Pan Roasting Coffee - Part 1
September 20, 2007
There are certainly many sophisticated methods to roast coffee. Yet, you really only need coffee beans, a heat source and something to contain it.
Stuff you need to get started:
- Cast iron skillet
- Grill
- Cooling tray or wire screen and a hair dryer with a “cool” setting
Continue reading and see more pictures after the break. Be sure to check out all the pictures at full size by clicking.
We started roasting our beans from Coffee Storehouse last week and to begin with I was interested in trying one of the oldest roasting methods, pan roasting. To do this I bought a new cast iron skillet to roast the beans on my propane grill. Having read about the process and talked to the people at Coffee Storehouse about it I decided to simply judge the roast by the color and the “cracks.” The roast took a little under 20 minutes and I transfered the beans to a wire screen and used a hair dryer on the “cool” setting to cool the beans and stop the roast. I let the beans rest for about 18 hours in a glass jar before tasting my work.
I would describe the smell of the pre-ground beans as borderline burnt. But I still had high hopes for the brewed coffee because besides the burnt smell the beans had the very rich smell of a strong dark roast. My hopes were dashed at my first long draw as I took in the aroma of my freshly brewed, first attempt at roasting. The only aroma I smelled was charred coffee, this was not going to be good.
Worried but not dissuaded from enjoying the product of my labor I took my first slurp. There were no floral or berry notes with a smooth chocolaty or cocoa finish. There were however, strong burnt flavors with a harsh burnt finish that was accompanied by contorted facial expressions of revulsion and disgust and spontaneous diarrhea (just kidding). I chalk up this first attempt to a learning experience and I think I where I might have gone wrong.
- In the interest of keeping in as much heat as possible I kept the lid on the grill when not stirring the beans. This no-doubt trapped some of the escaping smoke and enhanced the burnt flavor I got.
- I was not constantly stirring the beans only every minute or so. Which likely did not provide even enough heat and resulted in the inconsistent roast you see in the pictures.
So I am going to continue pan roasting with these issues in mind and see if I cannot roast some excellent, if not at least palatable, coffee. After all, this is how coffee got its start. This is the 100% authentic method our ancestral shepherds-turned-baristas used to make the original cup of joe. I know I can pan roast good coffee.
Nice article Mark ~ I enjoyed reading about your coffee roasting extravaganza! Better luck next time -
I tried pan-roasting once. Big mistake, but that’s probably because I did it inside.
If you’re doing it on a grill, what kind of settings did you use on your burners? Did you keep it covered? As for moving it around, you want to stir at something like 30-40rpm throughout the entire duration of the roast from what I’ve been told.
I remember that someone somewhere said that a large metal dog bowl (clean) and a $30-$40 heat gun from Home Depot works well for roasting. It keeps the beans moving and it kicks away the chaff a lot better.
Wow, sorry to hear you tried it inside. I can imagine that was quite a mess. Luckily I had gotten some advice to try it outside on a grill. I did keep it covered and I am sure that contributed to the very strong burnt/smoky flavor. If you look at the pictures closely you can see one side of the beans just looks outright burnt. That is because I did not think I was going to need to be constantly stirring the beans. Stupid, I know, I know… but I learned and I will be posting a more about my further pan roasting attempts very soon. Also, we have been experimenting with some other roasting methods that I think you will find very interesting. Stay tuned to read about them and learn how we did it. I have been sampling the results thus far and they are fantastic!
[…] Our first try at pan roasting was a complete bust, but we had a few tweaks in mind that we thought would be crucial to improving the quality of our pan roasted coffee. […]
[…] Our first try at pan roasting was a complete bust, but we had a few tweaks in mind that we thought would be crucial to improving the quality of our pan roasted coffee. […]
[…]This is the 100% authentic method our ancestral shepherds-turned-baristas used to make the original cup of joe. I know I can pan roast good coffee[…]
Not to dissuade you from trying, but did you ever imagine that the reason people don’t roast beans in the pan anymore is because other ways are, well, simply better? I mean, it seems logical that if people could get good tasting coffee by pan roasting it themselves, then the practice would be more common, wouldn’t you agree?
Hi. Pan roast is unquestionably the best way for coffee lover coz we get the most in control. I am also pan-roasting my coffee with a cast-iron skillet, a tiny one with only 10 cm in diameter. My outcome is pretty good: the beans are consistent in roast level. I think the small portion is the key to success.