My New Hobby
jewel October 6th, 2007
Well, it’s kind of a hobby…
A friend at work started roasting his own coffee. It’s pretty easy to do, he said, and inexpensive, too. I was luke warm to the idea until he brought me enough roasted beans to make a pot of coffee. It was some of the smoothest, tastiest coffee I’d ever had. He used a hot air popcorn popper (the kind with a metal bottom, not mesh). Later he added a thermometer, which cost just a little more than the popper.
Well, having tasted the freshly roasted coffee, I was sold on the idea. I got a popper and a thermometer and last Tuesday I gave this roasting thing a try. It is so easy! I set myself up on my porch to do the roasting because I didn’t want to do it inside (I’d hate for my smoke detector to go off or anything). It only took a couple minutes per batch, I took each batch up to 445 degrees. Since I’m using a popcorn popper, I can’t roast that much at a time (about enough for a full pot), but that’s ok since it doesn’t really take that long to do.
Today I roasted up some more. This time I roasted them a little darker (455 temp). I’ll make some from this batch tomorrow morning.
This is so typical. You roast beans. I brew beer.
We rock!!
Yep. I would be willing to wager, though, that my hobby takes less effort.
No doubt!! Less $$ too, especially with the cost of hops soaring, but hey, I’m willing to suffer for my art!!
I actually made an India Pale Ale about 6 weeks ago with only Amarillo hops (we’ll see if any beer gnurds read this!) and it was so yummy!!! I have a pumpkin ale in a keg that won’t hold pressure so I’ll have to bottle that this week. Maybe tomorrow night. But once bottled, it can last for a long long time!! Which is good, because I don’t brew as often as I’d like. Time you know. And sanitizing is the biggest part of it all. Yuck.
Roasting coffee is definitely cheaper. The hot air popper was under $20 and the thermometer was about $18. I just have to buy the green coffee. Speaking of which, I need to order more this week.