Any Coffee Bean Roasters on here?

[Bang60]

Yeah I know it's not about golf exactly but I need coffee to play good golf, so one goes with the other?

So if I may ask for help as I've recently started roasting my green beans, if anyone is into it some advice please"? PM is fine...

[golferguy2727]

I’m with you

Every cup of espresso based drinks for me is made with freshly ground beans (specialista mignonette grinder) that have been freshly roasted within the past two to three days .  A local coffee shop gets me green Honduran beans and I roast 8ozs of beans at a time in my Behnor roaster.  The roaster isn’t cheap but it’s consistent, easy to use and reliable which helps me achieve a consistently high drink quality for my addiction. For brewing, I use either an old Brasilia century single group HX machine (a beauty with some small issues) or my Nuova Simonelli Oscar HX machine.

For drip coffee, I roast a variety of beans as above, grind them more coarsely through an Technivorm Grinder and brew them through the Technivorm Moccamaster machine - a sublime cup of drip coffee.

For better or worse, my golf habits and coffee habits have gone down appropriately similar rabbit holes in pursuit of knowledge and aspiration - I confess learning to do good coffee has been far easier than playing good golf.  But as they say, the taste is judged by the drinker - which could bring me to the scotch discussion next ….

[Bang60]

I didn't write down which beans I bought lol, was toooooooooo keen to get started. I've watched alot of utube video on coffee bean roasting and as a newbie I didn't want to spend alot of money until I was hooked on roasting, I'm using the stove and a cast iron deep dish to roast after starting with a non stick fry pan. I've chatted with a lady at my local McDonald's store as she is one of my favorite Top 5 all time Baristas in 40 some years, I asked her to try some of my roasted and ground beans which she said was good but my grinder wasn't fine enough so I bought a 6 levels hand grinder and the difference in taste was amazing...

Slightly sweet stronger coffee taste, I'm going to get her to try the finer grind of the same beans as the first lot she tried to see if she agrees with me. I have a newish stove that puts out alot of heat and I'm trying to get my method standardized each time I roast, so I heat heat up the cast iron dish until it's too hot touch the side close to the bottom and then put the beans in and start stirring, first crack was 8 minutes and second crack was 12 minutes element set at 4 with top of 6. Not easy to buy green beans in NZ, I'm going back to where I bought the first kg for more and will write what I bought lol...

[AzRoger]

I've been roasting coffee beans at home for over 5 years now, if any questions ask away. I started out using a Whirley Pop popcorn popper just to see if it was something that was worth pursuing then upgraded to a Behmor coffee roaster. I roast enough to fill a 16 oz mason jar, about 14 oz of green beans, and use a burr grinder when ready to make a cup. I use an Aeropress coffee maker, very simple to use and easy to customize the coffee to your liking.  Need a good exhaust fan if roasting indoors, it will create smoke and probably set off your smoke alarms if you don't have a way of exhausting the smoke to the outdoors.

Edited December 11, 2022 by AzRoger

[Bang60]

4 hours ago, AzRoger said:

I've been roasting coffee beans at home for over 5 years now, if any questions ask away. I started out using a Whirley Pop popcorn popper just to see if it was something that was worth pursuing then upgraded to a Behmor coffee roaster. I roast enough to fill a 16 oz mason jar, about 14 oz of green beans, and use a burr grinder when ready to make a cup. I use an Aeropress coffee maker, very simple to use and easy to customize the coffee to your liking.  Need a good exhaust fan if roasting indoors, it will create smoke and probably set off your smoke alarms if you don't have a way of exhausting the smoke to the outdoors.

I bought a kg of green beans from the same guy this morning plus I bought a small mocha to try his roasting grinding and his barista skills, the only difference is his has a stronger coffee taste which I expected because I don't like the strong coffee taste as it's more likely to be bitter. I actually prefer it at about 70% strength, what's the colour like on my roasted beans? I wonder how much longer I can roast before the beans are ruined, that's the first time I've kept a record of what the roasts time table is. Your thoughts would be appreciated, cheers Colin..

[Peaksy68]

I’ve been roasting using a Corretto style homemade roaster, which is a bread maker to stir the beans and a heat gun for heat. I’ve got a USB thermocouple probe and software from a local (Australian) roaster and website, Coffeesnobs. 
 

I roast 600g green in a batch, finish with 500g. I prefer the flavours I get with a more gentle roast, about 13 minutes to first crack, another 4 or so to second crack. I pull the beans and cool about 30 seconds into second crack.

 

Next time I roast I’ll try to remember to take a photo of my setup.

[Peaksy68]

50 minutes ago, Bang60 said:

I bought a kg of green beans from the same guy this morning plus I bought a small mocha to try his roasting grinding and his barista skills, the only difference is his has a stronger coffee taste which I expected because I don't like the strong coffee taste as it's more likely to be bitter. I actually prefer it at about 70% strength, what's the colour like on my roasted beans? I wonder how much longer I can roast before the beans are ruined, that's the first time I've kept a record of what the roasts time table is. Your thoughts would be appreciated, cheers Colin..

I wouldn’t be taking it any darker, looks like your starting to get some burnt beans (might just be the photo)  I’m sensitive to charred flavours so try to avoid them. I had to adjust my roasts after getting a new espresso machine as it gave slightly different flavours than the old one, and the charred character stood out.

[AzRoger]

It looks to me like you're getting a very uneven roast, some very dark (black) beans and some light, from a good roast they should all be a consistent color. Those black beans are probably over cooked and may be given you that strong bitter taste. I prefer a lighter roast, beans will come out brown to dark brown, but they should be nearly all the same shade. Never used a frying pan to roast but you will need to stir constantly during the roast. When I use my Behmor I stop the roast and enter cooling just before 2nd crack starts, about 3 minutes after first crack. From your time chart it looks to me like you're roasting too long, try stopping as soon as you enter second crack. I bet you're creating a lot of smoke

Edited December 12, 2022 by AzRoger

[Bang60]

5 hours ago, Peaksy68 said:

I’ve been roasting using a Corretto style homemade roaster, which is a bread maker to stir the beans and a heat gun for heat. I’ve got a USB thermocouple probe and software from a local (Australian) roaster and website, Coffeesnobs. 
 

I roast 600g green in a batch, finish with 500g. I prefer the flavours I get with a more gentle roast, about 13 minutes to first crack, another 4 or so to second crack. I pull the beans and cool about 30 seconds into second crack.

 

Next time I roast I’ll try to remember to take a photo of my setup.

Ahhh this is closer to my usual colour, I was concerned it wasn't dark enough and about the time to first crack so upped the heat as I've seen utube video doing the roast quicker than me. I'll slow down the speed with my next roast which will be in a week if yesterday's roast is ok. Appreciate your comments, cheers Colin..

[Bang60]

5 hours ago, AzRoger said:

It looks to me like you're getting a very uneven roast, some very dark (black) beans and some light, from a good roast they should all be a consistent color. Those black beans are probably over cooked and may be given you that strong bitter taste. I prefer a lighter roast, beans will come out brown to dark brown, but they should be nearly all the same shade. Never used a frying pan to roast but you will need to stir constantly during the roast. When I use my Behmor I stop the roast and enter cooling just before 2nd crack starts, about 3 minutes after first crack. From your time chart it looks to me like you're roasting too long, try stopping as soon as you enter second crack. I bet you're creating a lot of smoke

Yeah wondering about the colour difference, I'm not sure if there's lots of smoke but from what I've seen on utube I'm thinking it's not too bad. I'm going to try separating the black beans from rest and see what the difference is in taste, appreciate your comments, cheers Colin...

[Peaksy68]

My beans tend to be a bit uneven in colour, but I blend a few different beans pre roast. One of them (Ethiopian Harrar) is almost impossible to get even colour, even if I roast it separately. It still tastes great though.
If you’re beans are all the same (most likely are) as @AzRogersays, aim for more consistent colour. Inconsistent stirring is most likely the issue.

[GolfSpy_APH]

And following! 

Not one to roast any myself, but a coffee addict!

[Kenny B]

5 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

And following! 

Not one to roast any myself, but a coffee addict!

Same!  Although I only have two cups off coffee each morning, I grind beans and brew with a Technivorm Moccamaster.  

[GolfSpy_APH]

Just now, Kenny B said:

Same!  Although I only have two cups off coffee each morning, I grind beans and brew with a Technivorm Moccamaster.  

You have more will power than me. I have 2 before i leave the house and if I'm working an event like I am now I'm at about 12-20 a day.

[NoCoGolfer]

I was roasting for the past 3 years and then we made a move to a townhouse near the golf course and sold the roaster when we sold the house in June 22. Looking for the next roasting location and a bigger roaster? 

 

 

[Kenny B]

13 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

You have more will power than me. I have 2 before i leave the house and if I'm working an event like I am now I'm at about 12-20 a day.

That was me 30 years ago!  When I was traveling for work, flying from west coast to east coast, I had meetings and interviews at 0800 (0500 for me), so I started drinking coffee to stay awake.  Never used to drink it.  When I got back to my office, my office neighbor had a pot on all day, so I kept drinking.  Also, 10 years traveling to Russia I got used to reeeaaaly strong coffee!!  At some point (don't remember exactly), I had trouble sleeping at night.  I stopped drinking coffee after noon; that helped... then I only had coffee for breakfast.  Been doing that for about 15 years.  I switched to hot tea in the afternoon.

[Caddie1966]

Way too much work and thought process for me.  I just drink the stuff.  When I was working it was my drug of choice.  I’d find a good brew and keep drinking it.  Up to 10 12 oz mugs a day.  Since retiring have cut back to 2 in the morning and one after dinner.  Never ever enjoyed Starbucks, tasted burnt to me.  I like a smoother cup.

[AzRoger]

3 hours ago, NoCoGolfer said:

I was roasting for the past 3 years and then we made a move to a townhouse near the golf course and sold the roaster when we sold the house in June 22. Looking for the next roasting location and a bigger roaster? 

IMG_0883.MOV 3.59 MB · 0 downloads  

 

That's one serious coffee roaster, won't even ask what something like that cost. Do you run/own a coffee business?

[doubleduhric]

5 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Same!  Although I only have two cups off coffee each morning, I grind beans and brew with a Technivorm Moccamaster.  

Zojirushi fresh brew... half the price... i've had to replace more than one expensive alternative due to hard water build up. Never can remember the de-scaler. Finally bought an under-sink purifier though. 

[Kenny B]

2 hours ago, doubleduhric said:

Zojirushi fresh brew... half the price... i've had to replace more than one expensive alternative due to hard water build up. Never can remember the de-scaler. Finally bought an under-sink purifier though. 

I've had the Moccamaster for 10 years with no issues.  I use de-scaler every time I buy a new filter pack.  It looks as good as the day I bought it; tested the outlet temp and it's 201º.

[Kenny B]

7 hours ago, Caddie1966 said:

Way too much work and thought process for me.  I just drink the stuff.  When I was working it was my drug of choice.  I’d find a good brew and keep drinking it.  Up to 10 12 oz mugs a day.  Since retiring have cut back to 2 in the morning and one after dinner.  Never ever enjoyed Starbucks, tasted burnt to me.  I like a smoother cup.

I agree on Starbucks.  I just don't see what people like about it; much better options IMHO.

[Caddie1966]

In addition to the taste, Starbucks prices were way too high based on what’s available elsewhere. 

[Bang60]

On 12/12/2022 at 4:08 PM, NoCoGolfer said:

I was roasting for the past 3 years and then we made a move to a townhouse near the golf course and sold the roaster when we sold the house in June 22. Looking for the next roasting location and a bigger roaster? 

 

Hey dude that's something special, I'm a poor pensioner and I'm SURE wifey will make me a dead pensioner were I to buy that expensive setup lol.. fully sick y'all...

[Bang60]

On 12/11/2022 at 11:20 AM, golferguy2727 said:

I’m with you

Every cup of espresso based drinks for me is made with freshly ground beans (specialista mignonette grinder) that have been freshly roasted within the past two to three days .  A local coffee shop gets me green Honduran beans and I roast 8ozs of beans at a time in my Behnor roaster.  The roaster isn’t cheap but it’s consistent, easy to use and reliable which helps me achieve a consistently high drink quality for my addiction. For brewing, I use either an old Brasilia century single group HX machine (a beauty with some small issues) or my Nuova Simonelli Oscar HX machine.

For drip coffee, I roast a variety of beans as above, grind them more coarsely through an Technivorm Grinder and brew them through the Technivorm Moccamaster machine - a sublime cup of drip coffee.

For better or worse, my golf habits and coffee habits have gone down appropriately similar rabbit holes in pursuit of knowledge and aspiration - I confess learning to do good coffee has been far easier than playing good golf.  But as they say, the taste is judged by the drinker - which could bring me to the scotch discussion next ….

Bought another kg of green beans yesterday, found out there a blend of 3-4 varieties. I guess that's why the colour is not even plus US$19 per kg there not the best quality, but there ok for my learning process. I never got into drinking scotch as the rubbish my friends bought I couldn't stand the taste yuk but I didn't have a taste for beer either, I preferred to seduce the ladies with a nice red Wine which I admit was the secret of my success and I had a much better percentage than all my friends LOL...

[Bang60]

12 hours ago, Caddie1966 said:

Way too much work and thought process for me.  I just drink the stuff.  When I was working it was my drug of choice.  I’d find a good brew and keep drinking it.  Up to 10 12 oz mugs a day.  Since retiring have cut back to 2 in the morning and one after dinner.  Never ever enjoyed Starbucks, tasted burnt to me.  I like a smoother cup.

I was the same but only because that annoying habit called WORK got in the way lol, but I've never had problems sleeping I think because I was abit tired after late night dancing...

Enough said yeh...

[Bang60]

5 hours ago, Caddie1966 said:

In addition to the taste, Starbucks prices were way too high based on what’s available elsewhere. 

I have to disagree Starbucks coffee particularly in Sydney was very good, the problem was the barista and imho it's an art to brewing a nice coffee. Unfortunately most so called baristas are trained in the shop by the owner and don't get to practice much, I went to coffee school which gives you 4 hours making all the varieties of coffee flat white or cappuccino etc with no restrictions on how many beans or milk you use. The owner of the shop is looking at how much money he's lost so his staff has no idea how to heat and froth the milk and the customers you and I pay for crap coffee until they learn, I made a point of returning the coffee and say it's not what I asked for then someone else who knows how to make it makes it...

[NoCoGolfer]

@ AzRoger.

The roasting was just a hobby. When you realize what quality bulk green coffee costs and how much better it tastes. You realize quickly that there are a few cheap ways to roast you own coffee at home. I usually purchased my beans at  https://www.sweetmarias.com

I took a few classes on line during Covid to dial in using the roaster and understanding the software and roasting profiles.

You can pick up a roaster like that directly from the manufacturer for the price of about 2 sets of new irons + a little bit to get the paper work filed to get it to the USA . There are a few online forums that sell used roasters and they vary from $2500 to $6000 in that size range. Bigger gets steeper fast. Still contemplating going down the road of an online roasting business?? 

[Caddie1966]

9 hours ago, Bang60 said:

I have to disagree Starbucks coffee particularly in Sydney was very good, the problem was the barista and imho it's an art to brewing a nice coffee. Unfortunately most so called baristas are trained in the shop by the owner and don't get to practice much, I went to coffee school which gives you 4 hours making all the varieties of coffee flat white or cappuccino etc with no restrictions on how many beans or milk you use. The owner of the shop is looking at how much money he's lost so his staff has no idea how to heat and froth the milk and the customers you and I pay for crap coffee until they learn, I made a point of returning the coffee and say it's not what I asked for then someone else who knows how to make it makes it...

I traveled weekly across the US for 30+ years and had Starbucks in at least 35 states. Traveled heavily internationally for 20 of those years too.   Same everywhere. Although I didn’t get to Australia or New Zealand, but did make it to 30 countries in Europe, Asia and South America.  When Starbucks was the only choice, I’d drink the Americano and fix my own cream.   Never got into the paragraph long descriptions of exotic half this, half that, quarter this, 3 quarters that lattes, mochas and the rest.  Just not my cup of Joe.  I’m a straight coffee  drinker.  Like you, I could and still can drink coffee until bed time and sleep without issue.  

[Bang60]

6 hours ago, Caddie1966 said:

I traveled weekly across the US for 30+ years and had Starbucks in at least 35 states. Traveled heavily internationally for 20 of those years too.   Same everywhere. Although I didn’t get to Australia or New Zealand, but did make it to 30 countries in Europe, Asia and South America.  When Starbucks was the only choice, I’d drink the Americano and fix my own cream.   Never got into the paragraph long descriptions of exotic half this, half that, quarter this, 3 quarters that lattes, mochas and the rest.  Just not my cup of Joe.  I’m a straight coffee  drinker.  Like you I could and still can drink coffee until bed time and sleep without issue.  

You didn't miss much missing coffee in NZ lol, they went with "free pour" when adding milk. You'll have a hard time trying get a flat white right with the right level of froth lol, I can't remember the number of times I returned my coffee because it's crap...

[Bang60]

Roasted 3 days ago and WOW that's the best by far roast I've done so far, I did the milk close to perfect as well as that makes or ruins the best coffee. Nice crema, milk not too frothy aaaahh. I bought another machine because my old breville stopped making good crema, I have a 10 year old Delonghi that I keep for emergency use so was in Kmart and saw a anko machine for $109 in the Xmas sale so got it. I'm so surprised how good it works, extraction is very good and heating the milk is great.