# Home roast experiment..



## crispy (Jun 6, 2011)

After a bit more reading and a rather cheap purchase of a cast iron pot and thermometer, I attempted my first roast this morning...

All a bit daunting to say the least, don't really want to bun the house down... followed a guide to get the pot to 200 degrees f within 9 mins which would (allegedly) continue the roast at a suitable rate...

Beans weighed, pot up to temperature at a constant rate to 200 f I chucked the beans in and commenced continuous stirring... I went with 6 oz of beans to start to start with as I expected to either burn them or under-roast them... they were HasBean green's (Costa Rica Herbazu Honey Process ) which I have probably slaughtered to the point of being undrinkable, my apologies to the beans and coffee lovers...

I followed the little note on the cupping notes to take these just into 2nd crack, after a gradual onset the beans began to hit first crack giving a distinct popping sound... this did take a fair while to onset, which I forgot to measure due to being a tool although I think it was around 13 minutes... after another couple couple of minutes had passed no more distinct pops were heard and I took this as the end of 1st crack...

approximately 3 minutes passed before I started to here another sound, this time more as a hissing which I understand as being the start of second crack... this was where I decided to stop the roast and set about emptying the beans out of the pot into a colander... using my trusty indoor cycling fan I set about cooling the beans and encountered 'chaff', damn this stuff goes everywhere... after a switch between colanders I put a lid over the top and used the fan to cool the bottom of the beans, the chaff was still flying around although not to the same extent...

after a couple of minutes of shaking and fanning I emptied the beans onto a roasting tray to further cool... cleaning up commenced and took longer than the bloody roast, lessons learned...

here is a picture of what I am left with...



















I am sure they are going to taste pretty terrible but everyone has to start somewhere... when I actually have some disposable cash I will look into a Behmor or Gene but for now I am enjoying the start of another adventure... will let you know if they taste of anything but burnt...


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

Great first attempt!

Love your description of problems with chaff!

Sent via Tapatalk from my HTC Desire HD.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Inspirational, Chris! Thanks for posting this







Do let us know how they taste please.

Would it be possible to just take the colander outside, with lid, and wave it around to cool the beans?

Do you have a link to the instructions you were using, and maybe to the pan you bought?


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## CoffeeMagic (Aug 7, 2011)

Brilliant







...and adventurous.

Those beans shouldn't taste burnt, by their looks - they don't appear to have a coating of oil which would signify a really dark roast. The roast is probably a little uneven, but only to be expected from this method. Try reducing the heat a little when you hear the start of 1st crack so you can use the time to 2nd crack to develop the bean's characteristics. Ahhh chaff - time for the vacuum cleaner on a big funnel over the colander


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## crispy (Jun 6, 2011)

Ok, so results are in from my first roast... hmm, I can honestly say it didn't really taste of much...

I tried it in the Chemex and with Espresso (tough to control due to CO2)... I was looking for anything that jumped out but alas, nada... it definitely smelt of coffee, but I don't think I held it between 1st and 2nd crack ending it too early when only a small percentage of the beans actually hit 2nd crack... ended up binning them after 3 days as they weren't developing, oh well...

definitely going to struggle with consistency in the pot, although I am determined to get a good roast.. it will happen =)


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## CoffeeMagic (Aug 7, 2011)

It takes a little patience and a fair amount of trial and error. Remember what you do for each roast - i.e. Log it - so that you can always reproduce the good ones and learn from the bad. Also be careful what you are looking for in your coffee as the roast can also determine the brew method. I roasted a Kenyan Gethumbwini AA and it smelt fantastic, made a flat White and it was awful. Rather than waste it I used it in a plunger and it was great as a black coffee. Milk just obliterated the subtle flavours.


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