Tasteless thought that went through my head:
Well, at least the wife is satisfied!
I wonder if there’s some kind of recent quality control issue. I have one that’s quite a few years old, and I don’t treat it especially well, but seems like it’s still going strong.
Having said that, I’m sure it will now fail within the week.
I suppose it could be, but I’m more inclined to think it is something I’m doing or not doing. I use the microwave trick to keep it going, but thinking a simple Bee House or Chemex might just be easier.
So I’ve just progressed to a whole new level of coffee dorking - I’ve started roasting my own beans. This has led to a rapid descent down the rabbit hole - I’ve done 40 roasts in the last month, and as a side effect, it’s got me started doing pourovers with a V60 and a gooseneck kettle, so I could experiment with different levels of extraction on each roast.
I may have a problem.
Achèvement unlocked! Congratulations!
Welcome to the home roaster club, tork!
I wonder how many of us there are around here, and what everyone’s roasting with?
I’m using a Freshroast SR700, which is basically a glorified popcorn popper with computer control of the fan and heating elements.
I’m using a non-glorified popcorn popper, as it turns out.
I used to home roast years ago. Moving to a different house that didn’t have a front porch or proper ventilation for all that smoke, along with my roaster dying made me uninterested in buying another. Roasting green beans is a really interesting process, with smell being a strong indicator of how close the beans are to being done.
Looking at home roasters on offer, they seem far less expensive than they used to be, but damn roasting 4-5oz at a time would mean I have to roast at least twice a week.
And you probably spent 10% of what I did to get roasting. Way more sensible. That said, the control you get with the SR700 is pretty amazing - you can really control the roasting profile in much the same way pro roasters do on $10000+ Drum Roasters. Roasting on a popper is generally a very fast roast - 4 to 6 minutes to 1st crack, drop at 6-8 minutes. I can do a roast like that, but my typical profile puts 1st crack around 10 1/2 minutes with drop at 12 to 14 minutes depending on the desired degree of roast. You can do really interesting things to accentuate different aspects of a bean’s flavor, which I’m only just beginning to explore.
I’m super excited this morning - I got five pounds of green Ethiopian Harrar yesterday, and tried my 1st roast last night. Thought I’d completely flubbed it, but I tried my first cup this morning, and it’s amazing! Massive blueberry taste. I’m freaking out about this.
Yeah, my typical roast size is 114g which is a little constraining. Right now, I’m so obsessed with this that I’m averaging more than 1 roast per day, so I’m not running short on coffee, but I’d love it be easier to produce enough coffee to share generously.
On the simple/cheapish end of the spectrum, you might want to look at the Behmore 1600+. It has a max capacity of 1 pound, which will go quite a bit further. It’s also got an afterburner for the exhaust, which greatly reduces the smoke - it’s supposed to work well as an indoor roaster. They’re close to releasing a new version, the Behmor Connected Roaster, which will be programmable/controllable via BlueTooth.
East African coffees are some of my favorites.
A friend of mine has an SR700, which I got to see in action. Not only is it better for control, it’s also better (from what I saw) for consistent roast inside a batch. I’d probably spring for one if I home-roasted more often. My usual morning routine is to get out the door as fast as possible and survive on crappy office coffee, so I don’t actually have the products of my roasting all that often.
Mine too. I love African coffee blends. Hawaiian beans are a close second though.
Don’t mind me, I drink cheap coffee pods like a pleb. Just wanted an excuse to post that gif.
Okay, my Breville YouBrew just died. Honestly, while I love the notion of a machine that grinds beans and brews all in one, I was never fully satisfied for it. It was very expensive for what seemed to be a pretty flimsy machine build-wise. Turns out that was right, as the thing died after only 3-4 years (which is much too soon for a $250 appliance like this).
So now I’m looking for what I should do for a new coffee maker. I’m half debating just going to my french press, but I like fresh ground beans. At the same time, I like convenience (so no strange pour over techniques that take 10 minutes and make a mess), and I don’t want to have to buy a separate burr grinder and separately grind the beans each morning.
What should I do/get here? Does anyone have this: https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-DGB-900BC-Thermal-Automatic-Coffeemaker/dp/B000T9XPHC/ref=as_at/?linkCode=w61&imprToken=5zr3410j5h2XSqtXqi1dWQ&slotNum=1
In fact, I do as well. Poor Man’s Blend does what I need it to, make a perfectly good cup of joe.
EDIT: Jeez … reading the latest reviews on that very coffee I use are BAD! I’ve had mine for a bit (6ish weeks?) It’s huge in size. Perhaps I have a good one, but it sounds like the quality has taken a dip. Buyer beware.
I would probably get the Breville, if you really can’t stand the idea of grinding your beans in a separate burr grinder.
But you should grind your beans in a separate burr grinder. And then use a french press for american-style coffee or an aeropress for an easy espresso-like substance.
You can get a french press pretty cheap, but if you want to spend some bucks the Espro Press is without a doubt the cadillac of the bunch. It doesn’t really make better tasting coffee than a cheap press pot, but it eliminates damn near 100% of the fine grounds from the bottom of your cup, and it won’t continue over-extracting if you let the pot sit around for awhile, which leads to bitter coffee.
https://smile.amazon.com/Breville-BDC650BSS-Grind-Control-Silver/dp/B00VGGVQCI
https://smile.amazon.com/Espro-Ounce-Vacuum-Insulated-Stainless/dp/B0083XZ85I
https://smile.amazon.com/Aerobie-AeroPress-Coffee-Espresso-Filters/dp/B001HBCVX0
I cannot fathom having the wealth to be able to afford a 200 dollar burr grinder, when the 20 dollar blade grinder does just fine for my Aeropress cup.
You don’t need to spend $200 on a burr grinder. You can find burr grinders much cheaper, but if I was looking for the best value I’d get a refurb encore from the link below.
Blade grinders are terrible because they chop beans into inconsistently sized pieces. Large pieces underexpose, which gives sour coffee. Small pieces overexpose, which is bitter. Blade “grinders” should only be used for spices, never coffee.
Exactly what I did. I got a refurb Encore and it’s an amazing upgrade from my Braun blade “grinder”. And I haven’t had any issues whatsoever with the refurb Baratza, a couple of years in now.