I spent most of Sunday afternoon air roasting 5 lbs of Rwandan Coffee.

[denbot]

My wife, and her coworkers, and two of my coworkers pooled a little cash, and bought some pretty good green coffee beans. We selected 10 pounds of Rwanda Kibuye Gitesi beans from an online coffee dealer called Sweet Maria's.

The down side is that I'm the designated roaster. I usually roast maybe a cup, to a cup and a half at a time in an air popcorn popper. After roasting 5 lbs my nostrils still sting a little from leaning over the popper listening for the first sounds of the second crack stage.

http://www.quora.com/How-do-the-popular-coffee-roasts-and-blends-differ-from-each-other-in-the-United-States

We all like the City to Full City roast so halting the roasting process at the first sign of the second crack is important.

It looks like I'll be doing the same thing next weekend. I now see why there are so many jury rigged coffee roasters on YouTube. I would like to figure out a cost effective way to roast coffee a pound at a time. Spending a minimum of $300 on a roaster is out of the question for us.

[hlthe2b]

1. Why Rwandan?

Just curious...

[denbot]

5. Rwandan coffee is pretty good coffee.

Fresh roastedit is better then most roasts you would spend twice as much for in Trader Joe's or Whole Foods

[wildeyed]

2. You could use stove top popper over a camp stove

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0034D5BIQ/ref=asc_df_B0034D5BIQ1897798?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B0034D5BIQ.

Would not do a pound at a time, but faster than the method you are using.

[denbot]

6. I would have to use it outside due to chaff, and the smoke.

You can roast twice as much at a time, but still far less capacity then I'd like.

[HopeHoops]

3. I'd rather spend the afternoon having sex - but hey, that's just me.

I used to be a 2-pot+ per day coffee drinker. I don't even touch it now.

[Major Nikon]

9. Quality, not quantity is generally the goal of roasting your own beans

The problem with most roasters, especially the cheaper ones is many of them barely roast enough for a couple of cups. So even if you don't drink that much coffee, you find yourself roasting all the time. Roasting a pound at a time is the holy grail for home roasters because it allows you to roast only once or twice a month and it's practical enough to roast beans for other people as well and still have plenty of time left over for sex.

[Major Nikon]

4. Years ago I built a BBQ grill roaster

It was a pretty easy project. I used a stainless steel trash can, a stainless steel bowl, and some angle iron for stirring vanes.

I haven't used it in years, but it works great. You can buy them pre-made on ebay now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Coffee-Peanut-Chile-Cacao-Bean-Roaster-Drum-BBQ-Grill-Roasting-/180800452178

[denbot]

7. This looks like the way to go.

If I had a buzz box I would figure out how to weld one up. My existing BBQ grill needs the cast iron grills replaced, along with the hose and connection to the side burner. I have one of those stainless monster grills I bought when things were a little different. The dimentions on the grill would preclude using most of the affordable "generic" rotisserie attactments.

Hopefully I can get some breathing room by spring, and pull together a rotisserie/drum system.
Best case scenario it looks like it would cost me about 160 plus shipping, but that might be a little optimistic

[Major Nikon]

8. If you're into building things yourself...

Sweetmarias has a page filled with all sorts of home built coffee roasting contraptions. The BBQ roaster seemed to make the most sense to me. I probably roasted 100 pounds or so of greens this way. I cooled them off simply by pouring them into a metal colander, stirred them with a big spoon while I used a hair dryer with the heat turned off to blow cooler air on them. Worked like a charm and got rid of chaff.