I used a West Bend Air Crazy popcorn popper that I grabbed from a Target down the street.
First batch was roasted on my work bench in the garage at 34 degrees F ambient temp and 38% humidity.
Roasted to just about 30 seconds past "first crack" (at exactly 4 minutes in) where the beans snap as they pop along their seam (the roast process has two distinct cracks depending on how long you roast).
Turned out pretty good. Fairly light roast which I like, but my gf doesn't. Next batch I'm going to attempt to go past second crack to get a really dark roast for her, but that will involve taking the popper apart and removing the thermostat and possibly the fuse as it currently regulates the internal temp and prevents to from getting hot enough to go to second crack in the proper amount of time, if at all.
The popper roasts about 1/2 cup at a time in 5-10 minutes, which is enough for about 3 cups of joe. The smell is amazing, but the roast process kicks out a ton of smoke and chaff which does not smell amazing. Definitely a good project for the porch or garage.
Edit Bean = Ethiopian Limu
No question. New roasts have to de-gas and realease CO2 for the first 12 hours, but 4-48 hours after the roast is when they are at their peak freshness for taste supposedly. I can tell you that the smell the next morning when I opened the container was insanely good. The difference in taste was huge compared to any random cup of joe, but I've been kind of buying super fresh high-end beans lately, so I'd say the taste, while different, was in league with what I've been drinking lately quality wise. While coffee up to 48 hours off the roast is the absolute peak in flavor and freshness, I swear some of that has to be placebo...a high quality bean expertly roasted that is a week and a half old is going to taste just as good I think. There might be a difference, but I'm not sure I could really tell. Edit: I think that you can't really exceed the quality of the artisanal roasters, -just match them at best. I think what home roasting brings to the table is that you can enjoy unprecedented variety that speciality roasters can't match. You can just buy small bags of any raw bean you want and go to town brewing beans that they don't carry.
Awesome ecib, I was just digging through some old posts and came across a comment of yours announcing your intentions to do this. Way to follow through. Good luck with the dark roast.
Thanks! It should be a pretty simple mod to the roaster to disable the thermostat to enable a really dark roast. The only thing I'll have to pay attention to is the speed I think. From what I've read, doing so can shrink the time to "second crack" from around 8 minutes to as short as 3. Also, the unit can go up in flames if left on too long and unattended. Good times.