Coffee Roasting Course

[Merc]

Hie,

I am planning to attend some roasting courses available out there and found out bootcoffee and coffee lab international both provide the course. But I can't really make a decision on which one to attend. I hope someone who attended the classes at these schools can tell me their experience in these schools. Any suggestions and information about roasting coffee courses will be nice for me. Thanks

 

[ElPugDiablo]

How much roasting experience do you have now?

 

[Merc]

ElPugDiablo,

I am new to roasting coffee. I tried a few roasts before and they came out pretty nice but I don't think these experience is enough for me. That is why I am looking to take roasting course from the very beginning until advance.

 

[topher]

just out of curiosity..what do they charge for their classes?

 

[CafeBlue]

If you have no roasting experience or have only have limited "home roasting" experience, then IMO either Willem or Mane' can easily present you with more coffee roasting information and skills than you can learn during the course. :shock:

You did not furnish much of your background information or even the equipment you use or hope to roast with, also you do not mention goals for your knowledge/skills. I suggest you call Willem Boot and Mane' Alves and discuss your situation with each of them. Find out which facility uses equipment most like yours, to help maximize your learnings. Willem and Mane are both highly skilled trainers with diverse industry experience and years of specialty coffee roasting background.

Your roasting machine manufacturer may also offer some training workshops. Usually their courses are relatively basic and geared toward getting you capable operationally to begin roasting. You may also gain some valuable insight from Ken Davids' book about coffee roasting, before you take a course. The Roaster's Guild workshops at the SCAA convention and the RG retreat are also exceptional learning venues.

 

[ElPugDiablo]

topher, they charge about 1,500 for 3 - 5 days.

Merc, the reason I asked is because I agree with CafeBlue that if you have limited experience you probably will get overloaded with information and will not get the most for your money. I took Coffee Lab's course after I roasted for a year, and were frustrated when some of my roasts were not what I would like them to be. I had specific questions that I needed feedback on. I took my green beans there and Mane made suggestion as how I should roast them. It was a worthwhile short cut for me because it saved me a lot of trials and errors time. There were a few people who did not have any roasting experience there, and they were pretty lost. CafeBlue suggested other ways to get roasting knowledge that I think if you have not done any commercial roasting, are more cost effective for a beginner. However if you still think consulting them is the path you want to take, I would suggest you do it in a one on one setting, it will of course cost more, but you will have their undivided attention. One thing I suggest is you learn about green beans and cupping first.

 

[Merc]

CafeBlue
Thanks for your guide you mention above. Yup, just those little home roasting experience won't really help. I am currently using freashroast 8 and I can't say it is a nice product. But I am getting I-Roast 2 for a better start. My very first goal in roasting is to create a nice espresso blend (since I love espresso alot)

ElPugDiablo
I have a plan that if I successfully created nice blends, I may go into coffee roasting business. But of course that really take alot of time and bucks. As what you said, I am trying home roasting due to the lower cost. If everything work out, a better commercial roaster is what I need but that is still a long way to go. Yup, cupping and study more about green beans is a better start for me. One on one discussion with them will be the best choice. And I think at the moment, getting more experience with home roasting will be the best choice so that when I won't be flooded with too much information when taking their courses in the future.