My first roast

Hi!
I've decided to try roasting my coffee. As I have no specific equipment, my weapon of choice has been an ordinary frying pan (the newest I have, it's only a week old so it hasn't absorbed nasty smells). Today I've bought 150 g. of Colombian coffee. My first surprise was the smell: it was a mixture of grass and something "animal-like" nothing to do with roasted coffee. So, I've decided to make three 50 g. batches and only keep the best one, as I've got enough coffee at home, and I just wanted to have a first go.

First batch: it went OK, but I started with a stoo strong fire, so the result was pretty uneven: some of the grains had already done the second crack, while some others hadn't even done the first one.

Second batch: This is the one I've picked. Although it's still pretty uneven (I doubt you can make a truly even one with a frying pan), I don't think that any of the grains has gone to far beyond the second crack while none has been left behind the first one.

Third batch: It started great: I decided that I needed to stir more often, and it went great: as chaff started popping out just before the first crack, but suddenly... THE PHONE RANG, go outside look for it, curse at Vodafone commercial department and once back... half of the batch near charred. Off we go to the rubbish bin.

Some photos.

First batch evolution.





First batch finished.



Second (left) and first (right) batches finished.



I roasted it an hour ago, and it already smells like coffee...

Nice! I also learned that you can't leave roasting coffee alone or you end up with a charred mess. The second batch looks like it is more consistently roasted.

I was really surprised by the smell of green beans. Some of my green beans have a definite cinnamon and an earthy or loamy aroma.

I love the smell of in the bag green beans. Hay or grass comes to mind. My next favorite is just when they go into the tan stage. lovely.

One important thing, it looks like you are using a non-stick pan. I wouldn't do that myself, roasting temperatures might ruin the coating or even cause fumes to come off. It seems unlikely though, but I find plain steel or aluminum is just fine for roasting beans.

Very good first attempts!

If you felt inclined, you could do a rough sort by color - light, medium, dark - and try cups from each. I bet it wouldn't take more then 10 minutes.

-jim

Stir, stir, stir! And cast iron is your friend. Keep it up!

Also, you can get a whirly-pop for cheap, and it would be a great tool for this kind of roast without paying much.

I may look for a whirly-pop. I even suspect there's one somewhere at home.
By the way: first cup from the second batch already drunk.
I grinded it fairly rough with a blade grinder (tomorrow I'll have a decent coffee grinder, as my grandmother has one unused), put it in a french press and poured boiling water. Then, I left it infuse for 2-3 minutes. The result was a reddish brown coffee, which looked pretty transparent in the press, but what really surprised me was the taste: it was definitely more acid than "darker" coffee, but at the same time there were other flavours which I wasn't able to pick up. I will use the rest of the batch in an espresso machine, let's see what turns out.