Relatively Easy Home Coffee Roasting

Relatively Easy Home Coffee Roasting

Introduction

I roasted my own coffee beans for the first time in a while.

It was a clear day in mid-November.

The room temperature was 20 degrees Celsius and the humidity was 40%.

It was nice and dry, perfect for roasting.

It is surprisingly easy, and a cup brewed with beans you roasted yourself is exceptional.

So, I've decided to summarize the process here.

Points of Caution

Since you are dealing with fire, be careful with basic fire safety. At the very least, do not place anything flammable around the gas stove. Keep the area as clear as possible.

Smoke is produced during roasting.

It billows out especially around the second crack.

The amount is comparable to a bonfire, so it might surprise you at first.

Therefore, set the ventilation fan to high.

Open the windows for ventilation.

Chaff, which is the skin of the beans, will fly around. Sparks may also fly.

It is safer not to wear synthetic clothing like nylon to avoid getting holes from sparks.

Clear the area around the gas stove so it is easier to clean up later.

Putting a cover on the ventilation fan, which you can buy at a 100-yen shop, will make cleanup easier by preventing chaff buildup.

Buy green coffee beans.

Check if your local coffee bean specialty shop or cafe carries them.

If they don't seem to have them, you can also buy them on Amazon.

I just checked, and they start at around 2,000 yen per kilogram.

By the way, I used to get sale items from my local coffee bean specialty shop for about 1,000 yen per kilogram.

Things to prepare

・Stainless steel colander

・Stainless steel bowl

・Stainless steel whisk

・Cotton towel (mameshibori)

・100g of green coffee beans

This is the bare minimum you need.

Make sure the whisk has a resin handle.

If the handle is also metal, it will get too hot to hold.

Start roasting

Picking

Transfer the green beans to a colander and look them over while stirring. You want to remove defective beans; if you don't know what those are, just Google it. Basically, they are beans that are discolored, insect-damaged, or too large or too small. Remove any beans that clearly don't look good.

If you do it too thoroughly, you'll run out of beans and it takes too much time, so just do it quickly. You should only be discarding about 5% of the total at most.

I usually pick out about 10 to 20 beans each time.

Washing

After that, wash the green beans in a colander. Wash away any fine dust or impurities.

Then, use a kitchen towel to dry them, rubbing the beans against each other as you do so to remove the chaff, which is the skin of the bean.

Apply heat

Turn on the gas stove. Use medium heat.

Keep the height at about twice the height of the flame and stir with a whisk. Do not stop moving your hands while roasting.

First crack

In about 5 minutes, the beans will pop.

It sounds similar to ginkgo nuts popping.

At first, it takes some time to reach the first crack.

The general guideline is 5 minutes. When humidity is high, it takes 10 minutes.

If the color of the beans does not change after 2 or 3 minutes of stirring, you are too far from the heat, so move them closer.

If smoke suddenly billows out or the beans start to burn in spots at this point, you are too close to the heat.

Adjust the position of the colander one by one based on this feeling.

If you get too close to the heat, the beans will catch fire, so stay calm and move them away from the heat. If necessary, sprinkle with water.

Once the first crack starts with a popping sound, it will continue to pop in rapid succession.

After roasting, between 5 and 10 minutes, the beans will pop vigorously, then the popping will gradually settle down, stop for a while, and the second crack will begin.

At this time as well, adjust the heat while observing the sound of the cracks, the amount of smoke, and the color of the beans.

Second crack

As described above, the first crack will subside and things will be quiet for a while before the second crack begins.

You can recognize the second crack by a popping sound, similar to popping bubble wrap.

Don't be surprised when the second crack starts, as the amount of smoke will increase.

Usually, if you drink it black, it is best to turn off the heat around the second crack.

If you prefer a lighter roast, stop before the second crack; if you are making iced coffee, stop after the second crack, once the oil starts to seep out from the beans, or at your preferred color.

Roasting complete

If you turn off the heat just before the beans reach your desired color, the residual heat will bring them to the perfect shade.

After that, place the colander in a bowl and cool the beans under a ventilation fan. Once cooled, put them in a container and store in the refrigerator, or put any leftover beans in the freezer.

If you are bothered by the chaff, take the colander out to a balcony or garden and fan it with a paper fan to blow the chaff away.

I don't really mind it.

After that, just clean up around the gas stove and ventilation fan with a vacuum cleaner, and you're done. Great work.

In conclusion

Be very careful when handling fire.

Please also check other blogs and YouTube for more information.

It takes a little effort, but it's easy once you get used to it. You can also control the roast level of the beans to your liking.

If you keep roasting by hand, you'll start to wonder why famous chain stores make their coffee so strong. You'll think, 'This is basically espresso!'

Also, you'll be able to tell the freshness of the beans. Drinking coffee brewed with beans that were roasted months ago makes my stomach feel queasy. It tastes like it's bad for you. You'll realize, 'This is clearly oxidized.'

Once you try coffee that has been freshly roasted and freshly brewed at home, you'll find it tastes much better than what you get at most shops, so I highly recommend giving it a try.