Coffee Roaster

For those who are curious about my newly found hobby of coffee roasting. Here's a picture of my roaster. It's a souped-up popcorn popper. I rewired it with some plans I found on the web to make it better. I added a simple on/off switch that controls the heater and a dimmer switch to control the fan. The variable speed fan is the key to it all. If it's blowing too fast, the beans never get hot enough to roast beyond ultra-light. If it's blowing too slow, they roast too fast and can start on fire. The big metal box on the side is a transformer to step the voltage down from 120V to the 25V needed for the fan so I don't blow the thing up!

And the metal tube coming out of the top of the roaster is a failed attempt at expanding the roasting chamber to allow more beans at a time. Unfortunately, it interfered with the inside of the chamber too much, causing the beans to not mix well, and the bottom beans were completing their roast before the ones in the top even began.

And here's a before and after of the other night's roast, a 50/50 blend of Colombia and Sumatra. The left is the green beans, and the right is after roasting--a pretty dark roast but not quite French.