Roast Your Own!!

I love coffee!!

Good Coffee...

So when I found it hard to find my favorite mix, Mocha Java, I decided to take the plunge and order green beans and roast my own.

I'm using a Poppery II hot air popcorn popper, which I recommend to anyone who wants to try roasting their own. Check out yard sales, Ebay, etc, you can usually find a good Poppery II for much less than a dedicated coffee roaster. It has a solid metal surface at the bottom of the roasting chamber, instead of a mesh. Air vents ring the perimeter of the metal surface.

A lot of people recommend replacing the plastic housing with a soup can that has both lids removed. The soup can does fit perfectly over the opening, but I use mine with the plastic top on. It helps direct the chaff into the garbage bag I position under the exhaust opening at the side of the plastic housing. The little plastic door right on the top did melt. I pulled it off and use a small piece of wood to cover the hole. That way I can move it aside when I need quick access to the roasting beans, and still have most of the chaff end up in the bag and not all over the place.

Roasting coffee beans give off steam, smoke, and chaff, so you may want to roast outside, weather permitting; or use a good exhaust fan set-up. Procure a shallow cooling pan or two of metal. Measure out about 1/2 cup of green beans, no more.

Plug in the Poppery II, and after about 15 seconds pour in the green beans and note the time. The beans should start to slowly swirl around in the roasting chamber. Too few beans end up jumping around too much. Too many, they don't move enough and some burn. Place the lid over the top. Every minute or so for the first 3 minutes take off the lid and stir the beans with a large wooden spoon [to avoid electrical shock]. This will let the chaff blow off better.

I have noticed that Poppery II units can vary quite noticeably in roasting time. When you first start using yours you will have to calibrate it. Some time after about 3 minutes you will begin to hear loud pops. That is called the first crack. The water inside the beans is vaporizing and forcing its way out.

My Poppery II roasted to first crack at exactly 3 minutes, and the beans were getting brown at 5 minutes. I thought that was too fast, meaning the temperature was too high. I wanted to lower the temperature and increase the roasting time. Without hacking the unit, one way to lower the temperature is to use a real long extension cord. This is a brute force way of lowering the voltage and increasing the roasting time. This increased my time to first crack to about 5 minutes. And now I was roasting to about 8 minutes.

Roasting transforms the green coffee bean. It loses about 18% of its weight and expands about 50 to 100%. Once roasted, the coffee bean continues to “degas”, emitting CO2.

If you continue roasting you approach the second crack. The oils in the beans cook and migrate to the surface of the beans, giving them a shiny, glossy, black surface. A second crack occurs, not as loud as the first.

Lighter roasts feature the flavors created in the bean by the soil and weather conditions in the location where it was grown. Hawaiian Kona, Java and Jamaican Blue Mountain are usually lightly roasted. This allows their signature characteristics to dominate the taste and flavor. As the beans are cooked more their inherent flavors are overwhelmed by those created by the roasting process itself. Then the roast flavor is so pronounced that it can be difficult to tell what beans were used.

When you think the beans are done enough, unplug the Poppery [or turn off the power strip it is plugged into] and quickly pour the beans into the shallow metal cooling trays. Move them around a little and pour into another pan. Repeat until cool.

Roasted beans are best the next day. This gives them time to devent Carbon Dioxide gas and mellow. I use small mason jars to store them. I write down the roasting time on a small slip of paper I throw in each jar, for now. I am still experimenting with roasting time.

Green beans should be stored in a non-airtight container in a cool, dark place. They can last a year. Roasted beans should be stored in air tight containers after the first 12 hours or so.

Only roast enough for the next few days.

Next I'll be trying one of the inexpensive roasters that will lower the temperature even more. I've heard that can reduce acidity.