Owner`s manual

Roasting decaffeinated coffee is more difﬁcult than roasting “regular” coffee. The decaffeination

process makes the color of the beans more difﬁcult to discern and the cracks occur in much reduced num

bers. For this reason, we highly recommend learning to roast with “regular” coffee before attempting to

roast decaf.

Bean Cleaning

When the roast is over, and the beans are sitting in the cooling tray, you may notice that some stray

chaff is left on the beans. This is normal. Some coffee grinders don’t control static electricity well and the

leftover chaff can add to the mess. Also, some people just don’t like the looks of the chaff in their beans.

An effective tool to remove most of the stray chaff is a pasta strainer or colander. Manually agitating the

beans in one of these allows the chaff and small bits of beans to fall away leaving clean coffee. To protect

your grinder, while agitating the beans it is recommended to watch for small rocks and other foreign mat-

ter that is sometimes found in green coffee. Remove and discard these.

When Is It Ready to Drink?

Depending on the beans, the roast level, the brewing method you use, and your personal tastes, some

beans are best after they are allowed to “rest” for a day or two before use. Their taste develops and changes

in this ﬁrst day or two after roasting. For espresso this can be very important. For other methods of brew-

ing it may not be so. How do you know? Experiment! Only you know what tastes best to you! Roast a batch

of Colombian to about thirty seconds after ﬁrst crack ends and use it right away, and for the next few days.

Your palate will soon begin to show you what you like.

How to Taste-Test Coffee

An excellent method for tasting coffee is the way you normally drink it, but coffee experts “cup” the

coffee. This is an art in itself, but you can get a good idea about the coffee by doing it at home. You will

need a source of quality water, a kettle in which to boil it, an eight ounce, heat-resistant cup with a wide

opening and straight sides, and a deep tablespoon. Take the coffee right from the roaster after it has cooled,

grind some in your grinder, and put a coffee-measure full into the cup. After the water just reaches boil,

take the water off the heat source and count about ten seconds, then pour about 6 ounces of water into the

cup. Allow the coffee to soak for a bit, then break the “crust” with the spoon and inhale the aroma through

your nose, long and deep. The aroma of brewing coffee tells a lot about how it will taste.

Now, ﬁll your spoon with coffee (avoiding the grounds as much as is possible). Now, the trick is to

“slurp” the coffee into your mouth so that it sprays the spoonful into all parts of your mouth all at once.

CAUTION: Be very careful when trying to do very dark roasts.

Second crack marks a time when you have to be especially attentive. The

darker you roast, the faster the roasting progresses, and when second crack has

started, things can happen very quickly, and sometimes they are not good things.

When roasting dark it is important to be ready with a ﬁnger near the “Eject” but-

ton to end the roast manually at a moment’s notice.

WARNING: If you start to see a lot of oil on the beans during the

roast, if the sounds of second crack begin to slow after peak activity, or

if the smoke begins to dramatically increase, immediately end the roast

by hitting the “Eject” button. These are warning signs that the coffee is

reaching a dangerous point. If you allow the roast to go much further it

could burn the beans in the roaster or the beans can even catch ﬁre! As

you get more accomplished at roasting coffee using the Hottop Cof-

fee Roaster you will be able to dark-roast if that is your taste preference.