Roast Your Coffee In Two Stages – Now With OpenCV Tricks
blog.chewxy.com
blog.chewxy.com
The air popper in the article is a popular low cost way to get into home roasting, but I started with just a heavy pot and lots of stirring, hard to keep things even. After a short while I built something pretty close to this: http://biobug.org/coffee/turbo-crazy/ Still a lot cheaper than something like the Behmor, but able to easily roast 1/2 lb at a time.
What I love the most about this is the analysis of the roast with opencv, will definitely be trying that for my next roast!
My perspective is that, if you only consider "price" as your differentiator, yes the green coffee beans are cheaper. If you look at the Sweet Maria's site, they are selling just-roasted Rwandan coffee for $15 per pound [0]. They sell the exact same green beans for $6.35 per pound [1]. But that's deceptive because (a) Sweet Maria's has a $15 minimum purchase (so you can't buy just 1lb), and (2) the $15 roasted coffee includes shipping. I just checked and, to ship 3lbs of coffee (minimum order of green), would cost $11.30. So my "out the door" price for 3lbs of green is $30 which makes it $10 per pound. If you compare that to the $15 "out the door" price for their roasted, I'm saving $5 per pound. Sweet.
But how long will it take you to roast those beans? Two adults probably go through one pound a week. So you saved $5 by buying online, but it takes me about an hour a week to roast a pound of coffee using my Behmor. Even if it only took me 30 minutes, would I trade 30 minutes of my leisure time for $5? That's the part that people don't consider enough, I think. At this point in my life, I am enjoying trying all the different coffees and learning about the various roasts - so the Behmor stays for now. In five years though once I've learned all that I can learn and have become more "refined" in my tastes", I wonder though whether I'll still want to be spending an hour a week roasting beans...
[0] http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/roasted-coffee.html
[1] http://www.sweetmarias.com/sweetmarias/rwanda-kivu-kanzu-1-l...
I'm actually seriously contemplating building a rig. I have 3 spare flashes for my camera and my table is a frosted glass table. It should be able to give uniform lighting to the beans for visual analysis.
>> There's a maltiness in darker roasts, that is like sugar in the raw. The cup is smooth, sweet, and with a touch of malic tartness in the acidity. There is a lactic quality too that reminds me of fresh cream caramel, which plays off flavors of apple juice nicely. At Full City roasts have a juiciness to them with a slight tart note, like cranberry grape juice. The mouthfeel is silky and with a finishing flavor of sweet cocoa. City+ to Full City+.
EDIT: formatting
I own the Behmor - I'm rather new to it (< 50 roasts). I'm happy with the purchase however I would caution anyone interested that (a) there's a massive learning curve (as OP points out), and that (b) even though it is marketed as being able to roast 1 pound of coffee, you will only really get a light-to-maybe-perhaps-kind-of-medium roast if you put a full pound of coffee in the drum. I only learned this after going through about 10 pounds of coffee (~20-30 roasts). I like a really dark roast - what I learned is that I can only roast 10 ounces at a time with the Behmor. Check out the top-rated review on Amazon - the guy says he can only roast 7-9 ounces at a time.
After looking at $800 roasters, I'd still buy the Behmor if I was new to this and wanted a roaster. But here's the thing: to roast 10 ounces of coffee takes about 35 minutes - you have a 15-22 minute roast followed by a 12-13 minute cooling cycle. If you go through a pound of coffee a week (which is likely for two adult coffee lovers), that means you'd have to spend almost an hour per week to roast your own coffee using the Behmor. And this roast - there's about a five minute time period in the latter/end part of the roast itself that has to be attended. So you start your roast, come back 10-12 minutes later, wait for the cues you need, and then you can go on with your life.
And you know what isn't great? The Behmor's temperature sensor will shut the unit down if it's cold outside (like below 30 degrees F). When it's cold, you'll have to get your roast prepared indoors, then take it outside, and start the roast. And that five minute period where you have to watch your roast? Let me tell you - it sucks to have to monitor a roast outside in 16 degree weather!
That said, after roasting my own, it's almost unfathomable to me at this point to want to quit using the Behmor and go back to someone else's roast. I've enjoyed the learning curve.
FWIW I've never had chaff catch on fire, and it seems to me that my setup is probably cranking a hotter/more direct heat than an oven would.
But yes - roasting in the cold stinks - and yet I still do it as well. :) On the plus side, that cooling time drops to a min or so when it's 30F!
I'd be happy to set you up a free account as a home roaster, and I think feedback from the HN community would be really helpful!
[1] www.Gastrograph.com
A project like this is fun if you also enjoy the tinkering, but given the markup on roasted beans, spending money on an appliance is very economical.
If you go through a pound of coffee a week (which is likely for two adult coffee lovers), that means you'd have to spend almost an hour per week to roast your own coffee using the Behmor.
It just depends on what "economical" means to you, I suppose. One hour per week roasting/managing is significant to me. If I could find a place that would sell me just-roasted beans in 5lb or more bags, it might be worth it. I paid $300 for the Behmor and I pay about $8-$10 per pound shipped for green coffee. If you said, "Scott - here are some great tasting beans that we'll roast for you right before we ship them, and they are $12 per pound", I would sell my Behmor. At this point I've learned most of what I'll learn about roasting coffee - now it's just a matter of spending that hour a week. If I could pay a company $2 per week to reclaim that hour though...