Althalos Senior Member Joined: 18 Aug 2008 Posts: 2 Location: St. Louis Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Mon Aug 18, 2008, 4:18pm Subject: Popcorn Popper Roasting
Dare I enter this post? Maybe I'm too dumb to know the differenc, but I use a popcorn air popper to roast my beans. I have roasted 2 lbs of a bean from Brazil that I got from my whole foods market. It does a decent job, with a fairly even roast. Does anyone else use this method? I think it's delicious, but I'm probably biased.
Many people use air poppers to roast coffee. My first roaster was a West Bend Poppery 1. I have since disconnected the heater and use it for my bean cooler.
If you check out Sweet Maria's site you can find some extensively hacked poppers used for roasting.
Phil
Althalos Said:
Dare I enter this post? Maybe I'm too dumb to know the differenc, but I use a popcorn air popper to roast my beans. I have roasted 2 lbs of a bean from Brazil that I got from my whole foods market. It does a decent job, with a fairly even roast. Does anyone else use this method? I think it's delicious, but I'm probably biased.
I get great results with my popper. There's been several recent threads with good suggestions for popper roasting. Poke around here if you're curious about methods of improvement.
Which popper are you using? How long a roast are you getting? Are you monitoring temperature?
With a few basic modifications to a Toastmaster I'm now getting consistent repeatable enough roasts that I'm very comfortable roasting anything in it (I've even got a couple pounds of the low-priced Esmeralda Gesha coming). If you're having fun with it, there's little reason to shun the popper. You may eventually wish for increased bean capacity or finer profile control, but I remain shocked at how good a result you can get form a popper. And many folks apparently get very precise control and high volume with a popper, though usually a vintage unit which tends to get a higher price on eBay (West Bend Poppery I and another I think is called Popcorn Pumper).
That's a nice setup. I've never roasted my own beans, but I've always been interested in doing it. I've done a little roasting/toasting of malted barley for home-brewed beer, but I hadn't thought about doing it for coffee. Hmmmmm...
Does anyone know of any good starting points for learning the details of roasting, especially on a budget? I think it would be a lot of fun to try.
The Sweet Marias web site is a great resource. You can get pointers on any kind of roasting, from stove-top and air poppers up to the nicest home machines. Or... there's always people on this forum who could talk for hours about roasting. The world is your oyster.
The Sweet Marias web site is a great resource. You can get pointers on any kind of roasting, from stove-top and air poppers up to the nicest home machines.
Althalos, you're entering a whole new world (don't go singing the song from "Aladdin"!). Poppers are fantastic... and ... can.... leave you..... wanting....... MORE! So consider this your friendly neighborhood public service announcement.
That's quite a rig there Ron. (looks from the instrument pic that you are just about on First crack.) I have too many probe wires (2) hanging around & got concerned about bending and breaking the wires. I made a base for the popper (out of a wooden wine box top....) to support the 2 temp meters and to route the wires so they no longer get yanked around when I roast and dump. Really cleaned it up. Now just the automatic bean stirrer and the chaff/smoke control and I will have a real roaster.
I just started down this path this week. Read a couple of "how to" and jumped in. So far my costs are candy thermometer $12, two steel colanders $6ea, and a Poppery II from a thrift store for $2. Got my beans from a local roaster at about $5 lb.
Just tried the beans from my first roast tonight and liked the results, not to say I won't be tinkering with it.
I was looking into this because it would be cheaper, but the benefits go a lot farther than that. : )
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