I want to start roasting coffee?

I want to start roasting coffee? Where should I start?

Buy lots of very expensive stuff that the rest of us will not understand.

I am brand new to roasting myself, but Sweet Maria's is where I started.

If you already have a means of roasting, their library is a must read with thorough easy to follow instructions on how to get started and succeed. If you do not own a roaster, there are many options listed in their library section. If you already have a means of roasting I highly recommend picking up an 8 pound sampler here; http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/coffee/samplers/green-coffee-sampler.html

After going through a good chunk of the 8 pound sampler that came with my Behmor 1600, I've been having great fun participating in the Green Coffee Buying Club, or GCBC for short. There's some good bean for good prices here when you've gotten some roasting experience under your belt. The only downside is that they usually deal in larger amounts, with 5 and 10 pound minimums being the norm over there.

I do not understand where the poster above is coming from, as buying green coffee is quite cheap compared to buying pre-roasted. Some of the best coffee you could possibly drink will only run you around 5$ a pound. I have an excellent Brazilian coffee right now that cost me $45 for 10 pounds including shipping to my doorstep.

I think I am going to go ahead and order the 8lb sampler some time next week. I do have a pop corn machine and a heat gun and bread maker. I was thinking about make shifting either of those to work.... Anyone ever use either of those methods?

You could start with the air (popcorn) popper of the same design as Sweet Maria's suggests (about $15 or so) and get right into it for cheap.

I've got a FreshRoast +8 model and a cheapo air popper and honestly, I get almost identical results from both. The Freshroast and other "real" roasters will have something to collect the chaff, while an air popper won't, and it can get messy.

But I agree with the others. Try a sampler pack to get the hang of it and to get a taste of different varieties.

Also check out burmancoffee.com. They often have better prices on coffee-related hardware, and often include beans or something in their roaster specials.

For beans, though, you can't beat Sweet Maria's.

Go for the sampler pack and have some fun. I buy most of my beans from Sweet Maria's and have always been pleased. I started with a cast iron skillet over a campfire many years ago, moved on to a popcorn popper, moved on to a Caffee Rosto fluid bed roaster, and am now using a Behmor 1600 which I am really pleased with. After you get proficient roasting, it's hard to drink a lot of the resteraunt / coffee shop stuff available.
Good luck, an enjoy the experience.
Ken

thanks said:

I am brand new to roasting myself, but Sweet Maria's is where I started.

If you already have a means of roasting, their library is a must read with thorough easy to follow instructions on how to get started and succeed. If you do not own a roaster, there are many options listed in their library section. If you already have a means of roasting I highly recommend picking up an 8 pound sampler here; http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/coffee/samplers/green-coffee-sampler.html

After going through a good chunk of the 8 pound sampler that came with my Behmor 1600, I've been having great fun participating in the Green Coffee Buying Club, or GCBC for short. There's some good bean for good prices here when you've gotten some roasting experience under your belt. The only downside is that they usually deal in larger amounts, with 5 and 10 pound minimums being the norm over there.

I do not understand where the poster above is coming from, as buying green coffee is quite cheap compared to buying pre-roasted. Some of the best coffee you could possibly drink will only run you around 5$ a pound. I have an excellent Brazilian coffee right now that cost me $45 for 10 pounds including shipping to my doorstep.

Click to expand...

Since you mention that you're new to roasting, I assume you pretty much jumped straight in with the Behmor? If so, do you feel that the results have balanced out the price? I'm very interested in home roasting, and given that I go through roughly .75lbs of beans per week I think it would be nice to have a roaster that can handle that much in one roast, but $300 is a bit steep.

Do any of the other roasters have experience with both a "nice" roaster like the Behmor and some of the cheaper air-roast models like the Nesco?

Just ordered a four pound sampler from Sweet Marias and heading over to goodwill to find some roasting accessories.

Some good advice here. Roasting is one of those hobbies that can suck up a lot of time and money if you get really into it. However, it is best to start simple, perhaps just buying some green coffee and playing around with a frying pan or wok (or heat gun!) to see if you like it. From there, the sky is the limit. You can also try to hit up local roasters to see if you can get green beans to play with so you can avoid the expense of internet shipping.

Sweet Marias' website is a treasure trove of information on roasting, so definitely spend some time there, and ask more questions here also.

mr_economy said:

Since you mention that you're new to roasting, I assume you pretty much jumped straight in with the Behmor? If so, do you feel that the results have balanced out the price? I'm very interested in home roasting, and given that I go through roughly .75lbs of beans per week I think it would be nice to have a roaster that can handle that much in one roast, but $300 is a bit steep.

Do any of the other roasters have experience with both a "nice" roaster like the Behmor and some of the cheaper air-roast models like the Nesco?

Click to expand...

I did in fact jump straight in with the Behmor, and have had no complaints. The machine is definitely worth every penny, but then again I have no frame of reference or anything to compare it to. I will say that if you're looking to roast .75lbs a week, it would be very easy in the Behmor once you're familiar with the roaster. If you like Starbucks coffee, then the Behmor is not what you are looking for. There are other roasters that will take your beans through and beyond second crack, but it's not recommended with this machine. A lot of people say to start small, and then decide if you'd like to move up the roasting equipment ladder. These people would know better than I, but I had the money to spend, and I feel it was a great decision for me personally.

My Behmor will have paid itself off in savings by buying green coffee in roughly a year and a half. However, that's not taking quality or variety of coffee into consideration, in which case it's paid for itself already.

I actually went to the local goodwill and got an old breadmachine for 4 dollars and already have a heatgun. I just finished converting everything into my little roaster and I should be good to go. Hopefully the beans are in by next weekend.

I started (and am currently stalled on) a stovetop popcorn maker for my roasting. It does alright, but I'd suggest something a bit sturdier and less physically involving if you're going to roast with any regularity.

sweet marias is very good indeed,if you want to learn the true traditional way,google the ethiopian coffee ceremony sites,the ethiopians discovered coffee and coffee drinking....I have attended many of the ethiopian and eritrean ceremonies,and they take the roasting of the beans,the cooking,,the filtering and the serving protocols VERY seriously...I am italian,and we have good coffee,but the ethiopian-eritrean women who make the brew in their front rooms make the finest I have ever tasted..

+1 on sweet marias and the behmor 1600!

I have access to 100% Kona from a reputable farmer, and still feel that the behmor and some green beans is a good deal; both tastewise and costwise. For $5/lb with coffee controlled by you, it's pretty much priceless!

mouscacha said:

+1 on sweet marias and the behmor 1600!

I have access to 100% Kona from a reputable farmer, and still feel that the behmor and some green beans is a good deal; both tastewise and costwise. For $5/lb with coffee controlled by you, it's pretty much priceless!

Click to expand...

+1 on above.

Coffee is my #1 favorite food/beverage, so I never any doubts about getting into home roasting, but there is such a wide variety of approaches from the very low budget skillet, dog bowl, popcorn popper, bread maker, stir crazy, barbeque grill drum, soup can...all the way up to the commercial gear that it was confusing about which path to take. When you first take a look at "real" roasters they seem too expensive and you wonder why they aren't priced more like a toaster oven or microwave??? DIY roasters are all over the map from good to bad, from cheap to expensive. So what to do?

I did some things backwards. First I got a popcorn popper as a gift (specifically to home roast) and then ordered some green beans. Only after getting those 2 ingredients did I do more in depth research and discover that my popper was not of the recommended design to roast properly, and even it could roast it would only be in small batches, which meant roasting too frequently for my consumption habit, making it more work than pleasure.

So I decided the popper was not the proper tool for me before I even started. I continued to read many postings on the various coffee forums and settled on the Behmor as the price/performance leader, confident that it would roast enough for 1-2 weeks of consumption. I have almost 10 roasts on mine, and I am quite happy with the purchase.

I purchased this with an 8 pound sampler and I love it.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/index.php/coffee-roasters/air-roasters/nesco.html

Incredibly easy to use and great coffee too.

Wow I just had a look at Sweet Maria's. You guys over there are really spoilt.
I havent roasted for some years, but it was a case of buddying up to the commercial roasters in my area to get a supply of green beans.

One thing I liked about the small size of the popcorn roaster is that I was blending after the roasts, so those little 50gm of each worked out ok for my family consumption. But as has been pointed out, quite time consuming. But then when I get into something it is total OCD so time is irrelevent

I just got my coffee in today, I can't wait to get home and try to roast a batch tonight.

Good luck, and have fun!

Okay, so I did my first roast this morning, just about thirty minutes ago. I believe I roasted to a full city to fully city +. The breadmaker, heatgun combo worked perfectly and I was able to do eight ounces with no trouble. I am going to be enjoying my first cup of it Tommorow hopefully, though I may get impatient today and try.