Hi, I roasted my first green coffee beans last night, using the heat gun/dog bowl method. The various things I've seen about heat gun/dog bowl coffee roasting all say you should do it outside because it produces lots of smoke and chaff, but it was cold and dark outside and I decided that if I were to put a box fan in the window right next to the kitchen sink and put the dog bowl in the sink during the roasting, smoke would all be blown out through the window and wouldn't be a problem. Well, that turned out to be flawed thinking. I was concentrating on the coffee beans, and when I finally deemed them done and turned around the house was blue with smoke. Still smelled funky this morning. Guess I should have turned the fan on high, but turned it on low hoping to be able to hear the cracks. I'll be interested in seeing how the coffee tastes. It is resting now in a glass jar and I will take it along when I visit in Colorado Springs this weekend. I had trouble getting it to roast consistently; some beans look burned and others look under-roasted, and didn't get any cracks till just past 7 minutes, then it kept cracking until I finally stopped around 13 minutes. I roasted 1 cup in a stainless steel 32-oz mixing bowl. I think part of my problem may be with my mixing bowls, which have narrower, more rounded bottoms compared to flatter, wider dog bowls, so the beans were probably deeper than they should be, and the only thing I had around to stir with was a chop stick, which was inefficient. I backed off in distance from the heat gun (Milwaukee 1220) because when I got within half an inch or inch the beans darkened very quickly and I chickened out, again because there seemed to be such inconsistency in the roast, with some beans black and others still greenish. I may have to get a dog bowl after all. And maybe I can find a shop where I can roast indoors during the winter. Brian At 12:07 AM 2/19/2004 -0500, you wrote: <Snip> |
Was it Harrar? I've yet to get a really even roast with the current SM Harrar... Quoting Brian Kamnetz : <Snip> ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent throughhttp://www.snailmail.ch/ |
HG/DB "principles" are few. Select equipment and develop the skills that allow you to 1) heat; and 2) stir. Everything else is what you learn from the beans (and your lungs, in the case of ventilation). Try to achieve the evenness of your roast before going into 1st crack. If you start getting a few hints of crack as early as 4 or 5 minutes, ease off on the heat allowing the color to even as the slow beans catch up. No less than 6-7 minutes is a good target for roasts under 8 oz. Stirring is indeed a skill. Keep the beans moving. This is harder to accomplish IMO if you are depending a lot on the air of the heatgun to move the beans. Some blends require more care (Liquid Amber is one), but it's been a long time since I've had a single variety that gave me trouble. Tom will sometimes note that a variety roasts unevenly, but aside from these- - -few problems. HG/DB is wonderfully portable, especially if you are not using a second heat source like a BBQ. Seems like a big fat long extension cord should let you get to a protected spot where, dressed warmly, you could do your outdoor roast. Many folks report elaborate duct tape, foil, cardboard, junk yard inventiveness to deal with the smoke. Great, if that's what rings their bell. Personally, if I couldn't work around the cold at all (like keeping an emergency stash in my freezer), I'd just find some other method to get me by those days, and go back to the hg/db when I could get outside. Martin <Snip> ===== Martin Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want.http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools |
It was Guatemala Coban - El Tirol Estate that arrived with SM's sampler. I think my problem was the narrow bottom on my roasting vessel. I think I scorched it. I'm trying it this morning for the first time and t he flavor is good, has some brightness, but is thin. Is that what I might expect from overroasting? I picked up a 32-oz dog dish last night and when I got home I noticed the inside diameter is about the same as one of my tall stainless steel sauce pans. Any opinions on how successful I might be trying to roast with a heat gun and this tall sauce pan, tossing the beans instead of stirring? This is fun! Thanks, Brian At 10:10 PM 2/19/2004 +0000, you wrote: <Snip> |
Martin, Thanks for the encouragement and the tips. Even with the smoky house, problems with roast consistency, etc, this is way too much fun to give up! Brian At 02:58 PM 2/19/2004 -0800, you wrote: <Snip> |