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  • Thundergod
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Originally posted by 12312222290F14253E33313E500 link=1280151018/22#22 date=1288310454
    Do a quick search on popper and you will find plenty of advice on this site.
    http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1174699442

    http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1284122262

    Leave a comment:


  • Barry_Duncan
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Simon n Fat Mac,

    I have roasted with a popper for many years. I am now using a 1200W Breville Bratz. It was priced at $54.90 in a discount electrical store. When I asked for their best price they dropped it to $25. I bought four so as to have spares for me and my friends. In about 10 years I have had only one popper burn out.

    I roast about 150g of beans. I fill up the chamber to just below the shiny screw in the side of the chamber. For a chimney I use a 415g salmon tin that is tapered to make a perfect fit to a popper.

    I stir with a wooden spoon handle until they self spin and use a stainless spoon to sample the roast.

    Do it outside so you dont fill your home with smoke and chaff or set off the smoke alarm.

    I have not seen the need for any other mods in the Sydney climate. In a couple of heatwaves I had the heat thermostat throw out and had to complete the roast in a frying pan. I usually roast in the cool of the morning.

    I have no thermocouples or timers. I go by sound and colour. About CS 8 to 10. If any beans appear oily I stop immediately.

    I tip into a metal colander and toss to remove chaff and cool on baking trays.

    If you want a huge crema, make a coffee as soon as it cools.

    Let it degas for about half an hour and store in valved zip sealed bags for as few days and have fun blending and drinking.

    Once you start home roasting you need never drink stale coffee at home again.

    Do a quick search on popper and you will find plenty of advice on this site.

    Barry

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Good on you Simon n Fat Mac.
    May your coffee journey be fruitful, educational and fun.
    The popper is a great start and you dont waste too many beans if things go wrong.
    Those mods to cool will certainly help in a better result, thus better taste.
    There are other mods too if you look in the forums, but enjoy it one at a time.
    Dont hesiitate to ask us for solutions.

    Gary

    Leave a comment:


  • Timothy.McIntosh1
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    As each mans heart changes to new and more exciting projects I am about to embark on the great home roasting challenge.

    As a newbie to roasting I find it great to see others on the same journey. I have a Mistral Fire Engine Orange Popper 1200 watts and I am going to the shed to drill enlarge and cool it before I start tonight.

    Cheers, for the advice,

    Fat Mac

    Leave a comment:


  • simonsk8r
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Ah thanks very much Gary! Will give it a go! Cheers!

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Hey there Simon,
    I had the Mistral popcorn maker for some time before i gave it away to Pay It Forward section.
    It,s rated at 1200 watts, so it wont take long for beans to be roasted.
    You can try and slow the roast down by drilling holes thru the top and bottom and please leave the cover off.
    If you want to hack the thing, you can get a sparkie to install a dual dimmer switch to the electrics to control the air flow and the heating element which will help to no end.
    If you cant be bothered with that, then at least drill some holes to help keep it a bit cool, or try and remove the body panels, which is difficult to do as some screws are strange and require a special tool

    Give it a good go. I enjoyed doing it and it tasted alright.

    BTW. If you do go ahead and you havent done any mods, here,s another tip, when you start to hear first crack, tip the beans out for a short while, then put back into the popper for a while and repeat this process til you start hearing crackling sounds of second crack, then you can decide whether to keep going or dump beans to cool.

    Best of luck. Gary

    Leave a comment:


  • simonsk8r
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Sorry to hijack... but would anyone know if the Mistral Movie Fun Popcorn Maker is good for roasting? Im looking like crazy for a decent (and cheap) popper for my first roasting endeavours...

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    I have a Breville breadmaker too sitting in the cupboard, and the lure of coretto roasting is getting a bit much as i troll all the threads and reading about member,s accounts of their experiences. My popper so far has given good results, but having the urge to do better is tempting, and i can understand anyone wanting to try something different for a better result. If i do go ahead, all i need is a heatgun, and something to keep it in one position. I,m not sure if i need a thermocouple, as eyes and ears as well as nose, serves to keep things under control. Happy days.

    Gary

    Leave a comment:


  • shawty
    replied
    Re: Home coffee roasting newbie.

    Originally posted by 405A575644524A4040330 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
    I found the results to be much better although I am far from an expert in the taste of coffee.
    My weekly routine now sees me take 30 minutes from setup to put away, to roast 600g of green.
    This all happens with a minimum of fuss and is a lot of fun too!
    The popper became a bit too labour intensive for me with little room for control.
    As Mal says the KKTO is another option and there are plenty of others as well.
    I went the Corretto option as I already had a disused breadmaker and only had to buy a heatgun (digital temp variety which makes temp control a breeze) and I dont think KK was doing his TO then anyway.

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    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 :

    Leave a comment:


  • Dimal
    replied
    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.

    Leave a comment:


  • gumboot
    replied
    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).

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    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

    Leave a comment:


  • sidewayss
    replied
    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.

    Leave a comment:


  • brett230873
    Guest replied
    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!

    Leave a comment:

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