My first roast

I have been mostly lurking around the B&B Cafe for some time reading the posts about home roasting coffee. I finally decided to try it for myself. I ordered some coffee from Sweet Marias and gave it a try in my air popper. It was surprisingly quick and easy. I may have slightly over roasted it, because it was in the second crack before I realized it, but it made a good mild cup of coffee. I am now anticipating further experimentation with different roasts and different coffees. I may have a second AD to go along with my shaving AD.

Mike

Its a great hobby....but you'll become spoiled and no other coffee will cut it.

Way to make the leap, and congrats on an enjoyable first roast!

coffee ad's are far more sinister to me than any shaving ad. I can ward off the evil shaving ad spirits far more easily than the coffee ones. (but that's likely just me)

Congratulations! You are embarking on an incredible journey. Drinking a cup of coffee that you roasted yourself is really rewarding and I never grow tired of it even after over a decade of roasting. The only downside is that a regular cup of coffee will taste like swill and you will begin accumulating things so that you can even take home roast with you when traveling. It has gotten to the point that I will rarely drink coffee anywhere if it is not my own home roast.

Please keep us updated on your progress and let us know how long it takes for you to upgrade roasters!

Actually that is already happening. We are taking a trip to visit my daughter over the memorial day weekend. Even though it has only been a few days since my first roast, I roasted up enough coffee to take with us on our trip. Of course, that is partially because my daughter only keeps flavored coffees which we don't care for, but also because we already like the home roasted better.

Congratulations, I have become spoiled with coffee. I have some more on its way here from sweet marias.

I cannot imagine a better place to buy green beans than from Tom. I've been ordering form them since they were in OH. His reviews are always right on target, so I can buy with confidence. There's also a green coffee cooperative online that is a good source.

ambrose said:

Congratulations, I have become spoiled with coffee. I have some more on its way here from sweet marias.

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I sure am glad you didn't give up!

Jasonian said:

I sure am glad you didn't give up!

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Thanks to you sir for helping me n my way , funny thing is today my order comes in from sweet marias. Im here waiting for the tuck to show up. I ordered some bolivian, ethiopian, brazilian, and some more of the basaltic bourbon blend. I am currently enjoying come nice single origin columbian, very clean and bright.

+1 for Sweet Maria's. I roast mine with a heat gun and dog bowl. See http://www.homeroaster.com/heatgun.html

I dont mean to be rude or anything but that roast with the heat gun and bowl doesnt apprear to be very consistent. Have you ever tried a pot and stove? Took me about 5 trys to get my technique down. The results are much better, I will post pics as soon as I can. My order came in and I need to roast anyway.

The air popper works really well, but you've gotta think of it as a $10 replaceable part. Still, Sweet Marias and the air popper become cheaper than buying Peet's after the first 2 pounds of beans.

I don't think I've ever had a hobby that saved me money, although...certain (wet) ones (shaving)... claim to be cost-effective if you avoid the AD's.

Roger

ambrose said:

I dont mean to be rude or anything but that roast with the heat gun and bowl doesnt apprear to be very consistent. Have you ever tried a pot and stove? Took me about 5 trys to get my technique down. The results are much better, I will post pics as soon as I can. My order came in and I need to roast anyway.

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In capable hands, you can get pretty even roasts with an insane amount of control with that particular technique. (HG/DB)

It does, however, take a lot of practice to get to that point, and it's not for everyone. I do like the fact that it's done outside (so smoke ventilates), and that the batch size is limited to the size of your dog bowl and the power of your heat gun, and not a lot else.

Humm those are some great points I must say. Perhaps Ill give that a try some day.