OK, I followed some of your advise and bought myself some green coffee beans. I roasted my first batch yesterday. My question concerns the chaf. How the heck do I remove it without a strong wind while tossing it in the air?
I have to do this outside because my bride doesn’t like the smell of burnt coffee beans. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Jim
How did you roast it? If you are using a popper, it should blow away during the roasting process. Also, how dark did you roast? Sometimes if you roast to a lighter range, the chaff is still attached somewhat. Roasting a bit darker might loosen it up. In any case try roasting to different levels to fit your taste. You might be surprised. Another option is that you can ignore the chaff, throw it in the grinder with your beans, and it won’t hurt a thing.
On to more important things–how was it? What variety of bean did you buy and how did it turn out?
Thanks Ol’ Blue for your help.
Right now I am using the burner on my propane BBQ and a skillet. I also have a wooden spoon for stirring and a collander for cooling, chaf removal and some old Mason jars for storage. Kinda like ol’ cookie on trail drives did his.
I purchased my beans from Burmancoffee.com as they had a good selection and pretty good prices. One thing I didn’t like was the shipping. About the same amount for 2 lbs as 10 lbs. I got Brasil Beija Flor, Kuaii, Indonisia, Papau
and Indian Peaberry. I roasted a handful of the Brasilian beans to a full city roast, second crack some smoke coming out of the pan. It’s pretty dark but not burned. Actually it tastes rather pleasant.
Thanks for letting me know I can grind the chaf I miss. I was afraid the Starbucks Cops would come get me if I did something wrong. :rolleyes: Jim
Jim;
My fellow “Raunchy” member in the NBOF, is right. “Grinding up the chaff won’t hurt your brew”.
However,with some of the South and Central American beans I use, I’ve found they can contain a lot more residue chaff than others. Too much chaff, when grinding in my burr grinder, would sometimes get sort of “paste like” and clog up the burrs.
Before I bought my first roaster, and still did it “chuck wagon style”, I would toss the beans in a colander to not only cool them down but the tossing also brought the lighter weight chaff to the top of the beans, where I’d then use either my hand held or shop vac to vacuum the chaff off the top.
Don’t worry! It’s easy to “get the right distance”, between sucking up the chaff and not your beans.
When I did 2-4 pound batches, I’d set a small table fan up, “OUTSIDE!!!”, then standing off to one side, I’d toss the beans in the colander and let my “artificial wind” blow away the chaff.
Also, if you haven’t tried them yet, you might give “Sweet Maria’s” at “Sweet Marias-dot-com” a shot for pricing and shipping costs. Great folks and very easy to deal with.
You can also get creative with a hair dryer and blow that chaff away.
Also look at coffee bean direct dot com for coffee. If you order 25 pounds, the shipping is free. They have a nice selection. Sweet marias is the place that got me started. Great folks!
BTW, CBD also has started marketing a smoked coffee. Perhaps we have a new way to combine a couple of obsessions here!
Thank you for your help. Jim
Hey! This guy is basically in my back yard (right down the road from famed Black Earth Creek)… and, I think I once worked with him, in the computer programming field, a few years ago.
I have been interested in roasting for awhile now. Think I’ll give Garry (Mr. Burman) a call this week. Thanks for the link.
Trout geek, Actually this guy’s name is Jon. Might be related to Garry. You can find him at jburman@burmancoffee.com
If you can buy locally there you will save a lot of dough on shipping. Good luck. Jim
I think Garry is the dad. Not sure, but I think Jon is either the son or Garry’s wife. Whatever – they’re right down the road. I’ll give them a call this week.
Bought a pop corn popper cheap on ebay. WOW! What a difference in the roasting experience. Roasted three times the amount (1 1/2 cups) in the time it takes to roast 1/2 cup on the bar-b-que burner. Blows away the chaf and comes out looking good. Can’t wait to grind it up and make a pot. Thanks to those who have helped me through this. Jim
Gary and Jon are a good team and are very helpful. I just spoke to Gary yesterday about classes that he gives in which they bring in different green beans, do different roasts and then cup the different roasts as a learning experience. Very helpful and knowledgeable people.
Just finish buying another 10 pounds from them yesterday. Not only good people and a fantastic resource but super prices. I bought the ten pounds at a newsletter price of $2.99/pound so get on their newsletter. They are also close to me, but for people that are not close they have a superb shipping program. If “Speedy” delivers in your area (a few states around Wis) they will deliver up to 49 pounds for $5. My wife works in Madison and she usually stops by and picks it up for me, but after a long day working, this last order I had it shipped for the $5 and she can hit the road straight home - what a deal.
To the specific question of separating chaff. I take two large SS bowls, use a second colander if you want or a pan designed for a cake (aluminum is great since it dissipates the heat quickly). Pour between the two pans. If there isn’t enough wind, I have enough in my lungs. Bluntly I just blow some air into the coffee bean stream as I pour from one container to the next. I prefer not to grind up the chaff in my brew, but if there is a single piece in there the world won’t stop. I do minimize it though.
I have went from 2 hot air popcorn poppers, to a nut roaster and now am using a Whirly Pop. The hot air units just didn’t do the amount of beans that I needed. With the Whirly Pop, I roast 2 cups or 16 oz by volume about twice a week. By the way, the Burmans are now selling the Whirly Pop with a coffee bundle to get people started. I don’t even think the prices are on the web yet, so ask about that if you are new and want to start. I drink more coffee than I ever thought I would, I offer it to company more than I ever have and life is good.
By the way, no business relationship with Burman Coffee Traders besides being a very happy customer.
My favorite is green Kenya AA. It roasts excellent, every time. I can’t drink store-bought coffee anymore. I’ve been ruined for quite a while now. It seems to have the most character with a light-medium roast. It’s a full-bodied, but smooth, all day coffee. I roast it dark for expresso, as well, so it serves two purposes.
I use a Presto Popper. It’s fool-proof, and the chaff wipes right up.
If you feel adventurous sometime, try Bazillian Santos, and Guatamala Antiqua coffees. The do well with a meduim roast. They are full-bodied, but very smooth, with mild exotic overtones.
…while loading some pre-roasted store bought beans into the grinder and I got to wondering if
that sort of bean could be ‘re-roasted’ to make them into a darker roast and would they change significantly in flavour. Has anyone experience with doing such? Din’t try it yet but would be curious to know if it would work.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
So sorry I missed this posting. Please let me know if I can help! Shoot me a PM if you need anything.
Sure. You can re-roast them. It doesn’t hurt a thing. I do it all the time.
BTW, I just got 10 Lbs each of Green Nicaraguan Angelina Estate, and Green El Salvador SHG Rainforest Alliance beans from http://ourcoffeebarn.com/blog/green-coffee-beans/. They are absolutely exquisite with a meduim roast, and I tried to dark roast some to an expresso extent, and WOW! Best Expresso I’ve had so far. I love these people! My favorite is still Kenya AA, but I’ve never gotten any beans from them that weren’t fabulous.
I have read that even during the roast if you stop roasting you will mess up the beans and they will go into what is known as a stall. So it is not that you can’t drink them or even that you can’t reroast, but that isn’t the best way to make it happen. Just buy the roast that you want if you are not a roaster and if you are a roaster, just roast the way that you want to. Would be interesting to post on Coffee Geek forum, and while I won’t write it in stone, I would be surprised if anyone recomended to reroast.
…thanks everyone…I was about to reply, saying I’d give it a try when Clay posted.
What to do, what to do…thinking out load here…ah…find out how to
re-roast and try just enough for half a pot,
dump it down the sink if’n it’s no bueno.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
I apologize for not being more succinct.
I didn’t mean that it is recommended. What I meant was that if you roast your beans, drink a cup, then decide you’d like a darker roast for that blend, all is not lost. You can throw them back in the Pesto Pop and darken them up. It is not as good as if you did it right the first time, but still drinkable, and you won’t be wasting your coffee. And then, you’ll pay more attention next time.
The first time you roast a particular variety of bean, you need to do it in small amounts, and experiment with different levels of roasting, until you find just the right one. Medium (second ‘crack’) is always a good place to start. On any new bean, I only roast enough for a pot or two (and a French Press is the only way to go) at a time, until I get the roast I want.
In my experience, it seems that the lighter you roast the bean, the more of the fruitier tastes of the bean are pronounced. The darker you go, the more of the chocolaty, and sweeter flavors come through. When you get to the dark stage (where the beans look ‘wet’ with expressed oil), the smokey flavors come to the forefront.
So it is possible to get several different flavors from the same bean, depending on how you roast them. Some beans are better suited for certain roasts.
But that’s at least half the fun…experimentation and discovery!
Enjoy!
I agree. Roast it the way you want it the first time, or buy it that way. As roasting coffee physically and chemically alters the beans, I don’t think it would be a good idea to re-roast. Could even potentailly catch fire.
The truth is guys that while I have roasted over 20 pounds of coffee since this thread began and even bought a few pounds in there since I was lazy and didn’t roast, I brew coffee in what the true coffee geeks would consider a joke for an espresso machine. So do whatever makes you happy. I know that you are suppose to let your home roast breath for a couple days after roasting but when there is no coffee in the house and I roast at 10 pm, I grind and brew that stuff first thing in the morning at 5 am and while it isn’t perfect, I still get my fix. It gets better over time. Speaking of grinding, that is what I need to invest in next before I even change out my cheap espresso machine.
I didn’t mean to sound like the coffee police. 
It’s all good, but some ways are better than others.