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Comment by 6keZbCECT2uB | Hacker News Reader

First off, what makes you happy is its own reason. I think what makes these communities tick isn't about going for what's fashionable, but enthusiasm however that might take form.

Personally, I started liking really dark roasts in a French Press which pushes it even further. But, I learned that what I was looking for were chocolate and earth notes, and that the roast wasn't an especially good predictor of the intensity of those flavors. I had good coffee gear specialty shops that did flights for purchasing beans, and Starbucks Reserve (with some hits and misses) for getting more variety in flights.

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> But, I learned that what I was looking for were chocolate and earth notes, and that the roast wasn't an especially good predictor of the intensity of those flavors.

And in fact, dark roasts are more likely to obscure those flavors.

Too light a roast and you'll get too much floral/grass, too dark and you'll get too much of a burned flavor, for obvious reasons.

The brew method also plays a big part, which is why dark (ish) roasts do better with cold brew than hot brews for pulling out the beans flavors.

I typically do a medium roast with no oily sheen to them and it serves me well. A honey-wash might take more roasting while keeping its flavor, though I haven't figured out why.

Roasting at home also saves a ton of money and the beans can last two years in storage versus a few weeks post-roast.

> I typically do a medium roast with no oily sheen to them and it serves me well.

I thought an oily/shiny appearance of coffee beans was due to them being roasted too long ago and then some of the coffee bean oils "leaking" out of the beans. Is this not the case, i.e. something that might even be controllable with the roasting process, even something desirable in some cases?

I've only been roasting for a few months but the correlation seems to be with how dark you roast not with how long ago the roast happened. I roasted some beans a little over a week ago and they were covered in lots of oil one or two days later.

I don't find much support for it in the coffee snob community, but everyone has their own preferences.

The appearance of oil on the surface comes from roasting beans to the second crack:

https://mtpak.coffee/coffee-roasting-basics-guide-to-first-s...

Oily beans are dark roasted and have a different flavour profile. If you get cheap supermarket espresso beans, they're usually roasted to this point. I think it gives a more consistent product given input variability, varietal differences are no longer so apparent.

Do you have any recommended resources for getting into home roasting? I've always been interested in trying it out, but I don't know where to source green beans without paying more than craft roasted coffee.

Sourcing: Sweet Maria's. Roasting: Follow their suggestions and buy an air popper at Goodwill. If you get a flimsy one, don't roast more than one batch in a row or the machine's innards will melt. The one caveat is you need somewhere outside where nobody will object to acrid smoke.

If you're on the east coast: happymug.

As far as roasting equipment... I actually recommend starting with stovetop/pan roasting. You may struggle more to get an even roast vs buying an appliance or using a popper, but it's cheap, and pan roasting heats via conduction (not convection) which is the de-facto method of most roasteries.

I tried it some time ago with a pound of green beans and a hot-air popcorn popper. Beans were bought somewhere on Amazon and I already had the popper. It was cheaper than buying freshly roasted beans at my local coffeeshop and tasted about the same, and it was a nice experiment, but not something I'd continue with. Not enough benefit for the time spent.

Start with your oven. It's a totally acceptable option just make sure you have good ventilation or your smoke detectors will go crazy.

450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes (you can eyeball the beans will get you started).

I've used a few vendors for the green beans but will recommend https://www.coffeebeancorral.com/ (no affiliation). I usually buy beans in the $40 (shipping) / per 5 lbs.

You'll have to deal with chaff but as you go forward you can get into more elaborate options. And to be honest I end up grinding a not insignificant amount of chaff (it doesn't affect flavor).

Start with your oven. It's a totally acceptable option just make sure you have good ventilation or your smoke detectors will go crazy.

This is bad advice. I really can’t recommend this.

If you’ve ever played with home rosters with larger capacities, you’ll quickly find out just how much smoke gets generated. It’s a sticky and oily smoke too.

You don’t want that in your home.

Either you’re outside, or buy something like a Behmor that has an after burner.

I get very little smoke. I don't roast in my oven anymore but it was never an issue and it's generally recommended as a first attempt.

Do you have a fan forced oven?

Fluid bed roasters dissipate the smoke much faster compared to drum roasters. I used to use a small fluid bed with some concertina tubing and a lot of filters to pipe the smoke outdoors. That tubing got very dirty. I never saw any smoke from it. But you can smell it and it’ll trip your smoke detector.

I’ve never heard of any one recommending the oven as a first attempt. Usually it’s a pop corn maker.

I’ve used several home roasters. Getting one with an afterburner is the way to go unless you have extremely good ventilation or powerful range hood that vents outdoors.

> I’ve never heard of any one recommending the oven as a first attempt

That's extremely surprising given the first handful or so of Google results suggest it (along with the popcorn maker)

Unless you're going for a French roast in a small, unventilated room this is not going to be an issue to worry about.

Yes, you could trigger your smoke alarm but that happens if I cook a steak, too. When I used an oven I think mine went off once or twice from dozens of roasts.

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