Heat gun coffee roasting

[Chris Hennes]

I had a much more successful roast today (the third time I've tried). The first roast was under-done because I was afraid of burning the beans. The second roast was overdone because I was waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for first crack, which didn't come until the beans were much too dark. This time I ran the heat gun much much closer to the beans, so they heated up much faster. This got me to first crack in about five minutes, and the beans were still beige-ish at that point. Byt the time I got through first crack they had darkened to a fairly typical City+ roast. Of course I don't know how it tastes yet, but the key for me to getting the roast inline with my expectations about how the process worked was to roast hotter and faster. I think this goes along with Matt's theory about the effect of wind, too.

[rotuts]

Im always pleased to see folks than can roast start to roast. Some might want to try but cant re apartments, smoke detectors etc:

Well, good for you for starting!. Im sure you know that at:

http://www.sweetmarias.com/library/

there is a lot of info that might help you fine the 'perfect cup' for you.

there is also this SM site for questions:

http://www.sweetmariascoffee.com/forum/index.php?sid=3e4d3ca46a9324fddbbc73c40c32d882

Happy Roasting!

[scubadoo97]

Hey Chris, I always advocate taking a batch to charcoal. Not with your best beans of course.

My reasoning is that you will see, hear and smell ALL the phases the beans go through.

[mkayahara]

Hey Chris, I always advocate taking a batch to charcoal. Not with your best beans of course.

My reasoning is that you will see, hear and smell ALL the phases the beans go through.

Plus, then you've got charcoal to play with!

[Kevin Liu]

I use a two-stage approach: first, i toss the beans into a 350F oven for about 20 minutes to get them up to temperature. Then I heat them on the stovetop for about 3-5 minutes, depending on bean type and desired roast. I've found this method produced more even and consistent results.

The stovetop portion could easily be replaced with a heat-gun high-heat stage, if the stovetop isn't convenient for whatever reason.

Full details http://sciencefare.org/2012/02/22/better-home-roast-coffee-two-stage/

[mkayahara]

Fastest roast ever, today, under 20 minutes to get all the way through first crack with a half pound of beans. I was working in full sunlight, and it's fairly hot and humid out. It's amazing the impact weather can have on this technique!

I'm still not completely sure just how dark I'm actually roasting the coffee; some of the distinctions seem to be pretty fine (and some of the batches are a little uneven), but I've been greatly enjoying my recent roasts. They're greatly improved over my first attempts!

[Chris Hennes]

Recently I've been using the technique Kevin Liu suggested above, preheating the beans in a 350°F oven for fifteen minutes before going at them with a heat gun: I've had very good success with this method, especially when I wanted full city or full city+ roasts. I still like to use the heat gun (and use it outside!) for the final roasting stage, so that it blows all the chaff away.

[rotuts]

good for you!

then there is this:

http://www.coffeeshrub.com/shrub/content/quest

Unfortunately I dont have one!

[mkayahara]

Just tried out my first home-roasted espresso blend. It was quite good, with nice flavour but maybe less body than I would like. (Though that could be as much due to my shot-pulling technique as the roast.) It was a blend of 70% Brazilian, 15% dry-processed Ethiopian and 15% robusta, roasted to FC+. Reminded me a lot of some of the Lavazza coffees I've had, but fresher.

[rotuts]

at sweet maria's there is a blending page, and the espresso section has help me out a lot:

http://www.sweetmarias.com/blending.php