Home Roasting - Popcorn Popper On The Front Porch

[Steve Freides]

A couple of observations and questions:

I used my popcorn popper outside on the front porch today, which I've
done before, but it was colder, about 50 degrees F - took forever to
roast and still didn't really get as dark as I wanted. Outside
temperature seems to make a big difference - now it's 70 degrees and
the sun is hitting that part of the porch and the roast is going
nicely and quickly. The time difference is astounding, at least to me
- 12 minutes and longer and a less dark result than 6 minutes in the
warmer air and sunshine.

Suggestions, e.g, preheat beans in the microwave for a few second or
otherwise get them warmer before putting in the roaster? It seems
silly that, when we're talking about getting the beans to over 400 F,
that 20 degrees of outside temperature makes a difference but clearly
it does.

Second, is it possible (obviously, yes, but with good results?) to
take coffee you've roasted once, stopped the roast, let cool
completely, then decided it's not dark enough - to put such coffee
back into the roaster a few minutes, hours, or days later and roast it
darker?

Last but not least, I do not like the results from the iRoast - the
result is _too_ evenly for my liking, so I'm back to the popcorn
popper.

Many thanks in advance for your replies.

-S-

[Barry Jarrett]

On 9/25/2012 11:34 AM, Steve Freides wrote:
> A couple of observations and questions:
>
> I used my popcorn popper outside on the front porch today, which I've
> done before, but it was colder, about 50 degrees F - took forever to
> roast and still didn't really get as dark as I wanted. Outside
> temperature seems to make a big difference - now it's 70 degrees and
> the sun is hitting that part of the porch and the roast is going
> nicely and quickly.

If you put the popper into a containment of some sort, like a largish
cardboard box, it help with the ambient temperature issues. The exhaust
from the popper preheats the incoming air.

>
> Second, is it possible (obviously, yes, but with good results?) to
> take coffee you've roasted once, stopped the roast, let cool
> completely, then decided it's not dark enough - to put such coffee
> back into the roaster a few minutes, hours, or days later and roast it
> darker?

yes, but with varying success. I know one company that did a bunch of
testing and used that method to produce one of their coffees.

[scott stap]

I routinely set mine in a sink. The round shape redirects warm exit air back into the machine and maximizes the poor underpowered heating elements capabilities.
Watch for chaff in your inlets though, Chaff has been known to start roaster fires.

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[Steve Freides]

Thank you both - I'll work on some sort of large containment gizmo for outside.

-S-

[scott stap]

How bout drop it into a large cardboard box with a smaller box inside for the chaff to go into. Hot air would stay in the box and chaff would stay inside the smaller box.

[North Sullivan]

I always found that a medium cardboard box did fine to heat the air and
collect the chaff. Toss out the chaff after roasting sessions. I
roasted for several years with a Poppery I in a Wisconsin garage with
temps going as low as zero.

North Sullivan

[Christopher Schaefer]

I echo the suggestions to place the unit in a large cardboard box but beware of too much heat.  Vent it with a flap; it'llact like a damper or flue.

[Steve Freides]

You've replied to a very old message thread.

I ended up places a milk carton with a few dish towels draped over it in front of my popcorn popper.  This has been doing the trick for me for the last few years.

I've also taken to minding the weather and trying to time my roasting on the warmer days, such as they are in this part of the world, and during the middle of the day.

I just sweep the chafe off the porch and into the garden.

-S-

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[Kurt Simmons]

Steve;

  I see the old post part. Curiously, I was aiming for lighter roasts and found my coffee too green tasting when it roasted up in 4 minutes or so in my air popper. I think the outside of the beans was roasting too fast during the shorter roast.  I discovered the winter effect (35 degrees) of lengthening the roast time and was hoping to tame it to slow down the roast time on purpose, so I could get a more balanced roast. (Never did perfect it.) I may have to try a dark roast comparison this year to see what the effect is. Thanks for the inspiration.

  

Kurt.

[Steve Freides]

Glad to be of some help!

You can get a variac and dial down the voltage in the summer if you wish.  If you're anywhere in the NYC or Philly area's, I'm pretty sure I still have mine - the summer/winter variation doesn't bother me.   

I don't time at all, just go by sound, appearance of the beans, and smoke.  I like a pretty dark roast, and there's a point when it really starts smoking, and that's right where I stop most of the time.

You also need to play pretty carefully with the amount of beans you put in.  I like it so that when I first plug in the popper, the beans are just barely moving.  I think fewer beans will mean a lighter roast.

-S-

--

[Maryann & David Schellenberg]

When I was using the popcorn popper, I bought a variac from Sweet Maria's ($100 +) and used that to try to get my roasts in the 12 minute range. It seemed to work OK. Sweet Maria's doesn't list them on the site any more but I see a few of them on Amazon ($65 - $180 depending on how much current the popper draws).

I've read about others who used long extension cords to reduce the voltage at the popper.

Now I have a Hottop that I bought used, and I can adjust heater power and fan at different times during the roast to suit my taste.

For the popper, I measured out 1/4 lb of green beans to roast at a time.
The Hottop lets me roast 1/2 lb at once, so finishes in half the time.

Dave S.

[Steve Freides]

There is also quite a price differential between the popper and the Hottop - I pay $40 for poppers on ebay and generally get a year out of each.

-S-