# Home roasting for punters



## 44Whitehall

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away... I though coffee was a straightforward proposition. And then I came upon this forum and learned that I was only partly right. You see I am not a coffee technician but I love the ritual of grinding beans and making an espresso with my Caravel. I'm no master barista, but the output is lovely and I'm happy. I've found a good balance for now but no doubt I'll come looking for a more advanced machine in due course.

But for now I'm intrigued by home roasting and am tempted to cross over to the BST section and keep an eye out for a Gene (shame to miss one the other day!) or similar. I know I'll not spend hours roasting and that I'll be a mere weekend warrior, and wonder whether decent results can be obtained by the likes of me or if it requires total commitment?

Are there others out there like me who obtain consistently good roasts or am I deluded?


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## The Systemic Kid

Plenty of home roasters on the forum.


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## hullcity

I used to roast for years with a cast iron pan on a gas hob and got more than acceptable results, but it was pretty laborious with all that stirring by hand, plus I had very little control over the roast. Good for learning the cracks, smells etc of how the roast progresses.

Got a gene about 18 months ago and am very happy with it. If you read up a bit about it and accept that you need to get to know your own particular machine, you'll be producing decent results very quickly. And you get to roast the beans to a level (light/dark) that suits your particular taste.

I roast once, sometimes twice a week, 250g at a time, and it only takes just under an hour from getting the gene out to putting it away again, you don't need much time investment unless you want to roast kilos.


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## El Cabron

I've been roasting my own for about a month with a gene and had never roasted a single bean before that, and i have to say yes you can get great results at home. There are lots of benefits and eventually it'll pay for itself just on the basis of £20+ per kilo and £8-9 per kilo roasted v unroasted. Plus you get the rewarding feeling of achievement of producing your own. Plus i have a collection of green beans from the americas, jamaica, africa, india, indonesia, papua new guinea, that i'm working my way through and it's a nice change to try single origins that i probably wouldn't buy under normal circumstances but i'm aiming to produce my own perfect cappuccino blend and i'm happy that i've come up with 2 really nice blends that people are actually buying from me and it's still the early days of experimentation and i still have beans i haven't even opened yet. So the potential for creating some blinding coffee is definately there and apart from drinking it, is the most enjoyable part of the coffee hobby for me. I always thought i wouldn't get good results and there was some mystic secret to roasting but it's pretty easy and all that's required extra is a pen and paper to record times, blend ratios, and temperatures, and some scales for blending, i compare it to baking a loaf of bread or a cake and i think anybody with a passion for coffee would get lots of enjoyment from a gene roaster or something similar.


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## 44Whitehall

Thanks for the enabling replies! I suspect I'm swayed in favour of having a go at this.

I'm comforted that the time commitment does not have to be too significant and that good results are still possible. In due course I'll have more time to indulge my interests but for now shepherding children trumps all things!


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## El Cabron

Well good luck and enjoy it, i enjoy the whole roasting thing and the experience of trying a coffee i've not tried before. If you're looking to buy green beans, www.merchantcoffee.co.uk did me a good bulk deal when i bought a kilo of each of his 8 varieties for about £8 ish per kilo. I found Les to be knowledgable, helpful and friendly, and the coffees i've tried of his have all been nice so far with the stand out beans so far for me being his nicaragua la argentina and brazil ouro verde


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## Tia933

El Cabron said:


> Well good luck and enjoy it, i enjoy the whole roasting thing and the experience of trying a coffee i've not tried before. If you're looking to buy green beans, www.merchantcoffee.co.uk did me a good bulk deal when i bought a kilo of each of his 8 varieties for about £8 ish per kilo. I found Les to be knowledgable, helpful and friendly, and the coffees i've tried of his have all been nice so far with the stand out beans so far for me being his nicaragua la argentina and brazil ouro verde


Are those Specialty quality? I cannot really judge from the website. Thank you!


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## coldplayer

I have been roasting for quite a time now, on a few different machines. It can be a little frustrating at times when I don't get quite what I was after, when it comes to the roast characteristics. But mostly I just get very drinkable, fresh as possible coffee, that I can say with pride." I created that"

I have been getting my green beans from a few different sources, but can def. recommend Coffee Compass. They have a good range of beans, at reasonable prices and are very quick with their delivery. They do trial packs and every coffee they offer roasted, they also do as a green bean. http://www.coffeecompass.co.uk/shop/

I would certainly recommend give roasting a try. I find it very satisfying and have spent a great deal of enjoyable time in the search for that perfect roast.


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