 |
|
|
Roast Your Own Coffeeby Ryan Jacobs Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 Equipment and Coffee Bean SelectionFirst, you will want to purchase a roaster. Basically, you want a device that will heat the beans to at least 400 degrees F and be able to do this in an even manner. You may be thinking of your oven and while that will work, it is somewhat difficult to visually gage the roast level and usually will set off your smoke detector if you don't have good air filtration. It also produces scorched beans since one side of them is in constant contact with the hot metal of the sheet pan. A good device to start with a West Bend Poppery II. This little hot air popcorn popper makes a great coffee roaster. The reason this is a good unit is that it allows good visual inspection of the roast level, and actually moves the beans around in a circular fashion which prevents scorching. The hot air blowing the beans around is commonly referred to as 'fluid-bed' roasting. The Poppery II are often available at thrift stores for a few bucks--probably because popcorn from one of these while being lower in fat, tastes horrible. And to the home-roaster's delight, they make great coffee. After you get a roaster, you should have a cooling pan, a stirrer, and a scale. For the cooling pan, you want something that will allow a mass of hot beans to cool as quickly as possible. I use an aluminum pasta strainer. The holes let air through for more rapid cooling. You may also use a simple cookie sheet. Even though the popper rotates the beans, you will still need something to help stir beans and even to pull samples out for closer inspection. For stirring use a wooden spoon. Make certain it is wooden or you could get an electrical shock. A measuring device for coffee would be best done with a scale. You can use an inexpensive food scale found almost anywhere like Wal-Mart or Target. Some of the newer digital scales offer excellent taring features and give you better gage resolution than the really cheap analog types. The primary reason for measuring by weight over volume is that your popper can only move so much weight at a time and you will find that different beans have different densities. The only way to get consistent results is to measure the coffee by weight. For the West Bend, 4 oz. is your target weight.
Coffee Bean Selection:The beans you select ultimately define your taste preferences and if flavor is the top of your list, you will want to choose an Arabica coffee bean. To be very simplistic, a good bean is generally uniform in shape and color. You will find that these normally roast evenly and without many "clinkers" or bad beans. If you are just beginning, you should ask other home-roasters what they have had luck with. From experience, Colombian and Costa Rican coffees along with many Guatemalans roast pretty easily. Sumatra coffees roast nicely, but you need to hold the faith that the imperfections will work out in the roasting process. |
