My only thought is that there used to be a small local coffee shop that roasted their coffee near my neighborhood, and the smell near their facility was more of a "burnt" smell, and not so much a nice "roasty coffee" smell. Your home coffee roasts might smell different, but I think if it has a burnt smell, it will probably have that taste. I think you should put some of those beans in a foil boat and give it a try though. Some inexpensive beef maybe. My concern is that the smoke coming off the beans might be nice for a while, but once the beans get to the point of being burnt, that's going to be some bad smoke, and there is no way to know exactly when that point happens, and make it stop. Tea is commonly used for smoking, along with things like star anise, orange peel, and herbs like rosemary, etc. So there are a lot of interesting aromatics to experiment with (that should be wrapped in foil). I don't know if many people here have experimented with aromatics. I'm pretty happy with just wood, but I have been known to throw rosemary branches and orange peel on the coals when I used to use the Weber Smokey Mountain. Don't remember ever noticing a big difference though, but it would probably be more pronounced with the SI.
