Coffee Roasters for Home and Local Coffee Roasteries
Love the romance of coffee roasting? Fascinated by turnig green beans into brown gold?
Explore our selection of home coffee roasters, create your own coffee heaven.
What to know before buying a home coffee roaster
Coffee roasters vary significantly in the way they work as well as their prices. Here we will list the characteristics to consider when choosing a coffee roasting machine for home. We hope to help you decide which roster will be the best for your needs. We will also introduce you to the main types of coffee roasting tools and devices by briefly describing their features. This list is not exhaustive and there are more types of coffee bean bakers, but we want to keep it simple and help you focus on the most important decision criteria.
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Coffee bean roasters for at-home roasting explained
Here is what types of coffee roasting devices you can choose from.
Types of coffee roasting machines
There are three main types of coffee roasting tools and devices:
- Roasting pans
- Drum coffee roasters
- Hot air roasters (also called fluid bed roasters)
What makes a good coffee roaster?
Here is what to look at when buying a coffee roasting machine for home.
Features of a good coffee roasting device:
- Produces the type of roast you enjoy
- You are comfortable with using it
- Allows quick cooling of the beans
- Allows control over roasting temperatures
- Easy to maintain
- Holds the size of batch suitable for your needs
- Durability
Coffee roasters for home
Roasting pans
If you want to start simple and on a budget, a coffee roasting pan is a great option. These simple coffee roasting tools are relatively inexpensive, don’t take up a lot of space and are portable. They can be made of metal or ceramic materials and they require an external heat source such as a gas stove or another type of stove. Their downside is the lack of consistency in the roasting process.
Advantages of pan roasters:
- Low cost
- Longevity
- Simplicity
- Portability
Disadvantages of coffee roasting pans:
- Uneven roast
- Difficult to replicate the same roast
Drum roasters
Manual drum roasters
How do drum roasters work?
In the manual drum roaster the drum is rotated by a hand crank. The manual rotation of the drum gives you more control over the roasting degree, which is an advantage of these types of coffee bean bakers. However, they require a bit more skill from the person using them.
Automatic drum roasters
Automatic coffee bakers give you the ability to regulate your roasting and adjust it according to your taste.You can automate the repeatability which you wouldn’t be able to do with simpler types of roasters without lots of experience.
Perforated drum roasters
The advantage of this type of machine is the increased air flow which allows a more even roast. The perforated drum creates more convective heat transfer during the roasting and uses less heat than other types of drum roasters.
Single-walled and double-walled drum roasters
Which are better: single or double wall roasters? Double-walled roasters are better as they help to avoid overheating the beans which are touching the surface of the walls. Drum roasters with a thin single wall supply more heat and can burn the beans very quickly.
Advantages of drum coffee roasters:
- Suitable for dark roast
- Durability
Disadvantages of drum coffee roasting machines:
- Uneven roast
- Easy to burn the beans
- Difficult to replicate the same roast
Hot air roasters (fluid bed roasters)
How do hot air roasting machines work?
They are called fluid bed roasters because the beans float on a “bed” of hot air. Hot air roasting machines heat up the beans in a cylinder by hot air blown into the bottom of the cylinder. The plus of this roasting method is that hot air roasters distribute the heat more evenly, which results in a more even roast. Fluid-bed roasters also roast the beans faster and use less energy than drum roasters.
These types or coffee bean baking machines also have a cooling function, which allows you to stop the roasting more quickly and easily. They also have a transparent glass cylinder, so you can see the beans color and adjust the temperature accordingly by changing the air temperature.
Advantages of fluid bed coffee roasting machines:
- Ideal for light roast
- Retaining more flavor and aroma in the beans
- More even roast
- Automation of the roasting process
- Easy to repeat the process
Disadvantages of fluid bed roasters
- Difficult maintenance due to a closed system
- Higher price
- Little control over during the roasting as it’s automated
- Complex construction
- In most machines impossible to see the beans during the roast
Drum coffee roasters vs air coffee roasters
What is the difference between air roasters and drum roasters?
The main difference between air and drum coffee roasters is the type of flavors they bring out in the beans. Drum roasters develop the body more, while air roasters develop the brightness in the beans. That’s why air roasters are more suitable for lighter roast and drum roasters are better for darker roast.
What is the best coffee bean roasting machine for beginners?
If you are just starting your coffee roasting adventure, you may want to start small in terms of the price. Especially if you aren’t sure whether you’re going to continue roasting coffee on your own, it’s good to keep it simple at the beginning and upgrade when you develop your skills. On the other hand, you may outgrow your simple bean baker and end up buying a second roaster very quickly.
So it may be better to buy a more advanced roasting machine straight away. Making this decision, consider your roast quality expectations and whether you want to keep it simple or develop your skills as a coffee roaster.
Summary
The main points to consider when choosing a home coffee roaster are how dark roast you want to get, your roasting skills and how much you want to spend. If you like dark, oily beans, then air roasters would be the category in which to search for your perfect coffee baker, and if light roast is your thing, then look into drum roasters.
Home roasters - online buying options
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