My first roasting experiment
April 10th, 2009I’ve been interested in trying my own coffee roasting at home for awhile. Recently, my boyfriend mentioned that the brewing supply house site he was perusing had coffee roasters, which rekindled my interest. I decided to try the popcorn popper method to see how I liked it. Tired of waiting for the 4 pound sampler from Sweet Marias, I picked up a pound of green beans from Dunn Bros (Guatemala Acatenango) and a $10 Kitchen Gourmet popper from Walgreens.
My first experience was less that great. Aware of the smoke and chaff issues inherent to the popper method, I worked outside. I plugged in to the external outlet and dumped some beans in, and waited. And waited. After something like 18 minutes, the beans were sort of brown but I never heard anything resembling “first crack.” My issues may have been not using enough beans (more beans actually increases the temperature, not using the plastic cover (which may have retained heat), or bad voltage at the outlet.
Undeterred, I tried again in the kitchen. This time I plugged into the wall outlet, with the plastic cover on, and I used more beans. They were on the verge of not moving, so I used a wooden spoon to move them a bit at first. The roast went much, much faster. About 6 minutes in I dumped the beans because I didn’t want them to get over roasted. I heard a definite first crack at about 4.5 minutes. This method was way too messy. The chaff was everywhere.
The third roast I tried outside again, using an extension cord and measuring out 100 grams of beans. After about 12 minutes I had passed first crack but second crack was proving elusive. I dumped and the beans were about the same as the second batch.
My plan next is to use a better extension cord and maybe 125g of beans to see if I can get a bit more heat. I need to get it to second crack so I can see what it’s like. Dumping at the first sign of second crack should get me to Full City, which is what I’m interested in. I think the beans now are a bit shy of the mark.
I plan to try some coffee in the morning, which isn’t an ideal rest period (about 12-14 hours) but I want to see what they taste like!