Hey There!
So, you have fallen down the coffee roasting journey… welcome! It is a “tasty” journey to say the least.
Now, you are looking into roasters and trying to decide which would be the best one to purchase. Scary decision… as they can get pretty pricy. Deciding on which roaster to order will ultimately be determined by what your goals are for coffee roasting.
Are you looking to just do this as a hobby and have fun, or are you planning to potentially start a coffee roasting business?
I wanted to go over a few concepts that may help in your decision making process. But first lets discuss the different types of roasters.
Types of Roasters
There are air roasters (or you may hear fluid bed roasters).
Drum Roasters.
Electric Roasters
Hand roasters.
Heat gun roasters.
DIY Roasters.
But which roaster is right for you? Let’s dive into that.
Hand Roaster
Roasters can get pretty expensive depending on the size and the manufacturer.
But if you are just starting out you can get some green coffee and roast in a skillet if you just want to dip your toe in the water. Now it may get a little smoky so make sure the spouse is aware before you go and bomb the house with coffee odor. This will by no means be the best coffee but it will help give you an idea of how roasting works.
But if you are just starting out and would like to purchase a roaster I would say start with a little hand roaster such as the Hive roaster or the Nuvo Eco Ceramic hand roaster. Both are relatively inexpensive to begin and both will give you a very basic understanding of roasting. The hive can handle about 150g of green coffee whereas the Nuvo can do 30g+ per batch.
I have created a video on how to use the hive if you are interested here!
The big question here is how long do you want to spend roasting 10-13 minute batches of coffee. 30 grams is not much coffee per batch. Especially after the moisture loss in the beans. How many batches would you have to roast to last you the week?
That answer may determine what you decide to get.
Air Roaster
Air roasters are similar to a popcorn popper. They use convection energy to heat the coffee by pushing hot air up and through the beans throughout the roasting process. There are air roasters you can start out on such as the Fresh Roast SR540 and SR800. You may have a popcorn popper at home you can use and test the waters with as well. I have heard of issues of these cheaper air roasters not lasting to long but I have no experience with that.
I have personally tasted coffee from a few of them and I have not been too impressed yet. But I think in the right hands there is some good potential.
Drum Roaster
These machines have an internal metal drum that spins around inside the roaster tossing the coffee around. There are usually paddles or ribs inside that help agitate the coffee. Conduction energy is the primary source of energy that heats up the coffee followed by the convection energy of the air flow going through the drum.
The smaller drum roasters such as the Kaldi and Huky 500 do not really have air control but if you get a 1 or 2 KG mill city or Bideli to roast on they will usually come with air flow dials. There is also the Behmor which is a drum roaster that is electric operated so you can easily just plug it into an outlet and start cooking some beans.
Drum roasters are probably the most common roaster out there right now and the drum technology dates back well over a century. Many of the newer roasters being developed are moving away from this model but in my opinion it is still produces some of the best tasting coffee out there.
Sample Roasters
There are also roasters that are referred to as sample roasters. These are pretty precise machines and some are more controllable than others. These price on these range pretty wide depending on the brand and quality of machine.
A few examples are…
o The Ikawa (I will be making a review on it soon).
o The arc roaster.
o Probat offers a sample roaster.
o Aillio Bullet 1kg roaster.
If you just want some amazing coffee just for yourself I would recommend getting a small sample roaster. Again, they do get quite expensive but if you ever go the business route you will kind of need one anyway. To find that sweet spot in the coffee you just purchased you may need to do multiple batches to find that optimal taste in the coffee. This will save you from wasting large amounts of coffee based on large batch sizes.
Let’s Wrap it up!
These are just some of the roasters out there. If you look on Amazon, Alibaba, or Search the Hashtag #Roaster on Instagram you will find a 1,000 different kinds. So, the best way to figure out what the best coffee roaster is for you is to figure out what your goal is for the roaster you want to get.
I have said it before in one of my previous videos “How to become a coffee roaster” please read up on Scott Rao’s blog and read his books on roasting. He has some great info on how to pick a coffee roaster. Also, mill city coffee roasters has some great tips and advice on deciding on your first roaster as well.
In fact, Steve the owner has great video in regards to choosing a coffee roaster that I will link here if you want to check it out.
My personal opinion is to start on a hand roaster or a small Kaldi and get your feet wet. If it is something you enjoy after roasting a couple hundred batches then you will be in a better position, knowledge wise, to make a decision on what roaster to upgrade to.
Lastly, I am working on creating a follow up video to this one, where I am going to go over three commercial type roasters and get the coffee shop owners opinions on what they like/don’t like, if they are happy with the decisions and if they would make a different decision if they could do it over.