Weight of Green Coffee Sack

[ScooterDog]

I just picked up my first 70 kg sack of green coffee. I will be roasting in 10 lb batches at the local farmer's market. I broke it out in 10 lb bags to speed things up when I am at the market. My question concerning the weight is that 70 kg should be 154ish lbs, but I only weighed out 150.25. My scale was certified by the state just a week ago and they said it was right on. I'm not really concerned too much, but I am an accountant by day and I like things to tie out. Is this typical?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[namballe]

have you contacted your vendor about the weight difference? there's a difference of 4 lbs. there.

 

[sae]

my guess is they would account for those 4 lbs missing by saying it's due to moisture content leaving the beans. What's your moisture content now?

 

[N3Roaster]

It is normal for invoiced weights to be a little bit different from what you actually get out of the bag and it's also common for invoiced weights to be a little different from the bag markings. Before becoming too concerned it's best to double check against documents. As you buy more sacks some will be a little over, some will be a little under. It will almost never be exact to the gram. Contracts are generally written such that you're expecting delivered weights within a half percent, but that's not the same situation as picking up a single sack on the spot market. You're not getting the benefit of variations averaging out over the lot.

The difference that you're describing for a single bag is high, but it's not surprising. It's possible that at some point there was damage to the bag and some coffee fell out. It's possible that coffee was pulled from that bag for samples. Some members of the supply chain are more accurate than others when it comes to filling the bags or tracking loss in transit. A little bit of that might also be that coffee is not some static, unchanging thing. The weight will change over time depending on storage conditions.