Posted Tue Feb 14, 2012, 11:38am Subject: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I am in the process of purchasing a small roaster to use at home and at a small cafe in the future. I am trying to go commercial but am unable to fine anything in the $1,000-$2,000 range. I would like to find something like the Sonofresco (Fluid bed roaster) but a drum roaster will do. Anything that can gove my good control of the roast.
Posted Tue Feb 14, 2012, 6:35pm Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I would think that, to serve the needs of a cafe, a five pound roaster would be more appropriate. A 5 pound capacity drum and a very nice stainless steel BBQ would cost less then the stated budget.
Posted Fri Feb 17, 2012, 12:06pm Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I have come to the conclusion that to be able to handle the needs of a cafe I should be spitting out at least 1 kilo of beans per batch. I am pretty much falling in love with the Sonofresco 2lb'er and It's only $3,500. The only down side is overall control of the roast. I am at the creative mercy of the presets cause I am not sure you can customize them. according to the site tho this machine is built for continous use and can roast 55lbs of coffee per day.
What do you guys think? For opening up a small coffee house.. Should I buy this?
Posted Fri Feb 17, 2012, 2:29pm Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I think two three things: 1 - you need to assess your coffee consumption in the cafe. Depending on sales, two pounds may be too much and a five-kilo roaster may not be enough. 2 - what is your time worth? If you end up with a two pound roaster, and need fifteen pounds a week, that's at least seven or eight batches. At 30 minutes each total, that is a good chunk of your day(s) off. Remember that you will be brewing as well as selling roasted coffee. 3 - look for a used two to five kilo roaster. Or, as I mentioned, a high-quality BBQ and stainless drum. It would at lest get you a start, and allow some steak, chicken, and burgers while roasting coffee when you get the roaster you need.
germantownrob Senior Member Joined: 2 Dec 2007 Posts: 2,013 Location: Philadelphia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Duetto 3, A Dead Oscar Grinder: Vario-W, Preciso w/Esatto,... Drip: Brazen Roaster: Diedrich IR-1, HT B
Posted Sat Feb 18, 2012, 6:09am Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I do suggest reading some reviews of the Sonofresco machines. Click Here (www.coffeegeek.com) a bing search will bring up many more. The few reviews I read once the ease of use wore off and the down time of repairs began people seem to change their minds.
I have a 1kg drum machine and I wouldn't dream of using it to produce beans to sell. If I work very efficiently with no distractions I can do 4kg per hour, 3 batches per hour is more realalistic since there is green bean handling and post roast bean care. So roasting straight for 8hrs and doing nothing else will produce 24kg minus 17% weight loss. That is a lot of roasting to return very little profit, a 2kg machine would double profits for the same amount of work and of course a 5kg machine would be 5 times the profit.
What little I read about the Sonofresco when it is working told me that the machine does not roast decaf well, chaffy beans needs extra work to remove the chaff, and it doesn't roast small beans very well. There is no control over the profile, I can see this being a good thing in a cafe environment since it leaves time to do something else for 15min but to produce 50lbs a day (minus 15-20% weight loss) you need to be right at the machine the second it was done cooling to get the next batch going.
germantownrob Senior Member Joined: 2 Dec 2007 Posts: 2,013 Location: Philadelphia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Duetto 3, A Dead Oscar Grinder: Vario-W, Preciso w/Esatto,... Drip: Brazen Roaster: Diedrich IR-1, HT B
Posted Sat Feb 18, 2012, 2:47pm Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
Reading through some of the CG reviews and something mentioned really bothered me. 30,000 btu's to roast one pound!? My drum machine full throttle is 8000 btu for an hour, so if this is correct then I can roast for almost 4hrs roasting double The volume as the one pounder in the review. The large air roasters I have seen built around here recycle some of the exhausted air which would cut down on consumption of the fuel. Moreshots built a 4-5lb drum roaster himself for $2k and his time, he has some video and photographs of the finished work, it is an awesome job.
Would you supply your own cafe for all of its bean needs? If so what are you going to do when repairs are needed? If you bought 2 then you are up and are over the price of an IR-2.5kg Diedrich. However if the machine was about ambiance and fresh roasted coffee smell plus you get to roast a bunch of coffee that could be very cool with the Sonofreco sitting in the cafe.
RichardCoffee Senior Member Joined: 2 Dec 2010 Posts: 96 Location: Long Beach Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: gaggia baby twin, mini... Grinder: fiorenzato pietro 63mm,... Roaster: weber grill with rk drum
Posted Sat Feb 18, 2012, 8:39pm Subject: Re: Looking for a good small roaster for home/small coffee shop
I have an RK drum in a Weber gas grill that's rated at 36000 BTU. So, I reckon that means if I had all 3 burners on full blast for an hour, I'd use 36000 BTU. But, I don't do that when roasting coffee. In fact, I often have the middle burner on low or sometimes even off for the duration of a roast. After 5 to 8 minutes I turn down the front burner to medium or further and at 1st crack I turn the front to low and often have to turn the back burner down to medium. And, typically I roast 3 pounds in around 15 minutes. It makes my head hurt to try to figure out how many btu's I'm using but I suspect it's a lot less than 30000/pound.
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