Home coffee roasting is as simple (or as technical), as you want to make it.
You can roast in your oven, re-purpose a popcorn popper, use a skillet or buy an actual coffee roasting appliance. Whatever method you use, you will be on your way to drinking much better coffee.
The basic process is simple: use heat to turn green unroasted coffee into brown roasted coffee. Roasting times vary, depending on the method and batch size, but you can expect the process to last about 10 minutes for smaller batches and about 16 minutes for larger batches.
There are many ways to roast coffee. The method you choose should be influenced by how much roasted coffee you need and how much money you want to spend. Whether you choose a D.I.Y. approach or a small appliance depends mostly on if you want more or less automation.
D.I.Y methods are affordable and accessible.
We think using an electric popcorn popper is the best of the DIY methods. You can also use a skillet, a stovetop popcorn popper or a cookie sheet in your oven – while these methods are popular among home roasters, we think it requires a bit of experience to achieve good results.
Hot Air Popcorn Popper Instructions (Recommended)
Stovetop Instructions
Oven Roasting Instructions
Home Coffee Roasting appliances offer coffee specific features.
Depending on the model, machines made for home coffee roasting may offer chaff collection, smoke reduction, timers, temperature control, airflow regulation and digital automation. There is no “best” roaster per se, but there is a best one for you depending on how much coffee you want to roast per batch and how large of a machine you want to have sitting on your counter. Air roasters are generally smaller, roast evenly without scorching, and are better for smaller batches. While drum roasters often roast more, these machines are typically larger, require more attention and generate more smoke.
See our Home Roasting FAQ for more help finding the right roaster for you.
We always have a few dozen coffees to choose from so you shouldn’t have a problem finding beans that make your taste buds happy.
We suggest purchasing a Sweet Maria’s Sample Set to get started. Sample sets include 1lb bags of pre-selected coffees from the different growing regions we offer. Starting off with a sample set is an economical way to start roasting and become familiar with origin flavor characteristics. From there, your palate will have an idea of which ones are more delicious. This will help you narrow down which coffees you want to buy next.
Our Green Coffee FAQ will help take the mystery out of selecting.
Understanding the different stages of the roast will help you control the flavor of your cup and appreciate how different roasts result in different cup flavors.
Here’s an image that provides an overview of the process:
Yellowing: For the first few minutes the bean remains greenish, then turns lighter yellowish and emits a grassy smell.
Steam: The beans start to steam as their internal water content dissipates. This is also known as the drying stage.
First Crack: The steam becomes fragrant. Soon you will hear the first crack, an audible cracking sound as the real roasting starts to occur: sugars begin to caramelize, bound-up water escapes, the structure of the bean breaks down and oils migrate from their little pockets outward.
First Roasted Stage: After the first crack, the roast can be considered complete any time according to your taste. The cracking is an audible cue, and, along with sight and smell, tells you what stage the roast is at. This is what is called a City roast.
Caramelization: Caramelization continues, oils migrate, and the bean expands in size as the roast becomes dark. As the roast progresses, this is a City + roast. Most of our roast recommendations stop at this point. When you are on the verge of second crack, that is a Full City roast.
Second Crack: At this point a second crack can be heard, often more volatile than the first. The roast character starts to eclipse the origin character of the beans at this point and is also known as a Vienna roast. A few pops into second crack is a Full City + roast. Roasting all the way through second crack may result in small pieces of bean being blown away like shrapnel!
Darkening Roast: As the roast becomes very dark, the smoke is more pungent as sugars burn completely, and the bean structure breaks down more and more. As the end of second crack approaches, you will achieve a French roast.
Ack!! Too Late!: Eventually, the sugars burn completely, and the roast will only result in a thin-bodied cup of “charcoal water.”
Check out our Use All Five Senses to Determine Roast Level and Using Sight to Determine Degree of Roast pages for more detailed information.
And for basics on the coffee aspect, see out Green Coffee FAQ
25 Responses
This is a very confusing spot on your site. It would be easier to understand if it was played out as a chart. I can’t really tell what is being suggested between the Full City (City +), The Full City + (Vienna), and the French Roast. The coffee I roast become much larger during the 1st crack.
Thank for the suggestion. I realized the roast chart image was missing from that page for some reason but I re-enabled it. We also have another page about roast color changes, and the two are redundant: https://library.sweetmarias.com/using-sight-to-determine-degree-of-roast/
… but Karl, your comment makes me realize they need to be merged into a single page and update for clarity. Thanks for pointing this out! -Tom
Putting this here bc I dont think Sweet Maria’s has a forum for roasters. Im a newbie and could really use some help with my SR540! Im trying to capture fruit and floral notes in my beans but Im getting meh results. I usually roast to this schedule:
minute 1-3 @ Fan 9, Heat 9
minute 3-4 @ Fan 8, Heat 9
minute 4-5 @ Fan 7, Heat 9 (first crack midway)
~cool 3 mins~
I get mixed results, Ive never been blow away. I am lacking enough devp time? TIA!!
Hey Ed – the best place to reach out for troubleshooting/roasting tips is via our email, [email protected]. I might recommend starting with a lower heat setting and ramping up to slow development time a bit. This article has some helpful theory regarding emphasizing those fruity/floral notes in your coffee. On the brewing side, I’d also try experimenting with a coarser grind and higher dose. Hope this helps!
#1. Sounds somewhat like what I do, except, I turn the fan down (fan down = temp up) enough to get the roasting temp up into the 450 to 480 range and get to first crack. Once first crack is done fan back to 8 or 9 until temp drops to 400 to 425 range. Roast generally no longer than 12 min, 12 min is my basic roast time. I don’t favor anything approaching the burned/carbonized sugar taste or oily surface if I go too far. Fruity and floral are long gone if you get to this point anyway. I will dial back time on the fly if the color of the beans I am roasting get to a point I judge to be too dark or at any sign of oiliness, oiliness plays hell with my grinder. I make sure to get the fan back to 9 just before it goes into cool down mode. It seems there are lots of people that seem to think espresso beans need to be charred black and oily to make good espresso, me, not so much.
#2 Standard batch size for me is 8oz. anything else and the above is all out the window. I am also of the opinion that if you don’t use your roasted beans in 5 to 7 days from roast they’re pretty much done after that. You will have to start chasing grind settings at 5 days and at 7 days, for me anyway, it is impossible to grind fine enough to get a 9 bar/40-45 sec pour. I use a large double basket and dose at 24 grams shooting for 48-50 grams in the cup at 40-45 seconds. Any ways if I can manage all this it produces a fairly palatable cup, to me at any rate, way the hell better than anything I’ve had anywhere in my burg. I very well could be the one out in left field here as I have no standard reference of what actually is a world class cup.
So the take a way in all this is, don’t roast too dark and use what ever you roast in under 5-7 days, i.e. find a standard batch size and roasting profile, that lets you use what you roast in that window.
Of course the variables go up exponentially if you start considering the bean or beans you choose to roast. I roast blends of green beans, I am told this is not ideal, probably should roast bean varietals separately then mix and grind, but for me this ends up with beans that have all to often gone past my self imposed use by date and therefore I am not able to hit my ideal pour window. Roast then mix might work for “some” high volume coffee shops/roasteries but home roasters not so much. All the (few) shops in my burg don’t or can’t meet my one absolute criteria that roasted beans absolutely must be less than 5-7 days old. None have/had a roasted on date on their products. This is the prime reason I roast my own. Even the one shop that I had a relationship with and knew when they would roast, I still ended up with beans that were dead before I could use them all up. I couldn’t drink up a pound of beans in 5 days. That business went out of business as they couldn’t or wouldn’t charge/sell at prices high enough to break even much less make a profit. They absolutely would not sell anything less than what they though was perfection even though a good proportion of their customers were likely quite unaware of what a prefect cup could be, me included. Selling into a market who’s standard of perfection is Maxwell House instant crystals is like trying to climb Mount Everest in flip flops and a thong.
It’s interesting you keep the espresso fresher than 5-7 days max. I have more trouble with extraction on fresh roasts, so like to rest coffee at least 3-4 days. Maybe that’s the sweet spot for espresso when home roasting. Sounds like you have the method down to a science!
Hi Ed,
I don’t have the SR540 but this is what I do with my 1K gas drum roaster.
I start with a medium high airflow about 80% of max and high heat 100% at full 1K load.
At dry end (aprox 325F) I reduce the gas slightly and ramp up the airflow slightly.
Approaching first crack (380F) I reduce gas to a value that will give me the desired roast level
After first crack gets going (400F+) I increase air flow to final setting and reduce gas to finish as I approach the desired roast level.
I have roasted with an iRoast electric fan roaster which is similar — The problem is higher fan lowers the heat and lower fan gives you more heat. You want your highest heat in the beginning and ramp it down from there keeping enough heat to get through first crack in about 8-9 minutes (which is about the best you can do with a hot air roaster). It’s hard to stretch a roast out to a decent length with a hot air roaster but you should try to get at least a 7 to 8 minute roast by reducing the heat more aggressively (with what ever works best fan or heat setting) from dry end (yellow -325F) ~ minute 3 on. If you see a drop of oil on any bean time to kill the heat and cool, it won’t get much better. Good Luck
Yes Ross is exactly right – and it seems counter-intuitive at first… higher fan speeds lower the roast chamber bean temp. Less fan speed maintains more heat in the chamber. Also, adding more coffee can effectively raise the roast chamber temp as it block more exit air flow. Of course, if the coffee isn’t rotating sufficiently it will scorch so that needs to be avoided above all. Some people using air poppers simply resort to using more coffee but manually stirring the coffee for the first couple minutes until it spins freely on its own… That might work with the freshroast too, though it seems like a PIA
So, I just did my first roast and my experience was not what I expected. Not sure I can tell the difference between first crack and second crack. To me it’s more like popping corn. first is gradual popping (cracking) followed by more cracking. So my question is, is first crack considered to be the first audible noise from the roast? I frankly would have no idea what 2nd crack is as this was not my experience. Can anyone shed more light on this for me?
Hi Jason – this is a really good question and a fundamental one to to roasting. It’s hard to identify something you haven’t heard before … plus the sound of the popper obscures it. I’ve described the sound of first crack as a pop, more like popcorn. In fact it actually is the same thing happening to the popcorn kernel and the coffee bean: water internal to the bean has reached boiling point and is turning to steam / water vapor. Of course popcorn is a bit more dramatic when it hits that same point!. Second crack is different, and for me the closest sound is when you add milk to Rice Krispies. It’s a shallow sound snapping sound. The problem with some poppers is the roast process goes so fast that first crack and second crack can blur together, so you might be facing that: Initially you hear this real popping sound but it transitions without pause to a snapping sound.
Your comment inspired me though: I made a short video today to try to document the difference in the sound of first and second crack. To get a clear recording, I roasted this batch in a skillet on a stove so there was no other sounds and the cracks were audible. I have to edit that though but just FYI I will post it this week.
Cool, I look forward to seeing this. Thanks for the response and clarification. I did my second roast today, still using a cast iron skillet at this point. Hope to take a look at using an air popper in the future. I went a few minutes past the first audible crack and not into the second crack. I think the results will be better.
Jason —
You have so much joy ahead of you! People will wonder how you learned it all, and will marvel at your coffee. I started like 20 years ago with a popcorn popper and some green beans from Sweet Maria’s and burned the popper and another one out and enjoyed every step. Still learning like a novice, though. This is a good place for tips. (Also equipment — just got my first “real” roaster and it is awesome.)
— Geoff B
could you please also write up a post about flavoring your beans after roasting them? I am trying to find what flavoring product to get and how to flavor my coffee beans to get chocolate cherry flavor for instance. I’ve read that you need to “soak” them in the flavoring oil for overnight but also I’ve read contradictory articles as well. Thanks
Hello,
I am a freelance writer working on an article about grinding times for coffee beans. I am in search of a table or list of grind times for different brewing methods, along with a weight measurement of the coffee beans. Any information that you can provide on this topic would be great. If you could respond by Friday afternoon, I would be most appreciative. Your company comes highly recommended by a specialty coffee company here in Mobile, Al.
Thank you!
Thanks for your question – I don’t think we can help and I dont think i have ever seen a chart of grinding times for coffee. The only thing that comes to mind is that old “whirling blade” type grinders from companies like Krups would tell you how long to push the button the get a certain grind. I think a chart would be very grinder-specific, part of info on a retail box. But the grind time for one machine wouldnt apply to another. Anyway I hope you find your info!
Thanks for this..all of this type of information helps the new guy like me; we know it’s just part of the journey but it is VERY helpful
Thanks – I am glad its helpful!
Maybe your roasting with the wrong kind of beans. try buying some Beans that have fruity and floral notes. I would Suggest Ethiopia.
My FreshRoast is a conumdrum, or love/hate! I love it because it has infinite options to roast; I hate it because it has infinite options to roast. I live where it is in the high 90’s, low 100’s daily. Of course everybodies AC is blasting and that drags down the line voltage to 118-118 during the day. So I have to roast at 6 am, which isn’t bad as it gets me out of bed .
But my question is about roasting dry process coffees, should I drag out the 1st craack a little? With variable voltage, every roast is a little different and I can’t tell whether its best to prolong the drying stage a little or hurry through it.
Any advice would be welcome,
thanks.
Mike Thompson
Hi Mike – yes that sounds like some extreme conditions for coffee roasting. For me the dry process tend to take a little more hear to get into first crack (also the cracks can sometimes be a bit harder to hear). So that in itself influences the roast profile, without really needing to make any adjustments to the roast machine. I think DP coffees tend to benefit from more rest after roasting. Sometimes I find the cup better 3 days after roasting than they do with 24 hours rest, IMO. With those kinds of temperatures (and assuming its dry climate) I would pay a lot of attention to storing green coffee in barrier bags or glass – it could dry out in storage, even in a couple weeks, if you don’t. (Same advice for very humid climates too – barrier storage is important!)
How long should beans outgas after roasting and before storing?
I think once it is cooled in can go into sealed storage – although it might build up some pressure in something like a glass jar. Nothing wrong with that!
This is very helpful! I’m trying to roast Arabica I hope this will work. I want my coffee to be made like this but I’m also thankful for the free espresso machine in the office.
Good morning Thompson,
I’ve been roasting in the Showtime with a hot air gun blasting in from a whole cut in the top of the oven and using a thermometer probe inserted into the oven through the side wall. The hot air gun can deliver either 800 or 1200 W . my beans are in a typical cylindrical basket that I purchased from Amazon for about $20. I preheat the oven for about 10 minutes until the interior temperature probe registers about 420 Fahrenheit. During the rosary will regulate the temperature by either opening the door or turning down the watts of the hot air gun.
Moka Kadir is my favorite bean at this time. my roosts often tend to be uneven with some beans a lot lighter in color than the others at the point after the first crack. I’ve tried slowing down the roasting process during the drying stage by keeping the oven temperature around 400 Fahrenheit. usually I get first crack at about 8 to 9 minutes. I have read online that actually I should probably be having a higher temperature during the drawing says, what temperature do you think I should be trying to keep oven at? I realize that these are not really the temperatures that the beans are at
If I do a roast with a higher temperatures for the first crack the beans come out very unevenly roasted with regard to their color. What suggestions do you have? Thank you
Hey Alan, sounds like quite a DIY setup! I’ve seen a few rotisserie coffee roaster setups, and so much about the configuration is conducive to roasting coffee. It sounds like you’re getting pretty good results with your current regimen, but I’d be happy to help dial things in with a little more info too.
To your question about what temp to warm up to, I think that’s going to depend on what type of roast you’re trying to achieve, and then of course, where the probe is located in relation to the heat gun. 420f reading on our Probat is likely a very different temp at the bean bed than 420f on your Showtime setup. 8-9 min first crack is a decent roast time for a small batch of coffee IMO. That’s about what you’d hope for in Behmor. How much time til 1st C at 420?
Conventional wisdom would have your starting temp higher than at the end. That really depends on the roaster though. But I would think in your case it seems like extending development time a little might help the beans find equilibrium, and some roast uniformity. That said, Moka Kadir is all dry process coffees, so I would expect some color variance unless going way into 2nd Crack.
What are your batch sizes like? Is there plenty of room left in the drum for the beans to shift around when rotating so that you get an even roast?
Thanks for writing in about your roaster. Hopefully you’re enjoying the results you’re getting with it, which is the most important thing!
Best,
Dan