espressolover2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 41 Location: Florida Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Miss Silvia, Olympia Cremina Grinder: Rocky with doser
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 6:59am Subject: New Home Roaster question.
Hello all,
I am getting ready to purchase my first home roaster machine and I am looking at the "Fresh Roast Plus 8" from Sweet Marias. I would like any opinions or advise on this machine or any other starter machine you might think would be good. I am only interested in roasting for espresso and my machine is an Olympia Cremina lever machine. I would also be ordering my beans from Sweet Marias as well to start. I enjoy a very sweet and earthy espresso so any thoughs or suggestions on beans woudl be great as well. I thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to this new adventure!
CoffeeRoastersClub Senior Member Joined: 6 Jul 2005 Posts: 2,144 Location: Vernon Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Vintage La Pavoni Lever... Grinder: KitchenAid Pro Line Burr... Vac Pot: Vintage Silex Drip: Aeropress, French Press Roaster: "EL SUPREMO" w/QuikSPIN-CRC...
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 7:33am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
Have you started roasting at all yet? If not, you may wish to start with a regular Popcorn Popper you can generally get for just $15 at your local Target stores. Look for the ToastMaster brand that has venturi slots at the bottom of the roaster chamber. It would be basically the same concept as a Fresh Roast Hot Air roaster, yet at much less cost. Great for intro to roasting. Plus this board is full of information on using the popcorn popper for roasting.
If you already started roasting and are exploring consumer roaster devices, then Tims advice should be well taken.
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 8:24am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
espressolover2 Said:
Hello all,
I am getting ready to purchase my first home roaster machine and I am looking at the "Fresh Roast Plus 8" from Sweet Marias. I would like any opinions or advise on this machine or any other starter machine you might think would be good. I am only interested in roasting for espresso and my machine is an Olympia Cremina lever machine. I would also be ordering my beans from Sweet Marias as well to start. I enjoy a very sweet and earthy espresso so any thoughs or suggestions on beans woudl be great as well. I thank you in advance for your help and I look forward to this new adventure!
I started with a Fresh Roast plus 8, and bought mine from sweet marias. While I did have some good luck with that roaster, I found the results to be a little inconsistent and the batch sizes way too small for me. I like to roast about 1 - 1.5 lbs each week and that was taking a very long time.
After about 1 month, I went with the Gene Cafe, which was quite a bit more money but I think worth every penny. I'm finding it much easier to roast with this machine and get very repeatable results. If I were to do it again I probably would do it the same way, though. The FR is a much lower investment and it was a good way to find out if roasting was for me, w/o making a big investment.
espressolover2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 41 Location: Florida Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Miss Silvia, Olympia Cremina Grinder: Rocky with doser
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 8:47am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
Thanks for the feedback! And no, I have not started roasting yet. As for the Fresh Roast, I was afarid it would be to small and now I am sure of it. And the Popcorn Popper method sounds interesting but I just don't want to play around with it if I don't have to. Much like a Rancilio Silvia machine, good machine, but you have to temp surf and pull blank shots just to get a good shot. And this is not something I am interested in doing. So I am thinking either the Gene Cafe or the Hot Top drum roaster is the way to go for me. My only hesitation in getting either one of these roasters is that it may by a bit to complicated for a newbie to home roasting. I am going to read some reviews as suggested by Tim and see what I come up with after that. But again, my main concern is getting a quality machine that can handle at least 1/2 pound ( I am using a min. 1/2 pound a week now) and is not so complicated that I cannot figure it out after a few times. gee, why don't I just hire some guy to stand in my kitchen and roast it for me!" lol! so let me know what you would suggest of the two I am looking at if you don't mind:-)
CoffeeRoastersClub Senior Member Joined: 6 Jul 2005 Posts: 2,144 Location: Vernon Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Vintage La Pavoni Lever... Grinder: KitchenAid Pro Line Burr... Vac Pot: Vintage Silex Drip: Aeropress, French Press Roaster: "EL SUPREMO" w/QuikSPIN-CRC...
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 10:37am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
Hello again espressolover2. If you want to roast 1/2 pound and up at a time then you will be looking at the more expensive roasters, unless you want to build a stir crazy/galluping gourmet type of roaster, dog bowl /heat gun, bread machine/heat gun, or bbq drum. If you wish to go the homemade route there is plenty of info about such here on CG.
Otherwise you should lay out a budget of how much you are willing to spend on a retail unit, do alot of research on the available models available and vendors selling them, and take it from there. CG again is a great site for this type of research as you will find a wealth of info on all retail coffee roasting appliances.
espressolover2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 41 Location: Florida Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Miss Silvia, Olympia Cremina Grinder: Rocky with doser
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 10:54am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
Len,
I would like to keep my budget around $1000 - $1200. I can afford a higher end model. I just want the right one for me. As for all the crazy dog bowl, heat gun, bread machine methods, you forgot to include the "George Forman" rotisserie drum machine method! lol! I will keep searching throught the reviews here o CG in order to help me make a decision:-)
CoffeeRoastersClub Senior Member Joined: 6 Jul 2005 Posts: 2,144 Location: Vernon Expertise: Professional
Espresso: Vintage La Pavoni Lever... Grinder: KitchenAid Pro Line Burr... Vac Pot: Vintage Silex Drip: Aeropress, French Press Roaster: "EL SUPREMO" w/QuikSPIN-CRC...
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 11:13am Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
espressolover2 Said:
Len,
I would like to keep my budget around $1000 - $1200. I can afford a higher end model. I just want the right one for me. As for all the crazy dog bowl, heat gun, bread machine methods, you forgot to include the "George Forman" rotisserie drum machine method! lol! I will keep searching throught the reviews here o CG in order to help me make a decision:-)
Looks like your budget is around the area of a Hot Top, one of the machines you mentioned interest in. Check out the reviews on CG about it, it has been around a long time. I know that invalsa.com ( http://www.invalsa.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=17 ) (tel. 1-978-363-8100) sells the Hot Top in my area. They also sell excellent Bolivian beans right from their own farm in Bolivia. They are located in West Newbury, Massachusetts. I have purchased beans from them many times. Their service is superior.
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 1:15pm Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
espressolover2 Said:
I would like to keep my budget around $1000 - $1200. I can afford a higher end model. I just want the right one for me. As for all the crazy dog bowl, heat gun, bread machine methods, you forgot to include the "George Foreman" rotisserie drum machine method! lol! I will keep searching throught the reviews here on CG in order to help me make a decision:-) E.
espressolover2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Mar 2008 Posts: 41 Location: Florida Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Miss Silvia, Olympia Cremina Grinder: Rocky with doser
Posted Mon May 12, 2008, 1:34pm Subject: Re: New Home Roaster question.
I looked at the Behmor when I was looking at the Fresh Roast. And although I am sure it would work well. I am going with the Hot Top from invalsa.com. I spoke with them and ws sold:-) Thanks for the tip Len! I think the Hot Top will match the Cremina best as well. So who knows. I am excited to see how it works.
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