Discovered this thread so late. had lot of fun reading through all your post of coffee related stuff.
I love coffee. specially coffee with a more chocolaty aroma mix in with half and half.

this is my humble set up.


Lately have gone into home roasting and the coffee experience jumped immensely.

Hi i do not use any high tech roaster to roast my coffee. In any hobby/interest i always start with the basics.
I started roasting using pan/saucepan with a lid method over the gas top. it was quite good after using a heavy cast iron with a glass covered top i could get the bean roasted around 15-16 mins second crack. i drank pan roasted coffee for 1 year now. I'm also not a coffee snob and just enjoy the freshness of the roast and notice that flavours develop each passing day. I know what people say that coffee is just right for espresso after 3-4 days but i don't see it. i drink it an hour after its roasted and its lovely. Each batch lasts me a week never longer as i find week old coffee not pleasant.

then i tried moving into a diy drum roaster (LOL) which i made out of a stainless steel bottle and some hardware parts with a hand drill.

it worked but the roasting time was far too long. as the canister was very low in mass and could not retain heat so the total roasting time too 20 mins pass and it wasn't pleasant to drink kinda like baked coffee beans. Might work if you had higher heat source. say turbo stove or maybe heat gun.

the current project I'm trying to use a fat free fryer. basically it looks like this

Decent roast it tumbles to keep the bean moving. but the roast is still quite uneven. still need to move the beans more. adding vanes to move it more and removing the thermostat is my next project hack. Temperature cuts off at 210 C. but this is all automated so my arms are not tired. pan roasting very tiring on the arms as i have to keep moving it for 15 mins. /of course can buy a real coffee roaster but where the fun in that. Plus I'm a cheapskate!!

as for the beans i buy them local. i don't order in from overseas its more expensive to buy them local but at least i get to inspect the beans before i buy them. in KL i buy them from bon cafe sri hartamas. if you need the number and address let me know. they have most basic selections there. Brazilian,sumatra,indian monsoon . if I'm up north i buy them from a coffee distributor in penang. Christopher Coffee Food & Beverage Service & Distribution Penang (you can try search online) they have more exotic beans like blue mountain /luwak.

happy roasting and drinking coffee.

This post has been edited by Shzngi: Sep 27 2016, 06:00 PM