Hackers like coffee and apparently some coffee home roasters think of themselves as hackers (or so I read on a coffe roasting mailing list today). Unconvinced, I went to this page Hot Rod Home Coffee Roasters: The Spirit of Invention and I was immediately convinced, these coffee nuts are hackers!
For some people who roast their own coffee, off-the-shelf home coffee roasting appliances don’t cut it. Either they don’t offer enough control of the roast, are too expensive, or just don’t allow the roaster (uh, the person that is) to express themselves. The homemade or seriously modified commercial roasters on this page are alternately amusing and intimidating in appearance, but whatever the case, they probably work very well. And if they don’t, you can bet they will be reconfigured endlessly until they do by their respective owners. …