# Roasting coffee in a popcorn popper



## RoloD

http://boingboing.net/2011/09/06/how-to-roast-coffee-with-a-popcorn-popper.html

Anyone tried this?


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## lookseehear

I'm a seasoned coffee popcorn popper roaster! Sort of - by which I mean I've roasted maybe 15-20 batches.

It's fun and cheap to try, but definitely not perfect! My popper seems to roast really quickly (4 mins to second crack), which is a lot faster than commercial roasters and Behmor's etc. I'd like to try and slow it down but that usually involves connecting dimmer switches to the fan or something similar. I'm not much of an electrician so I don't think I'd be able to do it safely (or use it safely again afterwards!).

I did actually make a video showing the roasting process a little while ago but the sound of the popper meant you couldn't hear anything I was saying! I'll maybe upload it anyway at some point and just put some captions in.


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## lookseehear

Here's the video I recorded back in March, it isn't great but might be helpful if you're considering trying it!

[video=youtube;d7-1FaAheAk]


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## RoloD

Thanks for that!

A question - to slow down the roasting, is it simply a matter of lowering the temperature of the heating element?


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## MikeHag

Looks so much easier than the pan method. Is that a Prima machine?

Thanks Luke


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## lookseehear

@RoloD

I believe that the main way of changing the roast speed is by fitting a dimmer switch to the air blower. If you speed it up the roast is slowed (almost counter intuitively) because less heat is retained in the beans and vice-versa. Having a dimmer switch would be pretty useful though to take more control. Other people have fitted thermostats too but that's another step up!

@Mike

I'm not sure what brand the machine is, it came in an unmarked box and doesn't seem to have any logos etc. I'll have a look at the logos a bit later to see if there's any other information. In the US there's a lot of talk about the Westbend Poppery, but I don't think they're available over here.

If you want some inspiration have a look at the Sweet Maria's page on Hot Rod Home Coffee Roasters!


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## crispy

my concern with this was modifying the temperature sensor and possible blow outs / melting... love the way the chaff is escaping...


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## carbonkid85

I too have a popper! Only put two batches through it in my previous flat:

Batch one: Roasted super quick. Somewhat burnt and useless. Badly ventilated kitchen and most parts of flat FULL of smoke. Partner very angry.

Batch two: Roasted outside on balcony. Probably took it slightly too far past second crack, but it was pretty good for a second attempt. Chaff blowing all across East London. Partner incredulous.

I have since moved too a ground floor place with no real outdoor space. My landlord lives upstairs and constantly has his windows open so I am reluctant to try another batch from the front yard in case it fills his house with smoke...

It definitely sparked an interest in home roasting though. I shall pick up a behemor ONE DAY!


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## PaulN

This is really interesting. Ive got a pop corn maker and for fun fancy a go.

Anyone lay down the basics about roasting? ie this first and second crack and how you know your done?

Thanks

PaulN


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## lookseehear

I'm in a similar situation at the moment, now in a ground floor flat with no outdoor space. we have a small grassy area out the back, which I'm going to try and do some roasting in soon.

I'm thinking about picking up one of these today to try the HG DB method!


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## PaulN

lookseehear said:


> Here's the video I recorded back in March, it isn't great but might be helpful if you're considering trying it!
> 
> [video=youtube;d7-1FaAheAk]


Im well impressed with that video. Looks great. Ideal for people like me who dont get through stacks of beans. Shame ive just placed an order with Hasbean or i would have added a bag of grean beans too.

This is cool btw .... lol


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## lookseehear

PaulN said:


> This is really interesting. Ive got a pop corn maker and for fun fancy a go.
> 
> Anyone lay down the basics about roasting? ie this first and second crack and how you know your done?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> PaulN


Very simply:

- Turn on the popper, wait 30s, add 70g of beans (as a starting point)

- After 2-3 minutes first crack will happen (loud popping noises). This is very obvious and will probably last a minute or so.

- As soon as first crack is dying down you technically can stop the roast and empty into a colander or similar to cool them down.

- There is probably (with my popper at least) a 30-45 second gap between first crack finishing and second crack starting. Second crack isn't quite as loud and sounds a bit more like a crackling fire than loud popping!

- I would say don't go more than 20 seconds into second crack, as they will continue to roast a bit while they're cooling after the popper is switched off.


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## crispy

Let us know how you go with the hot air gun Look, it is the other highly recommended way of roasting giving similar but more controllable results...

Exciting times with everyone starting their roasting at the same time...


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## bobbycalf

I started experimenting last week and have had a couple of successful roasts. I am using a Rival popper off ebay. First time round the popper stopped working after 2.5 minutes and would not come back on. Found it had a internal temp cut off switch so opened it up and removed the component.

After that all seems to work ok, first crack at 2.5 minutes, second crack just after 5 min. Only did 60 grams of un roasted beans in each roast but will try more next time around. Looked about right but am still a beginner at making espressos so hard to know the quality of the roast.

For those roasting indoors I found that there is no mess if you do the roast on the oven top with the extractor on and put the roaster in a box (use a large cardboard one). Trick is to use a metal sieve, hold it a few inches above the popper while roasting, all the chaff flies up, hits the sieve and falls down into the box. So far have had no clean up in the kitchen, not sure you would even need the extractor fan.


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## funinacup

I roasted my first batch this morning in a popcorn popper, came out quite nice looking! I roasted Brazil Espresso Perfetio

It was around 3mins til 1st crack, then another 1min 15ish to 2nd crack I think (wasn't concentrating on the timer enough!)

Here's a pic:










Looking forward to trying them!


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## MartinB

Lovely stuff! Looking forward to hearing your verdict. What popcorn maker do you use?


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## funinacup

I bought a Cookworks number off eBay, think it's the same as lookseehears one in the video actually! got it for £11 posted so worth a bash!


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## PaulN

This is so exciting lol I need to pull my finger out and get some beans but ive just spent a small fortune on Vintage Gilllette Razors and have had more deliverys to work than they do.......


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## PaulN

Just took delivery of some El Salvador San Rafael Bourbon beans from Hasbean both Roated and Green so i can judge for myself how far off i am lol

Doubt i will get time in the next week or so but ill try to make some time to play.

PaulN


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## lookseehear

Cool let us know how you get on!

I'm finding it tough roasting with the hot air gun. It's so much more hands on, you have to think about the agitation as well as applying heat evenly, but at the same time getting enough heat into the beans to make them properly crack. Alongside that you read about different roast profiles etc.

I'm tempted to get the popper back out again at some point, haven't used it in aaaaages.


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## PaulN

Hi All,

Finally got around to Home Roasting the El Salvador San Rafael Bourbon 2011-2012.










I've uploaded a video of the roasting but I must have covered the mic over. Anyway it was tricky to tell when the first crack ended and not wanting to burn them we stopped I think before second crack.






They do look exactly the same colour as the has bean roasted and 24 hours after now have a great smell too.

Anyway it's one batch of 100g but it was fun to try.

Cheers

PaulN


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## PaulN

Hi All,

Quick question what kind of time should the beans be left to out gas? 24 hours or 48?

Also managed to embed my video....

Cheers

PaulN


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## lucky13

I found a life hacker article back in the day which actually sparked my intrest in all of this.

http://lifehacker.com/365235/roll-your-own-coffee-roaster-on+the+cheap

They've done a few others since then:

http://lifehacker.com/5155503/roast-your-own-coffee

http://lifehacker.com/5626659/beginners-guide-to-diy-coffee-bean-roasting

http://lifehacker.com/5842883/roast-coffee-at-home-in-a-popcorn-popper-for-savings-variety-and-fun (this one seems to have the most detail)

I found it a great way to learn about coffee, I don't do it as much at the moment, I blame it on lack of time


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## CoffeeMagic

PaulN said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Quick question what kind of time should the beans be left to out gas? 24 hours or 48?
> 
> Also managed to embed my video....
> 
> Cheers
> 
> PaulN


24 hours should be ok. However, I have also come across experiments that indicate they can expell more when ground, up to 9 days later. For now I would work on 24hrs


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## stoobydale

Great post, dying to give this a go. Bought a popper from poundstretcher half price £10, 1200w. Could someone recommend a good place to buy the beans initially please?

Cheers,

Stu.


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## lookseehear

For small amounts of green beans I use hasbean as they sell all their beans green as well as roasted.

Sent from my Touchpad using Tapatalk


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## fatboyslim

I have to say this does tickle me a little bit.

Is this the right sort for roasting in?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/prima-popcorn-maker-/120847382623?pt=UK_HGKitchen_SmallApp_RL&hash=item1c2310b85f#ht_500wt_1413


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## Spazbarista

Yep, that would do it. Just remember to keep spinning the beans round. Its over a decade since I've used a popper but I seem to remember angling the thing forwards and stirring with a long metal skewer to get the beans circulating from bottom to top

@PaulN

Your beans look really nicely roasted. Even colour and a good roast level.


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## fatboyslim

So I'm about to set off roasting in my popcorn maker.

I asked some advice from the sample roaster at work but much is up to interpretation.

When you hear the first pops of the second crack and stop, cool straight away you will end up with a medium on the lighter side?

How long into second cracks for a dark medium?

For a roast just shy of traditional italian dark roast should I be well into the second crack?

Thanks


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## MikeHag

If you're properly into second crack you're beyond medium... is my understanding


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## CoffeeMagic

Not necessarily, Mike. It depends on how quick you heat the beans and how you define medium. They tell me that a 'dark' roast has to be in rolling 2nd crack, but mine don't get to 2nd crack


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## fatboyslim

So after looking at the temperature raising profiles, a 14 stage event, of various roasts at work, I'm questioning how I will ever capture the best out of beans in a popcorn maker.

Is it just a bit of fun or is it actually possible to control the temperature somewhat. Perhaps blowing on the top of the popcorn maker with cold air for the first few minutes?


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## Spazbarista

It's just a bit of fun


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## fatboyslim

First attempt as follows using a Fairtrade Nicaraguan from Taylors.

*Green bean*










*Setup*










*Roasted coffee*










I never heard a rolling first crack and the second crack was pretty quiet to be honest.

Pretty sure I finished it few cracks into second but not sure.


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## MikeHag

Good effort







Better than my effort in a pan!

I've done a bit of research into air roasting. The roast looks somewhat uneven with some scorching so I'd say use less beans next time. In an air roaster you need to balance the bean weight with the blower power, otherwise it can't move the bed of beans fluidly (hence the term fluid bed roaster). Insufficient movement causes the scorching because some beans end up close to the heat source too long.

When you have less beans the roast will take longer too, because more of the air escapes through the bean mass. This is a good thing, as the slightly longer roast helps develop the beans' flavour. How long did this roast take?

In the US and Oz there are a lot of people roasting this way, and getting fantastic results. It's possible to add to the setup so you can control the temperature and power. I wouldn't know where to start, and frankly couldn't be arsed to do the mod, but instructions are googleable if anyone wanted to do it.


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## Spazbarista

I may have said this before but tilt the machine over to get a circulation of beans from bottom to top, and encourage it with a long metal prong


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## fatboyslim

What do you mean tilt the machine over? Like upside down? Or just tilt forward a bit?

Roasted for about 8-10 minutes roughly.

That was 70g of coffee which I think lookseehear recommended. He suggested using enough coffee so that there was little movement initially but this would encourage further scorching surely?

Next roast i'll try maybe 55g and stir more.

Thanks for comments


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## CoffeeMagic

Were the beans margogype? You may just have rolled 1C into 2C which can happen. It's the same with geisha, the need to ease off before 1C and let its own heat mass assist.

You can't expect an even roast from a heat gun and PPM! Anyway it all looks the same when its ground


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## MikeHag

You may have seen this already...

http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpop/airpopmethod.php


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## stoobydale

Good effort, thanks for the pics and the write up. I have a popper in the garage awaiting a "maiden roast" How long are you going to wait before you try them?


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## Spazbarista

Tilt it so that the beans tumble over each other rather than just spin. That way you get a more even roast ime


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## fatboyslim

I brewed an aero press about an hour after roasting, why not?

The overriding flavour was fantastic toasted caramel.

Slightly one dimensional but that one dimension had superb flavour and good body.

This suits my palate perfectly and was thus one of the best cups i've tasted since I got into coffee.

I even took the rest to work got compliments from the sample roaster who gave me the green beans









Definitely going to try again tomorrow using expo's tilt tip.


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## wetclay

Thanks.

very useful


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## fatboyslim

Most recent attempt, after speaking with a coffee buyer at work they told me agitation is paramount so I made a really big effort to stir the beans more.

I think this resulted in my most even popcorn roast yet, see for yourself









Can't wait to try it. Its a UTZ Brazilian Pulped Natural shown in glorious British sunshine! Also a bit on the light side of medium.


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## bronc

Any popcorn roasters left? I'm really interested into roasting my own coffee because living in Bulgaria I don't have (all that much) access to specialty coffee and ordering batches from the UK every month will be quite tough on my student budget. I'd rather order green beans once every couple of months and roast them at home so I'll save up some money on the delivery charges at least. Can you recommend me a good and rather cheapish popcorn maker that is capable of roasting coffee? I saw the Poppery II on eBay UK but it's going for around 30 quid which is more than what I want to spend.


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## bronc

Well, I just "roasted" my first batch - 100g of Malawi Geisha. "Roasted" because 1) I reached first crack withing 1-1:20 into the roast which is very, very fast and 2) My roaster turned off because of the thermostat. I already widened the air vents a bit to increase the airflow and tomorrow I'll add an on/off switch for the heating element to try and slow down the roast. I'll also try with 70g next time. I tried the coffee after 24hrs in a French press - it has medium acidity but there are no flavors I can taste which I hope is due to the roast, not the coffee/my palate as this is the first specialty coffee I've tried, lol. I'll keep you posted.


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## bronc

It looks like I'm the only person writing here but just to keep you posted..









So I got my new popcorn maker (IMEX 1200W from eBay UK) today. I immediately opened it to remove the bubble from the bimetallic thermostat and then headed to the balcony to try it. I'm somewhat happy with the results. I've taken a couple of photos comparing them to a Brazil Daterra Yellow Bourbon roasted by one of the two specialty coffee roasters in Bulgaria. He claims that the roast is FC but it looks pretty light to me - maybe around City+. As to my beans (Malawi Geisha from RaveCoffee) - I'd say it's probably FC+ as I'm pretty sure I heard a few second cracks. I roasted them in to batches - around 50g each because the popcorn maker couldn't turn any more beans than that. I was able to get around 9-10mins with the first batch and around 12-13mins with the second one by transferring the beans from the popcorn maker to a pot a couple of times during the roast. No science involved, just watching the color of the beans change. On another note, I won an auction for a popcorn maker similar to the West Bend Stir Crazy and I hope I'll be able to assemble a Convection Oven/Stir Crazy setup in a few weeks time. Here are the promised pictures -


http://imgur.com/RhZO7

 . What do you think?

P.S. They look a bit inconsistent but I think this is mainly due to the light. In reality they look much more consistent.


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## rodabod

Did the results taste good?


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## bronc

I posted here just 30mins after I finished roasting so I'm waiting for 24hrs to pass. Will try them pretty soon!


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## bronc

I got to trying it out today but I didn't get the results I wanted. First shot was too slow with 14g in ~30g out for 32-3secs and I think I got some channeling. The shot came out with a lemony sourness and bitter aftertaste - not good. Then I tried again but this time I stopped the shot too early because of blonding signs and the output was around 17-18g for 27sec. The sourness was less palpable but the shot was more bitter. I gave up after the second one because my hand got tired of turning the crank of my Tiamo hand grinder. Will try again tomorrow.


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## rodabod

Ok, I've bought myself a Prima popcorn popper.

Will report back later, assuming I don't set the flat on fire.


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## bronc

You might need to bypass/mod the thermostat because most popcorn makers turn off when they reach a certain temperature (which is lower than what you need for coffee roasting) but try it out first. Otherwise depending on the type of thermostat there a different ways you can "fix" this. Here is an example - https://sites.google.com/site/garybt3/thepopcornpumper

Just take care when playing with electricity because it kills!


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## rodabod

Thanks!

Should be ok as I am an electronic engineer. Will report back with my results.


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## bronc

Ah, you can probably mod the whole thing and install a dimmer for the heating element..







Good luck!


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## peche

I spent a few months roasting with a popcorn maker last year - was able to roast ~80g of coffee in 6 minutes or so but I was never that happy with the results. The coffee looked nicely roasted but when I compared it to the same coffee roasted by Hasbean it had less flavour and didn't have much smell other than a generic coffee smell, whereas I could detect several different flavours in the Hasbean stuff. I could never work out why so the popcorn maker was put back into the cupboard from where it came!


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## lookseehear

peche said:


> I spent a few months roasting with a popcorn maker last year - was able to roast ~80g of coffee in 6 minutes or so but I was never that happy with the results. The coffee looked nicely roasted but when I compared it to the same coffee roasted by Hasbean it had less flavour and didn't have much smell other than a generic coffee smell, whereas I could detect several different flavours in the Hasbean stuff. I could never work out why so the popcorn maker was put back into the cupboard from where it came!


This was pretty much my experience. I'm pretty convinced now that the only thing you can do well with a popper is a really dark roast (ie roast until there's oil everywhere then stop). If that isn't your thing then you might be struggling.


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## tso533

this looks great I am going to give it try and see how they come out...


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