Small batch coffee roaster and farmers market veteran opens up shop in Seaside.

Amelia Loftus likes housework – although she might define it a little differently than most people. She is an avid home brewer, winning awards for her beer and publishing the bookSustainable Homebrewing. She began roasting coffee at home, working with organic, ethically produced beans and selling at farmers markets.

Loftus still roasts coffee in small batches, only now she operates Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasters cafe in Watsonville. And she just opened a second location on Nov. 5 in the Press Club space (in the Weekly’s building) on Fremont Boulevard in Seaside.

Weekly: Coffee and beer? You take all the fun things.

Loftus: I can’t help it. I know coffee and beer very well. The first beer we’ll have here is a cooperation between my coffee and Corralitos Brewing Co. – a coffee, chocolate and coconut porter called C3PO. It’s delicious.

Do you have to be crazy to open a small business?

It’s definitely a particular kind of insanity. I’m a glutton for hard work, but that’s what it takes.

Roasting seems like a very particular skill to take on.

There’s a lot of precision. You have to get the measurements right, the temperature and the timing or it all goes wrong.

And when things go wrong…

When it goes wrong, it’s great compost.

Is coffee getting too trendy?

It’s almost comical how obsessive some of the third wave culture is. I went to the Specialty Coffee Association convention and volunteered to work the brew bar. It was the best thing ever – all the gadgets – but there was one barista who was driving me crazy. “Dude, you’re obsessing too much.” You take all the fun out of it.