How to Roast Coffee at Home

Have you ever thought about roasting your own coffee? Well, it’s a lot easier than you might think. With a few simple pieces of equipment and some green unroasted coffee beans you can start roasting your own coffee minutes before you brew it. Home roasting is fun and it can save quite a bit of money if you’re a regular coffee drinker. There’s nothing more satisfying than sipping a cup of your own fresh-roasted beans.

Here we’ll cover the four most common home-roasting methods including: stovetop, electric popcorn popper, oven, and specialty home-roasting machines. Each of these methods has the potential to produce great tasting coffee, though some are easier to master than others.

Whenever roasting coffee in your home there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Coffee requires high temperatures to roast and therefore both coffee beans and equipment must be handled carefully. Oven mitts or work gloves work great.
• When coffee is roasting, especially dark roasts, it can produce smoke with a pungent odor. This smoke will slowly increase as the temperature rises. It is a good idea to have some sort of ventilation. You can roast in a garage or on your porch.
• Because coffee is roasted at such high temperatures (up to 450°F or more) there is some risk of fire if the beans are mishandled. Once the roast is underway the beans MUST be kept moving until the have been cooled to the touch (the oven-roasting method is an exception). Beans being roasted begin to generate their own heat after a certain point in the roast and will heat until they catch fire if they are not cooled in time. So, it is very important to remember that hot beans must be stirred! Having a fire extinguisher on hand is a good idea.
• You should be present at all times during the roasting of your coffee beans. Roasting is a delicate process and requires attention. So, always keep an eye on the beans.