roasting your own coffee beans is too hardcore. it's like making your own clothes. you aren't amish

I'm not amish, but I AM a cheapskate. I can get green beans for 1/3, maybe 1/4, of the cost of having someone else roast it! The big suppliers apparently send out free samples too.

It's not that hardcore, I did a small batch in a cast iron skillet last night and it took less than 10 minutes probably. It tastes so good this morning too. Will probably be even better tomorrow after it gasses a bit. If I decide to continue, I'll get a small roaster that will make it even easier.

We have a really great coffee shop by us that roasts in house and gets some really great stuff. I could never get my coffee at home to match the way it tastes in the store. I was doing mostly pour overs and finally recently got an aeropress.

I drink mostly espresso based stuff now (americanos) when I'm at a coffee shop. The regular aeropress method didn't do it for me either, something was off, but I started doing the espresso method and just adding hot water to it after and it's at least close to what I am used to.

How do the rest of you feel your brew at home (any style) compares to that of a really good coffee shop using the same beans? Better? Worse? Pretty close?

If you don't have an espresso machine then you're not going to get the exact same taste at home.

Honestly, I prefer what I get at home (via aeropress) to what I get at the place where I buy the beans (brew-wise). I generally like my coffee weak and lukewarm, when I get it at a coffee house I generally ask for "lots of room and an ice water" but it's still not the same.

That's awesome you like it better How do you make it with the aeropress? Seems like there's a million different ways to brew with aeropress out there.

And obviously you're not going to match espresso without an espresso machine but I also would do pour overs at the shop and buy the exact bean used in the pour over but just never tasted right when I did it myself. May be in my head, but I don't think so. At home, I just want something I enjoy, understanding that I don't have a $10,000 espresso machine to work with. But like I said the "espresso" method with the aeropress has given me the closest taste.

And for beans, as per the discussion before, I usually buy from my local since they're really damn good, but I got some from La Colombe, to try some of their more exotic stuff and I love that it has an option for 5oz tubes so you don't have to commit to buying a bunch. I drink coffee out WAY more than I make it at home

My aeropress method is 175 degree water, stir for about 10 seconds, press all the way out, top off with cold water.

As for your pour-over tasting different, what makes you think the one at the coffee shop is "right"?

But seriously, water temp, grind size, even how thick your filter is can all make noticiable differences because any of those can affect how much is extracted from the beans (and, also, what exactly gets extracted). I guess you can ask the staff exactly what they're doing, but in general it's probably better to just experiment on your own and see how it goes.

I am officially a home coffee roaster!







For now I only have the sample pack of green beans from Sweet Maria's as I'm away from home on vacation. I will be getting a 60kg bag of my favorite beans the 1st of January though when I return home. Quite an investment, but based on my coffee buying history it should pay for itself in around a year. Less if I can sell a little bit on the side.

that's pretty sweet, this is what I will be looking into next perhaps.

I bought a standard Ninja Model and have been quite happy with it(got it for $140 but at Kohl's online it is at $250 right now ). To the guy who said he has coffee "out" way more often, I am the complete opposite anymore. I refuse to pay $2.75 for 16 oz of coffee. If I am leaving and want some I will brew some for the road, if I am out and want one but will be home within 20-30 minutes, I will wait. my new Ninja won't change this either. So, I think my next mission is to find the best beans at the best price.

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I had coffee out. Once in a blue moon I'll order a latte or cappuccino at a nice restaurant.

I'm really liking the home roasting. Spent about 2 hours roasting today and will have enough coffee to last me about 9-10 days. They say it starts losing flavor after around 7 days, but I doubt my palate is good enough to notice much of a difference. Definitely won't be doing much more than that at a time though.

A friend of mine has an early version of that Gene Café. What is even more of a coincidence is that he also purchases his beans from Sweet Maria's. Anyway, through some trail and error with different beans and roasting times etc., he now produces excellent roast beans. I would always get an espresso (forgot the name of his machine) at his home when I stopped by. It was always superb. Strong, smooth flavor with no bitterness.

Once you get used to excellent beans you will notice a small drop in quality after about a week. Not much but it is definitely noticeable.

Eight lbs of sampler green beans were included with the roaster, which I bought at Sweet Marias. I'll probably buy beans from them in the future, but for now I bought a 60kg bag of my absolute favorite coffee, an Ethiopian from Hambela/Guji, from a wholesaler. I like having the large quantity so that I can make small adjustments to the roast to fine tune what I'm putting out. So far so good, I'm loving pretty much everything I've produced.

can't lie, I have been drinking quite a bit of coffee. 6 to 9 cups a day, not full cups but 60%-65% fills in a traditional coffee mug. Partly because of this, I could not turn down $5 for 24.5 ounces of Maxwell House medium roast, ground coffee. It's not bad, it ranks just as high as any other cup I have made myself(Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Peet's, Prince and Spring, SanFran Bay, few others) So, at least in the interim, I will probably be saving money and I may be picking up the cheap stuff again down the road. Still using a Ninja and usually making a half carafe or carafe at a time. I am curious, does this sound awful to some of you, the thought of drinking Maxwell House from a Ninja, am I missing out on the goods?

You are certainly missing out on the goods. There is wayyyy more variety/depth to coffee than non-coffee snobs realize And well-made espresso drinks can be straight up heavenly.

As for if your situation sounds awful... I could live with it. There are people who are aware of my coffee snobbery that act like I will be offended if we go to Starbucks, which really annoys me lol. Can't appreciate the good stuff if you never have the meh stuff, right?

all the crap they sell at walmart tastes the same to me. brand doesn't matter. get the cheap stuff, i drank folgers for years. you should only pay a premium for freshly roasted beans, 2-3 days old max.

it all depends on what you're used to. i'm not even hardcore, i just drink coffee every day, and my supply rarely last a week past their roast date. i can't go back to folgers now, i'm too far gone.

6-9 per day seems like a lot, lol, i drink 3-6 per day and it feels like i'm overdoing it. i'm definitely addicted at this point but i don't really care. how many days does off does one need to break the physical addiction?

4 to 7 cups for me is much more accurate, black coffee

Yes

2-3 days old? I usually wait 7-10 days over roast date until I use it. Shouldn't you give it time to degas a little? Anyway, anything under 30 days after roast date seems fine to buy as long as you don't hang on to it for much more than a month. Certainly buying the cheap stuff over 14 days old beans seems way over the top and very suboptimal.

I try to wait for 3 days after I roast. Seems like that's about where the flavor is getting to where it should be. At 24 hours it's not bad, but it continues to develop past that point. I prefer mine roasted light with the sweet/fruity flavors at the forefront (Ethiopian). I'd imagine a darker roast really wouldn't change that much with time, but that's pure speculation. I've read that if you go so dark that the beans get oily the oil goes rancid fairly quickly and dramatically reduces the shelf life. I've been thinking of doing a darker roast but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Edit: Greatest thing about coffee, other than taste? Every opinion is correct. Whatever you like, that's great coffee!

i don't know, should i? i'm not roasting them myself, i just look at the roast date so i buy the newest beans. they're always on the shelf 2 days after their roast date.

Coffee definitely needs to degas, as there is too much CO2 evaporating directly after roasting, that's why coffee bags have these valves - allow CO2 to get out while keeping oxygen from getting in.

But apparently just how long depends on the specific roast, and the optimal time can range from 2-14 days. So if your roaster sells them two days old you're probably fine.

I get my coffee by mail from the roaster, usually no more than 2-4 days after roast date, but the packaging says to wait until 14 days after roasting.

But your roaster probably knows best how long your particular roast should Rest.

what ratio do you use for cold brew? and do you dilute and with how much water and how long you let it brew?

got some beans from Stumptown, they were decent. I would say it was a step up from Maxwell House .

can google it online, Stumptown Coffee, sign up for a temporary membership for 2 free oz of whole beans(check the date when your first shipment will send and cancel beforehand(two weeks to do so)). I'm a sucker for deals and a freebie so I have accumulated 6 oz for free by signing up wifey and mom. It's a very easy process if u want some free beans, they ship quickly.

Has anyone used the Prismo with their aeropress? Results?

http://fellowproducts.com/shop/prismo/

Stopped at this great coffee rosters in Ukiah. I highly recommend the beans shown below. I have been purchasing these particular roasts for more than two years and am never disappointed. Just excellent.

Thinking of getting a drip coffee maker. Aeropress seeming like more and more of a hassle every day. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good drip machine that actually gets the water hot enough or has a temp control built in?