Roasting Virgin

Originally Posted by Resipsa

Like the taste of cat poop.

What's wrong with cat poop?

Originally Posted by Mister Moo

I wouldn't suggest learning how to roast with $50-lb beans. You want these done right the first time so you don't feel like you missed out on something. While there are good 120VAC home roaster options it'll still take many pounds of experimenting and familiarization to become even marginally competent.

Why not take them to a local roasting house with good credentials and let them roast the beans for you? Homeroasting is a passion thing for nutjobs, anyhow. You don't get 2-lbs of rare coffee and decide to start homeroasting - you get a bug up your butt that you need to roast coffee and get 25-lbs of garden variety stuff to experiemnt with for six months.

One cows view.

I've actually given a lot of thought to doing my own roasting since I dumped that large pile of money into the garbage disposal that I call my Espresso machine. Will a guy that is happy with a Quickmill Silvano and a Baratza Vario be equally happy with a 3 or 4 hundred dollar Behmor drum roaster?

I'm also a little concerned about temperature. Given that I live in Canada, I can't even really use my Bradley Smoker during the late fall and winter. Is it reasonable to attempt to run that Behmor indoors (under the range hood) during the winter months?

To be honest with you, the Kopi Lewak is really just a bit of an excuse. Ever since I've realized the importance of having freshly roasted beans, I've wanted to do the deed myself....to control freshness and also ensure consistency with lighter roasts that allow flavour profiles other than "char".