Have you ever thought about what it would take to roast your own coffee beans? Anyone who knows me, knows I love coffee. The thought of any kind of coffee shortage at the store makes my heart palpitate. When I found out that you can buy organic green coffee beans (and usually for less than processed) and roast your own coffee beans at home, I was ecstatic!

Roast Your Own Coffee Beans Videos

There are two videos for this topic. Click the play button below to watch how to roast coffee beans. The other is on buying green coffee beans and is linked to further below in this article.

Where to Roast Coffee Beans

Before you start roasting your own coffee beans, be aware that there is a good amount of smell and smoke produced by the chaff burning off, so I would recommend doing this outdoors. The “chaff” is the thin outer skin of the coffee bean.

I have seen people write about roasting coffee beans in the oven. I would not recommend that, because a lot of the chaff will pop and burn off of the beans. Then you will end up having to clean out your oven at the end, and your house will have a burnt coffee smell. No bueno.

What You Need to Roast Coffee Beans

Pans

Ideally, to roast your own coffee beans you would have either a cast iron skillet with a whisk, or a stovetop popcorn popper that has a way to turn inside to keep the beans moving. You want to keep the beans moving so that no burning of the actual beans occurs and you end up with a nice, even roast. Here I used a popper known as the Whirley-Pop popcorn popper.

Heat Sources

I roast my own coffee beans outside, so I use my single burner that was bought for canning. It is just plugged it in outside. You can also roast your own coffee beans over a fire. A number of people do this over a campfire when camping. Of course, it is harder to control the amount of heat with an open fire.

Other Equipment

Other things you are going to need are two colanders or large bowls that can handle hot coffee beans and some way to store your roasted coffee beans. I store mine in a glass Ball jar with a seal and a ring. You can also buy sealable bags that have a one-way valve for off-gassing, which we will touch on after I show you how to roast the beans. It’s a very important part of the process.

Raw (Green) Coffee Beans

If you would like to watch the video on buying green coffee beans, click play below. Otherwise, keep going!

You can buy a number of varieties of raw beans online to roast your own coffee beans. Some websites also offer sample packs so you can try before you buy a quantity. Be sure to check several places, because the price with the shipping cost included can vary quite a bit. Below is a website where we have purchased raw coffee beans with good results.

Coffee Bean Corral

A word about storing raw coffee beans. When stored in a cool, dark, pest-free environment, raw green coffee beans can be stored an entire year (!) before they start to lose important flavor/aroma qualities. Even longer if you store in multi-layer or hermetic packaging.

How to Roast Your Own Coffee Beans

Fire up the heat source

The first thing you will want to do is turn your burner on a medium heat setting. Feel it out the first time – burners and temperatures can be quite different, but generally about a medium heat. Let the pan heat up fairly hot before you add the green coffee beans. This way, the roasting process starts as soon as you put the beans in.

Add raw coffee beans and keep the beans moving

Weigh out about eight ounces of green coffee beans. Once the beans are in, start turning the handle of the popper or using the whisk if you are using a skillet. The coffee beans will swell as they roast and will actually end up losing a little bit of weight – just under an ounce or so. That is because you are taking moisture out of the bean as it roasts.

You will notice a smell that is kind of similar to burnt popcorn when the chaff is starting to burn off. The coffee beans won’t have that rich coffee aroma until after you blow off the chaff and the beans are cooled. Once they are cooled, the smell is amazing.

Roasting time

As far as roasting time is concerned, that depends on how dark you want your coffee beans. I like my coffee beans to be a medium to dark roast. When I tried roasting these indoors, it took about 10 minutes to get them as dark as I like them. It was about 45°F on the porch when I went to roast my own coffee beans outside. Outside it took about twenty minutes to achieve that darkness I wanted.

First and Second Crack

It really is cracking. It definitely sounds similar to popcorn popping. The first crack is when you know the coffee beans have gotten to a usable stage for coffee grinding and making coffee. If you like a light to medium roast, you would want to stop roasting sometime in between the first crack and the second crack. The first crack usually lasts for a minute to a minute and a half.

Then there will be a period of time before the second crack. The second crack is actually a little bit more violent than the first. When you get to the second crack, you are getting to a darker roast. You can either pull it off during the second crack or wait until the end and then pull it off. However, you do not want to roast much beyond the second crack or you risk burning the coffee beans.

I pulled mine off during the second crack, right when it was starting to calm down.

Remove the chaff

When done roasting, hold the pan a bit above your colander or bowl and pour the hot beans in. Even a slight breeze will help the chaff to fly off while you are pouring. If there is no wind, you can also use a fan or blow dryer set on a low setting to blow off the chaff. You will need to pour back and forth between the two colanders or bowls, letting the moving air remove the chaff.

Cool the beans

Use paper plates or something similar to lay out the beans for cooling. It doesn’t take long to cool them (around 20 minutes), but be sure to cool completely.

Off-gassing and Storage

During the first 24-48 hours after you roast your own coffee beans, the beans will be in the process of off-gassing. They will release carbon dioxide. You want that carbon dioxide to go away, and you don’t want oxygen to come in.

Roasted coffee beans react with oxygen and it causes them to start losing their flavor. That is why your already-roasted, store-bought coffee beans usually have a one-way valve on the coffee bag. It allows the gasses to exit while preventing oxygen from coming in.

You can buy those bags, but you can also just use a regular canning jar. Tighten the jar lid to just barely finger-tight for the first 24-48 hours and then seal it down. Keep in a dark location – light degrades roasted beans.

Your freshly roasted beans are now ready to grind and brew. The best flavor will be 24-48 hours after roasting, and the aroma will be fantastic! Can you smell it? There is nothing like the smell of freshly ground coffee, nor of it brewing up in the coffee pot. It smells even better with freshly roasted coffee beans.

Have you roasted your own coffee beans? Do you have tips you can share? Please leave us a comment below.