4 different coffee roasters

Here are four ways to roast your own green coffee beans, on the cheap! These coffee roasters may cost you little to nothing.

In the last couple of years I've evolved from drinking pre-ground coffee 'off the shelf', to grinding my own beans, that come roasted 'off the shelf'. Then we moved on to green beans after studying several web sites and their instructions on how to roast coffee, and I found some good concepts for making my own coffee roaster.

Now I buy my coffee in 50 lb. burlap bags, (@ $3.70/lb after shipping), of green,{Estate Java}, beans and roast, and grind them myself.

Since I had already made these simple roasters, I'm not going to de-construct anything. I mainly want to show everyone some simple roaster ideas to help give you some ideas to build a better roaster, or to build your first roaster. Much depends on what you have to work with. I'm one of those people who sees potential in all kinds of things. Yep I collect junk! As Mrs. Bob might put it.

So depending on what you have stock piled that can be used, your roaster will be different but still be fully functional.

Also I don't talk much about tools because before you tackle any project the standard hand tools should already exist. I'm not beyond the flea market cheapo tools they are fine for light duty. And since your roaster probably will be different the tools may vary.

I prefer to use hot air to roast the beans. And since the popcorn popper conversion has been done several times, I was inclined to use my resourcefulness and look at other possibilities.

So far I have 4 different roasters that I have roasted with, and like.
I am posting this to give other coffee lovers ideas for building a roaster of their own so they can have excellent coffee at an affordable price. I have not had a bitter or otherwise bad cup of coffee since I started roasting.

Please note: I do not instruct you on the roasting of coffee beans in this instructable, There are plenty of web sites with good advice on this. Do some research. Or check out http://www.instructables.com/id/Roast-your-own-Coffee-at-home/
This dude: sysiphus, seems to have a good handle on the roasting process. And since he's already covered roasting, check him out! Also he has yet another method of roasting as well.

Step 1 Don't even think of roasting if you can't grind the beans!

The first thing I was going to need was a grinder. I wasn't up to hacking one together, at least not until I figured out what parts I would have to procure. Our first grinder, was a cheap,(under $20) blade grinder. and we were buying pre- roasted "Whole bean" coffee at Wal-Mart. That was the beginning, I knew then that I was never going back to coffee that was ground, who knows when?

After about a year of this, I began to learn that "Green coffee beans" of quality could be easily bought over the Internet much cheaper than the pre-roasted, "Blended" coffee I was getting.

It was on!

First on my list was a burr type grinder. Burr grinders do a much better job than the cheap blade grinders For one, I was never pleased with the results of a blade grinder,(chopper). Burr grinders seem to crush the beans evenly, and it is much easier to get a good even grind on any setting from fine to course.

I did hours, and hours of research before I decided on a Krups burr grinder. The one pictured came from cookware.com.
http://www.cookware.com/asp/show_detail.asp?sku=KRU1018&refid=FR280-KRU1018
It set me back $49.99 w/free shipping. I don't regret spending one dime of that money.

Later I found the hand crank one for $3.00 at a flea market. I can take the crank off and chuck a battery powered drill to it and save allot of time compared to using the hand crank, I used it once when the power was out. I heated our water in a pan with a propane torch, and poured it over the grounds in a filter. Also the hand crank grinder has a wider range of adjustment. I can set it so course that it barely crushes the beans, our I can turn the beans into dust. If I had found this before the Krups, I'd never have ordered the Krups. I'm glad that things worked the other way.

In short: Cheap blade "choppers" work and can be used, but burr grinders rock!

Comments

[chippy]

brilliant reuse of materials, I would have never thought of using a rotisserie! I agree that all the sub $500 roasters are pretty lame so I went the standard popcorn popper route.  I like your larger batch solution better. Ii made a little video on roasting in the popper but it is nothing new. ..unlike your rotisserie which I would love to see a video of it in action! and thanks for the links!
Also: for local green coffee beans in a city try going to a Kenyan or Ethiopian grocery store. They love their coffee and sell several native varieties at my store. They even have pans for roasting it on your stove top - which I have never done but sounds fun (and smoky).

Thanks again!

[plumber_bob]

Here ya go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS5Z83LDJlE

This is about 8 short videos put together. Sorry I'm not a better camera man. :-)
4 cups of green beans yield about 8 cups roasted beans. Total roasting time is a little over an hour. That could be cut down alot if the roaster held heat better, but I won't modify mine unless I get another one.

Hope you like the video.

pb

[plumber_bob]

Chippy,

Thanks for the feedback! I'll work on a video when I roast next, in the next day or two, and then post it for you and others to see.

I've roasted over 200 pounds of coffee in that little roaster. Plus several pork loins, turkey breasts, and various other things, and not once have I had a problem with smells or flavor from anything that is roasted in it. I have been really impressed with it. The coffee smoke does stain everything, you'll see when I post the video. It's much darker now than in the pics shown here.

Thanks!!!

pb

[chippy]

killer! thanks for the video! and it is AWESOME to know you didn't make a uni-tasker - this thing pulls double duty roasting meats!
may i suggest posting it to the forums of coffee roasters like sweet marias?

[mrs_bob]

I reap the benefits of all this coffee roasting and the store grinds can't come close - Best coffee ever! (I'm still trying to come up with a use for the chaff). Ms. Bob

[tecneeq]

Thanks, this coffee roasting get's more and more interesting. I buy preroasted for years and use a Bialetti Moka and a Zassenhaus hand grinder. Your roast crontraptions are really cool :).

[plumber_bob]

Thanks tecneeq for you comment, I really appreciate it as this is my first time and I'm still new at it.