HG/DB FAQ

What is HG/DB?

The acronym stands for Heat Gun/Dog Bowl.

Here's how one person roasts using the HGDB technique:

All the equipment I use including a storage box cost me about $35 new.

I use a stainless steel dog bowl that is about 8 inches across the top, 5.5 inches on the bottom, and 3 inches high. The bowl has a flat bottom, the side slopes slightly out and is a single thickness with a slight lip at the top. It is very stable and I've had no problems with it tipping or spilling beans.

I bought a wire mesh strainer that is also about 8 inches across and about 3 inches deep - it fits very nicely into the dog bowl. It has a handle made of a long loop of wire covered by a rubber grip so it never gets too hot to handle and I can simply lift it out of the bowl at the end of the roast to dump the beans.

I use a long (12 inch handle) wooden spoon to stir the beans. I don't need an oven mitt or any protection because my hands never get near anything hot.

My heat gun is a 1200 watt Wagner model 0503145 - nothing special, no heat or fan speed controls, just an on/off button.

I store everything in a Rubbermaid 2.4 gallon plastic container approximately 9x16x5 inches.

For cooling, I use a heavy cast iron pan which acts as a good heat sink.

My usual roast size is a cup of beans, but I have done as much as 2 cups at once. I feel I have more control over the roast with the smaller batch size as it's harder for me to keep all the beans roasting evenly with the larger batch. A bigger bowl and/or a higher powered heat gun may work better for larger batches, but I've never experimented with these.

To roast, I put a cup of beans into the wire mesh strainer, put the strainer in the dog bowl, and turn on the heat gun. The layer of beans is about an inch thick when I start. I stir the beans both in a circle and with a kind of folding motion to make sure they heat evenly. At this stage of the roast, I hold the gun about 1-2 inches from the bean mass (or just below the lip of the bowl) and generally don't move it around at all. Chaff starts flying off the beans almost immediately - since I roast outside, this is not a problem.

Once 1st crack gets going (the first pop is usually about 6-7 minutes into the roast), I pull the gun back a little further to 3-4 inches from the beans to slow the roast a bit. Since the beans almost double in size with 1st crack, the gun will be an inch or so above the dog bowl at this point. I continue stirring with the wooden spoon using the same circular and folding movements. Some beans pop so vigorously during 1st crack, that they jump out of the bowl - it helps to have asbestos fingers to pick up the escapees and put them back in. Even more chaff comes off at this stage, but by the time the roast approaches 2nd crack, most of the chaff is gone.

Because it's so easy to see the color of the beans, hear the cracks, smell the roast, and see the smoke, I have no trouble deciding when to stop. Most roasts take about 12-13 minutes total. When I get to the level of roast I want, I turn off the heat gun and set it down where it won't burn anything, then dump the beans into the cast iron pot and stir them around a bit to help them cool. They are usually comfortable to touch within a couple of minutes. Any remaining bits of chaff seem to stick to seasoning in the cast iron pan.

Can 1 pound at a time be roasted using the HG/DB method?

HG/DB Images