Get Your Roasting On!

Here it is! I choose not to smile because this is serious business.

These are what green, unroasted coffee bean look like. They somewhat resemble lentils and have a coating called chaff, which flakes off during the roasting process.
The popper is set up with the unit tilted back to make sure the beans do not come out. The red bowl is there to catch the chaff. TJ is in position to call balls and strikes and generally keep the process moving at a good pace.
Here is some the chaff that shoots out early in the roasting process. It is yellow in color, but as the beans roast, the chaff gets darker.
The reason why the Poppery II works so well is that the air comes into the chamber from the side vents. When the beans first start out in the chamber they move very little, but by the end of the roasting process they are flying around in it.
It only takes about 8 minutes for the whole process, so you have to keep a close eye, a close nose, and a good ear. The beans will make a very small cracking sound in the first couple minutes. This is called the first crack and isn't all that important. About 7 minutes into the process is where you have to be ready. The second crack is much more noticeable. The beans are expanding quickly and little pieces of the beans are breaking from the main bean. They also start to smell very strongly and you can see a little smoke. The difference between a light roast and dark roast is only about two minutes, which makes timing very important.

As soon as the beans are done, they must be put into a colander and cooled down. Throw the beans around for about two minutes before letting them rest on their own.

See how much darker and bigger the roasted beans are.

It would be fun to run to the grinder and brew these babies up, but you have to wait at least 12 hours to drink. The beans have a lot of CO2 to vent off and if you don't give them the time to do it, the coffee will not taste as good. After 12 hours you can seal the jar up and use at your leisure.

Oh yeah! It's on!