[Newfie]

Anyone here do it?

We just bought a pound of green coffee beans. I read up on it and I get a HUGE variation in suggested pan temps. Most seem to cluster around 400°F to 500°F. But at least one site starts at 200°F.

So I just “roasted” my first batch. Measured temp of pan with a non-contact IR thermometer which seems pretty accurate. Pan was a 396°F.

It was clearly too hot, the beans instantly scorched. I removed from heat, the first crack started right away. Basically I just roasted the beans in the pot off the fire, I did put them back on for a bit to finish the crack. So they are resting now, will grind tomorrow.

If this is all gibberish then just pass on. Buy if you have knowledge of pan roasting beans please comment.

Thanks

[Shaved Monkey]

Google home made coffee roaster.
A cordless drill a tin can with holes in it and a heat source seem to be the basic kit required

[Ibon]

Hi Newfie,

As you know we grow coffee here at Mount Totumas. WE now have 8000 trees that are finally maturing and this year was the first year we had enough production to sell an unlimited amount of roasted coffee to our guests. But Covid19 came along and ironically we are sitting on 2500 pounds of green coffee with no guests! Such is life

We have a roaster but the first year we harvested we still did not have the roaster so we did play around with pan roasting. I got as good at it as you can but you have to know from the start that it is a crude way to roast coffee and the results will never be the same as using a roaster. Having said that here is the best way to succeed.

You need the heaviest cast iron pot or pan you can find. This is important to dissipate the heat and also hold the heat once you reach the ideal temperature which is 400f As soon as you throw the coffee into the hot pan from that moment onwards you will not stop one second stirring the coffee with a wooden ladle. The moment you add the coffee the heat in the pan starts dropping fast because the beans absorb the heat. You stir non stop in a rhythm that keeps the beans constantly moving. Bring the gas on the stove down to a minimum during this time. In about 12-15 minutes you will hear first crack and shortly thereafter depending on how dark you like your coffee roasted you stop. Now one of the most important points. When you turn the gas off the coffee is super hot and will continue to roast just because of the heat in the beans. You need to cool down the coffee as fast as you can otherwise the sugars and flavors will burn off and your coffee will taste horrible. So dump the coffee quickly into another large pan and constantly shake it in the air to drop the temperature as fast as possible.

Pan roasted coffee never roasts homogeneously and you will notice the mottled color of the beans.

If you get serious about roasting green beans yourself there are small home roasters available for about $500

Popcorn poppers are crude but a little better than pan frying.

That's it!

[Newfie]

Ibon,

Thanks for that. Being locked down in Dominica we are working with what we have.

Here is my central questions, do you dump the beans in with the pan heated to 400°F OR do you put the beans in at a lower temp and raise the pan to 400°F?

If you don’t have a thermometer the question is more like: Do you start with a super hot pan OR do you raise the temperature?

Clearly the pan heat I used was way too high. I’ve watched some videos. And the beans don’t act the way my beans did.

THEN AGAIN, only one person actually used a thermometer. And she starts the beans roasting at 200°F. So maybe all the others are just winging it regarding temperature.

[Ibon]

Ibon,

Thanks for that. Being locked down in Dominica we are working with what we have.

Here is my central questions, do you dump the beans in with the pan heated to 400°F OR do you put the beans in at a lower temp and raise the pan to 400°F?

If you don’t have a thermometer the question is more like: Do you start with a super hot pan OR do you raise the temperature?

Clearly the pan heat I used was way too high. I’ve watched some videos. And the beans don’t act the way my beans did.

THEN AGAIN, only one person actually used a thermometer. And she starts the beans roasting at 200°F. So maybe all the others are just winging it regarding temperature.

I heated up the pan to around 400F and at the moment I dumped in the coffee I started stirring constantly. The temperature automatically drops down to around 250 as the heat of the pan goes into the coffee beans. It takes about 90 seconds for that initial temperature drop. Then under low heat during the next 12 minutes the temperature in the bean slowly rises. You do not get first crack to happen in the bean until around 380 degrees F so you need to bring the bean slowly up to that temperature.

First crack is the bean popping. This is caused by the water that is liberated at around 383 degrees. IT is the same as what happens to popcorn but the first crack in coffee is less dramatic, just a small pop you can hear.

[Ibon]

I just realized something. You need a decent volume of green coffee beans so that the mass of the beans is large enough to bring the temperature of the pan from 400 down to around 250. If you throw in less than a pound of coffee in a big cast iron fry pan you will scorch and burn the bean. We usually did around 3 lbs at a time. This is very important. You need that mass of green beans initially to transfer the heat from the pan to the beans dropping from 400 down to around 220-250 . If you only throw a small amount of beans they will burn since you wont get the drop of temperature.

[Newfie]

WELL OK, that makes a LOT of sense.

I was roasting 4oz.

A lot of the instructions and videos stress that you only have enough beans to cover the pan 2 beans deep. All videos I saw showed small quantities of beans being roasted.

Helpful.