do you roast your own coffee beans? why not?

[cageybee]

ok, I know this is a home brew forum. but since there can be just as vast a difference between home (fresh) roasted coffee and store bought (or charbux) as there is between home brewed and store bought beer (although not near the complexity/diversity), if you drink a lot of coffee...why don't you roast your own beans too? I'm trying to gain insight into this demographic, my new (snif) family of sorts...I conclude that there is significant craftsmanship here.

 

[beowulf]

Yes, I do roast my own beans...have been for the last 3-4 years. Lots cheaper than other high-end coffee and I can ensure freshness. I start to panic if I'm about to run out of green beans...the thought of buying coffee out in the world....oh, the horror! XD

 

[AlCophile]

Nah, just buy a quality coffee, but try this:
Determine how much grounds you need for an avg. cup, and put it into a pill vial. When you are an old fart, you collect pill vials.
This will allow you to take your coffee 'on the road.' Then, microwave a cup of water, HOT!!! Slooooowwwly pour in the grounds, stir a few times, cover, allow the grounds to settle, which will take a few mins.
Then, enjoy on helluva good cup of coffee. No, you won't get the squirts. But, you WILL gross out the weenies who are watching, asking "what are you DOOOOOOIIING"?
Would you be interested in how I make beer?

 

[Pkrd]

Roast some now and then. Have a popcorn machine with the heater switched for fast cool down.
Sometimes fantastic but a little hit and miss.

 

[Randy_Bugger]

Can I roast coffee beans for less than $3.33 a pound? Because I'm really happy with Costco coffee at that price.

 

[cageybee]

can't touch $3.33 a pound, but can do 5$ a pound pretty easily. and it is way better. good roasters are getting reasonable. mine does a pound at a time, and I paid the same for it as I paid for my beer making stuff. I drink way more coffee than beer at this point. my wife brought home some costco coffee to bring to work...it's not bad at all. btw Al, it's too late- already an old fart.

 

[acidrain]

Can I roast coffee beans for less than $3.33 a pound? Because I'm really happy with Costco coffee at that price.

Me too.

 

[Braufessor]

I don't..... because my next door neighbors are originally from honduras and have an organic coffee business. They import and fresh roast coffee and sell it. They hand deliver 2 pounds of coffee to my front door every 10-14 days - the bags are still warm when they deliver them.... It is awesome coffee. The absolute best of both worlds - excellent, fresh roasted coffee - none of the time/work/effort

 

[scubasteve03]

I don't because the swmbo won't let me have any more hobbies . just kidding, I would like to but with working full time, school full time, a 19 month old I barely have time to brew beer let alone get into another hobby like roasting coffee.

 

[cageybee]

roasting a pound of coffee only takes 20 minutes....just so you know. but unlike brewing beer...generally unwise to wander off while roaster is doing it's thing.

 

[Sleepyemt]

Yes, and I love it!

 

[cageybee]

where do you get your beans? I get mine from ccmcoffee.com and my equipment and some fancy beans from sweetmarias.com.

 

[Beaker]

I've been homebrewing ( originally as dad's brewing assistant ) since the mid 90's. Then, once on my own in 2001 I started doing my own extract brewing. That was when I discovered the coffee roasting gear in the Williams Brewing Catalogue. It got me into home roasting green coffee back when all you could find were Kenya AA, Columbia Supremo, a Yirgacheffe if you were lucky, and horrible decaf. It's come a long way since then, and has actually occupied more of my hobby time than beer making. I know have a fully manual commercial sample roaster that is heavily modified to trend temps with digital thermocouples and software monitoring. It's much, much faster and easier than beer.

It's best when you can combine the two.

 

[brent1395]

Where I live there is a coffee shop that fresh roasts their beans everyday. I just buy from them because with their roasting equipment it ends up being far superior to what I would be able to do at home. But I agree, I am spoiled by freshly roasted coffee and I hate drinking stuff that isn't freshly roasted.

 

[BBBF]

Just like brewing, I'm not saving any money by roasting my own. It is cheaper, but it is so good that I drink much more than I did before.

 

[PerpetualBuzz]

Yes! I use a whirly pop popcorn popper on my grill. I get beans where I can

 

[Sleepyemt]

Burmancoffee.com has been great to order from, as well as bohdi coffee, the website is something similar to the name, you'll have to search it

 

[BigJack]

I've haven't lately because of time and space concerns (long story) but typically I do roast my own and I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

 

[norsk]

We roast our own beans from our own coffee trees. My wife and I just have 1 cup a day, but our friends appreciate it...

 

[orangemen5]

Funny seeing this thread on here. I just won a west bend poppery 2 on ebay to start roasting my own coffee. Does anyone use this model and do you modify it anyway or just use as is. I've heard they take a beating roasting beans so I'm thinking a mod might be necessary to extend its life.

 

[BallisticGourd]

I've been stuck in the garage with a Whirley pop & a heat plate for about 6 months...definitely better than store bought, but gets a bit nippy in the dead of winter.

 

[cageybee]

I've never tried to use a popper type.....probably because we drink so much coffee we need to roast a lot. I use the behmor 1600 and I can roast enough for a week. seems like a good machine so far. better than the Alpenroasts I've had before.

 

[MalFet]

Oddly enough, I don't! This is an embarrassing thing to admit because I own a reasonably sized boutique coffee company, but somehow I always just end up buying whatever's on sale at the grocery store for consumption at home.

 

[BBBF]

Funny seeing this thread on here. I just won a west bend poppery 2 on ebay to start roasting my own coffee. Does anyone use this model and do you modify it anyway or just use as is. I've heard they take a beating roasting beans so I'm thinking a mod might be necessary to extend its life.

I've been using the West Bend Poppery 1 for over a year. It has a higher wattage, but is pretty much the same as yours. The only mod I've made so far is using a steel veg. can instead of the plastic chimney (which will eventually melt). Eventually, I'll put the fan and the heater on separate swithches so that I can cut the heat and let the fan cool the beans. And I'll likely put the heater on a dimmer switch so I can have a little better control.

 

[orangemen5]

Eventually, I'll put the fan and the heater on separate swithches so that I can cut the heat and let the fan cool the beans. And I'll likely put the heater on a dimmer switch so I can have a little better control.

This is what I was wondering. So it's not nesseary to make these mods. I'll Prob just use the roaster as is just to get started. Then add these down the road. Thanks