Any advice on coffee MIXING equipment?

[expat]

Let's say I roast 100kg of Ethiopian Sidamo (that's 10 roasts for me) and I've got about 85kg after roasting (these are all singles by the way, no blends). Then I'll mix all this coffee together because we roast each roast to a slightly different level, the levels the bean likes the best, and we mix all that together into one big melange. This is a very laborious process. Basically you set out 10 empty bins, pour about 1/10 of each full bin into the empty bins and keep repeating until you've got 10 layers of subtly different roasts in one bin. Then you dump that bin into your cold coffee roaster and mix it in there.

If you're making a blend -- like Ethiopian and Sumatra -- then you have to do it all again with your melanged Sids and Sumatrans.

But it has gotten to where we're roasting all the time and I've got another roaster coming and it looks like that'll be roasting most of the time as well. (Covid is making us crazy!)

So bottom line the mixing has become my biggest bottleneck.

I've thouht of a concrete mixer for this task. But they aren't food grade. And when the health department comes to inspect I don't think they'd be happy with me. And most important The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress has not given it her seal of approval. Oh, and they're probably too small too. I'd like one with say a 300 to 500 litre capacity.

This takes me to stainless steel mixers but there are all kinds of them out there with all types of different mixing paddles and ways of mixing. There are screw mixers, paddle mixers, ribbon mixers, gravity mixers, tumble mixers, and the list goes on. I want the mixing process that's gentle on my beans and won't beat them up. I want my buyers to get beans, not crumbs.

So can I get any guidance/insights from you folks that have come to this crossroads in their coffee roasting career?

 

[Musicphan]

You are on the right track.. you need a food grade drum mixer like:

https://www.kushlanproducts.com/multi-purpose-mixer.html

 

[topher]

Musicphan is right. Kushlan mixers are the best. Ive used them since day one. My last place had 10 of them. Never had an issue the 10 years I ran them. When I started at brooklyn water bagel I bought a new one. It lasted a little over 10 years. I just replaced it with a new one and they have made some small changes for the better. I use it for flavoring coffee. We do 40 lb batches in it. I definitely recommend this brand. Lol. I called them once with a question and Mr Kushlan answered the phone. I said wow...you answer your own phone? He laughed and said someone had to.

 

[daviding]

Kushlan mixers are great product! We use it for food manufacturing. Yes, you definitely need to get a bungee to keep the lid on and set up was a little tricky but otherwise it is an amazing product and we are really happy with it.

 

[expat]

Thanks for all the feedback. Looks like Kushlan wins 100% of the time. I'll call them. Hopefully they have a European distributor.