There’s a new DIY trend afoot in the world of coffee lovers. They’re roasting their own coffee beans — at home.

It’s not just java pros like Tim VanDragt, a 28-year-old barista at Berkeley’s Local 123 coffeehouse, either. Regular Joes are getting in on the cuppa joe action too. Home roasting classes are popping up in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Portland, where they’ve proven so popular, the Mr. Green Beans coffee store holds weekly roasting workshops. And in Berkeley, a recent Slow Food-sponsored home roasting class sold out so quickly, the group is offering an encore later this month, with VanDragt in the teacher’s seat.

Home coffee roasting is a simple process, VanDragt says. You buy your green coffee beans, plug in your re-purposed air popcorn popper, and wait for the all-important “first crack.” Naturally, we had questions, so we sat down with the self-taught, home roaster to ask.

Q: OK, we’ll bite. A popcorn popper?

A: West Bend Poppery II is the best known. What’s important is that you have side venting, a colander, a fan, some dishes to hold the green coffee beans, a measuring cup, (and) a flashlight to see inside and watch the color of the roast. It’s a very simple process. Watch the coffee.

Q: What are you watching for?

A: Coffee starts off green, then yellow, cinnamon, then progressive stages of brown. If you’ve got a French roast, then black. Chocolaty brown is roughly where you see “first crack.”

Q: First crack?

A: The first crack is kind of the base of everything else. To use one of my favorite analogies, you are control-burning wood. It needs to expand to release pressure. When it expands, it (makes) this popping sound, a very audible, at times, crack — sounds like popping corn. What’s happening is the caramelization of sugars inside the bean. The bean is literally starting to cook. You hear a crack, and there’ll be this arc in flavor and caramelization.

Q: How long does that take?

A: Generally, five minutes for first crack with an air popper. Then two to four minutes to get to a roast. If you wanted something like a French roast, that would take much longer. What I’m working with generally takes eight to 10 minutes.

Q: Any disasters you’d care to share? Ever burned down, say, your kitchen?

A: I melted part of my air popper the very first time I was roasting. I had no idea what I was doing. The popper’s butter tray started to split in half. Turns out, if there’s a tiny little crack, it will expand, because you’re using this longer than an air popper is supposed to be on.

Q: But are the results Starbucks, er, Local 123 quality?

A: You roast at home, you can produce something that is really good.

via The Ultimate DIY: Roasting Your Own Coffee – San Jose Mercury News.