# I am free, I am free. Praise to Pensacola Tiger, I am free.



## 99Limited (Aug 15, 2014)

Some how my French Press question lead to home coffee roasting courtesy of PT. So with Pensacola Tiger's suggestion I bought a Behmor 1600 roaster, which in itself was no small feat since it's sold out at all but one online place and it took me a while to find them. I guess 1st-Line Equipment doesn't pay Google to push them up the results column. So anyway, got my roaster the next because the company is located here in Jersey, 30 miles from my house. Then I bought some good green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's and some practice beans from Amazon since I have a Prime membership and I could get that order quick. I got my practice beans today, unpacked the roaster and proceeded to roast my first batch of coffee. 

When you do something for the first time you're sometimes a little apprehensive because you don't know what to expect. Well my first batch of coffee was roasting away, getting near the end of the roasting cycle. I'm listening for the first crack and there it goes. Kind of sounds like Rice Krispies, takes me back to when I was a kid. Clock tic, tic... Then I remember reading, "Second crack will crackle faster than first crack. Don't go beyond 10 seconds into second crack." Oh s#!t Abort, abort. Well actually you just press the Cool button and let the machine do its thing. Ten minutes later, everything is cooled down and I take the beans out of the roaster. Well, the beans turned out better than I expected. Actually I didn't know what to expect. 

I compared my freshly roasted beans against the beans that I had on hand. My beans weren't quite as dark, but not bad for the try. Let's do this again. Second batch goes in, turn on the machine, start roasting. Then I remembered watching a video on how to circumvent the machine's timer limitation. So I thought, okay first batch wasn't long enough, let's go for it!!! After all, I'm standing right there. So I extend the time and we're roasting away. Aw, there's the Rice Krispies sound again. Don't touch anything. After all what's the worst that can happen, burn the house down. So sure enough the Rice Krispies sound subsides and the next thing I know there's this softer, faster crackling sound, kind of like the sound a campfire makes when you stir the embers. So there's the second crack. Press the Cool button and wait. 

Do you believe in Beginner's Luck? I sure in the hell do. Second batch looks pretty good. I'll find out in the morning. Will batch number three turn out the same? Probably not.

So rahimlee54, you were wondering if there was a learning curve. There can be if you want to get complicated with your roasting, but you don't have to. And for any of you that have thought about home coffee roasting. Do it. No more grocery store coffee, no more trekking to the local roaster. 

Thanks PT for putting that bug in my ear. I am now free from the mediocre grocery coffee and high priced specialty coffee roasters. :bliss:


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## knyfeknerd (Aug 15, 2014)

The KKF mod team eagerly awaits some of your homebrew(or homeroast) for a taste test!


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## rami_m (Aug 15, 2014)

I had a look at this and thought, this can't be good for my wallet. The problem with a forum full of foodies is that you have so many good ideas and people are full of helpful advise.


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## apicius9 (Aug 15, 2014)

Congratulations! Had had that on my list for a long time, great to hear it works that well! I had a smaller roaster for a while, but never was really happy with it. Around last Christmas it was a toss-up between Behmor coffee roaster or Cuisinart ice cream maker - so, now I am eating excellent ice cream  But next Christmas is coming up fast... If it only were easier to get green beans out here, officially it's illegal to send them here (protecting the Kona growers). Anyway, keep reporting on how it turns out. 

Stefan


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## 99Limited (Aug 15, 2014)

apicius9 said:


> ..., officially it's illegal to send them here (protecting the Kona growers).
> 
> Stefan



When I first read that, I thought that sounded a little monopolistic until I got to digging around. I guess it kind of sux to not get things that we on the mainland take for granted. But protecting the coffee trees from pests and diseases that can be found in green coffee beans is serious business. I guess that's the price for living in paradise.


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## Pensacola Tiger (Aug 15, 2014)

Aw, shucks.

Welcome to the community of home roasters!


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## Vesteroid (Aug 19, 2014)

My advice is dont stop there. There are significant nuances to be found by altering your roast profiles, and bean selection. Dont settle for the I pressed a button and out came good coffee. More fun awaits.


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## 99Limited (Aug 19, 2014)

Well one thing I have already figured out. Even though you might unlock the best roasting profile for a coffee, you might not be able to buy anymore for the year once you've run out. And who's to say next year's crop will cup the same as this year's crop. What I'm hoping will happen is I will find someone who's cupping notes I can depend on and then buy enough of those beans to last. Currently I go through 2 lbs every 7 to 10 days. Nice thing about buying green beans is they keep for a relatively long time and buying in bulk drives the price per pound down to very affordable rates.


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## Vesteroid (Aug 19, 2014)

Only suggestion I have is a few of the guys on green coffee buyers club. I have been buying their coffee and roasting to their profiles (plus or minus my human error) for a couple of months now, and I find them pretty close. you can also easily buy enough quantity that way....most of those guys have a 25lb max on special orders


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## mkriggen (Aug 19, 2014)

I'm kinda spoiled living on the Kona side of Hawaii. I just drive down on Friday afternoon and meet up with this lady in a pickup truck outside of Costco. The farm she works for roasts the beans Friday morning and she sells some of them Friday, Sat, and Wed afternoons. Very convenient.

Be well,
Mikey


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## rami_m (Aug 19, 2014)

Here in Sydney, we are blessed with a lot of Italians. There is no real need to roast our own coffee. Haven't tried Melbourne coffee yet, people keep arguing about whether Sydney's is same or less quality. 

I understand why you may want to roast your own. I read some horror stories about US coffees.


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## Zwiefel (Aug 19, 2014)

The coffee in Melbourne is amazing. I was there for 2 weeks and couldn't drink coffee in the US for 6 months....that was almost 10 years ago and I still think about it and miss it a couple of times/month. <sigh>




rami_m said:


> Here in Sydney, we are blessed with a lot of Italians. There is no real need to roast our own coffee. Haven't tried Melbourne coffee yet, people keep arguing about whether Sydney's is same or less quality.
> 
> I understand why you may want to roast your own. I read some horror stories about US coffees.


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## 99Limited (Aug 19, 2014)

rami_m said:


> Here in Sydney, we are blessed with a lot of Italians. ...



When did that become a good thing??? :scratchhead: 

Loved my Italian neighbor. Taught me a more about Italian cooking in the five years I got to enjoy his company than what I had learned in my previous 55 years.


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## rami_m (Aug 19, 2014)

99Limited said:


> When did that become a good thing??? :scratchhead:
> 
> Loved my Italian neighbor. Taught me a more about Italian cooking in the five years I got to enjoy his company than what I had learned in my previous 55 years.



It is historical, Australia had an influx of Greeks and Italians post war. They brought their coffee roasting know how with them. ( at least that's what I read in the coffee mag waiting for my short black  )


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## 99Limited (Aug 23, 2014)

Vesteroid said:


> Only suggestion I have is a few of the guys on green coffee buyers club. I have been buying their coffee and roasting to their profiles (plus or minus my human error) for a couple of months now, and I find them pretty close. you can also easily buy enough quantity that way....most of those guys have a 25lb max on special orders



Thanks for your suggestion, I think. Bought a couple of offerings. One of which turned out to cost $20lb delivered and I bought 5lbs. I'm going to set that back while I'm learning the in's and out's of my roasting machine.


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## DDPslice (Sep 14, 2014)

Welcome to the roasting world! Just remember 2 day rest after fresh roasting, up to 7 days sometimes. And each bean varies on how light or dark it should be so don't compare one strain to another, only to itself. Coffee is very much like wine so the same bean from the same farm can vary on the amount you roast from season to season. Keep a roast journal, I thought my friend was yanking my chain when he suggested it but logging results and thoughts really helps. Also if you can invest in a really good grinder and pour over set you'll be able to notice more nuances within the coffee. I also frequent coffee houses even though I have my whole setup because although I'm not working in coffee anymore it's still nice to taste other crafters productions. always learning is my m.o.


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