsistent in color from black to dark brown. Let them offgas for about 18 hours then ground enough for my single cup (12 oz) cone filtered coffee maker. Wow. Later, made an 8 oz cup in one of my three Italian Moka pots (3 cup, 6 cup, 9 cup, but they are espresso cups, like 2 oz each). Unbelievably rich and delicious, even with the scorching issue.
Picture of first roast. You can see the color inconsistency.
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Second Roast ever, 10/21/17. Went to GoodWill and for $2.88 I purchased a 4" deep by 8" diameter, heavy duty pan and a wooden spatula. The deeper pan stopped me from splashing beans out of the pan while I stirred them. It worked like a charm.
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I prepped everything I thought I'd need, but never used the gloves. I needed them with the frying pan, but not with this deeper pan.
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Added 1 cup of green beans to a properly heated pan (took 1 min 20 seconds to reach 350F), then started stirring. Sorry, didn't get any pics of the beans turning color or cracking off the chaff. Everything happens pretty fast.
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Total time on this roast was 15 minutes using this deeper pan and more beans. Result was a much more consistent color and roast. Can't wait to try them tomorrow morning.
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1 cup of green beans weighed 6.25 oz. After roasted, they weighed 5.10 oz and measured almost 1 3/4 cups. Yes, the beans swell when roasted. That amount will last me probably 3 to 4 days. I usually have a 12 oz mug in the morning, and a 3 or 6 cup Moka pot in the early afternoon.
Beans in Ziplock, offgassing.
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If you love coffee, and you have not tried roasting your own beans, give it a shot. It is SOOOO easy! The difference in taste is amazing.
Thank for hanging in there if you made it this far. Happy Roasting!
Ra