Coffee Roastery Essentials
Everyone who wants to open a coffee bean roastery should know a couple of things in order to not make any mistakes. You are going to have to buy high quality equipment for coffee beans roasting. There are many different machines and accessories that are essential to roast your own coffee, such as a roaster machine, a thermometer, cooling tray, filters, analysis tools (like color analyzers, moisture meters), an automatic loader, bags (to be able to quickly pack freshly roasted coffee beans), and a heat sealer to close the bags properly. To make sure that every batch will taste and weigh the same, besides a good coffee roaster, you also need a good scale. The list of necessary equipment may scare you, but if you want to avoid a disappointment, you shouldn’t scrimp on the machines.
What exactly is a roasting machine and how does it work? If you have never tried to roast coffee on your own, you probably ask yourself these two questions. There are many methods of coffee roasting and many different roasters, but the most common are drums and hot air machines. In case of the first type, the coffee beans are placed into a drum (or other cylinder-shaped container). Then the drum starts spinning in a circle, and an open flame under the beans starts heating them. Hot air coffee roasters work a little different, because the main source of heat is hot air (not an open flame). After roasting, the coffee beans rest and cool on a tray (this process is also called quenching). If the beans are completely cooled down, they are packed immediately into bags to close all the good tastes in them. The whole process of roasting involves a lot of precise planning. A well-thought-out organization is key in the entire process.
You need to practice a lot to create your own, unique blend. The professionals usually make several sample roasts (there are special sample roasters) to define the quality that they accept. Roasted coffee beans can taste different on different levels, for example the acidity, bitterness, and sweetness levels can vary, the aftertaste, aromas, and body can come out better or worse, which depends on the technique which you used. You should pay attention to the environment, where your coffee beans roster works – for example the humidity in the roomcan change the final product. In that case you can use a humidity analyzer. You should also control the temperature in the room, where the roasting machine stands.
Important accessories in the roasting process
Even though the roasting machine is the source of freshly roasted beans, you also need to think about other things that may make the process easier and faster. Regardless of the number of your clients and the amount of coffee you roast per month, you need to buy an automatic weigh&fill packaging machine and a heat sealer. Why is it so important? To be able to close the freshly roasted coffee in the bags and send it to your clients. You can buy three separate devices or one set which includes all of them. An automatic scale measures the amount of coffee that you want – you simply need to load the beans into the hopper and enter your desired weight on the intelligent control panel. The perfect dose of coffee beans will land in the bag every single time. Don’t forget to use a heat sealer to close the bag – don’t let those wonderful aromas fly off. You can choose between horizontal and vertical positions.
A few words of conclusion
To fully understand the secrets of coffee beans roasting, you need to learn a solid dose of theory first, but opening your own roastery or professional coffee shop requires high quality equipment, which in turn allows you to make your dreams come true. A trustworthy green coffee supplier and a reliable manufacturer of the essential devices and accessories can decide your roastery’s fate.
