Coffee Roasting.

DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING!  ALL PROCEDURES BELOW ARE YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY.  SERIOUS BURNS, FIRES, DESTRUCTION OF EQUIPMENT  AND THE VOIDING OF WARRANTIES/GUARANTEES MAY RESULT.

The following are swirl hot air at the bottom poppers; West Bend Poppery II, The Popcorn Pumper, Popaire 2 by Hamilton Beach, Chefmate, Windmere, Toastmaster.  I am assuming most popcorn makers/poppers are the swirl type.  Presto is the only one we found with the screen in the bottom, hot air blowing up.  Most people are stating that the swirl type are the ones to use for coffee roasting.  The Presto type would probably blow the coffee right out of the popper.

This is what our hood the top plastic piece now looks like after roasting coffee.  So be pictorially warned!!  I noticed a slight haze in the top (red arrow).  On inverting it - OUCH -, take a look below.

We used a Chefmate 1200 watt popcorn popper which looks exactly like a Toastmaster and has the same wattage.  The coffee beans were from Blue Bell Mountain.  We also roasted Bolivian beans.  The Bolivian beans were a MUCH nicer quality.  Timed the first cracks twice with a stop watch 2 min. 10 sec. and 2 min. 15 sec..  The cracks sound similar to the sound of wood crackling in a fire.  The second cracks is lower in intensity and closer together in time.  Dumped one batch out well into the second cracks and it was literally smoking!  The Bolivian beans had a first cracks at about 2 min. 25 sec..  The popper was run without the hood.  Be careful the chaff that comes out is like a volcano.  If it lands near the popper it can be sucked in at the bottom of the popper.  It will then fly out as burning pieces!!  This is why I went to a hood.  You can also direct the chaff to a box or something for collection.  The hood on makes a BIG difference!  See the pic below the 5-7-9 pic.  We used 1.2 oz of green coffee each time.  I am sure this would make a difference too.  Stick to the same quantity.  We cool the beans by throwing them on a aluminum pie plate floated on cold water, blowing on them and stirring.  As far as our tastes go the 5 min. was  very good, 7 min. was excellent and 9 min. good (with out the hood).  I plan on eventually building a chaff collector and unit to time everything more precisely.  Check back.  ALL TIMES BELOW AFTER FIRST CRACKS.  So you can add about 2 to 2.5 min..  

I assume the back pressure from the hood caused the popper to become hotter.  Both below done at 5 minute and 1.2 oz..  It is very difficult to judge some tests by color alone.  The 5 min. with hood was very good.  4.5 min. with hood was excellent.  I liked the shorter time with the hood but the negative is the popper gets hotter and melts the hood seriously!!! Best way to judge how fresh coffee is to pour hot water on it and watch how much it foams/bubbles.  The fresher the more it will foam/bubble.  REMEMBER ambient temperature, weight/volume of beans, temperature of popper (do not do 2 in a row), variety of beans and flow of air through the popper will all influence the roast. 

Coffee Roasting Filter For $1.

DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE FOLLOWING!  ALL PROCEDURES BELOW ARE YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY.  SERIOUS CUTS,  BURNS AND OTHER BODILY INJURY MAY RESULT.

This will only filter out the chaff.  If you have no experience with assembling things like this DO NOT TRY!  Edges on cut cans can be razor sharp and tear/cut skin with ease.  Small tiny VERY sharp metal slivers can easily be produced in cutting the metal.  This whole device should be built to take high temperatures at least 350 F to 400 F degrees.  The cream wafer rolls can should be burnt of all its paint and coatings.  This requires use of a propane torch a heat gun was not hot enough.  THIS MUST BE DONE OUTSIDE.  The fumes are toxic.  I chose to put rectangular openings in the coffee can for more air flow.  After using it, round holes would have been fine.  Was not sure how much blockage the aluminum window screen would offer to air flow.  Airplane shears are made for cutting circular cuts.  Less jagged cuts in the metal would have been made with round holes.  To test it and use it :-) I have used heavy aluminum foil for the lid.  Works fine.  NO MORE CHAFF!

What you will need are the following;  gloves (leather), safety glasses, empty no paint (paper label) large coffee can, aluminum window screen, long can to fit loose the popcorn popper/maker throat (cream wafer rolls here), airplane shears, scissors, paper, sharpie (or other fine point marker), pliers, metal hose clamp, propane torch, aluminum pie pan for lid. 

Below is cream wafer rolls can (closest fit I could find), coffee can and window screen cut to fit inside of coffee can with a couple of inches overlap. 

Burn off the wafer can with propane torch and scour clean with lots of soap/water.  This is done to eliminate any possibility of contaminants dropping into the beans.  Mark and cut a hole for the wafer can in the center of the coffee can.  Make it a close fit and put a hose clamp around the wafer can on the part that's inside of the coffee can.  This is so there's no possibility of it falling in the popcorn popper/maker and covering the vents in the bottom!

Cut the openings in the coffee can and slip the screen in.  PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL SHARP EDGES ARE REMOVED OF ALL BURRS AND SMOOTHED.  I was going to put more than 3 openings on the can.  Not necessary.  Leave a dead air space at the bottom (chaff will settle).  A handle could be easily mounted to the can for removal immediately after roasting (HOT).  My final version will not need it.  An aluminum pie pan was used for the lid.  This is can be pinched on with your fingers.

It is very important to keep the distance from the inside wafer can to the aluminum pie pan lid constant.  Your roasting times will very considerably if you do not.  I found possibly a minute difference in roast times in about 1 inch difference.  REMEMBER ambient temperature, weight/volume of beans, temperature of popper (do not do 2 roasts in a row), variety of beans and flow of air through the popper will all influence the roast.   I have seen variac's/auto transformers for bean roasting.  If you have variations in voltage that wide you have other worries than bean roasting times. ;-)  That's why its listed 115-120.  That is only a 4% difference!  The only problem I have had with this is its noisy.   

DONE!!!    Works Great.

Pan Roasting.

Pan roasting did not turn out well with small quantities.  It also takes longer to roast the beans then the popper.  Beans are odd shaped and only touch the hot pan in small areas which burn.  Tried a different way.  Roasted them in salt on a pan.  Filtered the beans out from the salt.  Worked very well in comparison to no salt.  Very nice even roast.  Tried the salt method with out stirring.  I burned them and they were a uneven roast.  If you are going to pan roast use salt and stir.  With popcorn poppers/makers at only $12 to $18 the only reason I could think of to use this method is if you do not have electricity.

Coffee Roasting Timer.

This project is NO MORE.  Would go something like this if I had the time.  Take the electronic control panel out of a microwave oven.  Do not use the cheaper dial type.   You can find them in the junk all over.  Wire it to 'ac', hook the magnetron relay to the heating element of the popcorn popper.  You now have a controllable popcorn popper!  When it cuts the power to the heating element the air will continue to flow to cool the beans.  This should work perfect.  The relay in them will handle plenty of current.  You can then replicate roasts and have much finer control.  We purchased a 'i-Roast'.  We decided we liked fresh roast coffee so much that we bought one.  

Make sure your machine and beans are at about the same temperature.  Ten degrees will not matter much but 20 or more certainly will!  Take a warm day and the machine and beans on the table. Versus a cold day and the machine and beans stored on the floor and you will have a BIG difference in roasts!  Ceiling floor temperature differences can easily be 30 degrees or more.  Temperatures for good roasting should be about 65 to 75.

I find first roasting a new coffee to put a max profile in it and hit the cool button near the end of the first cracks.  Log this point.  Work it then like the old dial tune radios.  Increase time/temp till you find it adversely effects the flavor.  Log this point.  Then decrease  time/temp till it adversely effects flavor.   Log this point.   The middle point is your perfect roast.

Ebay's coffee's can be excellent at times.  But are a pain to transact and undependable with poor selections.  We love Sweet Maria's (http://www.sweetmarias.com/).  Very helpful folks excellent coffees in small quantities.

We love Columbian coffees.  The problem with them is they have a very narrow roast window of great taste.  More difficult to hit the perfect spot.  Guatemalan coffee has a much wider window.  The Kenya decafe is truly awesome.  It actually tastes better then all the commercial cafe we have tasted!  All commercial coffee tastes to us like either mud or burnt.  When you realize that fresh roast coffee lasts about 5 days.  The peak flavor is about a day or two after you roast.  After 5 days the flavor goes rapidly flat.  It amazes me that commercial coffee tastes as good as it does.  Green coffee beans will last you about 8 to 10 months.  It then develops a dead straw taste.  You can extend the life of green and roasted beans by vacuum packing an freezing.  I do not think roasted beans are a good candidate for freezing because you can only extend their life a few weeks to a month.  I do not think its worth the hassle.

ROAST PROFILES:

Listed temperature then time in minutes.  We use one level scoop.  You will have to vary things with different amounts!  Use temperature as a coarse tune and time as the fine tune.  We find it very difficult to impossible to tell any taste difference in 5 seconds or less.  We can definitely tell a difference in ten seconds.  In a cup to cup comparison you might tell 5 seconds or less.  That would require roasting twice in a day and preparing sets of equal coffee cups!  I tried this.  A REAL PAIN.  Figured out much easier and works just as well to prepare coffee as usual an increase/decrease till it adversely effects the coffee flavor an then take the middle point.  The i-Roast2 has four roasting profiles.   I keep everything within three profiles.  Do not see any point in the fourth one and less its to sell more i-Roast's. :-)  If you put greater then 59 seconds on stage three you will have to program stage four.  Now you see why we keep to 59 seconds or less on stage three.  Want the max flavor possible.  Use brown natural unbleached filter paper, distilled water at 190 deg. F and a hand operated burr grinder.  All those are minor influences.  Major are roast freshness, green bean freshness, variety of bean and roast degree.  Try this, mix about 25% robusta (second crack) into your favorite coffee.  Sweet Maria's now carries robusta beans!  Be careful robusta has about twice the caffeine that arabica does!