I have a friend who went with a Hamilton Beach Air popcorn popper. Seems thats the cheapest/easiest for doing small batches at a time.

Does the Sylvia have a PID? or are you surfing?

You should check out www.sweetmarias.com if you haven't already done so. They sell a bunch of different roasters and have a comparison chart of the roasters and a lot of information about roasting at home.

I briefly looked into it a few years ago but decided against it. I decided it wasn't worth it to me to deal with the smoke and cleaning up, etc. when I could get fresh roasted coffee beans at a nearby store.

We've also used a popcorn popper. Don't try it indoors unless you have a high cfm vent above it...

I'm happy with the Behmor -- just under two years now. Ditto Weissman re Sweet Maria's, and you have surely seen the reviews on coffeegeeks.

The Behmor has good smoke-suppression, but I would still use it in a garage or shed if possible. You do save money, though roasting needs to be incorporated into your weekly routine. For me the fun part is being able to try a lot of different beans and different roasts. Little batches of roasted coffee can also be nice gifts.

Thanks -- good tips.

I had hoped I could do the roasting in our basement "kitchen"--where we cooked during the remodel and have now relegated to making doggie dinners. But it sounds like I might have to do the roasting in the garage.

Weissman, listening carefully to what you said as I sometimes get all enthusiastic and then realize I'm not sure I'm glad I added another task to my weekly list of things to do.

Weedmeister --no PID on the Sylvia. Just a basic setup, and getting rather old at that. We replaced the 3 way solenoid valve, gaskets and switches last year.

I have roasted green beans for about 10 years now. I chose the I-Roast2 for several reasons. It has a footprint about the same as an automatic drip coffee maker. It comes with a collar that allows the attachment of flexible dryer vent hose to direct the smoke to the vent for our cooktop. Ours has a downdraft vent. It can make coffee that guests will rave about. It has one of the best chaff collectors and cool down ability. And it can be had for an investment of about $200.
There are also some negatives:
It takes a very long learning process to set up the roasting profiles because each I-Roast is slightly different from the others. It is a fluid bed roaster and those have a different flavor profile than drum roasters. A batch of coffee is only 140 grams. It must cool off for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight to protect the controlling electronics. I know because I burned out the first one I had trying to do too many roasts in one day. If mine broke today, I would probably get another unless I could spring for one of the much more expensive roasters like the Hottop.
Hope this helps.

If you like light to medium roasts, the Behmor's smoke-suppression may be good enough for basement use. But if you are regularly pushing the beans into second crack, you won't want it in the house.

Just to chime in with nerdyshopper and others, coffee roasting is a craft. It will take some learning, and you have to pay close attention to each roast, at least during its final five minutes. Each batch of green beans is different. This is the fun part for those of us with a geeky DIY streak, but you shouldn't expect that you can just turn on an appliance and have it do the rest of the work.

The second craft-related point is that while my roasts are tastier and a whole lot cheaper than the beans available in grocery stores (and I'm in Seattle where selection is good), I will always be a step or two behind pro craft roasters who do this every day, using pro gear. So if you have a have a good craft roaster nearby, that's the optimum solution for flavor.

I've been roasting for about 12 years, and worked in the specialty coffee industry for a time.

Unless you are an ubergeek, you won't get the results that a really talented roaster using a professional gas fired drum roaster will, but you can get results that are lightyears better than anything you'll find on the grocery store shelves and better than a lot of shops as well. It's worth doing and it's a lot of fun, too.

If you just want to give coffee roasting a try, without an investment on your part, you can roast in a heavy pan on your stove--just make sure that your vent hood is set on high, because you WILL set off your smoke alarms, and just be aware that it will make a mess as the beans shed a papery substance called 'chaff' as they roast. (easily vacuumed up) These guys will send you a sample of beans for free just to try it:

www.coffeeproject.com

The link below is a great place to explore all things coffee with folks who care very deeply about it. :-) You'll find a lot of people with a lot of roasters there, and many opinions.

Have fun!
Cj

Here is a link that might be useful: CoffeeGeek Home Roasting Forum

Colin and Cj, thanks for the advice. It is really helpful.

As I would probably be going for an espresso roast it sounds like I would probably be in the garage. It is helpful to know this before I purchase.

Still trying to decide whether I have the focus and bandwidth to get good at roasting. It is tempting.

That's why I posted about the Iroast. It is very kitchen friendly and can do a good job if you learn how.

Sayde, the first thing you need to know is that 'espresso' is not a roast level. :-) There's a myth out there that espresso is always a dark and oily roast. That is not the case. Espresso is usually a blend of beans from different regions that vary in acidity, body, and flavor. Think of it as notes in a musical chord that blend together to be something beautiful. That's a good espresso blend. The blends that you get from a good coffee roaster (the shop, not the machine) are made up of beans that have been roasted to their best advantage separately, and have then been mixed. You can buy blends green that can be roasted at home. These blends have been formulated to do well when roasted all together. Most vendors that sell green coffee will tell you at what level the blend is best roasted, and that is a good place to start. There are many factors that play into the best roast for a particular bean, including country of origin, elevation grown, variety, age, etc. A good vendor will give you some information about what flavors you can expect to taste at various roast levels. I'd suggest that you start your roasting adventures with a single origin--all the beans from the same variety. This will allow you to get a feel for what goes into roasting, and what each roast level does to the flavor of the bean. You will find that in most cases, you will get the best expression of the unique flavors of a bean in lighter, not darker roasts. Once you get well into the second crack, the roast flavors begin to overshadow the flavors inherent in the bean. (You'll need to do some reading to understand the terminology, but there's plenty of info out there.) Once you get the hang of roasting and what to look, listen, and smell for, then try and roast a blend. I make this suggestion because the various beans in a blend will come into the various roast stages at different times. You will get better results if you know how to judge what you're seeing, hearing, and smelling. Roasting is a multisensory experience. :-) Don't worry, it won't take you long to get the hang of it! Get a pound to play with and a pound of your espresso blend--or even more than one. Be sure to let your coffee rest a bit, at the very least 12 hours, but most do better at 24 or more. I've had some espresso blends that don't really come into their own until about 5 days have passed. If you find the flavors harsh, let it rest another day and see how that affects the flavor--you might be really surprised.

You'll need to do some reading so that you have the basics down before even turning on your roaster. Some vendors have this information online for you to read, or will include it with their roasters. Choose a machine that will best fit your own style--one that allows you a lot of latitude in controlling the roast if you're the type to read up and would enjoy finding out how to manipulate the flavors of the beans, or if you'd rather not have to participate too much, then get one with buttons that you can press to activate pre-programmed roast profiles. Don't worry too much about capacity. If you really get into it and want to do your own blends, you're not going to want a large amount of any one bean, because you'll be roasting a small batch of 3 or 4 types to mix. Fresh roasted coffee is good for 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the bean and the roast, and also your personal preference. After that the nuances start to fade, and it starts to taste a bit stale. You will quickly learn to spot when your beans are on the edge of going stale.

You should be warned that once you get used to roasting your own coffee the way you like it, you will very likely be spoiled for going out to drink it anywhere else, excepting places that roast their own and do it well. Just sayin'.

Have a good time,
Cj

I realize that my last post got ridiculously long, but I have serious geek tendencies when it comes to coffee, espresso, and roasting...so please forgive me.

One other thing you should be aware of is that a coffee roaster, especially the smaller ones, are affected by ambient temperatures. So if you are going to roast in the garage, you may have a little trouble getting your roaster up to the proper temperatures if it's really cold out there. If you read up and participate in some of the forums, you may get some suggestions on mitigating this a bit. Just something to keep in mind.

Cj

CJ that was such a scary post. I hope the op didn't decide to just give up and head for Starbucks. In my experience, my only criterion is "did this batch tast good". All the rest just makes me nervous. With the IRoast if you try to micromanage the profiles you just get nervous for never doing any better. Three stages do it all and one stage could too. The rest turn out to be just a bunch of wasted effort.

Interesting. CJ's detailed posts made me more interested in roasting beans; I'd never given it much thought before... Fortunately, there's a local roaster whos's good.

LOL, I sure hope I didn't scare anyone. Roasting is a lot of fun, and it can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. Better to start simply and decide if you want to work into more complicated things. I was just trying to provide a place to start. However, if you just roast everything to the same level and think you're tasting all that the beans can offer--sorry, but you're not, and you're cheating yourself out of some really great coffee. You don't have to go all totally Geek with it, even I don't do that for my home roasting. But there are some very basic, simple things that can yield great results--like knowing the basic roast levels and how to achieve them on your home roaster. You can get it to just "taste good", and that's fine if that's where you want to be. But you can also see just how good you CAN get it to taste--and that's where the fun really begins for a lot of us.
Cj

I guess I am just paranoid. I have roasted whole 5 lb bags of beans without ever making one tasty batch. That includes expensive beans from Kona. Good beans are not the only secret and it is way easier to fail than to make a roast that tastes really great. I still keep trying but now my sights are set mostly on not failing, not on all "A"s. I have only been roasting for about 10 years so maybe I'll discover a secret, but I doubt it.

Nerdyshopper, whoa!! Something is clearly not right here if you can roast 5 lbs without getting a good batch. Could be a number of different things, including the roasting temps, the cooling time, or even brew techniques and temps. If you can pinpoint what it is you don't like about the results you're getting, I'd be happy to see if we can target the problem, just PM me. Or, if you are not comfortable with that, join the roasting forum at CoffeeGeek and post a question there. You could also contact Hearthware or the vendor you bought it from and see what they have to say. There are resources out there! It really isn't hard to get a good, very basic roast off a little homeroasting machine. Even if it goes on, gets hot enough to turn the beans brown, and then turns off--it should be decently drinkable. If it's not good, then there's something wrong somewhere.

Life's too short to drink bad coffee. :-)

Cj

CJ
Thank you so much for your post. It had not occurred to me that since different beans require a different roasting profile, that a mix might not be a good place to start.

Clearly I have to do some more research before jumping in.

For years I have been using SB Gold Coast in my Sylvia and had been pretty happy buy lately I think something is off with the beans. That's what got me started on considering roasting. I read somewhere that if you want to improve the quality of your shots the first most important thing is to improve the quality of the coffee, then, the operator, then the grinder and then the espresso maker.

I have a Hottop roaster (bought used for $300 about 7 years ago). We used to do espresso drinks at home (we have two Mazzer grinders (mini and a superjolly) and a Brewtus I), but found that we now prefer to let our several quality coffeehouses and roasters provide our espresso drinks. We'll probably eventually sell the Brewtus.

The mazzers and the Hottop still get used, but for excellent drip at home. For drip we like bright single origins and these take light roasts and are easy to do to our taste on the hottop. This way we can buy that extra special lb of beans from from Sweet Marias, and get 2 roasts out of it (hottop does a half pound). We look forward to each season's new offerings, rarely doing more than 2 lbs of any one bean, so no real reason to keep roasting records or fine tune it.

I used to do the whole buy lotsa beans, roast several batches, make up blends for espresso, keep detailed logs with thermocouple readings, etc, but now there are enough good local roasters/baristas that I'd rather spend my time sitting and chatting and let someone else do that work.

So yeah, you can geek out. Or maybe you'll find a mellow groove like we did that still involves roasting then and again.

I have had best luck buying 5 lbs. or more of one kind and trying successive roasts (8-10 oz) at slightly different levels -- it takes a few roasts to figure out what tastes can be gotten out of any one batch of beans. Sweet Maria's provides guidance to get you going.

Sad that Nerdyshopper has had mixed results with the IRoast. With a couple of charred or underdone exceptions I have never had less than tasty results. (Kona btw is overrated.) Interesting how different folks take up different things -- I do only drip at home and leave espresso to pros.

There is also some convenience to roasting -- green beans last a while, so I usually have 10-20 lbs. of different green beans on hand and can keep the flow going without trips to the store.

Sourcing from Sweet Maria's also lets you try unusual things like monsooned coffee that you don't get in stores. Nice peaberry lots.