Roasting Coffee at Home

I recently started roasting my own coffee at home.  This is far, far easier than I ever imagined.  I'm having a ton of fun with it, getting really great results, and potentially saving a few bucks (assuming I stop purchasing new gear).

It all started with a Boston Globe food section article, Bean Town, about people roasting coffee at home.  Then my father-in-law gave me a hand-me-down Technivorm KBT 741, the best home coffee brewer available.  Having a great brewer available to me lead me to want to ensure I had the best beans possible.  This in turn lead to investigating home roasting.

So, here it is.  My home coffee roasting setup.  Certainly part of the fun is figuring some of this stuff out for yourself, but I figured someone might find these details helpful.

Click the picture for a big version where you can see the little arrows and numbers.

1) Kitchen splatter guard from Target.  Use it upside down and there's a little lip around the edge to help hold beans in some.  Crease and fold a little on one side relative to the handle and it makes it a little easier to pour beans out.  This is held over the fan for cooling.

2) Honeywell fan also from Target which tilts 90deg. to point straight up.  It would be better to be pulling air down through the beans rather than pushing up, but this is working very well for me right now.  I'm cooling to room temp in less than 1 min. with 4.5 oz. of beans.

3) Weigh your beans!  It's the only way to get repeatable results.

4) I paid $19 for this 0.1 gram accuracy scale at a local kitchen shop.  You can get the same for less online.

5) A leather work glove allows me to pull the top off the popper even when it's very hot like when it's time to dump the beans at the end of a roast.  I found potholders & oven mitts to be too cumbersome.

6) Bowl for collecting chaff.  As long as the top and butter cup are in place the majority of chaff goes right to the bowl.  As soon as you life the butter cup chaff starts blowing straight out the top.

7) 1/4 lb. bag with a one-way valve for storing my roasted beans.  A little masking tape allows me to right the date and degree of roast on it each time I load it up.

8) Board tilts the popper at an angle which increases bean agitation inside the popper chamber.

9) The popper appears to be a Toastmaster/Poppery II store branded by Le Gourmet Chef.  It is 1200 watts and without modification it roasted too hot and fast.

10) A little piece of tin foil folded over this forward edge of the butter cup cut-out seems to be slowing the rate of melt here.  The hood and butter cup are deforming as a result of the heat produced by roasting.  They need to be replaced by a glass chimney once I find an appropriate one.

11) A Sunbeam candy/frying thermometer gives me a fairly reliable internal bean temperature.  I had two models to choose from and the one with a shorter probe fit perfectly.  I drilled a hole in the butter cup and used the included clip to hold the thermometer in place.

12) Radio Shack model 273-1512 transformer which I knew to use thanks to this article on Engadget.  This feeds power to the fan inside the popper at a mostly appropriate voltage.  Initially the fan seemed to run quite a bit faster.  I think it gets a little more voltage off the transformer than it did off the secondary heater coil.

13) The dimmer switch was necessary due to the higher fan speed I was getting once I broke out the fan from the heater circuit.  Now I get excellent roast control by adjusting the fan speed.  I start out at full power when the greens are heaviest and heat is begining to ramp.  As heat ramping slows, but the greens are getting lighter, I am able to lower the fan speed to increase heat retention in the bean mass and continue the temperature ramping.

14) The original rocker switch which came on the popper is still wired to the heater.  During roasting if I get too fast a temperature ramp or a sudden jump in temperature I can shut off the heater for a few seconds to get things back under control.

2008 Honda Accord MPG

Here's the current numbers for fuel efficiency on my 2008 Honda Accord LX-P with manual transmission.  I commute 47 miles each way, usually with cruise control at 70 mph.  I will bump it to 75 for passing and do punch it a bit after the one toll booth.  Otherwise, I do try to drive pretty efficiently.

I'll be keeping this updated, so if you're curious do check back regularly.

Kershaw Chive

Kershaw Chive by Ken Onion, Model 1600

Coolest "gentleman's" pocket knife ever.  And damn functional, too.

Some will find this model too small.  There's the Scallion and Leek in larger formats.  However, if you're looking for a nice blade to throw in your pocket any day of the week, then this is a great choice.  At 2 7/8 " closed and 1.9 oz. in weight, you'll hardly notice it jingle around with your loose change.  Here it is in my average sized hand:

The finish on this knife is really high quality.  Even non-tool appreciating neanderthals will get it.  The case is curved perfectly to accept index, middle, and ring fingers along the underside.  There's very functional grooves at the base of the blade to provide friction for you thumb.

As with many Kershaw knives, the blade is soft, but razor sharp.  Although the attached clip is very strong and typically secures the knife well on top of my jeans pocket, I have had it pop out a couple times.  On both occasions the knife opened when it hit the ground (there's a safety lock, but I don't use it) and the blade got dinged.  The nice thing about a soft blade, though, is that it's easy to repair.  A couple passes on one of my sharpening stones and it was back to perfect.  Of course, Kershaw is happy to refurbish your knife for free.  My other favorite knife is an over 10 year old piece that recently came back from Oregon as good as new.

The auto action is a bit surprising at first and on such a small knife it does take a little practice to feel comfortable with.  However, it's smooth and absolutely usable even on such a diminutive blade.

I do find it a bit small for closing one handed.  There's a little too much resistance in the spring and not enough blade back to quite get it closed without feeling like I'm going to drive the point into my palm.  It doesn't mean I can't or don't ever close it one handed, but if your hand were any bigger it would probably result in lots of new lines on your palm.

People will give you a look though when you pop this little guy.  "How's that different form a switch blade?", I was recently asked.  I don't know and I really don't care.  It's a perfect little knife and that's that.

Nokia 6555

Nokia 6555

Pros:

• Great form factor.  Slim clam shell.
  
• Many modern features.
  
• Easy data (pics mainly) access over Bluetooth.
  
• Synchs with Apple iSynch.

Cons:

• Exterior material is soft and easily marked.
• Strange audio characteristics at the start of calls.
• Can't adjust screen dim timer.  That cool clock is never visible when I need it!
• Can't adjust volume of message tones.

Overall this is a great phone for my needs.  I'm not a phone geek.  I know some folks get very passionate about their handsets.  I am a bit of a gadget geek, though, and this phone satisfies that desire for now.  It takes pretty decent pics for a phone (I've got a real camera for real pics).  The reception on AT&T in New England is great.  It fits in all the pockets, car nooks, and my waterproof box I take fishing.  Unlike my last Motorola V5something, I find it very easy to avoid the "go online" button.

I did try the full data service plan with this phone.  I installed the Gmail client, surfed the web, etc.  For me, it was not worthwhile.  There was no way for the phone to notify me of new mail.  Off the 3G network it was very slow.  By and large I found text to be way too small for my eyes.  I'm sure if I had stuck with it I could have gotten used to it, but for my needs the convenience payoff didn't seem likely.  I do used it for a light amount of SMS/text messaging and I find it is fine for this.  I have no more trouble with the keypad than any other non-QWERTY phone.

The phone has crashed on me a few times when sending multi-media messages.  It hasn't been anything I couldn't resloved with a power cycle.  The phone boots reasonably fast, so it really hasn't bothered me and does not happen frequently.

It's also got an acceptable speaker phone.  I don't use it a ton and I do find it lacks clarity at higher volumes which sometimes results in me keeping the volume a little lower and straining to hear.  But, again, it works much better than the one on my last phone, so I'm ok with it.

I've yet to posses a perfect mobile handset.  It's a thing of tradeoffs really.  Ultimately I'm happy with something reliable, small enough to go in any pocket, but with good hand-feel when I'm talking.  This phone fits the bill completely.