Food / Drinks : Home Coffee Roasting

 Learning to Roast Coffee At Home

Why roast at home?

If you spend just three dollars per day at the coffeeshop, over the course of a year it adds up to some serious money. 730 bucks!  

If you roast your own and bring it with you, on the other hand, even including the cost of a basic roasting machine and mail order green (unroasted) coffee beans, you’ll be saving almost 500 bucks! And who wouldn’t like to have an extra $500 burning a hole in their pocket?

Aside from the money, home roasted coffee just tastes better! Coffee flavor peaks 12-24 hours after roasting, and coffee beans can lose about 40% of their flavor within two weeks. How long do you think those prepackaged bags of roasted beans have been sitting on the coffeeshop shelf? The only way to be assured that you’re drinking the freshest cup of coffee possible is to roast it yourself.

How do I get started?

It couldn’t be easier to get started roasting your own coffee at home. In fact, aside from some green coffee beans, you probably already have everything you need to get started.

Although many home roasters use specialized home coffee roasting machines, coffee beans can be roasted in a pan on the stovetop, on a baking sheet in the oven, or even using a popcorn air popper.

All you really need in order to get started is a stove, a pan, and a metal bowl or colander.

Pan Roasting: A Step by Step Guide

• Step 1: Get some green coffee beans. There are a number of websites online where you can purchase green coffee beans. See the resources below for some links.

• Step 2: Bring a 12-inch skillet or medium sized saucepan up to around 450-500 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Step 3: Toss in the beans! In a regular 12-inch skillet you probably shouldn’t roast more than 10-12 ounces at once.

• Step 4: Cover the pan with a lid and start shaking it! In order to get an even roast, you need to keep those beans moving around!

• Step 5: Keep shaking the pan!

• Step 6: After about 5 minutes, you’ll probably start to get some smoke. Don’t worry. That’s normal. About this time you’ll start to hear the “first crack”. It sounds sort of like popcorn popping.

• Step 7: remove the lid and check the color of the beans.

• Step 8: Keep shaking the pan, and once the beans reach the color you want, quickly pour them into the metal bowl or colander to cool. It helps to stir them around with a wooden spoon.

• Step 9: Holding the bowl or colander over the sink (or outside- it can get a little messy), gently blow way the chaff (a fine outer skin that separates from the beans during roasting).

• Step 10: Let the beans cool to room temperature, and then pour them into a glass jar or other airtight container. Important: don’t seal the lid until the beans have been allowed to “breathe” for 6-12 hours.

• Step 11: Grind and brew, and be amazed at the taste difference home roasting can make!

Pan Roasting Tips:

• Be prepared for some smoke! Be sure to roast in a well-ventilated area, and you may want to open the windows.

• Don’t leave the pan unattended! Roasting coffee beans involves very high temperatures.

• If your arm gets tired from shaking the pan, you can also use a wooden spoon to stir the beans. Bear in mind that the roast won’t be as even.

How long should I roast the beans? 

As mentioned above, pan roasting is just one way to roast coffee at home. For more information a great place to start is RoastingRevolution.com’s Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Home Coffee Roasting. (http://www.roastingrevolution.com/absolute-beginners-guide)