When I was a brand new pastor, I was attending seminary in the evenings and waking up early in the morning for pastoral staff meeting at a local diner. I was so tired that I decided to start drinking coffee at the diner to see if it could keep me awake and to see what all the fuss was about. The diner coffee tasted horrible. I thought to myself: "there has got to be more to coffee than this." Thus began my quest for good coffee.
After I learned about different brewing methods, I decided to try roasting coffee at home. I read the primer of home coffee roasting, Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival by Kenneth Davids. This book goes over a variety of different methods of roasting coffee at home. Some of the methods use what you may have at home already. Others are more involved and require the purchase of a stand-alone machine.
Basic Starting Place
Here are the basic methods of home coffee roasting:
On the grill. Purchase a mesh basket drum for your grill. Load the green coffee beans into the drum and turn the handle to rotate the beans in the basket. The advantage of this method is that you can roast a large batch. However, the grill tends to roast unevenly because there is no air flow under the closed lid of a grill. Plus, unless you have a see-through grill lid, you cannot see when the beans are finished roasting so you will have to roast by sound which is not easy. But if you want to try your hand at home roasting this is a good place to start since it is inexpensive.
Popcorn air popper. Yes, those popcorn poppers that you had when you were a kid. Although the popcorn popper can only roast a small batch at a time, it is inexpensive and you can see the progress of the roast since usually the lid is clear.
Convection oven. Spread the coffee beans out on a cookie sheet and slide them into your convection oven. The convection oven fan circulates the air so the beans are roasted evenly. This is a good choice if you have a convection oven, but it may result in a smoky house. I've never tried this myself since I've never had a convection oven.
Stove top with a cast iron skillet. Heat up your cast iron skillet on the burner (but no cast iron on a flat top stove). Pour the coffee beans into the hot skillet and stir constantly until they're roasted. This can be smoky in your house and if you stop stirring for a moment, the beans may burn. But it can be done.
Stove top popper. Same concept as a cast iron skillet, but the stove top popper includes a handle to crank that stirs the beans evenly. Your arm may feel like it's about to fall off if you are the only one stirring. Make coffee roasting a family fun time! Line up a couple of family members and take turns stirring. Even the youngest kids can do it.
Stand-Alone Machines
These next few methods are for those who are ready to invest in a stand-alone coffee roasting machine.
Nesco. Pour the green beans into a narrow glass tube. When you turn the machine on, the corkscrew heating element stirs and heats the beans for an even roast. The compact machine is easy to store, but its size also means you can only roast a small batch at a time. One roast is only enough for two French Press pots full. The catalytic convertor means smoke is not a problem so you can roast inside. I had a Nesco for about four years and loved it.
The Behmor Drum Roaster looks like a tabletop rotisserie. Its claim to fame is that it can roast a whole pound of coffee at a time. But it tends to roast unevenly because there is not enough airflow to get the bean since it is so densely packed. Also, the heating coil does not get hot enough to roast on the dark side.
Hottop Roaster is what I have used for the past for seven years and what I currently use to roast for Joe By Schmo. It can roast a half pound at a time. It uses the same heating coil that your oven uses, but it also had a fan to circulate air like a convection oven. The fan also blows away the smokiness so a darker roast doesn't taste burnt.
Have you tried roasting coffee at home? What method have you used? Let me know on Facebook!