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Home coffee roasting

Home coffee roasting with the Whirley Pop

On sunday, coffee run out. Or better the roasted coffee beans, so i lured my sister into turning the Whirley Pop for about 30 minutes. The outcome was better than I could have done it. However, I still found a few beans who got burned spots, which should be avoided and you can see it clearly on the least image. You also should cool the coffee beans down after they got the right roast – asap. For that I use the big bowl and to get rid of the bitter skin of the beans as well.

Home roasted coffee beans

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Home roasted coffee beans:
Yesterday I found out that I´m close to run out of self roasted coffee beans. So despite the heat I turned the Whirley Pop for about 20 minutes. After their 2nd crack and your desired level of roasting the coffee beans need to cool down quick. I do this by turning and throwing the into the air and catch them with a huge bowl.

But another important task is to get rid of the thin skin of the beans which is done by doing a “gold digger like movement” with the beans. After a day the gassed of the CO2 and developed via numerous reactions their flavor. Come by for a fresh espresso! Whatever someone tells you after 4 days the aroma of coffee beans is decreasing.

Pan roasted coffee – Bialetti espresso maker

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Pan roasted coffee and Bialetti espresso:
As a regular reader you might know I use the Whiley Pop Popcorn Maker to roast my coffee. But I actually never roasted coffee beans in a pan before today. It is possible but I have to tell you that a lot of movement is involved shaking the iron or iron cast pan every 5 seconds for about 20 minutes. So you will earn you breakfast after it for sure.

So this is how I did it:
– Use a proper pan, iron or iron cast is perfect. One with a higher rim is absolute perfect.
– Fill it with geen coffee beans just a bit less than all the ground is covered. They will expand to about double the size.
– The most tricky part is how to know the right temperature of you oven plate. I would start with 2/3 of the maximum. E.g. I got 9 max. so I choose 6 or 7.
– Too hot will burn the beans to fast. You sould be able to roast the beans for more than 20 minutes until they are dark brown.
– Constantly shake the pan with the cover and make sure they are evenly covering the whole surface of the pan.
– Avoid dark spots by not moving the beans around, about max. 5 seconds is ok.
– After 10 minutes you should hear the first cracks of the beans
– Ater 20 minutes you should hear the second cracks, this about the time when the beans
are close to be ready.
– Wait for the beans to be a darkish brown close to black for espresso, dark brown for regular coffee.
– Fill the roasted beans in a huge bowl and shake off the skins of the beans, your coffee will taste bitter if you leave them with the beans.
– Cool them down and fill them in a jar.
– Keep the cover from the jar open for about a day so the beans can breath out the carbon monoxide
– After about 24hours the coffee is ready to be grinded and ready to drink.

The cheapest, one of the most tasting and most joyful method to make coffee is using the typical Bialetti Espresso maker. A 3 or 4 cup sized Bialetti is the perfect choice for a breakfast for two. Not too much attention is needed, the smell of fresh made coffee is distributed wonderfully through the whole apartment and the end is announced by a nice bubbling sound of the espresso maker.

Home roasted coffee and fresh bread

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Home roasted coffee and fresh bread:
Nothing better than the smell of fresh baked bread and fresh rosted coffee! I use the whirley pop popcorn maker for roasting the beans. About 250g of beans for 25-30 minutes at scale 7 from 9 on my oven plate with a constant turn on the “whirler” and shaking the pot. Start with less beans, just enough to just 1-2 layers of beans in the pot, too much and they never get ready in time. Avoid to get the beans burned, thats what the shaking and “whirling” is for. Constant checking is needed so they do not get to black and turn into coal pieces.

After one to 3 days fermentation is done and the best time to make some espresso! If you can not wait, it´s ok to have one straight after.

Accompanied with some fresh baked bread with the out of the pot and no knead dough method a great start for a long weekend.

fresh home roasted coffee beans

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Fresh home roasted coffee beans, after 28 min on the hotplate in the whirley pop.
You still can see the skins which have to be removed before being stored away. A good start for the next week. Have a nice Sunday.

Home coffee roasting – with the “Whirley Pop” in 20 minutes

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As I promised in my post about grinding coffee with the lenartz mill and preparing good coffee, here now finally my roughly step by step instructions of roasting coffee at home with the “Whirley Pop” popcorn pot.

Here the green beans, they actually smell green or like fresh peas. About half the size when they are roasted.

Sorting out the bad beans, too small ones or pieces. They will over roast and make the coffee smell burnt.

A “Whirley Pop” popcorn pot, perfect for turning the beans with it´s mechanism integrated in the grip and the mover at the bottom of the pot. But I guess a good pan with a cover will do as good.

A close-up where you see the top mechanism to the pot – and also a bit of dust (sorry the pot is standing most of the time on the cupboard).

Put about the amount of beans in the pot that they just cover the surface once. Do not fill in too much. At the beginning you need to find the right temperature. The overall roasting process should not be less than 20 minutes. For me it´s is “7” on my plate. So start not with full power, give the beans some time. Above you see the beans after 10 minutes. After 5 minutes you should see the first smoke coming out of the pot. They look a bit like peanuts now.

The coffee beans after 15 minutes, the beans start to pop now be-cause they roughly double in size and the skin gets loos as you see in the image.

The beans are ready after about 20 minutes, check after 15 minutes very often the color of the beans. They should be dark brown but not black. You see the skin and the nice oily surface of them.

If you put the beans now on a plate the skin will stick to the plate, but not all of them.

Get a huge bowl with a big rim. And do moves as you digging for gold. Throw the beans in the air and try to catch them again. From time to time blow into the bowl to get rid of all the skins.

Look at the beauties! It is said the full aroma develops now in the next few days. And is gone at about 2 weeks after the roasting. Put the beans in a airtight box in the freezer for storage and grind them fresh when you use them.

Straight after the cool down into the grinder and portafilter. The powder should not be powderish, more like a brownie. Fresh roasted coffee tend to form small “balls/crubles” it´s be-cause of the oil (which is mostly gone after 2 weeks).

Vola! What a crema, that image was taken about 1 minute. And the crema stays like that. As a friend of mine says, a piece of sugar should stay on top of the crema and not start to sink immediately. I have to admit the crema looks a bit white but lets wait for tomorrow after the beans had some rest.

There might be some mistakes in my instruction where baristas or pro roasters might disagree. But I have to say that the beans I roast beat most of the stuff I have bought so far with that method. Sometimes they are superb, sometimes it´s just good. It might be also the fact that I overrate the result but to be honest – It´s not rocket science.

And to make it clear, I rather cop off my right hand to ever buy coffee which I can not see – be-cause they are sealed in aluminum.

PS: If you ask a local coffee roaster nicely, they will make you a mix of beans for your need. And If you are lucky you can even get some nice printed coffee sacks for free.

Comments? Questions?

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