Oven Home Coffee Roasting

You can roast coffee in an oven. Gas ovens give better more even roasting results than electric ovens. A gas oven can produce Full City to French roasts. All ovens produce uneven roasts, which can actually add to the complexity of coffee flavor, but plain electric ovens will roast too unevenly. You will need a stainless steel wire mesh colander (preferable) or a perforated pan. You will also need a big spoon, a metal colander for cooling, and oven mitts.

• Have all your supplies within reach.
• For perforated pan or wire mesh collander spread beans evenly one layer deep, close together.
• Preheat oven to 260 C degrees. Use an oven thermometer if you have one.
• Place beans on middle shelf.
• Wait about 5-7 minutes for the "first crack", then a couple of minutes more to start checking for color. Open the oven quickly if you must!
• Oven roasting is slower than other methods, but if it takes more than 20 minutes it will taste flat.
• If you're using a mesh collander, I recommend opening the oven every 1 minute and stirring the beans. Do it quickly and don't let too much heat escape!
• Once the beans are roasted to your preferred level, put on the oven mitts, and dump the beans quickly into the collander. Pour the beans out when they are a bit lighter than the color you desire, since roasting continues until beans are cool.
• Cool the beans by shaking, stirring, and blowing air. You can even use a small air fan!
• Coffee should be stored out of direct light (and not in a fridge or freezer) in an airtight glass jar. Wait at least 2 hours to seal the jar tightly because it needs to degas C02 first.