Home Coffee Roasting

Home coffee roasting can be a little intimidating if you are not sure how to do it.

But there are several ways to roast coffee at home.

There are appliances that are made for the purpose of home coffee roasting, but you can also do simple pan roasting and even oven roasting.

Most of these methods are very, very simple and the results are wonderful.

They don't even require much of an investment of time and effort from you.

Fluid Bed Roasting

Fluid bed roasting, also known as air roasting, uses a hot air stream to "cook" the coffee.

You can use home coffee roasters like the Hearthware i-Roast 2 and the Fresh Roast Plus 8, both of which use the air roasting method.

The Nesco Pro uses the air roasting method to some degree, but some people use their hot air popcorn poppers for their hot air coffee roasting because they use a technique that is very similar.

You can air roast your coffee beans in less than 10 minutes. This method also roasts very evenly without scorching or burning the beans, leaving nothing but delicious coffee that is very high quality.

Radiant Drum Roasting

The Gene Café, the HotTop Drum Roaster and the Alpenrost Home Roaster use a radiant drum for roasting and they roast about half a pound of coffee at a time.

The disadvantage to using this type of roaster is that you need to pay more attention to the machine during the roast process than you do with an air roaster. It is still a very good home coffee roasting method, though.

Home coffee roasting can be a lot of fun and you can usually roast enough coffee in just one batch that you will have several days' worth.

The results are at least equal to coffees that have been professionally roasted but are even fresher.

Oven Roasting Process

During the roasting process, the beans are heated to anywhere between 460 degrees Fahrenheit to 530 degrees Fahrenheit. While you are roasting, keep it manageable and roast small batches.

Throughout the roasting process, the coffee beans will change colors from green to yellow and eventually brown.

The moisture in the beans will steam off and the steam will carry the aroma of fresh coffee. The first crack is the point in the roasting when the last of the moisture leaves the bean. At first crack, the sugars that are in the bean have started caramelizing.

At this point your coffee is roasted, albeit it is the lightest roast. At this point you can choose to continue roasting for a darker roast, but watch your beans carefully because from this point the advancement in darkness is rapid.

If you allow the beans to continue to roast, the sugar in the beans will caramelize even more and the coffee beans release oils that make the roast even more flavorful. You can keep going until you get the roast that you want.

The second crack happens later in the roasting. Your coffee beans will be very dark.

Roasting your coffee too far beyond this point will result in coffee that is very bitter and harsh because all of the sugars have burned off. Even after you remove your beans from the heat, they will continue to roast in their own heat.

You can easily use one of the appliances for home coffee roasting, but you can also use a skillet or wok, air popcorn popper, stovetop popcorn popper, or use the oven roasting method.

There are a variety of coffee roasts. Depending on your personal preference this guide to coffee roasts will be helpful.

Read the Coffee Roasting Machines reviews.