# Another Newby, Another Question :)



## NorvernAdam

Hi Guys,

Im only a young lad and currently at College, I'm 20 years old and absolutely adore coffee, roughly 99.91% of my veins contain the gods nectar but I'm sorry to confess this as I know it may kill a coffee fairy to say this but I drink the shiddy instant rubbish from a jar... Today I was at my part-time job as a Blinds fitter and we got a note left on our van whilst on a job to go and measure up some more blinds for a company on the business park. Me and my colleague went to the unit an our nostrils got welcomed by a robust sinus massage of caffeine. After the customary meet and greets we found out they were green coffee bean importers... After expressing my fondness for the glorious beverage that it is he offered me a sample of a bean they were testing. I was absolutely fascinated by the whole process of picking, sampling and everything surrounding it. I've done a bit of research and I am looking at some info to get me going, I am looking at home roasting and brewing my own coffee and wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction in general or on the forum for equipment (I am a student so not £££'s of a budget around £300 for all, maybe more in stages) just a bit of roasting, blending and brewing info really if I could have a bit of your experience in these matters I would greatly appreciate it.

Adam


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## Glenn

Hi Adam and welcome to Coffee Forums UK

It sounds like you've been bitten by the bug

Before roasting coffee I'd advocate tasting from a few different suppliers to see what bean and roast styles you like.

The best way to get to know the tastes is by drinking coffee black, brewed (not espresso) and to achieve this you can set yourself up for under £50 with a Hario V60 and a Porlex Hand Grinder. The next step from there is a Chemex and maybe a Syphon.

Alternatively, try an Aeropress and a Hand Grinder.

This way you will still have a decent budget left for a roaster (around the £350 mark depending on what you go for and the extras)

If you want to head down the espresso route then a budget of £300 will be swallowed up pretty quickly leaving nothing towards a roaster

The Coffee Beans section of the forum will steer you in the right direction too

Let us know how you get on.


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## mookielagoo

Welcome to the world adam! Ive enjoyed my classic as a starter machine, I have no idea about diy roasting but youll find loads of advice on here....cheers!


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## RisingPower

That would be jumping in the deep end.

If you really want to start roasting, there are so many cheap (read very unlikely to get anything decent) ways of roasting (oven, popcorn popper, stovetop popcorn popper) and many, many more expensive ways of roasting which still won't be as good as what you can buy.


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## 4085

RisingPower, do you home roast? I do and I can roast just as well for my taste as any purchased beans , and I have bought loads!


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## RolandG

Hi Adam - always good to hear someone else catching the bug







meeting an importer is a really unusual way to get into things - and very cool! as the guys above have said, I'd recommend spending smart rather than spending a lot.

Espresso tends to get lots of love, but it has some major drawbacks - you need to spend a big chunk of money for even an entry level setup, and 80 - 90% of the quality of the drink is down to your ability to work the espresso machine, rather than the quality of the beans or the roasting. And there's always time to get into espresso once you've got more experience with beans









For home brewing, the most important factors are good coffee quality, freshly (and well) roasted and freshly ground. The best investment is a burr (rather than blade) coffee grinder - either a hand operated one like the Porlex or an electric one. From there, you've got loads of options. I'd start with a Cafertiere (also sometimes called a French Press) - it costs a few quid and offers a really easy and effective way to brew great coffee. It's also easier to get right than pour-over filter methods like the V60 and Chemex, so it's a good starting place. After that, the Chemex is my couldn't-do-without brewer and is a long time favorite of many people in coffee. Lots of roasters have put up brew guides for these methods, and there's lots of info on these forums, so it's pretty straight forward to get a great result.

On beans, there's a staggering variety out there. Once you've got your setup, I'd buy a few beans from a few different countries of origin, and different roasters, and see what you like. There's plenty of advice in the Beans section









For home roasting, there's unfortunately only really two options - very cheap or quite expensive. Cheap is a popcorn maker, expensive a home roaster. If you want to go that route, the guys on here will be happy to advise on the relative merits of the ones available, but I strongly suggest trying a good range of professionally roasted beans before you try home roasting. I can't really comment much more on home roasting - I've only tried it a couple of times - but I work as a coffee roaster now, so I've not got the motivation to do it in my spare time as well









-- Sent from my Palm Pre3 using Forums


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## RisingPower

dfk41 said:


> RisingPower, do you home roast? I do and I can roast just as well for my taste as any purchased beans , and I have bought loads!


I don't often get to compare, but lots come out nothing like as well









I also find batches seem to vary quite significantly.

I plan on trying raves peru in both green/already roasted.


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## NorvernAdam

Brilliant, thank you very much all of you for your guidance and advice I really appreciate it. I think I'm trying to run before I can run with the whole home-roasting scenario so I've decided to start with a bit of home tasting etc from different types of bean. I am in the process of purchasing a Porlex hand grinder and Aerobie Aeropress for starters, is there anything else you think I may need to start off with?


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## RisingPower

NorvernAdam said:


> Brilliant, thank you very much all of you for your guidance and advice I really appreciate it. I think I'm trying to run before I can run with the whole home-roasting scenario so I've decided to start with a bit of home tasting etc from different types of bean. I am in the process of purchasing a Porlex hand grinder and Aerobie Aeropress for starters, is there anything else you think I may need to start off with?


Beans







Pick your supplier.


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## rodabod

Get beans from a wide spectrum, tending towards the lighter roasts given that you are using an Aeropress.

You could probably get a selection from Has Bean as they have a very wide variety.

Keep your beans in a freezer if you don't think you'll get through them within a few weeks.


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## RisingPower

rodabod said:


> Get beans from a wide spectrum, tending towards the lighter roasts given that you are using an Aeropress.
> 
> You could probably get a selection from Has Bean as they have a very wide variety.
> 
> Keep your beans in a freezer if you don't think you'll get through them within a few weeks.


Why lighter roasts and why a freezer?

I think he should try every bean he likes the sound of, regardless of "roast".


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## rodabod

"tending towards lighter". I find you get more of the flavour from the bean if it hasn't been roasted very dark for espresso. There are some roasts which just aren't very nice in my opinion as brewed coffee. For starters, I'd probably aim for medium roasts, so a least there's a good chance it'll taste great.

The freezer comment is just regarding avoiding drinking coffee from stale beans. I've found that beans tend to go downhill after a few weeks post roast, but you can extend their life using a freezer if you think that you won't get through them soon enough. There's enough discussion on this topic elsewhere, so I won't bother adding much else to it.



RisingPower said:


> I think he should try every bean he likes the sound of, regardless of "roast".


Sounds like a good idea to me. I just wish that when I started that I'd tried all of the different varieties from different countries, as I stuck with South Americans because they sounded good (I thought that I liked cocoa and nut flavours best, but I don't really)


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## RisingPower

rodabod said:


> "tending towards lighter". I find you get more of the flavour from the bean if it hasn't been roasted very dark for espresso. There are some roasts which just aren't very nice in my opinion as brewed coffee. For starters, I'd probably aim for medium roasts, so a least there's a good chance it'll taste great.
> 
> The freezer comment is just regarding avoiding drinking coffee from stale beans. I've found that beans tend to go downhill after a few weeks post roast, but you can extend their life using a freezer if you think that you won't get through them soon enough. There's enough discussion on this topic elsewhere, so I won't bother adding much else to it.
> 
> Sounds like a good idea to me. I just wish that when I started that I'd tried all of the different varieties from different countries, as I stuck with South Americans because they sounded good (I thought that I liked cocoa and nut flavours best, but I don't really)


What basis have you established that roasts directly relate to the flavours from the bean? Have you directly compared beans from the same batch, from the supplier at different roast levels? Or are you comparing entirely different batches of entirely different beans, from entirely different suppliers?


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## rodabod

Yes, I've compared beans from the same batch as Monmouth have offered different roasts of the same single origins at the same time (I guess to cater for those who will be making espresso).

My experience generally is that as you go darker, you lose acidity, fruit flavours and the more delicate aromatics (the tea or fruit like ones). What you gain I suppose is a sweeter taste, sometimes caramel/toffee flavours and softer acidity. And find that dark roasts are easier to pour consistently.

There's nothing wrong with having dark roasts using brew methods other than espresso, but I just find the flavour a bit flat and boring by comparison. Similarly, I'm often not a big fan of light roasts as espresso as the acidity can sometimes take your face off.


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## IanP

rodabod said:


> My experience generally is that as you go darker, you lose acidity, fruit flavours and the more delicate aromatics (the tea or fruit like ones). What you gain I suppose is a sweeter taste, sometimes caramel/toffee flavours and softer acidity. And find that dark roasts are easier to pour consistently.
> 
> There's nothing wrong with having dark roasts using brew methods other than espresso, but I just find the flavour a bit flat and boring by comparison. Similarly, I'm often not a big fan of light roasts as espresso as the acidity can sometimes take your face off.


With you here all the way..... Couldn't have put it more eloquently ;-)

Ian


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## RisingPower

rodabod said:


> Yes, I've compared beans from the same batch as Monmouth have offered different roasts of the same single origins at the same time (I guess to cater for those who will be making espresso).
> 
> My experience generally is that as you go darker, you lose acidity, fruit flavours and the more delicate aromatics (the tea or fruit like ones). What you gain I suppose is a sweeter taste, sometimes caramel/toffee flavours and softer acidity. And find that dark roasts are easier to pour consistently.
> 
> There's nothing wrong with having dark roasts using brew methods other than espresso, but I just find the flavour a bit flat and boring by comparison. Similarly, I'm often not a big fan of light roasts as espresso as the acidity can sometimes take your face off.


And if there are no fruity/delicate aromatics to start off with, only richer smokier aromatics which are only brought out by darker roasts?


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## NorvernAdam

Thank you all for your inputs as wide and varied as some are







so far I have tried two types of bean, a variety from Burundi Ngozi Mugomera and Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama and have thoroughly enjoyed then both however I preferred the variety from Brazil in comparison to the Burundi one as its a lot more meaty in body I think and is more nutty and caramel-like which I really like about it but there are many more to come


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