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  • Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Have developed an interest in roasting my own coffee. I have a Mistral Party Fun popcorn maker which had been languishing under the kitchen sink. Does anyone know if this item would do the job of roasting beans well? I can see the road i am on when i achieve success on this and am on a unstoppable drive to upgrade to a proper home roaster with a steeep learning curve....anyone? Thanks.

  • #2
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    I believe that is the popper I started with, I needed a tin can chimmey to be able to get 100grams without any falling out.

    I dont think it roasts the beans amazingly, but it does a decent (considering) job.

    You may find that a coretto might be right for you though or even a hottop.

    There is no harm in trying.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

      Great way to get started Gary, give it a try you wont be disappointed

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

        Wow. This is my first subject post since i joined yesterday after a few minutes fumbling around my profile mods. Thanks to 3FUN and greenman for your response. From what i see in the evolution of roasting, i guess it,s popcorn maker, coretto, then finally a dedicated home roaster. Will give my Mistral a go when i get my beans. Anyone know a green bean seller in Perth? Will keep u guys informed of what happens next.

        PS. I,m worried because i dont see any holes for hot air, just the drum of the popper, oh well, i can always troll the salvo,s or vinnie,s if it blows up ;D

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

          Originally posted by 2B313C3D2F39212B2B580 link=1280151018/3#3 date=1280199952
          Wow. This is my first subject post since i joined yesterday after a few minutes fumbling around my profile mods. Thanks to 3FUN and greenman for your response. From what i see in the evolution of roasting, i guess it,s popcorn maker, coretto, then finally a dedicated home roaster. Will give my Mistral a go when i get my beans. Anyone know a green bean seller in Perth? Will keep u guys informed of what happens next.

          PS. I,m worried because i dont see any holes for hot air, just the drum of the popper, oh well, i can always troll the salvo,s or vinnie,s if it blows up ;D
          Welcome Gary, lots to research eh?
          Originally posted by 2B313C3D2F39212B2B580 link=1280151018/3#3 date=1280199952
          i guess it,s popcorn maker, coretto, then finally a dedicated home roaster.
          Some of us never see the need to progress further than the popcorn maker or the Coretto, what suits ya I guess.
          Originally posted by 2B313C3D2F39212B2B580 link=1280151018/3#3 date=1280199952
          Anyone know a green bean seller in Perth?
          I reckon the best green bean retailer in Aust is right here, Coffee Snobs, click on the Green coffee link up in the top left corner.  

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

            Well ill be damn Jon. I learn something new everyday. In fact i learnt quite a few things just today. Those prices are pretty good. Going to order some soon from this website. Thanks for the advice. ;D

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

              Originally posted by 332924253721393333400 link=1280151018/5#5 date=1280253897
              Well ill be damn Jon. I learn something new everyday. In fact i learnt quite a few things just today. Those prices are pretty good. Going to order some soon from this website. Thanks for the advice. ;D
              Glad I was able to help.

              Cheers,

              Jon.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                Ok. So i know my Mistral popper is rated at 1200 watts, and i kept it to the K.I.S.S principal. My first batch today turned oily dark brown only after 3 minutes, so after a bit of ....thinking thinking...a good roasting should be 15-17 minutes normally, but using a popper judging by the comments by users of poppers is around 5-7 minutes. So i tried roasting the second batch to the effect of taking out the beans after the first crack, giving them a shake to cool slightly, then put them back in until the second crack, then pull them out quickly n toss them like a chef. I guess now i wait for a couple of days for the beans to de-gas. Will try making some coffee with them and give you my comments. I,m just really worried about the quality of the beans after a short roasting time. Any advice for me would be appreciated.

                Gary at Gala.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                  With popper roasting you have very little control.

                  This is what I found while popper roasting:

                  The less weight you roast the longer the roast times.
                  Roast at the coolest time of the day if possible.
                  Put a can on top to create a chimney to stop beans getting out.
                  I used to tilt the popper and stir the beans for a couple of minutes until the beans would loose enough weight to agitate themselves.
                  Drilled holes on the bottom of the plastic casing of the popper to increase airflow.

                  This was all done to try to increase roasting time.

                  I looked at modifying the electrics to either increase the fan speed or decrease the heat, or both and decided the time to do this was best invested in building a coretto to give me the control I wanted while also increasing the batch size considerably.

                  Best of luck and have fun learning.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                    Originally posted by 332821373439400 link=1280151018/8#8 date=1280351223
                    With popper roasting you have very little control.

                    This is what I found while popper roasting:

                    The less weight you roast the longer the roast times.
                    Roast at the coolest time of the day if possible.
                    Put a can on top to create a chimney to stop beans getting out.
                    I used to tilt the popper and stir the beans for a couple of minutes until the beans would loose enough weight to agitate themselves.
                    Drilled holes on the bottom of the plastic casing of the popper to increase airflow.

                    This was all done to try to increase roasting time.

                    I looked at modifying the electrics to either increase the fan speed or decrease the heat, or both and decided the time to do this was best invested in building a coretto to give me the control I wanted while also increasing the batch size considerably.

                    Best of luck and have fun learning.
                    Great advice Shawty! Dont stop your beans roasting Gary or even try to cool them slightly mid roast becasue a stalled roast bakes the beans... not good for developing those flavours we all desire. On hot days in sunny BrisVegas I also used to point a fan at the Popper to slow the roasting process. This had the added advantage of saving me sweeping up the chaff later. Check out this link for further reading: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1250472907/16#16 The Poppers served me well for near on 15 years and I only upgraded becasue my volume of Browns required for family and friends increased. Good luck!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                      Cheers guys. I have decided i will do a few more roasts with different beans to cater for a black truffle dinner at my restaurant named Gala Restaurant. Boss liked the sample batch i did, so i,m going to spend some time doing more over the weekend, n let the beans de-gass til Tuesday truffle night. So i guess my reputation as a roaster is on the line, with over 40 customers paying $200 a head for the dinner. Talk about thrown in the deep end :-/ . When i,m ready, ill put the popper into retirement and go into next phase of a coffee roaster,s life, coretto time...which will be great since one can roast approx 500gm at a time compared to 50-60 gm for the popper. Currently talking to the boss about getting a Behmor to roast on premises. Will keep you posted. Gary.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                        BTW, Shawty, your advice makes sense. The effort n time i put into the popper would indeed be better go towards a coretto set up. Would one say the results would be superior as the roasting times are longer?? I like the looks at some of the results from corettos in the forums.

                        Regards, Gary

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                          I went from dog bowl to a coretto and noticed a big difference in consistency and quality.
                          I also got a cheap bathroom extractor put in the top of a bucket with some holes cut out and another bucket on top with a strainer to cool the beans (search the forums there are some great pictures and on bean coolers ideas).

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                            Originally posted by 322825243620383232410 link=1280151018/11#11 date=1280515272
                            BTW, Shawty, your advice makes sense. The effort n time i put into the popper would indeed be better go towards a coretto set up. Would one say the results would be superior as the roasting times are longer?? I like the looks at some of the results from corettos in the forums.

                            Regards, Gary
                            Or maybe a KKTO Roaster...

                            Lots of people having superb outcomes with these but I would look closely at the various TO options that are available as the "Cookwell" (and possibly others) TOs seem to allow better control over the roast outcomes. If thats what you want of course... The Tiffany TOs are more of a set and forget kind of deal.

                            Check out the info on the KKTO threads under "Roasters"....

                            Mal.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

                              Being the way i am, i really want to excell at this popper phenomenum before going to a coretto. I feel if i didnt complete the best roasting possible before upgrading, then i,m doing myself a disservice to coffee roasting. So as far as we know, one can hack these things by :

                              *Drilling holes at bottom of base for better air flow.
                              *Removing the top of machine, and if possiible, remove the side panels of machine.
                              *Monitoring the amount of beans that goes into the popper, keeping in mind, more beans means more heat, less beans less heat.
                              *Running a fan at the popper to keep temps down.
                              * Roasting in the coolest part of day.
                              Footnote. This may not be a problem for 1100watt rated poppers, but my popper, at 1200watts, runs hot, and we all know too short a roasting time can lead to middle part of bean not roasted properly.

                              After doing the above mods to my Mistral popper, my roast are still around the 4-5 minute mark compared to corettos which do a 12-17 minute roasting which results in a better bean. I would really like to hear from anyone who can comment on the bean quality after roasting with the popper and corretto. Thanks

                              Gary :

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