Just roasted my first batch!

[wang]

Hey!

I dropped around to alan's place today, and the him being the very kind gentleman that he is, gave me some greens to play with until an order comes in! He showed me around things and showed me his rather shiny and pretty alp roaster. I got to learn about the smells and sounds of roasting when he roasted a batch in his prima popper! I had a rather nice cup of vacpot brew there too!

But the moment I got in the door to my place I went straight for the heat gun and utensils. Got a Black & Decker KX2000K, a wooden spoon, and a stainless steel saucepan and measured by sight around 60 grams of bolivian organic, pre-heated the saucepan and gun and set the gun to a medium/high heat. It doesn't have a specific setting, so I just marked where I roasted with a permenant marker to judge by the next time I roast!

I chucked the beans into the warmed pan and turned off the flame and started blasting with the heatgun. I tried stirring with the wooden spoon, but found that a bit awkward and noticed that I could easily stir the beans by the airflow alone. I roasted in total for about 12-13 minutes, and reached first crack around 8-9 minutes into the roast. I just hope it's drinkable in the morning!

All in all I'd say it was easier than expected with pretty much no fancy equipment - only a stainless steel saucepan, heat gun and the beans themselves. I've just got to get some experience in to perfect it I guess. I've included pictures of the roast, it's a shade on the light side of a city roast. Slightly uneven but I'll adjust my technique next time!

[tisri]

Wow - that's an improvised set-up if ever I saw one! But of course the most important question is, did they taste good?

You'll probably want to rest them for 24 hours or so before drinking them, which will probably feel like the longest 24 hours in your life. Let us know how they tasted.

[wang]

I didn't think it was that improvised - a stainless steel saucepan is just a thicker more heat preserving dogbowl with a handle from comparing to dogbowls in pet shops (I did go amok on a lot of the shops in town which might sell useful stuff!). Thought the heat gun was handier as it has a variable heat dial to change my roast technique/speed/whatever and I'm glad it has just the right amount of airflow to be able to stir the beans but not blast them into outer space!

Dunno how they taste just yet, but from what I've heard you don't really need to wait for de-gassing if you use a cafetiere as it'll force the grounds together anyway. I'm so tempted to get out the grinder and start cranking but I might actually lose sleep over it if I do! (bah, damn you coffee)

[wang]

Gah. Cupped it there, tasted baked. Giant amount of froth because of bloom though. I'll try it again in the morning and evening again to see if theres any flavour change. Maybe a more intense heat with a larger batch for more even bean-to-bean conduction next time around? The roast was fairly even coloured, just very flat and baked tasting.

[simonp]

I would say that the roast was a little long for that ligth a roast, but I would say that mostly the baked taste would be lack of rest, the big froth is a sure sign of CO2 coming out. I was told recently that the lighter the roast the longer the degassing time. Give them 24-48 hours then try again.

[moccafaux]

Wang, how was the taste after waiting longer? I hope you stick to it, homeroasting is a great thing.

[wang]

It's getting better with every batch now since I'm resting them more as well as learning to control the roast. I got 1kg of beans from Bewleys thanks to a certain Hugh Gilmartin so I've still a bit left to experiment with. I used to like 'medium' (judging by prepacked ground coffee) roasts so I'm still learning on when to stop the roast - currently stopping at the first snaps of second crack but I'll stop earlier when I get more of a feel for it.

[phil]

Excellent! Another confirmed homeroaster, methinks! Welcome.

[wang]

Ah yes, and in one of the more manual methods too. I've gotten a bit of a thing for browsing shops for junk which might help the cause despite only been into the roasting thing for a few days. I think I've geeked it up quite a bit on the usual internet sources of information so I don't feel *too* clueless about the whole process

[alans]

You're definatly going to have to come around and show me how to use my heatgun!