Posts filed under 'Roasting'
While I love the iRoast2 coffee roaster I bought from Sweet Maria’s, it can really only roast around a quarter of a pound at a time, and I often want to roast more. That’s where the Diedrich Home Roaster comes in. Diedrich specializes in commercial-grade coffee roasters, and at first glance, that’s what this “home roaster” appears to be - a scaled-down version of a larger industrial-grade machine. Which is just fine by me! I imagine my wife won’t want this sitting on the kitchen countertop though. That and the fact that it costs $3800 means I probably won’t be picking one up for a while, but it’s definitely on my list of coffee equipment to get someday.
June 6th, 2007
Ever wondered why coffee roaster instructions usually/always say to never leave the machine unattended? Check out this story of someone who did just that. I’m not trying to be critical though; I’ve done this myself though not with such drastic results. In my case, the move from sea level to 8500 feet elevation caught be off guard, with roasting times almost cut in half with the old roasting temperature profile I was using.
June 4th, 2007
I recently moved from near sea-level (200 foot elevation, I think), to a more extreme elevation in the mountains of Colorado - approximately 8500 foot elevation. Naturally, when unpacking, finding the coffee roaster was a priority, and I eagerly dropped some green beans in to replenish my supply as I was almost out. With the roasting profile I’m accustomed to using, a typical roast would take twelve to fifteen minutes. Since my roaster is in my garage, I decided to work on unpacking boxes while the coffee roasted.
Enjoying the smell of roasting coffee, I set to work organizing the garage. A very, very short time later, I caught a whiff of that not so pleasant smell of smoking coffee beans. I glanced at the roaster and saw a steady stream of thick smoke pouring out the the top vent! I rushed over to stop the roast, but by then it was of course too late (for my tastes, at least). Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve burnt coffee beans, but the amazing thing was that it happened in about SIX MINUTES. I was shocked. That batch was promptly dumped out, and I tried to roast some again, this time never straying more than a few feet during the roasting. The results were similar, and incredibly rapid roast that this time I fortunately caught in time.
I tried roasting a different bean and got the same results. I quickly concluded that it was most likely a factor of altitude, and a Google search confirmed my suspicions. Seems ‘high altitude coffee roasting’ is defined as anything about 3000 feet. My 8500 foot elevation is an extreme example of this! Anyway, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about this subject:
High altitude coffee roasting is a method of roasting coffee at an altitude of 3,000 feet or higher.
In roasting coffee, high altitude allows for quicker roast development at a lower temperature, avoiding the two most common problems of roasting coffee: baking, and scorching. Baking coffee occurs when it is roasted too long, causing inadequate structural expansion and resulting in flavor that is flat and lacks intensity. Scorching coffee occurs when coffee beans are roasted at too high of a temperature causing lack of development and resulting in flavor that is wild and woody. In roasting coffee, heat should be applied at both the lowest temperature possible and for the shortest possible amount of time. High altitude roasting helps accomplish that objective.
I had spent years refining my roasting temperature profiles to get the perfect roast - though my machine couldn’t put out quite enough power, hence the long roast times (I consider 10-12 minutes until the second crack to be ideal, but found I had to push that to 14-15 minutes). Now, I’m back to square one! Time to redo roasting profiles and figure out what is best at these higher elevations. It’ll be a fun process, one that I’ll document here at Coffeeopolis from time to time.
April 10th, 2007
We first reported on solar coffee roasting last year (see this story). Well, what started as an experiment in Oregon has moved to sunny Pueblo, Colorado, and has evolved into a business, Solar Roast, that uses solar power to roast up to fifty pounds of coffee a day. Actually, the coffee roasting facility is on nearby St. Charles Mesa; the cafe at 226 Main Street is just where they sell the coffee, along with the usual bagels and pastries you’d expect. Read more here.
March 26th, 2007
So, why roast your own coffee, you ask? The reasons are plentiful. You get the freshest coffee possible (which makes a HUGE difference, believe me), complete control over the roasting process and exactly how long the beans are roasted (allowing you to fine tune the roast for your personal tastes), and the added bonus of actually saving money! Yes, unroasted (green) beans cost around five dollars a pound, and once roasted, are comparable to the best beans you’ll find anywhere else. Well, assuming you did a good job of roasting them, that is. There ARE times when mistakes happen, and the result is a mess of shiny pitch black beans that are undrinkable. Mistakes are rare though; usually an error results in a coffee that just isn’t quite as good as you’d like.
Anyway, back to the point, there’s yet another home coffee roasting writeup over at Squidoo that’s worth checking out.
(Via LifeHacker.)
January 9th, 2007
I gotta admire the persistence exhibited by the developer of the UglyRoast coffee roaster, a home-grown coffee roasting contraption. The project ended with the purchase of an off the shelf coffee roaster, but the website is still a good read for those of you interested in building your own. You can check it out at the UglyRoast homepage.
December 29th, 2006
The island of Kauai draws many for its lush green landscapes (it’s where Jurassic Park, King Kong, and many other movies were partially filmed) and relatively low crowds. It drew me for its coffee. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but high on my itinerary of things to do was to visit the Kauai Coffee Company. Being a fan of roasting coffee at home, I knew I could stop by and pick up some fresh, green Kauai coffee beans as the perfect souvenir. Or so I thought. The first time we stopped by, they had none available. At their recommendation, we came back a few days later, and this time they were able to go bag some up for me (they didn’t have any on display in the retail shop). So, I got my green coffee beans! The resulting roast was enjoyable, not really all that distinctive, at least not like Kona, but a very good coffee at a good green bean price.
Even if you’re not into roasting coffee, the Kauai Coffee Company is worth a stop (see their website for directions). Surrounding the visitor’s center are acres and acres of mature coffee plants; it was impressive seeing these towering giants loaded with coffee cherries! The visitors center itself had a nicely stocked gift shop with t-shirts, postcards, etc. Oh, and plenty of roasted coffee beans, of course! My favorite feature though was the free coffee tasting set up in the back. They had maybe a dozen or so pumper pots full of freshly brewed coffee in all their different varieties. If it hadn’t been such a hot day when we were visiting, I would have stayed there all day! As it is, drinking hot coffee on a hot day isn’t something you really want to do long. 
If you’re vacation in Kauai, it’s definitely worth a stop!
December 10th, 2006
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