Getting Started in Home Roasting

I remember the day a good friend of mine told me that I could roast coffee at home, my thoughts initially were, "wow that's cool, for people who either are insomniacs or who have plenty of time on their hands." I have always been in to coffee, mostly in trying to make the perfect cup at home, I was interested in the art of brewing and of tasting but always thought that roasting was done in factories by technicians, after all I have never seen or heard of anyone toiling in home roasting. Who knows what to do let alone where to get raw coffee, it all just seemed way too esoteric and I didn't have time.
After a few weeks of enduring a little whisper in the back of my mind, like a little devil on my shoulder saying roast, roast, roast....I gave in and consulted my local library to find out more. Well in this modern day I consulted the Internet, I mean I love the library but what can't you find on the web. A search for "home coffee roasting" turned up everything I ever wanted to know, including getting hipped to a little book by Kenneth Davids called "Home Roasting, Romance and Revival" or better known as the bible of home roasting. I went out the next day and bought it at Borders, I couldn't believe they had it, right there in the cooking section, nestled between One Pot Creations and the New Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade masterpiece. Anyways, that was my first start and a necessity for anyone interested in burning some beans. The book has everything, from a concise breakdown of single origin coffees, a great history of roasting and a thorough survey of all the methods spanning the most rudimentary to the wildly elaborate.

Where did I start:

I started out buying a iRoast because I found a store online that had a set-up to purchase the machine and they included 3 pounds of greenies with it. I figured what the heck, the research I found on the iRoast was that it was a foolproof way of getting started in the whole operation. I admit I went the easy way, machines are nice but in retrospect I maybe should have started with one of the more hands on method, I quickly became bored with the fact that I didn't really want automation, the machine was loud and I could see the transformation and do a smidge of programing but for someone who was totally new to the process the iRoast method of roasting was hard to understand, I needed something more linear that could teach me about the actual process. With that said, the iRoast was great, the pre-programed modes produced great coffee and you do have some control, but I wanted to really learn about the process. So I say with that, the iRoast or i believe the iRoast2 now is great for an automated roasting machine, it produces great roasts but less control. I have seen modifications of the machine with a thermo-probe to chart chamber temperatures which could prove to be really cool, so if you go the iRoast route don't hesitate to research that.
I kept that machine for about six months when I traded up to the HotTop drum roaster, more capacity, more linear roasting, a better learning tool I thought. And I loved it, used it for a long long time, still use it for sampling sometimes.
I have since moved on to a Deidrich IR-12 and to a full fledged roasting operation ( a bit extreme I know, but once I get on to something, I'm crazy, I love doing it and am so glad I found this) but I have been researching the whirly-pop set up for stove top home roasting, I love the idea and plan to, in the next few weeks, purchase and modify my own of which I will document and share with everyone. The whirly-pop is the popcorn popper that is a pan with a rudder on the inside that is turned via a crank on the handle, it's main function is to constantly move the popcorn kernels as the heat up and pop, its the same principle as roasting, keep the beans moving in a closed chamber as they are slowly heated. You can modify it with a thermometer as to chart the roast. It all sounds very cool and a great grass roots way to roast at home.