My batches are small, about two handfuls of green beans, to fill that little skillet one bean deep wall-to-wall. This is about right for my little Mr. Coffee, or for one attempt at the french press plus one "pour over" with the funnel.
I have roasted three batches of the Ethiopian Harrar with quite limited success. I think the first batch might have been the least disappointing -- perhaps more because, the more I try, the clearer it becomes that I was lucky not to have produced an abysmal failure on that first go, than because it was the most successful. The second roast did not have much color or flavor, but tasted like coffee and did seem to make quite a bit of caffeine available. Third: more color, better flavor, little body. In all it tasted like good beans just haven't been perfectly prepared.
Which is probably accurate. It was at that point, noticing each of the varieties of beans had ideal roast instructions, that I decided to try some of the different regions. Ideally, this would spread the learning curve -- and thus the volume of good beans not excellently prepared -- across the varieties, rather than taking the toll only from the Ethiopian. Also, the varying projected roasts and flavor spectra might yield palatable results at my current position on that curve.
I went with the Columbia Sierra Nevada, for no reason more than that it came to hand, and have made two attempts. Neither has been great, neither has been terrible. On both occasions the resulting coffee both looked and tasted like coffee. But it did not taste like really good coffee. I ran the most recent roast through the Mr. Coffee with acceptable results, but when I ran more water through the wet grounds it made something just like coffee. An embarassing, belated success. (As an aside, although I haven't used the roaster's log in the book, I did time the most recent roast, trying to note "first crack" and other particularities; maybe that'll be useful anon.)
Of course there are some additional variables downstream from the roast that may be affecting the outcome. Grind and brewing technique are foremost, though I am pretty familiar with navigating these with commercially-sourced already-roast beans. Still, I've never brewed beans I also roast before, and some commercially-sourced beans do take a little getting used to. If that is true of these beans, it will be hard develop the right roast because my production is so low.
Another result of the low production runs is that I am quite likely not allowing the beans to rest enough. Because each batch is only enough for a limited serving, I tend to want to grind and brew the beans as soon as they're cool, rather than waiting the requisite four to twelve hours.
So, I think that is my goal: to make three or more batches at a time and try to let the roasted beans rest some. It would also be pleasant to build up a little bit of a stockpile. I think I'll go try to do that now.
This is not low maintenance. But it is fun and interesting.
(It'll be more fun when I can reliably produce at-least-palatable coffee)