Advertisement “Almost everyone knows how exquisite fresh bread is,” said Kenneth Davids, author of “Home Coffee Roasting.” “But the flavor and fragrance of coffee one day out of the roaster is a virtually forgotten pleasure.”
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While home coffee roasting can involve sophisticated and expensive equipment you can give it a try with as little as a hand full of green coffee beans and a hot air popcorn popper as seen in this Sunday, March 9, 2008 photo. The small green beans, right, will turn into beautiful dark roasted coffee ready for grinding in under 15 minutes. (AP Photo/Larry Crowe) |
Here’s what you need to know to roast at home:
THE BASICS
All coffee starts as green (unroasted) beans, which are the seeds of the coffee fruit. Taking those seeds from the plant to the coffee pot involves roasting them for several minutes between
400 degrees F and 500 degrees F.
During the first few minutes of roasting, green beans begin to turn yellow and develop a vaguely grassy or grainy smell as their water content causes them to steam from within.
As the internal temperature of the beans rises, the coffee gives off a fragrant smoke and begins to make a crackling noise as the sugars caramelize and the essential oils are released.
The beans puff up to almost double their size and the roast becomes darker until a second more volatile phase of crackling begins. At this point, the beans are done, or can be roasted further for a “dark roast” variety.
THE BEANS
Green (unroasted) coffee beans are widely available, though you might not find them at the grocer.
Most coffee shops and roasting companies, such as Green Mountain Coffee and numerous other online retailers, will sell green coffee beans, often for several dollars less per pound than roasted.
Businesses such as Sweet Maria’s, for example, offer dozens of varieties of green coffee beans, including decaf, at prices 20 percent to 50 percent lower than the same coffees would cost roasted. Green coffee beans resemble gray peanuts and lack the distinctive color and aroma of roasted coffee.
According to Maria Troy, who started Sweet Maria’s with her husband, Thompson Owen, about 10 years ago, green coffee beans will keep for up to two years if properly stored.
Keep green beans in paper or cloth bags (which allow them to breath) in an area with no more than moderate heat and humidity. In short, if you’re comfortable, your beans are comfortable, Troy said.
Once roasted, beans (whether roasted at home or by a company) reach their peak in about
24 hours, then begin to lose flavor. For the best taste, coffee beans should be ground and brewed within two weeks of roasting.
LOW-TECH OPTIONS
As with any hobby, it’s easy to spend plenty of money on coffee roasting equipment, but it’s hardly necessary.
Home roasting machines start around $75 and go as high as $900. These machines usually involve some style of hot air chamber that circulates and roasts the beans while removing the chaff (the papery outer skin of the bean).
But there also are plenty of low-tech home roasting methods that are less expensive. These might produce less consistent results but are an affordable way to test whether home roast is for you.
Internet sites such as CoffeeGeek.com and HomeRoaster.com offer detailed instructions for home roasting, which can be done with cast-iron skillets, in the oven, with a stovetop corn poppers, or a hot air corn popper.
There also are plenty of sites for building a roaster, such as converting a gas barbecue grill into a drum roaster.
The hot air corn popper is probably the best bet for an affordable, easy low-tech home option with good results.
It is important to use a machine with good side and bottom airflow. A machine that blows air only from the bottom won’t properly agitate the beans, which could catch fire.
Hot air corn poppers can roast enough coffee for about two pots of coffee in about 5 minutes.
HIGH-TECH OPTIONS
Once you’ve decided that home roasting is the way to go, you’ll probably want to invest in a real roaster, which takes much of the guesswork and mess out of roasting.
There are two main types of home roasting machines (widely available online or at kitchen supply stores).
Fluid bed coffee roasters use a strong current of hot air to roast the beans and move them around for even results. These roasters have a small glass chamber that holds the beans and over a heating element with a fan.
Fluid bed roasters produce a bright-tasting roast in anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, plus an added cooling period of several minutes.
Two popular fluid bed roasters are the Fresh Roast Plus ($75), made by FreshBeans, Inc., which is relatively quiet and simple to use, and Hearthware’s i-Roast 2 ($179), which has more sophisticated electronics for controlling the roasting process.
Both have effective chaff collecting systems but do produce quite a bit of smoke as the beans darken.
The Fresh Roast Plus can produce enough coffee to brew about 16 cups, while the larger (and noisier) i-Roast 2 produces about twice that amount.
The second type of machines are drum roasters, which use a mechanical rotating cylinder to move the coffee beans either next to a heating element or through a stream of hot air.
These machines tend to be larger and more expensive, but can roast as much as a pound of coffee at a time. These also offer more sophisticated controls. These can roast a batch in about 10 to 20 minutes plus cooling.
Genesis’ Gene Cafe Drum Roaster ($495) and the HotTop Drum Roaster ($730), made by HotTop USA, can roast about a half pound of coffee, have sophisticated controls and effectively deal with chaff.
The less pricey Behmor 1600 Drum Roaster ($299) is about the size of a large toaster oven, is quiet, can roast up to a pound of coffee and has an after-burner system that suppresses most of the smoke.
Davids says the drum roasters tend to produce coffee with more depth and body because of longer roasting times but recommends starting with a less-expensive fluid bed model that can produce bright, complex flavors.
THE DOWNSIDES
There are some downsides to home roasting. The process can be smoky and should only be done in a well-ventilated kitchen or outdoors when weather permits. A strong stove hood vent will help.
The other inconvenience is that when beans roast they release chaff, which tends to blow around, especially in low-tech roasting methods such as hot air corn poppers. Be careful to clean the chaff away from heating elements to prevent fire.
Hot air corn poppers also have a tendency to spit coffee beans out. Be careful; these are very hot.
