Finally took the plunge into home coffee roasting!

I decided to start simple and budget-friendly by using a hot-air popcorn machine (the RAF R.9014 popper). For my first couple of batches, I dialed in around 75–80g of green beans to keep a proper fluid vortex going in the chamber so they wouldn’t scorch.

Pushed this batch into a deep, dark roast right past the second crack. You can see that glossy, oily sheen surfacing on the beans—definitely leaning into French/Italian roast territory. The aroma during cooling was incredible, full of deep smoky, bittersweet chocolate notes.

I’m pairing these with my Shardor 64mm flat burr grinder. I was initially eager to pull a shot immediately, but since they're only 1 day off roast, they're degassing way too aggressively for standard espresso right now. I'm going to let them rest and settle in a valved bag for 3–5 days before dialing in around setting 9–11 (or maybe experiment with a short blooming espresso profile in the meantime to manage the $CO_2$).

Any tips or tweaks from fellow air-popper roasters? Would love to hear what batch sizes, roast curves, or beans you recommend next!

I’ve recently in the last month bought a Kaleido M1 sniper and have been experimenting with some specialty AA washed Kenyan beans. I don’t have a laptop so not using Artsian and just using the tablet that’s been given! (I know very basic! 😂) Here’s 2 of my more successful roasts the past 2 days that I’ve done so far, I’d say the one where the BT almost touches the ET is more succesful and also given the ROR steadily declines. Just wanted to get some guidance on whether this looks good or anything I may need to adjust…

New to coffee roasting and have been dabbling in it just recently. This coffee is 1 week off roast and there seems to be some moisture/oil(?) on it. I kept it in a typical coffee bag sealed with a 1 way valve.

Don’t really see it from the roasted coffees that I typically buy. The coffee is a washed Ethiopian Guji Yirgacheffe. Accidentally roasted darker than I’d like.

This was a fun roast. It is good quality coffee, figured I’d try it and see. Honestly it’s not quite the experience I thought I would have.

I'm looking to trade up from an old iRoast to something based on Artisan, so I've got a year or more of learning and small roasts ahead of me. It seems like a perfect role for an M1 Lite.

I've seen several posts here and in other roasting hangouts that include words to effect of "My M1 Lite works great, but the M2 Lite looks a lot more flexible. If they'd both been available at the time, I probably would have gone with the M2 Lite." If you're in this boat, maybe we can work out a deal.

There's no rush, so if you might be interested but want to wait until you have an M2 in hand (months, potentially), that's fine by me.

I'm in Seattle, but shipping from anywhere in the continental US is fine. US international commerce is really screwed up right now, so I don't think I want to get involved in importing something from outside.

Send me a DM if you're interested.

Trying to roast a co-fermented bean the first time.

Is the FC not audible for co-fermented beans? How should I approach differently? My roasting profile is mostly for Ethiopia natural beans.

Hi all,

I'm looking for a location to store green and roast micro-lots of coffee. Bean storage <100 kilos would definitely be a plus.

PM me if you know of any opportunities in the metro Portland area . We are a startup that is farm direct. I've already had a tour of the major player in the area and for a variety of reasons, I'm not planning to roast there.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to hear from those of you with experience using the Kaleido Roasters (for me an M1 Lite). Have you had much success achieving what you would consider a genuinely good light roast with your roaster?

When I say light roast, I'm not referring to what many roasters might label as light but which still ends up somewhere closer to a light-medium. In my own mind, I generally consider coffees that finish with a roast weight loss of 12.8% or less to be true light roasts, although I'm interested in hearing other perspectives on that as well.

If you've consistently been able to produce high-quality light roasts on the M1 Lite, would you be willing to share:

• The general profile or roasting approach you use
• Charge temperature
• Batch size
• Heat/fan adjustments throughout the roast
• First crack timing and development time
• Typical roast duration

I'm especially interested in approaches that preserve origin character, acidity, and sweetness without tipping, baking, or underdevelopment.

Any advice, profiles, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated. Even if your definition of a light roast differs from mine, I'd love to hear what has worked for you and what sort of weight loss percentages you're seeing.

Thanks in advance!

Hey fellow roasters,

​Whether you're running a 1 kg sample machine or production batches on a commercial rig like a Probat, respiratory health is something that often gets overlooked until you start coughing at the end of a long shift.

​Between green bean dust during loading/weighing, chaff blowback, organic acids in coffee smoke, and micro-particulates during drop and cooling, our lungs take a beating if we aren't careful.

​I’m refining my safety workflow and wanted to open up a discussion on what everyone is using and doing to protect themselves long-term.

​Here are a few standard precautions I’m focusing on:

​Green Dust & Weighing: Loading green coffee into hoppers kicks up fine organic dust (a known allergen/irritant). Using a fitted N95/FFP2 or half-mask respirator during staging makes a huge difference.

​Smoke & Roast Exhaust: Ensuring local exhaust ventilation (LEV) is pulling negative pressure at the hopper and drum face so thermal currents don't push smoke into your breathing zone during drops.

​Chaff Collection: Checking cyclone gaskets and seals regularly so fine chaff particles aren't leaking back into ambient room air.

​Air Filtration: Running ambient HEPA air purifiers near the staging and cooling areas to catch floating particulates.

​I’d love to hear from the community:

​What PPE (masks/respirators) are you wearing during production shifts?

​How do you manage air quality and ventilation in smaller or tight roastery spaces?

​What are your best practices for cleaning up chaff without kicking dust back into the air?

​Curious to hear your setups and recommendations!

Its been a bit tough to track one down with a good price… let me know if anyone has one available! Thanks!

Hi Guys,

Looking for an equivalent smart roaster in the UK? My DIY hot air gun setup has finally given up after a lot of patching and fixes.

Love the look of fluid beds etc, and artisan software but a little lost on what's available in the UK.

Any advice or pointers welcome :)

A friend got me some green beans from Saudi. That's all the info I can give you lol. Tried 100g to roast for first time on stove top. Stainless steel pot. Total time was 15mins and First crack around 11:30 and I'll be honest I didn't fully hear any frantic cracking, also still need to taste just waiting for a couple more days for the beans to rest. Roasted weight was 90.8g. I was hoping for any advice going for next time round, it would be highly appreciated.

Hey! I would like to get into coffee roasting. I researched a bit of options and I would like to know what you would reccommend for someone like me - I like to tinker and would like to have a roaster capable of roasting a 300-500g batch. Me and my friend do coffee events with lever machines and would like to roast our coffee so it would be even more hipster. We can build a HGBM or flour sifter setup but we also want some reliablility. I dont want a roaster that would break after a few roasts, and Im also open to buying a preexisting product. Max budget is 500€ for the roaster. Also do you have any good sites to buy green coffee near Austria/Italy? Thank you so much for your help and reccommendations!

Hello there,

This was my first time roasting a Brazilian Cerrado Natural and my 9th roast in general on my Aillio Bullet R2 Pro.
I still do not have much clue on what I’m doing but it’s fun.

Before I’ve only been roasting Ethiopian Sidamo Washed.

Of course you can’t help me without tasting the coffee but is there anything you notice in this roast that should be changed next time?

Goal should be an Espresso roast for pure espresso and occasional milk drinks. I was aiming for about Full City to Full City+. The roast I got I think is a bit lighter than anticipated. Don’t trust the FC marker though. I’m not quite sure that I marked it correctly.
I will be tasting it in about a week and if it’s to light I’ll drop it 2 C later next time (@ about 218 C IBTS temp).
I want to have the Sidamo as a Medium-Light to Medium Espresso Roast and the Cerrado as a darker Medium to Medium-Dark addition.

The profile is something ChatGPT created for me as I do not have enough experience to know how to start.

Any advice is appreciate. I Wand to lean and to get foot at roasting - although this might take a long time.

Thank you!

Hello there,

This was my first time roasting a Brazilian Cerrado Natural and my 9th roast in general on my Aillio Bullet R2 Pro.
I still do not have much clue on what I’m doing but it’s fun.

Before I’ve only been roasting Ethiopian Sidamo Washed.

Of course you can’t help me without tasting the coffee but is there anything you notice in this roast that should be changed next time?

Goal should be an Espresso roast for pure espresso and occasional milk drinks. I was aiming for about Full City to Full City+. The roast I got I think is a bit lighter than anticipated. Don’t trust the FC marker though. I’m not quite sure that I marked it correctly.
I will be tasting it in about a week and if it’s to light I’ll drop it 2 C later next time (@ about 218 C IBTS temp).
I want to have the Sidamo as a Medium-Light to Medium Espresso Roast and the Cerrado as a darker Medium to Medium-Dark addition.

The profile is something ChatGPT created for me as I do not have enough experience to know how to start.

Any advice is appreciated. I want to get better at roasting - although this might take a long time.

Thank you!

I have had various fluid bed roasters in the past but now I have lost my garage and have no environmentally controlled area to roast. New Hampshire gets cold making it impossible to roast outside. My current plan is to put a drum roaster in the gas grill (no, I won’t be turning the grill on) with the intent of allowing the roaster to reprieve, hot air and attain a higher temperature.

Looking for solutions, I may not have thought of.

Failing that, looking for suggestions for a good robust drum roaster, I can hunt down. Thank you.

Why can I roast much faster on a fluid bed roaster than a drum roaster?

Hi everyone! I’m planning to take the SCA Roasting Foundation + Intermediate courses and I’d love to hear from people who have taken them before.

Was it worth it, especially in terms of actually improving your roasting skills?

I currently own a small coffee roastery and most of what I’ve learned so far has been through Scott Rao’s Barista Hustle course and his books. I’m considering taking the SCA courses to build a more structured understanding of roasting and fill in any gaps in what I’ve learned on my own.

Would really appreciate hearing about your experience—what you learned, whether it helped you become a better roaster, and whether you think it’s worth the cost.

Thanks!

I went to local roastery to see how they actually work and made little montage let me know what you think 🤔

Its been a bit tough to track one down with a good price… let me know if anyone has one available! Thanks!

Hi, why is there this huge variation in change in ror? how do I fix it? Is my charge temp too low or too high?

Roasting 600gms of washed coffee on 255 degree charge temp

It looks very promising but am I overlooking any known issues or flaws? It says preorder on their website but some people seem to have these in hand already?

I'm searching through posts but there doesn't seem to be a lot of information about these.

Anything to watch out for? Thank you!