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Air Popper Roasting

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WARNING! The following is all at your own risk. Popcorn poppers were not intended to be used as coffee roasters. Don't blame me if you ruin your popper, electrocute yourself, burn down your house, or piss off your SO and get divorced.

That being said, it's a lot of fun! Using popcorn poppers to roast is cheap and easy, but you don't have a lot of control. If you get the bug, there are several websites showing modifications that can be made to your popper, as well as a variety of cheap home roasters that you can buy or build. If you have any questions, I highly recommend going to Google and searching the alt.coffee archive.

• Equipment:
• • Use a popper with a solid bottom in the roasting chamber. This is important; if you get one that has a grate on the bottom, chaff and bean bits can fall through and catch fire.
  • If you have a choice, get a popper with a clear top. This helps you watch the beans while you're roasting.
  • Bowl (to catch chaff)
  • Metal Colander (to cool beans in)
  • Fan (to cool beans with)
  • Oven mitts (coffee gets HOT)
  • Notebook and pen (to record roasts)
  • Timer/stopwatch (to record roasts)
• Process:
• • Start up popper, under the stovetop fan if it's convenient
  • Drop in 1/2 cup green coffee
  • Start timer or stopwatch
  • Put lid/plastic chute thing on popper
  • Put bowl under chute to catch chaff and bean bits
  • Watch coffee, mark down time it turns "yellow"
  • Watch and listen to coffee
  • As chaff comes off of it and it starts to turn a light cinnamon color, it will start to go into first pop
  • Record time when it hits "peak" or "consensus". This is when, instead of "pop" every few seconds, it starts to happen more closely together, "pop pop pop".
  • Watch coffee, first pop will die down and it will turn light brown
  • As it turns dark brown, second pop should start.
  • When second pop starts, mark down "peak" time
  • Second pop is similar to first pop, usually it's a little softer-sounding.
  • Put on oven mitts
  • Watch coffee until it reaches a color you want, then dump coffee into colander, turn off popper, turn on fan, swish coffee around over fan until coffee is cool to the touch
  • Mark down discharge/end-of-roast time
  • Let the machine cool down before you do another load on it.

You don't really have any control on an air popper, but it's way easier than roasting on a big roaster. And it's a lot of fun!

I previously wrote: "I don't think it's possible to do a dark roast on a popper without stewing all the flavor out." My opinion has changed; the second popper I tried, a West Bend Poppery, I don't think would have any problem producing a fast dark roast. Mind you, I think that a few fast dark roasts would probably end up burning out or melting the popper.

It's very unlikely that it'll burst into flame, but if it does, pull out the plug, toss it into the sink, and douse it with water. Note the "pull out the plug" as the first step. It sounds silly to have to say, but when you accidentally start a small fire in your kitchen, there's a slight tendency to panic. Afterwards, of course, throw out that popper and get another one.

Also, if you try to get it hot enough to do a good dark roast (by, say, blocking the air flow out) you could potentially melt it or burn it out. And you want to let it cool down between roasts, or you can burn it out.

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