How to roast coffee at home (for Beginners)

As a frequent coffee drinker, I love testing out different varieties of coffee! And I think roasting my own coffee at home gives you the most satisfying experience if you love drinking coffee. Another advantage is that roasted coffee has a shelf life and it starts to lose flavor after about 1 week after roasting. However green coffee beans can be stored for a long time before going bad! And each roast will be just as fresh! 

Here I’m going to walk you through how I roast coffee at home and I’ll include some tips as well! I am no coffee connoisseur and these tips are most useful for beginners! If you are interested in starting roasting your coffee at home or test out different origin coffee beans definitely follow along! 

1. Order green coffee beans

To roast your own coffee, you’ll need to order green coffee beans. They are very easy to order online and some of the most popular website are:

• Sweet Maria’s
• Klatch Coffee
• Dean’s Beans
• Amazon

I got three kinds of green coffee beans from Sweet Maria’s and they are from Burundi, Ethiopia and Zambia. The coffee beans are in very good quality and evenly processed. The label that comes with the coffee usually tells you a little more about the coffee such as the taste and notes expected from a certain roast.

2. Prepare for roasting

When you get the green beans, you can take a look at them and see if there are any damaged beans. Green coffee beans are the raw seeds of coffee cherries that have been separated or “processed” and have yet to be roasted. The color should be somewhat pale, yellowish with a hint of green. If the beans have black or dark brown spots, they are most likely damaged and should be thrown away. 

3. Measurements

To make a pour over, you’ll need about 30g of roasted coffee which means we need to measure about 35-38 grams of green coffee beans. Roasted coffee beans will lose about 15%-18% of its weight due to loss of moisture. For an espresso, I recommend measuring about 40g of green coffee beans.

4. Home Coffee Roaster 

The home coffee roaster I like is a two-piece device. There are a lot of different options online but I think this one works best with a portable stove! I ordered mine for about $50 from AliExpress and I’m pleasantly surprised that it came in about 10 days! If you want the same one, here is a link to it: Ali Express Coffee Roaster 

The bottom piece comes with a medal screen and I think it helps evenly distribute heat during roasting. The top piece has a nice little door that can be manually moved. After closing the door, you can simply tighten the screw. Place the top piece on the stand and it can be easily rotated for roasting.

5. Roasting process

At first it was a little hard to manage the time and heat when roasting coffee. If the coffee beans were heated for too long, they will become dark roast. I try to keep my roast light or medium so I can better taste the origin of the coffee.

Here are the detailed steps for roasting coffee:

1. 1. Drop the beans in the roasting device, close the door. 
   2. First set the bottom piece on the stove, then set the top piece. Make sure the top piece can rotate freely before starting the fire. 
   3. Turn on the fire on high heat and continuously rotate the container. 
   4. When hearing the first crack, reduce heat to medium. Usually it takes about 5 minutes to hear the first crack. 
   5. Continue roasting until the majority of the beans have cracked (usually about 10-20 seconds after hearing the first crack). Turn off the fire immediately but not stop rotating for another 10-20 seconds. 

• This should give you a medium roast.

6. Resting 

It is recommended to rest the roasted coffee for 12-24 hours so that the beans can degas. However I’ve drank freshly roasted coffee beans and they are very flavorful as well! So it’s really up to you if you’d like to rest the beans.

Additional Tips for Roasting Coffee at Home

• When using the home roasting device I used, I don’t recommend roasting a lot of beans in one go. When roasting a lot of beans, it’s very difficult to get an even roast. 
• The device can get really hot during the roast. Wear gloves or use additional towels to handle it.
• Lots of chaff fly off from the beans when roasting coffee so be prepared. I recommend roasting on a porch with good air flow to roast so that you don’t make a mess in the kitchen. When cleaning up, use a vacuum! 
• Avoid windy situations. It’s tempting to roast outdoors to avoid mess but the wind can affect the performance of the stove. 
• Once the coffee beans are grounded, it’s recommended to consume within 2 weeks or the coffee will go stale. 
• My favorite coffee beans are from the Ethiopia Guji region! Give it a try and you won’t be disappointed!