Dan Unless you are roasting for a lot of friends and family, you are not buying in the bulk that allows access to the variety available to professional roasters. This means one can’t get through the bulk to really identify and roast the best stuff. I bought 5 kg of beans I don’t like and have been slowly getting through it for months. Professional don’t have this problem.
Linked to this, the best roasters seem to have links to farms or coffee exchanges that give them access to even higher quality beans than those available to those without industry links.
Most high quality roasters use sorting machines to remove inconsistent beans. I read on HB that Prodigal reject around 20% of every batch. This makes a huge difference and not really feasible in the home environment. Unless of course one picks beans out by hand…
This all together means even if you are the best roaster out there, it still comes up short. Fortunately for me, I enjoy the process and still make nice coffee, so will continue to roast even if I never reach the heights of some of the best out there.
I think you are making some assumptions that may or may not be true, and can vary depending on what you do and what you compare to. As with any DIY, the result compared to professional work depends on the levels of a specific DIYer and a specific professional.
Your 1 and 2 points focus on sourcing quality raw materials. You assume that the pros have access to beans that are not available to the home roaster, and that this means they start with ‘better’ beans. I’m not sure this is true. Depending on where you buy, you can get coffee from the same sources that many roasters buy from and get the same beans (I think). Sure, you will pay a little more for splitting the bulk purchase, but I don’t think a home roaster necessarily can’t get the same quality of beans as a pro.
As for point 3 – I have no clue.
It is clear that professional roasters will usually use commercial equipment and hopefully have more knowledge and skill than the DIYer, but does that mean the DIYer cannot get results that are as good (or better) for themselves? Maybe, but I’m not sure about that.
The best way to find out for yourself is to buy some coffee from professional roasters, then compare it to your own. If you think that for your taste the professional coffee is consistently better than yours – then you have your answer.
Personally, I took an 18-month break from roasting to buy from roasters. My conclusion was that I prefer to keep roasting, so that is the answer for me.
