learning to roast

[Gary]

Hello there, I've been wanting to learn a lot more about roasting lately but Im not sure where to start. Any suggestions for reading material, equipment etc?

[espressomattic]

Hey Gary

First off you need a budget. Once you have decided upon a budget you can then start to look at machines within that bracket.

TMC is a wealth of information on Roasting. This includes things like a Whirley Pop, Pop Corn opper, I Roast, Gene and Hottops.

Once you have decided on a budget, you can then look at how often you will roast and how much you will roast. Your volume will effect what machine you wish to use.

I started using a Whirley Pop and I know that this was for me suiperior to the Gene for sheer quality of roast/profiling (How you roast the beans). It took some practise, however once I had got it cracked I acheived some of my best roasts ever. I wrote an article on this and it is on:

www.coffeeinfo.co.uk

Under articles I think...

Sweet Marias is also a great site to explore the different methods with the pros and cons given equal voice. You will find advocates for each method and usually several views with two people!!! So to re-cap:

1. Budget
2. Quantity
3. How often will you roast
4. Do you mind a hands on approach
5. Are you willing to experiment

Above all (And I say this often), don't get too anal about it. It is a really enjoyable hobby and if you can staick at it and are willing to learn from mistakes, it will reap huge self satisfaction. There is also a short WIKI entry here about Home Roasting.

Hope that is of some use Gary.

Thankx

Matt

[BazBean]

Hi Gary
It’s not unheard of to roast in the oven in a tray or with a thick based pan and a wooden spoon!
Easier ways are entry level home roasters but suggest you read a lot of reviews and as mentioned and set a budget as it’s always a hard one to get right? As soon as you get confident it has been my experience that most wish they had paid that bit extra and got the "next" model up etc etc.
Probably the same as most hobbies that way!
The whole experience of roasting in incredibly rewarding and for me almost spiritual in relaxation... plus a hell of a lot of fun
Suggest you call into Pennine tea and coffee in your home town of Halifax. Great guys and very helpful.
you can buy a couple of quid’s worth of green beans and chuck em in the oven... cant get much more credit crunch budget friendly than that

They also supply machine you can look at

[fred25]

Not much to add to the two excellent post above, except my own encouragement to get stuck in! Really worth it, both in terms of enjoyment, learning, and of course fresh coffee!

Mmmmm did I mention fresh coffee

[Gary]

Thanks for the advice. I also found some very useful articles on the Ambex website.

Cheers folks.

[Unic]

think about Ken David's book about roasting "Home Coffee Roasting" Available on Amazon - very helpful

[bluevalentine]

I got quite satisfying results with a black iron frying pan, a spatula and a cheapo Black & Decker heat gun (as sold for wallpaper stripping) before I got my HotTop. And because you can see the whole process before your eyes I learned a lot about the way green beans react to heat.
Even if you are jumpng in and buying a Hottie or a Gene I'd recommend you hand roast some beans first.

[CakeBoy]

Welcome to TMC Gary

[Gary]

Thanks for the welcome Cakeboy. Been lurking round here for ages so i thought I may as well join!

[GreenBean]

Welcome to TMC Gary.

[Stuggi]

Wanted to add the convection oven method to this thread. What you basically have to have is an convection oven, and a tray with some paper on it. Just heat the oven to 150C, chuck in the tray with the beans (put the tray high in the oven, close to the element up there), up the heat to 190C, let it sit for a while, then when you're done with FC, bring it up to 250C to finish the roast. The temps and times can be varied to alter the roast, but that's basically it. The pre-heat is very important since if you don't do it it will take over 20 mins to finish the roast, and it will finish around 215C.

[fred25]

There's actually an excellent article on oven roasting - written by zix if memory's right - here's the link:

oven roasting 101