Urgent roaster help please

[Brewsbroscafe]

There are lots of quality roasting companies around. Why not skip the roasting your self and purchasing beans? When buying from a roaster you will get a much more constant product and it will more than likely be less money as roasters buy beans in large quantities. Also you will not have to worry about running out of green bean and have to rush around and roast. Additionally roasting coffe is not just buying a roaster and tossing some bean in the drum for 10 minutes. There is a learning process for roasting that does not happen over night. If you open and your coffee is not right from the beginning it will be hard to win back unsatisfied customers.

Having a in store roaster is a great addition to any retail locate but is not always practical. The most profit in coffee is selling the brewed coffee not the roasting. This information hopefully will help you look at your operation and deter mend what is best since every situation is different.

Thank you for the advise. As I've said in my OP, we've been planning and researching our business for nearly 4 years including 4 Coffee Fest trips and even a week long research trip to Seattle. We originally were gonna go with a Roaster company but they were charging too much. We went elsewhere to another Roaster company, but had to leave them as well as they did not allow us to sell ecommerce. We actually fell into Roasting ourselves by accident. The reason why we are roasting and not buying roasted beans is that we found a passion for roasting coffee and have never tasted a better cup of Artisan Coffee than the beans that we roast. We truly believe we have something special here in our product. It also helps that our Green Coffee importer is located 1/4 of a mile from our location.

 

[slurp]

put a roaster in the shop for show and purchase roasted beans from a professional roaster, you will be much happier and swill your customers.

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

put a roaster in the shop for show and purchase roasted beans from a professional roaster, you will be much happier and swill your customers.[/QUOTE

I have to disagree with you, respectively of course. Were no master roasters yet but we've had nearly 2 years experience of roasting coffee ourselves and have had a rising fan following including 2 restaurants and even an FDNY firehouse, each anxiously wanting our beans at their establishments

 

[topher]

If you are going to do it...do it right. Smallest roaster I suggest is a 5 kilo. Yes you can go with a 2 kilo but you will out grow it. If you do not out grow a 2 kilo why even roast. With a 2 kilo you can produce just under 9 lbs an hour. Personally that doesn't sound like a lot to me. I know everyone here is going to argue with my math...but 2.5 batches an hour and you can never do a full size batch. I came up with 2.5 batches an hour because you need to factor in set up and break down. Also if you are going to roast all day you will need to shut it down after a few batches to clean out the chaff...so 2.5 batches an hour. Another thing is buying power. If you are going to roast you need green. The broker 1/4 mile down the road is nice but you are still looking at 60 kilo bags per origin. That starts to add up. I am not trying to be a negative Nate but it will be expensive to get in the game and do it right. Keep us posted on what you do..I wish you the best and let us know if we can answer any questions.

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

If you are going to do it...do it right. Smallest roaster I suggest is a 5 kilo. Yes you can go with a 2 kilo but you will out grow it. If you do not out grow a 2 kilo why even roast. With a 2 kilo you can produce just under 9 lbs an hour. Personally that doesn't sound like a lot to me. I know everyone here is going to argue with my math...but 2.5 batches an hour and you can never do a full size batch. I came up with 2.5 batches an hour because you need to factor in set up and break down. Also if you are going to roast all day you will need to shut it down after a few batches to clean out the chaff...so 2.5 batches an hour. Another thing is buying power. If you are going to roast you need green. The broker 1/4 mile down the road is nice but you are still looking at 60 kilo bags per origin. That starts to add up. I am not trying to be a negative Nate but it will be expensive to get in the game and do it right. Keep us posted on what you do..I wish you the best and let us know if we can answer any questions.

Thank You. We want to go with a 2 LB or 1 LB to start because we have limited counter space in the Kiosk and are approved to roast on site at the cafe, we wouldn't have room for anything larger. (we have an office onsite where we can storage our products). I guess the theme of our business currently, is just having to make things work with the tools we're given. We have plans to upgrade to the 5 LB but only after the business is in the clear (start up costs are ranging towards $80,000). That would also mean adding an additional roasting location that could accommodate such a roaster and the orders that follow. I guess what I'm trying to say is that both myself and my business partner/friend want this business to work. We both are choosing to leave promising careers with our employers, in the chances of living self sustaining freedom with the possibility of having an ounce of free-time, as we are prepared for the work-load. We have to be; as of now we are the only employees, and I'm sure are going to be quite over-worked, but its worth the risk in my eyes.
Since we are so close to our importer, they are willing to custom order for us and even let us store in their warehouse. The close proximity will clearly save us in transportation costs which is a big reason why we chose to leave certain Roasters in Brooklyn, NYC (not to name drop).

We are still looking for a good 1 LB or 2 LB Fully Electric Commercial Roaster if anyone else has any ideas, please do share. We found a possible lead with Mill City Roasters but time will tell. Thanks

 

[JumpinJakJava]

You might want to contact Len. He is a member here. Electric roasters.
Coffee Roaster - Coffee Roasters Club | Hand Made In The U.S.A. Coffee Roasters

 

[slurp]

I have to disagree with you, respectively of course. Were no master roasters yet but we've had nearly 2 years experience of roasting coffee ourselves and have had a rising fan following including 2 restaurants and even an FDNY firehouse, each anxiously wanting our beans at their establishments

Sounds like you have it all figured out then. Sounds like a 2# roaster will be plenty busy. Best of luck with your store.

 

[Musicphan]

Brewsbro - It's extremely hard to be profitable with a 2lb roaster. If your green cost $3.50 lb = roughly $4.00 with shrinkage. Labor on the low end w/ benefits is $15/hr (even if your doing it yourself you can't roast and serve customers at the same time), assuming you can roast 3 batches per hour your labor cost is $2.50 lb. So its roughly $6 a lb without energy (.25$/lb), packaging (if selling retail), rent for the square footage for your roasting equipment/green/supplies. Don't forget to add in the cost of the roaster... say $4K for the Mill Creek two pounder.


I was in the same boat as you... but when I took a serious look at the numbers it didn't make sense until you get into something 5K and above.

 

[Redswing]

Brewsbro - I like what you're doing, clearly you've thought a lot about it. I've never heard of anybody making drinks in a kiosk kind of setting while they roasted. By definition, doing anything innovative means you rub against the grain at least a little.

Personally, I think excitement is gonna get you through the workload that will come with your limited batch sized roaster. My guess is it will last about 9 months to a year, the new will be worn off, it will turn into a job, and either you will find a way to make a bigger roaster possible financially OR you'll throw in the towel on roasting. But for now, ride the passion and newness any way you can. James Freeman of freaking Blue Bottle started his farmers market booth in SF with oven baking sheet roasted coffee. I say you've gotta trust your instincts and go with it.

one other thought...have you thought much about venting your roaster? didn't you say it was indoors?

 

[Musicphan]

I know nothing about these... but I have seen him post somewhere on this forum:
javaPRO-CRC PID II Commercial 2 lb. Electric Coffee Roaster Machine

If you do step up to something bigger... you my want call USRC.. they have some models available in electric

 

[John P]

Brewsbro,

slurp has had the only actual advice so far, but you've ignored it. You talk about "quality roaster" and then you say "Sonofresco". I honestly don't know where to begin with that one.

Focus on making perfect espresso/coffee or whatever you are doing at your kiosk. Roasting is not something you can just fall into. ANYONE can turn beans brown, and the Sonofresco doesn't really do much more than that. Actual coffee roasting on a commercial level takes time to learn, hundreds of hours of time to begin to understand the craft... the notion that you can learn to perfect your business AND make perfect coffee/espresso AND roast as a start-up is simply not so. Trying to do too much, especially something that you are not an expert at, in the beginning will compromise and/or kill your operation.

I don't know how many of the others who have answered have actually started and run a successful coffee business as well as being a respected roaster. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but strongly consider what slurp proposed, he's likely the only one who seemed to actually care about your business survival.

Oh, and as this is my post "777" it's clear that it's the lucky advice of the day!
Good times. 8)

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

Sounds like you have it all figured out then. Sounds like a 2# roaster will be plenty busy. Best of luck with your store.

Thank you. Its impossible for us to have it all figured out but we have had many a year to plan and are going with our gut on this one. You got to start somewhere as they say.

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

Brewsbro,

slurp has had the only actual advice so far, but you've ignored it. You talk about "quality roaster" and then you say "Sonofresco". I honestly don't know where to begin with that one.

Focus on making perfect espresso/coffee or whatever you are doing at your kiosk. Roasting is not something you can just fall into. ANYONE can turn beans brown, and the Sonofresco doesn't really do much more than that. Actual coffee roasting on a commercial level takes time to learn, hundreds of hours of time to begin to understand the craft... the notion that you can learn to perfect your business AND make perfect coffee/espresso AND roast as a start-up is simply not so. Trying to do too much, especially something that you are not an expert at, in the beginning will compromise and/or kill your operation.

I don't know how many of the others who have answered have actually started and run a successful coffee business as well as being a respected roaster. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but strongly consider what slurp proposed, he's likely the only one who seemed to actually care about your business survival.

Oh, and as this is my post "777" it's clear that it's the lucky advice of the day!
Good times. 8)

If you go back and read the OP, you will clearly see that I asked for Electric Roaster suggestions. I didn't dismiss his advice I merely said I disagree and respectively, at that. It just didn't apply to me. My company and product is still a mystery, how can you pass judgment? I'm a fellow coffee roaster and a new member of the roaster-small business community, I was expecting more of a "brother's in arms" so to speak. If I had posted on the "Help I'm looking to roast my own coffee and I have no idea where to start" forum than your comment would be welcomed. Sonofresco worked for us because it was a smaller roaster with a decent reputation, and you should know that no matter how good the machine is, the majority of the roasting ability comes from human touch and intuition. When we open I invite you to try our finished product, like the hundreds of kind people who already have, not one complaint so far just love plain love.

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

I know nothing about these... but I have seen him post somewhere on this forum:
javaPRO-CRC PID II Commercial 2 lb. Electric Coffee Roaster Machine

If you do step up to something bigger... you my want call USRC.. they have some models available in electric

Thanks for the roaster suggestion. Finally lol. We actually recently looked into that one and was amazed, especially due to the price (The 5 LB is on sale for $11 more than the 2 LB) if anyone is interested. Its just over $2,000. The reason why we can't go with that one is the noise quality. If we were just a Roaster and not a Roaster/Café, it would've been picture perfect. But it was too good to be true as it was quite loud.

 

[Brewsbroscafe]

Brewsbro - I like what you're doing, clearly you've thought a lot about it. I've never heard of anybody making drinks in a kiosk kind of setting while they roasted. By definition, doing anything innovative means you rub against the grain at least a little.

Personally, I think excitement is gonna get you through the workload that will come with your limited batch sized roaster. My guess is it will last about 9 months to a year, the new will be worn off, it will turn into a job, and either you will find a way to make a bigger roaster possible financially OR you'll throw in the towel on roasting. But for now, ride the passion and newness any way you can. James Freeman of freaking Blue Bottle started his farmers market booth in SF with oven baking sheet roasted coffee. I say you've gotta trust your instincts and go with it.

one other thought...have you thought much about venting your roaster? didn't you say it was indoors?

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence and your advice, I took everything you said wholeheartedly. This location is our first but if we do it right the building owner wants us in his hotel chain and only time can tell from there. We also have an "in" at the FDNY so our plan is to start out with one House and go from there. We hope to pay off everything as quick as possible making as many practical sacrifices along the way. That will determine how quickly we can purchase a larger roaster and open up a small facility to roast. One thing at a time as my Aunt says (who actually was one of the first integrated women team to open up a small business in the Tri State). She's been an angel on our shoulders from the start.


As far as venting is concerned we have a strategy by way of running a tubular exhaust hose outside (we are located right near a window/wall)