Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Are any of you into roasting your own? Or brewing with coffee?

I have read about it and I am interested.  I saw you can even use a popcorn popper to do it (though I know little more than that).  Any good local sources for green coffee beans?

I've thought about asking the Roast Master at Shenandoah Joe's but I've been extremely pleased with Sweet Maria's out of Oakland CA. The   couple that runs the business are true coffee geeks at heart, and really nice people to boot. Their selection is top-notch and each is individually cupped, rated, described to a tee, and above all taste phenomenal. Shipping tends to add up, but for me, there's no substitute. They've got the freshest crop, and lots of Cup of Excellence winners.

I roast in a Hearthware I-Roast 2 which is basically a digitally controlled hot air popper. They sell Whirly Pops and give great instructions on their website. (www.sweetmarias.com)

Sample day in the life: Coffee, Water, Coffee, Seltzer, Start thinking about beer, Water, Beer, Beer, Beer. Repeat the next day.

That is so weird that you bring this up.  I have a buddy who roasts his own beans, and I have really been wanting to get into it. 

He goes through: http://thecaptainscoffee.com/

I was thinking about getting the iRoast2.  Seems, though, that it might take a long long time to roast up a lot.  It doesn't hold much.  I don't want to be spending my weekends roasting little batches of coffee when I could be brewing beer.  LOL

What's your take on that?

I've had the iRoast 2 for about 2 1/2 years or so. It does a great job and I roast and cool most batches in under 14 minutes. I've been pleased with it but its super noisy and its maximum green capacity tops out a 160 grams which correlates to around .35lb. That's more than the Hearthware folks recommend but its done just fine. I recommend roasting under the range hood and venting it all out. If you want the shell out more loot try a Gene Cafe, Hottop, or Behmor--or just get a Whirly Pop and wing it.

If anyone wants to check out a roasting session just let me know. Its pretty simple once you get the hang of it. I often let my circus monkey roast a few batches when she's not organ-grinding on the downtown mall. Yes, I really did see a bell-hop monkey with a wacky organ grinder guy on the DT mall.

That sounds a little freaky.  Kind of like the beginning of Phantom of the Opera.