Kbeans
New member
Is it a good idea for coffee to be roasted in a garage that is not climate controlled? I live close to Virginia Beach. Thank you for any information.
Roasting locations
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peterjschmidt
Active member
If your roaster has enough 'oomph' for the cooler temps, then it won't matter too much. Storing green coffee is where the climate-controlled environment becomes more important; no big temp or humidity swings, or just plain high humidity.
expat
New member
My non-climate controlled roastery is in a tightly build, very dry, one car garage, which is in Ireland, which is in County Galway, where it rains at least every other day. This time of year it is not unusual at all to have rain/sun/hail/sun/rain/downpour/sun/hail all in one day. In summer we'll hit, on a rare day, 30C. In winter we might get -5C but that would be unusual. Snow is rare (certainly nothing like when I lived in New Hampshire).
We roast on a 10kg propane fueled drum machine. We've had no issues with the vagaries of the climate. Where we set our bags of beans we stand them on a pallet so they are not sitting right on the concrete floor.
We roast on a 10kg propane fueled drum machine. We've had no issues with the vagaries of the climate. Where we set our bags of beans we stand them on a pallet so they are not sitting right on the concrete floor.
Kbeans
New member
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We do have moderate swings in temperature and humidity around here. I am going to be purchasing a 10 kg propane roaster here pretty soon. I have a pretty large garage (30x 45ft) that I was thinking about framing in a smaller room, insulating and installing a window air unit to help keep the room at a stable temperature and humidity. I can always open the garage door on nice days as well. Thank you for your help.
Bardo
New member
How will you vent your roaster? I am getting ready to convert part of my garage into a space for roasting with a bbq grill roaster. My current plan is to roll the roster to the open garage door and have a standing fan blowing out of the garage.
redlandroaster
New member
Roasting in garage all year long
This is a Torrefattore from 2005. It is electric, three element-1650 watts, and I roasted today in 22 degrees F today. No problems.
This is a Torrefattore from 2005. It is electric, three element-1650 watts, and I roasted today in 22 degrees F today. No problems.
LBBeans
New member
This is a good idea and is what we did in our shop. Cheaper to control the temp and humidity of a small room than a large one.
LBBeans
New member
My shop is about 750sf. including the storage room which is about 120sf. It's plenty big enough for my operation. I've visited roasters who do much bigger volume than mine in similar sized spaces.
I live in a very mild climate which rarely sees temperatures below freezing but we do get a lot of rain. I just use a space heater to keep the green beans above 10C in the winter. The rest of the year I either open or close the doors of the bean room depending on the temperature and humidity. It's rare that we see days above 24C in the summer so I don't have too much trouble controlling the temps.
I live in a very mild climate which rarely sees temperatures below freezing but we do get a lot of rain. I just use a space heater to keep the green beans above 10C in the winter. The rest of the year I either open or close the doors of the bean room depending on the temperature and humidity. It's rare that we see days above 24C in the summer so I don't have too much trouble controlling the temps.
CoffeeLovers
New member
Yea, it is a good idea if you can have a room enough that humidity and temperature can be easily controlled. Temperature is very important in roasting and the better if you have control.
