so ... i've been curious about roasting my own coffee at home for quite a while -- researched & watched hours of YouTube videos on using air popcorn poppers, Whirley Pop hand-cranked popcorn poppers on the stovetop, blah blah blah ... finally stumbled onto a method that I was comfortable with -- mostly 'cause it's a scaled down convection-style "drum" roaster where the machine & heat source are fairly constant & "do all the work" ... acquired the bread maker last Friday & roasted up a few small 4 oz batches over the wkend, just to get a feel for how this all works ... the 2 beans i decided to attempt first are Costa Rica & Guatemala -- both came out surprisingly well ... scored a Fluke IR thermometer off eBay over the wkend that should arrive & help me determine temps more easily (vs completely winging it) ...

you have to mod the bread maker to remove the temp sensors off the bread pan 'cause it'll throw an error & stop the blade from turning if it over-heats -- hence the foil "appendage" on the outside of the machine; i also removed the wires from the built-in heating element as that's not needed either ... the whole machine I got is plastic so I also foil-wrapped the top to create a make-shift heat shield, as well ... put the machine in dough mode, drop the beans in, and hit it with the heat gun & monitor ... pretty much, that's all there is to it ... so far, i've been surprised at the results ...







turn the volume down 'cause the music is ghey - but this video will show you how it's done:

Interesting...

We met a guy at the Chattanooga Market a few weekends ago and bought some coffee from him that was delicious. Appison Farms Roasters if I remember correctly. Anyway I got to talking to him about the subject and he said that he spent $10k on a coffee roaster. While he was talking, in my head I was saying, "I'm out." I can buy a lot of custom roasted coffee beans for $10k.

Your coffee roasting hack peaks my interest.

After watching that video and the mess he made, I wonder if you couldn't take a hole saw and cut a hole in the top of the bread maker the same size as that Harbor Freight heat gun to keep the chaff from flying all over the place.

IG, the possibilities are endless on this -- see this video for a "more advanced" Corretto setup; he's "hardwired" his bread maker to spin the blade constantly (vs using the dough setting where the 1st 5 mins or so intermittently agitate the beans)



it's worth mentioning that I have WAY LESS than $100 in my setup LOL i do all of this outside so the chaff blowing everywhere is no big deal

if you want to simply "experiment" with all of this, here's a dirt cheap method -- & it works pretty darn good -- for chits & giggles, i decided to try it on my green Costa Rica beans ... you probably already have this laying around -- my complete roast took about 9:30 since it's so damn hot outside right now ... definitely wear thick gloves/mitts/whatever 'cause he's right -- the heat coming off that bowl is scorching ... i stirred my beans the entire time, as well, so I couldn't hit it with my IR thermometer, but it's not unusual for it to get into the low/mid 400's