Why do you home roast?

K_Bean_Coffee

Why?

To save $?
To have fresh beans whenever you want them?
To play with roast profiles and blends?
Because you like the roasting smell?
Because you like to run your hands through the warm beans?

For me it's all of the above.

What got you started?

Simon

Good question, and yeah similar, I think initially it was realising how much cheaper it was haha, but then I really started enjoying it and honestly keep doing it to learn more about coffee, which I definitely have! Even starting with the popper was a great learning experience for sure. Even after 230 roasts (..... yeah I went through and counted all the ones I'd recorded.. which is all of them haha..), I still feel like an amateur to be honest haha, but it's been great. And in all that time, I've NEVER even done a blend! Just feel like I need to understand and perfect the single origin before I try that... But might just go for it Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Cuir Beluga

I started mainly due to lack of fresh beans being available around here without having to jump through hoops. I was ordering online from interstate but if I ran out it was a major headache trying to source some to tide me over. Add to that, it gives me something to do  :coffee2:.

madaxle

Initially it was to save some cash and it is still today. But the longer I roast the more interesting it gets learning new flavours and bean blends. Like my latest roast is 13 /3 Ethiopian, Mexican and Indonesian and it's a bloody ripper. I feel that a lot of coffee you buy at shops doesn't taste as nice. Maybe because I am playing with different profiles and beans where as a cafe wants the same consistency and flavour every time......but we only live once so have some fun

211bma

I'm a nerd, and I also draw, paint, and play classical guitar. One of my favorite things to nerd out about is food as both halves of my twisted noodle can play nicely with each other. Food (coffee) is both art and science. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Simon

Haha nice yeah I've been learning  nonclassical guitar over the past 6 months or so (coming from classical piano which has been quite hard to break that traditional strict approach :P). But yeah nice balance there with the ol hemispheres Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

K_Bean_Coffee

Another question I could ask is "why don't you home roast?" It's so simple and has so many pluses. Anyone who doesn't roast should  just run out and buy a $30 popcorn maker right now IMHO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Brett H

Great thread and great responses.  My reason is that it was cheaper and being time-poor a far more convenient way to ensure that we always had fresh beans! 

Simon

on 1501048499:

Another question I could ask is "why don't you home roast?" It's so simple and has so many pluses. Anyone who doesn't roast should  just run out and buy a $30 popcorn maker right now IMHO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Haha yeah I second that, the popper was alot of fun actually! [emoji1] Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

madaxle

on 1501051327:

Haha yeah I second that, the popper was alot of fun actually! [emoji1] Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

Yes i started out on a popper....you learn bloody fast when you only have 60-70g coffee being roasted in a couple of mins. then i moved up to Behmor 1600 which has been awesome little machine for the  past couple of years.  :stir :stir :stir :stir

Simon

Yeah same progression for me, and very true you learn fast on a popper, everything happens very quickly, but gave me such a good foundation for sure. I think roasting introduces such a great dimension and element to learning about coffee. You understand why certain coffees and roasting styles taste certain ways, and don't think I even heard about processing methods before i started roasting haha. And roasting isn't for everyone, and whilst I haven't gone nuts with it in terms of monitor software, probes, heat profiles and dropping heat at certain times etc etc (which is strange, because I'm so finicky with everything else coffee!), it's given alot of insight into what I love: brewing. Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

madaxle

on 1501066235:

Yeah same progression for me, and very true you learn fast on a popper, everything happens very quickly, but gave me such a good foundation for sure. I think roasting introduces such a great dimension and element to learning about coffee. You understand why certain coffees and roasting styles taste certain ways, and don't think I even heard about processing methods before i started roasting haha. And roasting isn't for everyone, and whilst I haven't gone nuts with it in terms of monitor software, probes, heat profiles and dropping heat at certain times etc etc (which is strange, because I'm so finicky with everything else coffee!), it's given alot of insight into what I love: brewing. Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

I keep a notebook (havent gone down the temp probe/software yet). The more detailed notes you take of temp outside, beans, crack, profile used, resting period time and taste at different resting period times the better. You get a great sense of your blends and what you can do with them.

Koffee_Kosmo

With me I have to say that I was taught to home roast by my grandmother back in the 60s She was a home roaster before this internet thing was even imagined I have always home roasted more for Greek / Turkish style coffee This was done in the African style in a pot or pan - and I perfected that technique A time came when I was getting more into espresso style coffee and needed to find a way to roast to that style and in larger quantities In the end I had to build my own roaster using my mechanical engineering background The KKTO Roaster was born - about 2008 That original roaster design is now approaching 3000 roasts and still using the same components Only the Turbo Oven was replaced / updated Now I roast 1 kg batches regularly and like experimenting to find unreal out of this world blends KK

Simon

on 1501114543:

I keep a notebook (havent gone down the temp probe/software yet). The more detailed notes you take of temp outside, beans, crack, profile used, resting period time and taste at different resting period times the better. You get a great sense of your blends and what you can do with them.

Yeah for sure I record every other factor that I can, and it's more a matter of 'guesstimating' when SC will occur based on past roasts, then subtract 30s or 1m from that time as my end time. (I rarely take beans to the first snaps of SC... Only do so as a gauge to know roughly how long after FC it occurs, but I never seem to get great results from many first-snap SC roasts...) Madaxle, I'm curious what your method is, do you record start of FC, end of FC, and stop your roasts at a certain time based on when you think SC will occur? And for sure it's different with each bean as to what point to stop the roast in between FC and SC... not to mention what profile to use which I still haven't gotten the hang of nor understand very well..

on 1501115255:

With me I have to say that I was taught to home roast by my grandmother back in the 60s She was a home roaster before this internet thing was even imagined I have always home roasted more for Greek / Turkish style coffee This was done in the African style in a pot or pan - and I perfected that technique A time came when I was getting more into espresso style coffee and needed to find a way to roast to that style and in larger quantities In the end I had to build my own roaster using my mechanical engineering background The KKTO Roaster was born - about 2008 That original roaster design is now approaching 3000 roasts and still using the same components Only the Turbo Oven was replaced / updated Now I roast 1 kg batches regularly and like experimenting to find unreal out of this world blends KK

Ah that's a cool story KK Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

211bma

on 1501048499:

Another question I could ask is "why don't you home roast?" It's so simple and has so many pluses. Anyone who doesn't roast should  just run out and buy a $30 popcorn maker right now IMHO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah, it's simple until it gets complicated! Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Simon

Hahahaha so true, always starts out simple then gets complicated [emoji23] Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

ThePiccoloChaser

I started out roasting mainly for practical reasons. Our coffee consumption was growing and home roasting sounded like it would be a cheaper option.  Haha. Fortuitously many years early at our wedding we had been given a suitable bread maker and so the roaster project was a step closer ... 🤡 Later after repurposing my camera tripod and getting a heat gun, temp probe and a cooling setup the roaster bug hit 🤣.  The world of trying all those different beans and tastes. Then it was the Behmor. Only much later on I gave the popcorn roaster a go for some fun. More recently I've been experimenting with the old Behmor and heat gun again to try a combo of radiated heat and more hot air. Interested in getting a larger capacity roaster  soon and dedicating that to my late mum who was a frequent spruiker of all her kids ventures. Certainly been a fun adventure so far.  Great to hear how others have gotten in to it.

Brett H

Hi TPC, what a wonderful homage that would be to your Mum and better yet, constructing a blend and naming it after her. It'd be a talking point and a way you could share her memory frequently... and share the sustenance she shared with you (by the sounds of it).

K_Bean_Coffee

....it seems a lot of people (inc me) start out to reduce their coffee cost by 75ish percent. ...then the joy of roasting (the hobby part) really grabs them Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

K_Bean_Coffee

What point do you guys (and gals) roast to? I'm usually around The Coffee Forum (TCF) 10-12. That's a new index for us. See pic below.

Koffee_Kosmo

Cost is certainly a factor at first However for me that cost saving is re purposed to obtain better or more diverse bean types KK

askthecoffeeguy

for me i spent years working in the wine industry where information about wine was plentiful and easily accessible chances are that whatever you need to know about wine can be found online or if you're lucky enough you can speak to the winemaker direct, and have all of your questions answered! the same couldnt have been said about coffee 10 years ago or even today many commercial blends and profiles were a closely guarded secret, and much of the coffee which is grown today is still done so in remote or low tech communities where information for outsiders is hard to come by so i started to roast my own so that I could develop my own palate and a sense of appreciation for what I was tasting, plus so i could gain a greater understanding of the roasting process plus if you're consuming 500g per week for personal use then it soon becomes obvious that roasting your own is much cheaper than "dining out" also it has an undeniable 'geek' factor which i love - I mean how deep is the well and how deep do you want to go? coz there's no end to this coffee journey just fabulous new beginnings! P

Brett H

on 1501465286:

What point do you guys (and gals) roast to? I'm usually around The Coffee Forum (TCF) 10-12. That's a new index for us. See pic below.

Ooooo..... Nice!!  I roast between TCF12-14 depending on the bean largely because that's what tastes best in my Lever. 

Simon

2. I love dem mowed lawn grass notes. .... XD Nah probably about.. between 8 and 12 for espresso I'd say... I can't seem to get decent results hitting the first snaps of SC, too much 'darkroasty' flavours  (a term I potentially coined? Haha), so that range seems good. 5-8 for filter roasts. Wow... that 16..... that'd put a pep in your step... (And great pic by the way... aaaand saved!)

Simon

on 1501467434:

so i started to roast my own so that I could develop my own palate and a sense of appreciation for what I was tasting, plus so i could gain a greater understanding of the roasting process plus if you're consuming 500g per week for personal use then it soon becomes obvious that roasting your own is much cheaper than "dining out" also it has an undeniable 'geek' factor which i love - I mean how deep is the well and how deep do you want to go? coz there's no end to this coffee journey just fabulous new beginnings! P

Well said mate. Its a fascinating world! Honestly it blows me away just thinking about the entire journey that the bean goes through, and it's awesome to think of being the last point at the end of the whole chain brewing it into its final result and to be finally enjoyed, that whoooole process was exactly for THAT very moment of drinking and enjoying it. Its really quite cool, and I think elevates and almost sanctifies the experience of drinking coffee even more

Simon

Sorry for three consecutive posts haha, but thought I'd post something here if interested. I entered a competition a couple of years back, and the question was "What makes a good coffee?" I didn't win the comp, came runner up I think and won few beans, but I answered: "What makes a good coffee? The farmers who grow it, the pickers who pick it by hand when it's ripe, the processers who process it, the people who rake or turn the coffee every 6 hours for even drying, the cleaners who clean it, the sorters who sort it, the graders who grade it, the roasters who roast it to perfection, the barista who prepares and extracts it with dedication, and lastly, the coffee that's consumed . Every step is important, and when the bean is treated with such respect, is allowed for it's full true potential and characteristics to shine. Different coffees are simply different from each other, neither better nor worse, each displaying the characteristics of its whole journey. But the end product, after its long line of preparation, shows how much love is put into each step, and the beverage appreciated at the end reflects that ."

211bma

It depends on the coffee, but I guess 10-13. I have this same chart on a postcard from the company I buy the lions share of beans from. Right now I am at the end of a 20 lb bag of Guatemala that I like around 11 about 45 seconds into first crack. Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

K_Bean_Coffee

on 1501488355:

"What makes a good coffee? The farmers who grow it, the pickers who pick it by hand when it's ripe, the processers who process it, the people who rake or turn the coffee every 6 hours for even drying, the cleaners who clean it, the sorters who sort it, the graders who grade it, the roasters who roast it to perfection, the barista who prepares and extracts it with dedication, and lastly, the coffee that's consumed

Hi Simon, A FANTASTIC book to get hold of is "God in a Cup." It's the Coffee Bible (pun intended)

Simon

AH will definitely look into that ;D cheers!

askthecoffeeguy

I'm drinking a local blend at the moment roasted by a local roaster which I hated in the cup less than one week post roast but now 10 days plus post roast and the blend has flipped from sour and bitter to silky and sweet - it's a bit like bottle maturation of s fine wine but a much faster process ! i love all of the subtle nuances of coffee and how one man's pleasure can be another man's poison, but also all of the fine attributes that need to be attended to and adjusted for along the way ! ACG

Simon

It's incredible the difference rest can make! One coffee I roasted was barely drinkable the first 5 days or so post-roast, left it until day 8 and it was a WORLD of difference... And yet other beans are fine to drink from day 2 haha funny that! But it truly is fun, patience I'm finding is paramount XD