The other adult beverage.....

The guy I gave my roasting machine to sent me this;

http://www.homeroasters.org/

he says it is pretty good for info etc etc. I have not used it.

I still have the plans for the machine somewhere if you want them.
One last point, some of the machines people make use brass, aluminium
etc. I ONLY used stainless steel and special heat resistant glass for
the machines I made. Some of the other metals will taint your coffee.

MC

On Jan 10, 12:07*pm, "Wolfgang" wrote:
But I'm wondering if anyone
else here has played with this and if so, I'd appreciate hearing about your
experiences, preferences, etc. *

I'll piggyback on this with a followup query. What about the
caffeine? I love coffee & would be more than willing to try the roll-
your-own route; but my experience with "better" coffee seems to
correlate body with increased caffeine. Not that I mind a good shot
of speed now and again; but is this necessarily the case?

Joe F.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
On Jan 10, 6:07 pm, "Wolfgang" wrote:

.. But I'm wondering if anyone
else here has played with this and if so, I'd appreciate hearing about
your
experiences, preferences, etc. If not, any true coffee lover should
definitely look into the do it yourself thing.

Wolfgang

Many people here do this, although the vast majority doubtless buy
ready roasted and ground coffee, most supermarkets and a large number
of other shops, including specialist coffee shops, ( where you can
also buy a cup of coffee, but that is not their raison d étre ), offer
green coffee, roasting, grinding and blending facilities. Even the
cheapest coffee tastes a lot better when freshly roasted and ground.

Although using the grinder/blender for ready roasted beans in the
various shops is most popular, I know quite a few people who roast
their own. Most use the hot air stream method.

When my wife was alive, we used to roast our own as well, but I don´t
bother any more as I don´t think it´s worth it for the amount of
coffee I drink. It is of course best consumed fresh! The only really
critical step is knowing when to stop the roast. The German sites
would probably not be a lot of use to you, but these seem to cover a
lot of stuff fairly comprehensively. The first roaster I used was made
with a temperature controlled hot air gun, and a metal sieve on a
motor driven cam. Worked perfectly.

http://www.sweetmarias.com/instructions.html

http://www.breworganic.com/Coffee/HowToRoast.htm

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/00/11/whyroast/

Difficult to get some beans in the ( small ) amounts required now, but
there is still a large choice here. Large cities usually have a couple
of shops with "special" or rare beans. Should be even more in
America ?

Thanks, Mike.

The roaster I bought uses hot air. It also has a very small
capacity.....something like a quarter cup of beans. Just about enough for
two pots of coffee, so no need to worry about freshness. All the green
beans I've seen at the Coffee Project website are available in one pound
packages and everything I've read thus far says they can be stored for a
year or two without any significant loss in quality. I've also looked at a
few other suppliers. Looks like it'll be at least a couple of years before
I can exhaust the readily available options.

Wolfgang

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

One very important point to remember: DO NOT use the same coffee grinder for
your coffee beans that you use for mixing dubbing. : )

Bob Weinberger La Grande, OR

"Mike" wrote in message
...
May also be of interest;

http://www.madcoffeemaker.com/learn/...-roasters.html

http://www.homeroaster.com/homemade.html

http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.html

It is important to get ( or make) a machine where you can see the
beans properly during the roasting process. many closed rum machines
will not allow this, and you are forced to rely on smell. This can be
a problem.

Also, a really good grinder is half the battle;

http://www.madcoffeemaker.com/learn/...-grinders.html

Most "ordinary" kitchen grinders are no good.

There are a large number of sites now with various info. I don´t know
how up to date some of these links are, I got them together for
somebody else who wanted them.

I already have the roaster and the grinder.

Thanks.

Wolfgang

You should also check out these ( Zassenhaus coffee milling machine) ;

http://www.kaffeeshop24.de/index.htm...ffeemuehle.htm

Quite a few people swear these are the best, and superior to various
other electric machines etc. I could never actually taste any
difference, but others said they could. As I am quite a heavy smoker
it may well be that my palate is simply not able to notice subtle
differences?

MC

"ray" wrote in message
news
Not much of a coffee afficianado myself, but my wife and several other
friends and relatives swear by a product called the Toddy Coffee maker.
Instead of brewing the coffee hot, you pour the coffee and a couple of
cans of cold water into a container where it steeps overnight. Next
morning it is filtered out into a concentrate - about one jigger per cup,
I think. The cold brewing takes out much of the bitter taste. I'm informed
that even cheap coffee handled that way tastes much better than hot brewed
premium brands.

Interesting. One thing is certain, brewing by that method is going to
result in a radically different product than using hot water. The chemistry
is pretty complex.....and water temperature makes a BIG difference.

Wolfgang

"ray" wrote in message
news

Not much of a coffee afficianado myself, but my wife and several other
friends and relatives swear by a product called the Toddy Coffee maker.
Instead of brewing the coffee hot, you pour the coffee and a couple of
cans of cold water into a container where it steeps overnight. Next
morning it is filtered out into a concentrate - about one jigger per cup,
I think. The cold brewing takes out much of the bitter taste. I'm informed
that even cheap coffee handled that way tastes much better than hot brewed
premium brands.


Sounds interesting, but coffee can easily become bitter if it sits too long
in H20.
Another thing you can accidentally do is burn the beans.
Some think the hotter the better, too hot can be a disfavor to the taste.

Coffee Beans! yes, they do go bad, actually stale.
Good roasting co. turn their incoming beans over once a week, so
we never buy in bulk. Stevie made a good point to keep the beans
whole, and freeze them, I'll add, measure and grind only what you'll
use, which he probably does do.

The best we found is the hour glass Chemex type coffeemaker.
http://www.chemexcoffeemaker.com/
Bring the water just before boil in a pan.
Wet the cone shaped filter, add the ground blend beans and pour
the water over the beans. Nothing fancy, no metal taste, no burned
beans.
-tom

"rb608" wrote in message
...
On Jan 10, 12:07 pm, "Wolfgang" wrote:
But I'm wondering if anyone
else here has played with this and if so, I'd appreciate hearing about
your
experiences, preferences, etc.

I'll piggyback on this with a followup query. What about the
caffeine? I love coffee & would be more than willing to try the roll-
your-own route; but my experience with "better" coffee seems to
correlate body with increased caffeine. Not that I mind a good shot
of speed now and again; but is this necessarily the case?

Haven't seen much about that yet. All I remember from my reading so far is
that roasting necessarily destroys some caffeine. I suspect that which
beans you start with is a more important factor. More important still, I'm
certain, is that "better" coffees as such appear to be defined here these
days.....which is to say "stronger" coffees.....have more caffeine because
they use a lot more coffee. I've always felt there was a clear message in
the fact that products from places like Starbuck's Alterra, Caribou, etc.
invariably taste like a boiled mixture of **** and asphalt.

And, anyway, you can buy decaffeinated whole green beans.

The nice thing about roasting and brewing your own is that you have
virtually infinite control over both darkness or roast and strength of
brew.....and freshness.

Wolfgang

On Jan 10, 7:21 pm, "Wolfgang" wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

...
May also be of interest;

http://www.madcoffeemaker.com/learn/...-roasters.html

http://www.homeroaster.com/homemade.html

http://www.sweetmarias.com/homemade-homeroasters.html

It is important to get ( or make) a machine where you can see the
beans properly during the roasting process. many closed rum machines
will not allow this, and you are forced to rely on smell. This can be
a problem.

Also, a really good grinder is half the battle;

http://www.madcoffeemaker.com/learn/...-grinders.html

Most "ordinary" kitchen grinders are no good.

There are a large number of sites now with various info. I don´t know
how up to date some of these links are, I got them together for
somebody else who wanted them.

I already have the roaster and the grinder.

Thanks.

Wolfgang

OK. A couple of people I know use this machine;

( Bodum Antigua ) http://www.kaffeeshop24.de/index.htm...ffeemuehle.htm

primarily because it has a genuine mill work, and the grain size can
be set. This is very important for some roasts. If you already have a
machine then of course try that first. Machines with whirling blades
and the like give indifferent results, for two main reasons. The
grounds are not uniform, and the heat produced reduces the coffee
aroma.

My personal favourite was a "French Roast" Sumatra espresso which is
milled "very fine", and I drank it ( much to the disgust of one or two
people) with sugar and steamed cream. I have not had a cup of coffee
to compare with it since I gave the machine away.

May also be of interest;

http://www.dccoffeeproducts.com/beanbasics.html

http://www.dccoffeeproducts.com/greencoffee.html

For some people it´s almost a religion!

MC