# Roasting Green Coffee Beans for coffee and beer



## Lord Raja Goomba I (23/12/15)

After a yak with madpierre06 (great bloke) about coffee, roasting green beans and the like, when I visited him to purchase some stuff, plus noticing on bacchus' facebook page that they were using Cascara (cherry of coffee), green coffee beans and of course normal black roasted coffee beans in some beers, I thought I'd start a topic on using coffee in beer.

madpierre06 buys his beans green and roasts them at home to keep up with large amounts of coffee that are consumed in his house (and I know now saving a buck on coffee is important since times got a little tougher). $16/kg for green beans, makes it worthwhile for coffee alone and it seems dead easy.

He also mentioned cold steeping some of his own coffee for a porter (and I do like a coffee porter or milk stout) and so I thought I'd do a DIY coffee and a DIY coffee in beer thread.

It's getting close to time where we start to consider brewing porters for winter.


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## antiphile (23/12/15)

Geez. I wasn't aware that the Crazy Parisienne was not only as ugly as sin but _*also*_ a coffee maestro. Now I'm sorry I was nasty to him.

We did, however, get to taste a Coffee Pilsner that was truly addictive a few weeks ago (I think I recall it was cold steeped). Yet if you can get good advice from the masters, go for it -- it really was sensational.


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## indica86 (23/12/15)

I have coffee growing and have roasted my home grown. I have used it for steeping in vodka, smells hella good and tastes hella good. Pain in the arse to prepare your own beans though.


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## Topher (23/12/15)

Cascera and things like coffee flour are great ways to use coffee waste products, or what used to be called waste. Never thought of putting cascera in beer though. Id love to give that a go. 

Coffee in beer ive done many times. Cold steeping is best, it produces much less acidity, no oils and seems to be more stable. 

$16 per kilo is pretty steep for greens though....


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## mstrelan (23/12/15)

$16/kg isn't steep considering any decent roaster charges $45+ / kg roasted, usually more. But yes, you can get greens for $12 or so.


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## Maheel (23/12/15)

i normally roast my own (well been a bit slack of late and buying them)

modded bread maker and paint stripper heat gun from bunnings (ozito) is my roaster
they call these "roasters" a corretto roaster

beangreen.com.au here in bne sell some nice beans and where i normally buy mine from

the prices of beans has been increasing over the last few years
coffee machines are another hobby i have..... few hiding in the shed, and at work, and where the wife does not look... shhhh
lucky she is addicted to coffee and lets me tinker....

where does the madpierre06 buy his green ?


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (23/12/15)

He buys his at bean green and recommended them, and I went up there to grab some.

Got commercial grade, hence the $16 I paid, I could have paid less.


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## Tex083 (24/12/15)

I did a coffee brown ale and added whole roasted coffee beans post ferment. I know it sounds crazy but worked extremely well. It's like cold drip but much easier to remove the coffee at the end


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## jimmyjack (24/12/15)

Thinking of buying a behmor 1600 plus roaster for my B day! The cheapness and quality of Greens on offer is too much for me to pass up. I am paying 16 bucks for 250 g of single organs atm and this is getting costly!!


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (24/12/15)

I'm roasting as I type. I'll put some pics up if and when I can.


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## mstrelan (24/12/15)

jimmyjack said:


> Thinking of buying a behmor 1600 plus roaster for my B day! The cheapness and quality of Greens on offer is too much for me to pass up. I am paying 16 bucks for 250 g of single organs atm and this is getting costly!!


I used to have the original 1600. It was OK, not great. Often took over 20 minutes to hit first crack. The preset profiles were pretty useless too so the manual override in the 1600+ would be handy. I gave up because I was drinking the coffee faster than I could be bothered to roast and it wasn't fun anymore.


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## madpierre06 (24/12/15)

Lord Raja Goomba I said:


> I'm roasting as I type. I'll put some pics up if and when I can.


Hah...thanks for the kind words mate, I'm also about to roast up a couple batches today.

I've got a second hand hottop I paid $400 for about 4/5 years back, has more than paid for itself. Yeah, Bean Green is my main one, used to use c/snobs (I've got a funny feeling there is a username on here I have seen there) a few years back but in 2.5kg bags it soon adds up, at one stage I had near 60kg in the cupboard. Also use Ministry Grounds, and a few specialty stores around brissie have always been generous when you deveelop reklationships with 'em and some will sling me a few green beans occasionally to take home and try out. Also did the whole tree to cup thing with some cherries off a mate's tree, they actually come up ok.

When I did my RIS, I split the batch, half 'n' half, whole roasted in one half and cold steeped in t'other half. My preference was the cold steeped batch, it had more body and a richer coffee aspect without being overpowering. Putting the same brew down in the nextw eek, and hopefully can let it age to take a few tasters to mid year swap. 

I was keen to see how coffee might go in a RIS which had some bundy chips steeped in it, having enjoyed the old 'dash of bundy in a coffee' trick years ago. It tasted better then and is best left in the memory banks.


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## Ciderman (24/12/15)

Stay tuned for the French Ciderman co project...

It's a free range biodynamic conflict free 36 degree altitude single origin coffee. Im sure after sampling an espresso we can turn it into a beer.


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## TSMill (24/12/15)

mstrelan said:


> I used to have the original 1600. It was OK, not great. Often took over 20 minutes to hit first crack


This was also my experience, I think the behmor uses the specified input voltage (220, 230, 240V or something) as the calibration for the temperature control. I re-set mine lower and now hit first crack in 17 minutes or so.


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## madpierre06 (24/12/15)

Ciderman said:


> Stay tuned for the French Ciderman co project...
> 
> It's a free range biodynamic conflict free 36 degree altitude single origin coffee. Im sure after sampling an espresso we can turn it into a beer.


Now THERE'S an idea. :beerbang: We'll only need 50/60 odd gms. Eaton's Hill microlots.


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## jimmyjack (24/12/15)

> I've got a second hand hottop I paid $400 for about 4/5 years back, has more than paid for itself.



This would be my machine of choice but at the current price its outside of my price range!!! The Newest unreleased Behmor is run using an App which looks pretty cool.


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## madpierre06 (24/12/15)

jimmyjack said:


> This would be my machine of choice but at the current price its outside of my price range!!! The Newest unreleased Behmor is run using an App which looks pretty cool.


A lovely bit of kit, 250gm batches are the go.


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## seamad (24/12/15)

I've had a couple of different roasters, for the last 5ish years have used the quest m3, bought direct from manufacturer in Taiwan.






I do 300g roasts, and have replaced the dial thermometers with Ktype thermocouples, for BT and ET, run roastlogger on the laptop to plot roasts.
Pretty simple sample type roaster ( fully manual control), with a control for amps ( to the 2 elements ) and a fan speed control for airflow, can't change drum speed. All parts are standard type industrial components, so easy to repair, not that I've had to yet. Normally do 6 roasts back to back, enough coffee for about 3 weeks, after which beans are getting stale anyway.
Used to get beans from bean green, but prices shot up 50% in one go, now get mainly from coffee snobs, 4 X 2.5kg bags at a time to keep postage down a bit.


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## antiphile (24/12/15)

Hmmm. I don't suppose anyone can point me to a CoffeeRoaster to English dictionary 'cos I only have English as my first, second and third langauges. Nah, don't worry. Carry on. As you were etc.


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## madpierre06 (28/5/16)

Ciderman said:


> Stay tuned for the French Ciderman co project...
> 
> It's a free range biodynamic conflict free 36 degree altitude single origin coffee. Im sure after sampling an espresso we can turn it into a beer.


Well, we're up and running.

a) Post pulp and ferment.


b ) Drying.

c) Hulling - bastard of a job, one bean at a time. At least there's beers to drink while doing so.

d). And here we go, myself and the Man of Cider will be hoping to give these a test run very soon. Cup + coffee stout.


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## Ciderman (28/5/16)

Lots of labour by the looks of it! Can't wait to try!


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## madpierre06 (28/5/16)

Ciderman said:


> Lots of labour by the looks of it! Can't wait to try!


It's just the hulling is the worst. Smelling nice and creamy after roasting. I'll give em a day to degas and give one a chew. Forgot to mention, the fruit (after pulping) is in the freezer to lob into a sour. Why not go the whole hog...maybe even a sour coffee stout. :beerbang:


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## goomboogo (29/5/16)

Great stuff madpierre. What roaster did you use?


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## drsmurto (29/5/16)

I can roast 500g in the original Behmor in summer. At this of the year i drop it back to 400g. Roast 3-4 batches a week for home and work. Bean green and coffeesnobs for beans.

Edit - original Behmor doesn't have the annoying fail safe function so i can hit start, set alarm on my phone and come back 15 mins later before first crack.


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## Feldon (29/5/16)

I was going to have a crack (pun!) at coffee roasting about six years ago, and bought a random 1kg bag of green beans at a market in southern NSW while on holidays.

That's as far as I got. I've still got those green beans in the sealed plastic bag they came in (not vac sealed though).

Would they still be any good to roast? How long do green beans last?


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## Ducatiboy stu (29/5/16)

madpierre06 said:


> It's just the hulling is the worst. Smelling nice and creamy after roasting. I'll give em a day to degas and give one a chew. Forgot to mention, the fruit (after pulping) is in the freezer to lob into a sour. Why not go the whole hog...maybe even a sour coffee stout. :beerbang:



Did one of those food trail things in a bus up here a few years back

Stopped at a coffee roaster at Maclean. That was interesting 

He leaves his beans for to weeks after roasting them, and he doesnt do French Roast either

Coffee grows really well up here but you need that good red soil for it to go really well, a rather nice looking shrub actually


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## madpierre06 (29/5/16)

goomboogo said:


> Great stuff madpierre. What roaster did you use?


Hottop. Does a great job, and goes like an old HQ...forever. Touchwood.




Feldon said:


> I was going to have a crack (pun!) at coffee roasting about six years ago, and bought a random 1kg bag of green beans at a market in southern NSW while on holidays.
> 
> That's as far as I got. I've still got those green beans in the sealed plastic bag they came in (not vac sealed though).
> 
> Would they still be any good to roast? How long do green beans last?


I've done green beans that had been sitting in the cupboard for about 3 or 4 years...they came up ok, but did seem to have something lacking in the flavour, or mayeb that was just me. They were still servgiceable though, and had been stored in cotton bags (the coffeesnobs ones). 



Ducatiboy stu said:


> Did one of those food trail things in a bus up here a few years back
> 
> Stopped at a coffee roaster at Maclean. That was interesting
> 
> ...


I've seen that done, the shrubbery thing, they look pretty neat when they're trimmed and done that way. Plus it's easier to get to the cherries if you want to harvest 'em. They can also be used as a sacrifice if the need arises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIV4poUZAQo


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## Ciderman (30/6/16)

Well i made my first coffee. Tasted pretty plain as an espresso so topped it up with milk. Sure ive had better coffee but its cool to know that its come from my own back yard. Tastes even sweeter that madpierre has taken care of all the labour! Thanks mate!


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## Lord Raja Goomba I (30/6/16)

Looks good Ciderman.

I did the bean green thing per madpierre's suggestion and cold brewed coffee for a porter, which he has since partaken of a bottle.


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## peteru (30/6/16)

Looking at the extraction, I'd say you roasted a tad too dark. Try backing it off next time to get more body. A roast that is too dark will be thin and hard to extract correctly. You can tell if you have gone too far if the roasted beans develop an oily surface. I never intentionally let my roasts as far as second crack. I usually stop well before there - if I happen to hear second crack I immediately dump the beans from the roaster and cool them as fast as possible.


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## madpierre06 (30/6/16)

There's no harm in going to 2nd crack if the beans warrant it, particularly early in the crack. From my experience, I get better body by going into the darker profiles as 95% of my coffees are espresso. If I'm going to be using the aeropress, then I certainly will go lighter. This batch were dumped right at start of 2nd, and came up a nice matte brown colour so they certainly weren't over roasted. I've had beans that actually went at their best when taken to rolling 2nd crack,


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## klangers (21/7/16)

Well I don't roast my own coffee or anything like that (working on a malt plant is enough extracurricular stuff from brewing to ensure I have negative spare time!), but I am about to infuse a doppelbock with coffee.

Plan to use 250g or so in a 19L batch. Cold steeped.

Can anyone recommend a type/brand of bean/roast that's more on the sweet, full and chocolatey side?


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## madpierre06 (21/7/16)

klangers said:


> Well I don't roast my own coffee or anything like that (working on a malt plant is enough extracurricular stuff from brewing to ensure I have negative spare time!), but I am about to infuse a doppelbock with coffee.
> 
> Plan to use 250g or so in a 19L batch. Cold steeped.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a type/brand of bean/roast that's more on the sweet, full and chocolatey side?


This blend is always a beauty and fits the profile you're after.

http://ministrygrounds.com.au/roasted-coffee/blends/nehemiah-blend.html


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## peteru (21/7/16)

If you want to go single origin, I'd recommend Indonesian Lingtong or one of the PNG highland beans. They don't tend to produce too much astringency even when over-extracted.


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## klangers (21/7/16)

Thanks guys I'll hit up some of those.


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## Ark84 (29/6/17)

Keen to give this a go. When people talk about cold steeping, is that ground down to a certain size? Or is that much of a muchness and we're going with it over whole beans or hot steep? Love the idea of a bit of coffee and cacao dumped in like a dry hop, mid primary ferment..

Miss roasting our own beans. Had 2 or 3 pop corn machines doing a very nice job once upon a time.


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## koshari (30/6/17)

We have a behmor1600+ and the 2 things i hate are the led readout cannot be read in sunlight and the stupid lawyer function where rhe roast switchess to cool if you dont acknowledge the flashing screen (that you cannoy see in sunlight ) in time.


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## madpierre06 (30/6/17)

Ark84 said:


> Keen to give this a go. When people talk about cold steeping, is that ground down to a certain size? Or is that much of a muchness and we're going with it over whole beans or hot steep? Love the idea of a bit of coffee and cacao dumped in like a dry hop, mid primary ferment..
> 
> Miss roasting our own beans. Had 2 or 3 pop corn machines doing a very nice job once upon a time.



When I cold steep, even for a hot steep (aeropress here), I go for a coarse grind, I have a Kyocera hand grinder for that. When adding to the beer, what I've found works for me is adding to the FV just prior to bottling. I time my cold steep for between 18 and 24 hours. I do know that others do differently. I see you mention whole beans...first time around, I split the batch and did half cold steep, half whole beasns direct to FV for 24 hours prior to bottling. The whole bean batch had more of a 'brewed' coffee flavour, whereas the cold steep additon came up full and rish. Beans had bean roasted on the medium side of light to medium, dropped at just prior to 2nd crack.

When I started roasting, I was ready to go the popcorn maker route but got my hands on a 2nd hand hottop for $400, that was probably 6 or 7 years ago now. Still going strong. Top bit of kit.


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## claypot (1/7/17)

Anyone have any experience with this type of roaster:
Meant to be good for up to 750gms.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Coffee-R...792813?hash=item4b17cc012d:g:MroAAOSw~y9ZHthu

Seems to be sold in the UK under a different name some dude on amazon gave it a good review here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HU1Q7QC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


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