Coffee Roasting With a Hot Air Popper
Intro: Coffee Roasting With a Hot Air Popper
I'm well on my way to complete coffee snobbery. Essential to achieving this is being able to roast your own coffee from green coffee beans, which gives the most amazing fresh flavor and scent. Not to mention the ability to casually mention you roasted this particular cup of coffee yourself...
Here's my inventory for home roasting:
Hot air popcorn popper
Green coffee beans
1/4 cup measuring cup
medium strainer
round bottom stainless steel bowl
flat bottom stainless steel bowls (I use 2 of them)
The popcorn popper is an "Air Crazy" by West Bend - I got mine at Target for about $20. Ignore the terrible reviews - you aren't using it for popcorn.
I got the strainer and round bowl from the kitchen aisle at Smart N Final - any big retailer should have them.
The flat bottom bowls came from Petco - yes, they are dog food bowls.
I get my Green Coffee Beans from Sweet Maria's in Oakland California - they have a great mail order website. I recommend a 4 lb sampler to get started - that's plenty of coffee to learn how to roast.
Here's my inventory for home roasting:
Hot air popcorn popper
Green coffee beans
1/4 cup measuring cup
medium strainer
round bottom stainless steel bowl
flat bottom stainless steel bowls (I use 2 of them)
The popcorn popper is an "Air Crazy" by West Bend - I got mine at Target for about $20. Ignore the terrible reviews - you aren't using it for popcorn.
I got the strainer and round bowl from the kitchen aisle at Smart N Final - any big retailer should have them.
The flat bottom bowls came from Petco - yes, they are dog food bowls.
I get my Green Coffee Beans from Sweet Maria's in Oakland California - they have a great mail order website. I recommend a 4 lb sampler to get started - that's plenty of coffee to learn how to roast.
STEP 1: Set Up Your Roasting Station
I do my coffee roasting outside for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the hot air method expels a lot of chaff, and secondly, She Who Must Be Obeyed doesn't like the interim smell (which resembles either grass or charcoal, depending upon who you ask).
I have a bistro table outside, right next to a power outlet.
I have a bistro table outside, right next to a power outlet.
STEP 2: Add the Green Coffee Beans, and Start the Roast
I usually roast in small batches, and I have found that a quarter cup or a little more is a good starting point for this machine. Your mileage may vary, due to ambient temperature and (more importantly) the voltage at your outlet.
Pour the beans into the popper, and turn on the switch. It will be noisy -- another good reason to be outside.
Pour the beans into the popper, and turn on the switch. It will be noisy -- another good reason to be outside.
STEP 3: Monitor the Roast
In a minute or less the beans will change from green colored to a light brown. This process will continue and the beans will darken as the roast. Chaff will fly up out of the top of the popper as well.
We are listening for the beans to crack -- it is a popping sound, and is a bit like popcorn. You need to continue the roast until all the beans have cracked once - if you don't roast long enough, your coffee will taste like hay or dry grass. (Bleah!)
Depending upon how dark you want your roast, you can stop after the first crack is done or you can continue the roast a while longer, waiting for a second, more subtle crack.
Here's a very short youtube video of the process -- the ambient noise level is high, but the cracking is audible as clicks. Notice the flying chaff as well.
We are listening for the beans to crack -- it is a popping sound, and is a bit like popcorn. You need to continue the roast until all the beans have cracked once - if you don't roast long enough, your coffee will taste like hay or dry grass. (Bleah!)
Depending upon how dark you want your roast, you can stop after the first crack is done or you can continue the roast a while longer, waiting for a second, more subtle crack.
Here's a very short youtube video of the process -- the ambient noise level is high, but the cracking is audible as clicks. Notice the flying chaff as well.
STEP 4: Dump the Roasted Beans, Cool Them and Remove the Chaff
Once you are satisfied that the beans are fully roasted, turn off the popper and dump the beans into a bowl. Pour them back and forth between the bowl and strainer to cool the beans and to allow any remaining chaff to blow away. Don't stress about the chaff - it doesn't affect the flavor too much is you don't get it all out.
Once the beans are mostly cool I dump them into one of the dog food bowls to further cool. I usually roast about four batches at one session, and having two spare bowls allows me to fully cool two batches while a third is roasting.
Once the beans are mostly cool I dump them into one of the dog food bowls to further cool. I usually roast about four batches at one session, and having two spare bowls allows me to fully cool two batches while a third is roasting.
STEP 5: Store the Beans, and All Your Roasting Supplies.
Pour the cooled beans into an air-tight storage container. Sweet Maria's labels come off the ziploc bags easily, making it simple to label your beans. And you should label them - imagine the horror some morning if you are expecting a nice light Costa Rica blend and you accidentally grind up some Dark Roasted Java! Shudder the thought....
All my supplies fit neatly into a flip-top storage box, making it easy to store between roasting sessions.
Now, go have a cup of good coffee, eh?
All my supplies fit neatly into a flip-top storage box, making it easy to store between roasting sessions.
Now, go have a cup of good coffee, eh?
16 Comments
rbowlin7 6 years ago
it's better to preheat the popper by running it for 4 or 5 minutes before adding the beans
stubbsonic 10 years ago
Would it matter if the coffee cooled in a glass bowl, or does the steel's "heat sink" properties help the coffee cool more quickly?
I'm ready to give this a try.
chrwei 8 years ago
it does not make the popcorn taste like coffee, but not the picture of the inside of the popper here, if it doesn't have the vents around the side like that you won't get a good even roast. the other kinds won't churn the beans.
I use corelle bowls and it cools fine, I don't think metal would make enough difference vs the thermal mass of the beans.
BradMartinson 10 years ago
I think the steel works really well as a heat sink, better than glass would. Even though a lot of the cooling happens when you pour back and forth from strainer to bowl, the bottoms of the dog bowls still are warm after the beans have rested in them for a while. Glass is a good insulator, and would probably not draw the heat away as we want to happen.
chrwei 8 years ago
I have dual purposed, there is no flavor transferred. however, poppers that are good for roasting make poor poppers as they tend to expel many kernels with great force when the first one pops. you really want a spinning chamber for popcorn and not for beans.
tim_n 10 years ago
IrenaL1 8 years ago
both of my popcorn poppers have a heater cutoff fuse, or an automatic overheat shut-off, which shuts the machine off before the first crack is completed.
Any recommendations on which brand or models don't have this auto shut-off?
IrenaL1 8 years ago
both of my popcorn poppers have a heater cutoff fuse, or an automatic overheat shut-off, which shuts the machine off before the first crack is completed.
Any recommendations on which brand or models don't have this auto shut-off?
jrambo2 10 years ago
BradMartinson 10 years ago
One of the best parts of fresh grinding is the scent - the coffee aroma is way more intense than that can of Folgers in the cupboard. Even my non-coffee drinking wife agrees the scent is more appealing.
DancersDigsT 8 years ago
I have the Capresso burr grinder and absolutely love it. No more mass grinds for me.
jtruesdell8 10 years ago
Capital-J 10 years ago
If you are roasting for espresso, wait even longer, 5-6 days before they start to shine.
BradMartinson 10 years ago
baecker03 10 years ago
BradMartinson 10 years ago