- Why roast your own beans?
- There are many reasons why you may decide to roast your own coffee! Consider the following:
- Freshness
-
Most roasted beans reach their peak within 3-7 days of roasting and have typically lost most of their vital characteristics by about three weeks. Supermarket coffee is often many months or sometimes even years old, making it impossible to get the same results you can from freshly roasted beans. Even if you presently buy freshly roasted beans, roasting your own has great benefit if you have a low coffee consumption as you can roast just as much as you need to last you a week or so, rather than having to buy more coffee than you can really use within its useable lifespan. Plus, since unroasted green beans can last several years, there's no hurry to use them up!
- It's cheaper!
- .. by a long shot! Quality freshly roasted beans typically sell for around $35-$40/kg. Unroasted green beans, however, often sell for under $10/kg! Even making just two cups of coffee a day for two people, you'll save over $400 in the course of a year* by roasting your own beans, meaning you'll quickly recover the cost of the roaster. Of course if you have a higher consumption you'll be in front even faster!
* Based on one cup of coffee using 10g of coffee (8.5g for the cup and 1.5g wasteage) and green beans costing $30/kg less than roasted beans
- Variety
- There are an enormous number of green beans available, too many for most roasteries to offer to their customers who need to provide varieties that will appeal to a range of people so they sell before they go stale. How many roasteries do you know of selling Yemen Bani Ismail, Colombian Excelso Kachalu or Sumatran Blue Batak? Being able to purchase green beans means you can access these and other lesser known coffees and experience what they have to offer; lesser known doesn't mean lesser quality, they just may not be available in the quantities the bigger companies need. Plus, since green beans last several years you can build up a collection of your favourite beans and roast them at your leisure.
- Education
- Home coffee connoisseurs take pride in understanding how the coffee making process works and how to control the variables inherent in that process. Roasting your own beans gives you a greater understanding of another important part of the process that brings the bean to the cup
- You
- Roasting your own beans allows you to get exactly the type of bean and style of roast that suits your tastes. A 'one size fits all' solution rarely does that, but with you in control of the beans and roast you can choose exactly what suits you. Plus, the roasting process itself is a very relaxing, almost hypnotic process, as you watch the cyclical motion of the drum as the beans slowly change colour, enjoy the range of aromas as the roast progresses from cut grass to baking bread through to the more traditional coffee smells. In our busy pace of life, roasting your own coffee is an invigorating and refreshing experience, made even more so by the prospect of a delicious cup of coffee at the end!
Which roaster - Hottop or Gene Cafe?
It's a pretty common question; both roasters roast coffee, but the Gene is a lot cheaper than the Hottop and has a growing fan base, while the Hottop looks a much more serious unit and has a lot more programmable options. "Which one should I buy?"
Read the review of the Gene Cafe and the Hottop
I was faced with this same question in early 2008. I liked the look and functionality of the Hottop but the Gene was at a compelling price, and on the advice of some respected coffee authorities I purchased the Gene Cafe to evaluate its suitability for my personal use. Soon after this I had the opportunity to use a Hottop D roaster and subsequently purchased a Hottop B as well as a P upgrade kit so I could test these newer devices. The best advice I could give is to read through the review. As an owner of both, I rarely use the Gene Cafe now as I find the Hottop works best for me, however it's important to establish that there is no one perfect roaster for each person. Both roasters have their strengths and weaknesses, so with both units your choice will largely come back to which set of strengths are most important to you, and which set of weaknesses you can live with more easily. The review outlines these and helps you to decide which you are more likely to prefer.
In brief however, the Gene is cheaper, provides greater visibility of the roast, is very good at removing chaff from the beans and allows you to start a roast immediately on finishing the previous one; however it is quite noisy (making it hard to hear the bean cracks), is built mainly of plastic and doesn't give you a good indication of bean temperature. The Hottop is very quiet (making it very easy to hear the bean cracks), is built mainly of metal and the temperature sensor is located inside the drum giving an accurate indication of bean temperature; however it is more expensive, it tends to leave more chaff on the beans and in the roaster and has a required cool-down period which you can't get around if you're in a hurry to start your next roast. The Gene has a clear glass drum and a noisy fan and noisy motor, so you roast more by sight than sound. The Hottop has a viewing window in the end of the drum with a quiet fan and quiet motor, so you roast more by sound than sight. The bean cracks are important and definite milestones in a roast, whereas while bean colour is important it tends to be a more gradual change rather than a clearly defined point you can precisely identify, and the exact colour varies under different lighting conditions. These are some of the reasons I personally prefer the Hottop roasting process.
The overriding advice remains however to identify your needs and determine from reliable information (such as the review referred to) which set of strengths and weaknesses will best suit you.
OK, I've decided I want a Hottop. Which controller should I get?
One roaster, three controllers - which one is best for you? Read through the following comparison to get a brief on how they each work. You may also like to check out the B and P roasting videos further down which demostrate the controllers in action.
Hottop D
The D controller comes with a single built-in profile which can't be altered, and the only thing you can control is how long the roast goes for, as well as having a manual eject function. Its profile is generally well suited to more full-bodied roasts rather than brighter roasts, however this won't apply in every situation and the inability to change the roast profile is a definite disadvantage of the D controller over the newer Hottops and the Gene Cafe. However the D is by far the cheapest of the three controllers, so if you're on a budget it's a great way to get started with a Hottop; it may not be as flexible as the B and P Hottop controllers but it can still do a good job. Plus, since all Hottops can be upgraded to newer controllers, you can easily buy the D roaster upfront and upgrade to one of the programmable controllers when you're ready to take things to the next level of control.
Hottop B
The B controller has a simpler segmented LED display control panel and 3 memory locations, though by no means is a cheaply made unit. Before you start the roast, you enter simply a total roast time and target temperature and start the roast. Once it's underway you then manually control the heater power and fan speed to build a profile as you go. Once the roast has finished you can save the program you just created, however there's no way to edit it at all other than performing another roast and making the adjustments as you go once again. Initially it has a steeper learning curve than the P controller as you have to learn the thermodynamics of the roaster, i.e. how long it takes for a control panel change to show up in the drum. I stalled the first few B roasts while learning this, however now I've learnt this I find it the more flexible of the two controllers because you can adjust all parameters at any point in the roast.
The thing I like most about the B controller is the ability to control every aspect of the program at any time - and it's a fair bit cheaper than the P too! It is undoubtedly the most flexible Hottop controller.
The thing I dislike most about the B controller is the fact you can't erase a program completely and start with an empty program or edit the program upfront. This means if you roast with an existing program (as you often would want to otherwise what's the point in having them) you sometimes have to do battle with the pre-programmed adjustments coming in before you want them, e.g. if you decided you wanted the fan to come on later you'd have to wait for it to automatically turn up and then turn it back down.
Hottop P
The P has a fancy LCD multi-colour control panel with silicon rubber buttons and 10 memory locations. Before you start the roast, you create a program using 8 different roasting segments, each of which can have a setting for temperature, time and fan speed. Initial programming is slow but once you've done one you can copy and paste to other memory locations and refine the roast parameters. Once the roast is underway you have limited control, being able only to adjust the temperature of the active segment. Essentially the philosophy is 'Program, then roast' and I found this preferable over the B controller when getting started, but a little limiting once I'd built up more experience. Since you're telling the controller what temperature to aim for, you don't have to worry about learning the thermodynamics of the roaster as you do with the B controller as the P's brains will take care of actual heater power and gentle ramp up/down of power as required to reach the set point at the required time.
The thing I like most about the P controller is that while you never leave any roaster unattended, it's the most 'set-and-forget' solution and you don't have to monitor it as much as others during the roast. You create the initial program and can then pretty well sit back and let it follow the program until it's time to eject the roast. This makes it a very 'sociable' roaster, i.e. you can set it going while you have friends around and can stand around nearby and chat, keeping one ear out for the cracks and monitoring the change of smell without having to keep too close an eye on the screen, and only getting involved to accept the safety beeps and to eject the roast. By contrast the B's programs are time-based so it's sometimes necessary to make a change a bit earlier or later time-wise than you may have when you created an initial program (e.g. if ambient temperature is quite different), which means you have to pay a lot more attention to the control panel. The P is also a very schmik looking controller, far 'prettier' than the controller on any other domestic roaster be that Hottop or anyone else, so if someone wants to take a closer interest there's plenty to see on the control panel and in the viewing window.
The thing I dislike most about the P controller is that it doesn't look ahead to the next roasting segment's parameters when controlling the current one. This means if it's got 30 seconds to go and is slightly above the set point, it will drop off the power to bring it back down even if the next segment requires it to increase the temperature. The amount of thermal energy stored in the drum means this doesn't adversely affect the roast but the engineer within me would prefer it to look ahead and behave accordingly.
Roasting with the Hottop KN-8828B controller
We roasted 250g of Mt Gabbana Forest Estate Ethiopian Limmu in a Hottop roaster fitted with the KN-8828B controller. This video gives a brief overview of how to use the B controller and shows the roasting process and the excellent result achievable, as well as some of the flaws.
Play hi-fi video stream (58Mb, ~23 minutes)
Play lo-fi video stream (7Mb, ~23 minutes)
This is the profile we ended up achieving and the times and adjustments we made to achieve it:
| Time Remaining (minutes) |
Temperature (deg C) |
Change (deg/min) |
Rate of Change (deg/min/min) |
Adjustments |
| 20 |
75 |
- |
- |
Fan off, heater 100% |
| 19 |
81 |
6 |
6 |
|
| 18 |
97 |
16 |
10 |
|
| 17 |
113 |
16 |
0 |
|
| 16 |
128 |
15 |
-1 |
|
| 15 |
142 |
14 |
-1 |
Fan 1, heater 70% |
| 14 |
153 |
11 |
-3 |
|
| 13 |
162 |
9 |
-2 |
Fan 2 |
| 12 |
169 |
7 |
-2 |
|
| 11 |
175 |
6 |
-1 |
|
| 10 |
179 |
4 |
-2 |
|
| 9 |
183 |
4 |
0 |
Fan 3 |
| 8 |
187 |
4 |
0 |
|
| 7 |
191 |
4 |
0 |
Fan 4, heater 40% |
| 6 |
195 |
4 |
0 |
First crack started 6:52 / 192C |
| 5 |
198 |
3 |
-1 |
|
| 4 |
200 |
2 |
-1 |
|
| 3 |
201 |
1 |
-1 |
|
| 2 |
202 |
1 |
0 |
|
| 1 |
203 |
1 |
0 |
Second crack started 1:55 / 202C, rolling by 1:15 / 203C |
Roasting with the Hottop KN-8828P controller
We roasted 250g of Brazil Daterra Sweet Collection in a Hottop roaster fitted with the KN-8828P controller. This video gives a brief overview of how to use the P controller and shows the roasting process and the excellent result achievable, as well as some of the flaws.
Play hi-fi video stream (66Mb, ~26 minutes)
Play lo-fi video stream (7.5Mb, ~26 minutes)
Roasting with the Gene Cafe
We roasted 250g of Ethiopian Mao Horse Harrar in a Gene Cafe. This video gives a brief overview of how to use the Gene Cafe, showing the roasting process, the very good results achievable, and some of its flaws.
Play hi-fi video stream (56Mb, ~22 minutes)
Play lo-fi video stream (6Mb, ~22 minutes)
