Im currently sipping a long black from my first roast. Wonderful!
I used a Breville bread machine (thanks to my very tolerant wife) and a cheap Ryobi heat gun. I attached the heat gun to a plastic garden chair using a rubber band and a dog clip, which put the heat gun nozzle at about the height of the top lip of the bread machine. I used a digital oven thermometer to measure the temperature.
For my first roasts Im using decaf Espresso WOW beans from CS beanbay, on the idea that Ill want to try a lot of cups of coffee to learn how to roast, and I still want to be able to get some sleep :-)
I donned my CS t-shirt to ward off bad coffee spirits, then went to work. My first roast was a bit of a disaster. I chose the pizza dough setting, as that was 15 minutes and I thought that would be about right. It all went really well for the first 6 minutes, then the bread machine decided to let the bread sit and rise, so it stopped churning! I tried resetting the program to start it again, but the bread machine just displayed H-- meaning it was too hot and it refused to budge. I grabbed a stick to try to stir a bit, but the end result was a really uneven roast, as you can see from the photo below. The heat gun also went into overheat and refused to turn on again for about 10 minutes.
I then rummaged around in the kitchen and managed to find the manual for the bread machine. It turns out it has a personal recipe setting where you can make your own bread making profile. I created a profile with 30 minutes of continuous kneading for my 2nd roast attempt. I also took off the wide nozzle from the heat gun that Id used for the first roast. I had used the wide nozzle to try to spread the heat over the beans, but it resulted in a lot more heat building up in the heat gun, which I think is why the heat gun refused to start again. With the nozzle off I didnt get that problem.
The 2nd roast went much better! I discovered that the oven thermometer maxes out at 200C, so once it hit 200 it just displays ---, but at least I knew I was getting somewhat close to the right temperature. Ill buy a proper thermometer for future roasts.
I got the first cracks at about 9 minutes, and stopped the roast at 12 minutes when I thought the colour looked about right. I then cooled the beans in a large colander, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon. The result was a nice even roast, somewhere around CS10.
I havent tried the beans from the first disastrous run, but Ive tried a few cups from the 2nd run and it tastes great. A very deep dark flavor, easily as good as the beans I buy from my local coffee shop. Im hooked!
Ive ordered a starter pack, plus some Ethiopian Gambella naturals to try my hand at roasting some different types of beans. Ill probably also try some blending, which brings me to my question. Should I blend bean types before or after roasting, or doesnt it matter?
Thanks to everyone in this forum for the great tips and encouragement for first time roasters. It is great fun, and very satisfying!
Cheers, Tridge
EM6910, EM0480, corretto roaster


I used a Breville bread machine (thanks to my very tolerant wife) and a cheap Ryobi heat gun. I attached the heat gun to a plastic garden chair using a rubber band and a dog clip, which put the heat gun nozzle at about the height of the top lip of the bread machine. I used a digital oven thermometer to measure the temperature.
For my first roasts Im using decaf Espresso WOW beans from CS beanbay, on the idea that Ill want to try a lot of cups of coffee to learn how to roast, and I still want to be able to get some sleep :-)
I donned my CS t-shirt to ward off bad coffee spirits, then went to work. My first roast was a bit of a disaster. I chose the pizza dough setting, as that was 15 minutes and I thought that would be about right. It all went really well for the first 6 minutes, then the bread machine decided to let the bread sit and rise, so it stopped churning! I tried resetting the program to start it again, but the bread machine just displayed H-- meaning it was too hot and it refused to budge. I grabbed a stick to try to stir a bit, but the end result was a really uneven roast, as you can see from the photo below. The heat gun also went into overheat and refused to turn on again for about 10 minutes.
I then rummaged around in the kitchen and managed to find the manual for the bread machine. It turns out it has a personal recipe setting where you can make your own bread making profile. I created a profile with 30 minutes of continuous kneading for my 2nd roast attempt. I also took off the wide nozzle from the heat gun that Id used for the first roast. I had used the wide nozzle to try to spread the heat over the beans, but it resulted in a lot more heat building up in the heat gun, which I think is why the heat gun refused to start again. With the nozzle off I didnt get that problem.
The 2nd roast went much better! I discovered that the oven thermometer maxes out at 200C, so once it hit 200 it just displays ---, but at least I knew I was getting somewhat close to the right temperature. Ill buy a proper thermometer for future roasts.
I got the first cracks at about 9 minutes, and stopped the roast at 12 minutes when I thought the colour looked about right. I then cooled the beans in a large colander, stirring rapidly with a wooden spoon. The result was a nice even roast, somewhere around CS10.
I havent tried the beans from the first disastrous run, but Ive tried a few cups from the 2nd run and it tastes great. A very deep dark flavor, easily as good as the beans I buy from my local coffee shop. Im hooked!
Ive ordered a starter pack, plus some Ethiopian Gambella naturals to try my hand at roasting some different types of beans. Ill probably also try some blending, which brings me to my question. Should I blend bean types before or after roasting, or doesnt it matter?
Thanks to everyone in this forum for the great tips and encouragement for first time roasters. It is great fun, and very satisfying!
Cheers, Tridge
EM6910, EM0480, corretto roaster




;D
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