Questions from a guy who raosts his beans in a pan

[Terje]

I buy raw beans and roast them in a frying pan. I like dark roasts generally. Then I immediately grind them in my newly bought Zassenhaus grinder and brew the coffee in a moka pot. I like the taste of it so far. I'm still trying different beans and different roasts but in general it's definitely "one step up" compared to buying roasted beans.

This method is BTW the one my mother-in-law (a wild jungle woman who lives in Sri Lanka) uses. She takes a handful of robusta beans, throws them in a pan and gives them a light roast, grinds them by hand and brews it.

Anyway, my main question so far is... do I need to let the beans wait after they've been roasted. I grind mine right away now, thoguht that was the freshest way so to speak. And if I am to let them rest, don't I need to cool them off then? If so, what's the easiest way to do it?

[zix]

It depends on extraction method. IMHO moka pot, vac pot and presso can be drunk as soon as the beans have cooled down (well, you´d also need to grind them of course ). Turkish should be prepared fresh too, I think.
Beans probably need to cool down before grinding them. I don't think it would be good for the taste, and perhaps not for the grinder either, to grind them when hot. They cool down in 10 minutes or so on an oven tin, a big plate or something like that.
In my oven roasting tutorial, attached to this message, there is an image of how I do it. If you use frying pan now, you should try the oven! It is (also IMHO) better.

[Terje]

Yes, I will try to roast in an oven. It's hard to beat the entertainment value of roasting in a pan though!

In what way would the hot beans hurt my Zassenhaus grinder? I know they hurt my elelctric grinder, it's made out of plastic. This is one of the reasons I go the Zassenhaus.

[phil]

I'll get that published soom Mats, I promise

I'm really sorry, I've been rather busy with other stuff. But that's no excuse

[zix]

That´s cool, phil! No public flogging intended, I know how stuff keeps piling up - attaching that was merely the quickest way for me of showing a picture of how I do it.
(P.S. Phil, I have the 101 in HTML also if you´d rather have that than PDF.)

Terje, I am not sure that your Zass grinder would dislike grinding hot beans, that was more of a general advice. Perhaps it is no problem as long as there are no plastic parts inside. Still, personally I wouldn't do it with mine (a 175 turkish grinder). Perhaps it is just about prejudice and ignorance on my side.
Tastewise, since the cooling process takes only ten minutes or so, I cannot believe that the beans would be adversely affected in that short a time. Using a fan or water quenching makes the cooling process a lot faster, and for those that roast upwards of 500g or so this might make a big difference since the bean mass is a lot larger. But for 100-300g, naaahhh... just pour them out on a big baking tin, a perforated plate, a metal mesh or something. Shake them and blow of the chaff if you will. And have fun! I like your angle on coffee preparation!

[Terje]

Yeah, maybe that's how I should do it. Pour them out on a tray and blow off the chaff over the sink. Now I blow a little now and then as I roast the beans so the chaff flies all over the stove. Easy enough to clean up but why do it. And I've noticed that the very small amount of beans that I roast cools considerably ina very short time. Just letting them cool for a minute or two makes a huge difference.

But I bought the Zassaenhaus cause the hot beans were indeed messing up my elelctric grinder. I think it'll be OK but why push it? The thing costs money.