Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Douglas
... let's keep talkin' coffee.
|
in my small town (small city), there are lots and lots of people starting shops & roaster operations all the time - there's even a consulting group for coffee (this is in a town of 160,000 people, most of whom seem to be heavily involved in beer or wine making, or growing something) yet there is plenty of room for coffee
people that have roaster operations tell me the #1 thing is good green beans - they can be stored ok for a pretty long while
it's after they are roasted that you need to grind them (properly, carefully, yada yada) and without much delay
so, if you were going into this for a home roaster, I'd think you'd want to size everything so you can do small amounts - a couple of days worth at a time
problem is, that when you do such small amounts, you need very good control over time & temperature - much easier to do with a large quantity
I'd look for a small rotating stainless steel drum - as that seems to be the way the best roasters are designed
fitting a curved heating element to the circumference of the drum will help avoid hot spots & bean burn