Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul on March 23, 2011 at 7:53pm

I havent taken any classes myself, but I like you want to take a good class as well. I was looking at attending one of the Coffee Fests later on this year to build off of what I have learned. I have a friend of mine who went to Boot Coffee Consulting class and he loved it. Said it really helped him a lot. Willem Boot also has an extensive background in central american coffees. He actually owns a farm in Panama and is one of the gesha varietal pioneers. He might be your guy. Hope that helps!!

Permalink Reply by mathew Klaver on March 23, 2011 at 7:57pm

Thanks I have been looking at that already it looks like the best option!

Permalink Reply by Tim Gardner on March 24, 2011 at 4:19am

I took a 5 day class from Mane Aves ar International Coffee Lab in Waterbury Vermont.  It was an great experience.  Mane's coffee knowledge in amazing.  There was a lot of hands on with roasting & cupping.  These classes gave me a great foundation for my roasting business.

Permalink Reply by Joseph Zimmermann on March 24, 2011 at 9:13am

Check out Victor Mondry in Middleton, WI. 

http://web.mac.com/victor.mondry/Site/Welcome_to_Original_V_LLC__.html

He has an incredible amount of knowledge in roasting, sourcing green coffee, cupping, sample roasting, equipment and the entire specialty coffee industry. He is a passionate coffee guru and will help you really step up your coffee roasting business. I think very highly of Victor. 

Permalink Reply by Sarah Leanne Barnett on March 24, 2011 at 12:18pm

Ambex Roasters in Clearwater, Florida has a really cool week long roasting class. I learned a lot about chemical compositions, blending techniques and met MANY connections that still help my roastery today. Terry Davis is a knowledge-filled machine. He also has a couple of staff tht are machine techs that show you the ins and outs of most roasters.

Side note: I would never recommend buying a roaster from Ambex. They are a fantastic product, dont get me wrong, but it takes months to get it after they recieve a check. I personally have had my phone calls screened when I just had questions about ordering a roaster. The customer service is horrible for those who roast on an Ambex. I've talked to MANY Ambex customers with the exact same stories. Although the class was fantastic and I LOVED the roaster/data logging system, I decided to go with US Roaster Corp because I couldn't trust Ambex to be there when I needed them for customer support.  

Permalink Reply by mathew Klaver on March 24, 2011 at 2:18pm

Thats interesting, Ambex was the first roaster I was interested in, but felt like the customer service was lacking. Nice to know I,m not the only one.

Sarah Leanne Barnett said:

Ambex Roasters in Clearwater, Florida has a really cool week long roasting class. I learned a lot about chemical compositions, blending techniques and met MANY connections that still help my roastery today. Terry Davis is a knowledge-filled machine. He also has a couple of staff tht are machine techs that show you the ins and outs of most roasters.

Side note: I would never recommend buying a roaster from Ambex. They are a fantastic product, dont get me wrong, but it takes months to get it after they recieve a check. I personally have had my phone calls screened when I just had questions about ordering a roaster. The customer service is horrible for those who roast on an Ambex. I've talked to MANY Ambex customers with the exact same stories. Although the class was fantastic and I LOVED the roaster/data logging system, I decided to go with US Roaster Corp because I couldn't trust Ambex to be there when I needed them for customer support.  

Permalink Reply by nick placakis on March 27, 2011 at 5:26am

Paul said:

I havent taken any classes myself, but I like you want to take a good class as well. I was looking at attending one of the Coffee Fests later on this year to build off of what I have learned. I have a friend of mine who went to Boot Coffee Consulting class and he loved it. Said it really helped him a lot. Willem Boot also has an extensive background in central american coffees. He actually owns a farm in Panama and is one of the gesha varietal pioneers. He might be your guy. Hope that helps!!

I have taken the class with Willem Boot, found it to be excellent  and he was very knowledgable. I also took a course with Diedrich, taught by stephen Diedrich, also excellent. I would recommend either of them. I really want to try Mane Alves as I have heard great things about him as well. 

Permalink Reply by Timothy Pellizzer on March 30, 2011 at 5:18pm

Has anyone taken a class from Mike at CoffeeKatch roasting in CA. and if so what was your experience?

Permalink Reply by Kevin on April 6, 2011 at 3:09pm

I completed three courses at Boot Coffee in Mill Valley CA. The courses, run by Willem Boot, covered roast profiling and cupping, advanced roasting, and blend creation. I found the learning experience really excellent and I believe the material covered would give a great foundation to anyone either planning to start their own roastery, or those who wish to hone their existing roasting skills.  If you can get some roasting experience under your belt before the courses, so much the better.

Permalink Reply by Timothy Pellizzer on April 8, 2011 at 5:20pm

Hello Kevin,

I have taken Diedrich's and Ambex's intro courses and while both supplied good basic information both lack hands on experience. I would think it would be hard to have meaningful hands on experience with a group of roasters. I am interested in Mike Perry's at Klatch Coffee individual coursework. It appears to be one on one. I think this would be best at my current stage. I understand enough of the theory but just do not have a good technique. I believe Mike roasts on an IR-24 so his skills should be directly applicable to my IR-12. Did you ever check into his course or have you heard feedback from anyone?

http://www.klatchroasting.com/Klatch_Coffee_Barista_and_Roaster_Tra...

Permalink Reply by Kevin on April 9, 2011 at 3:34pm

Hello Tim, I took the intro course at Diedrich back in Feb '10 and found it a useful overview for a newbie roaster. There was opportunity to get some roasting practice. It would have been even more beneficial if I had some solid roasting experience under my belt at the time I took the course. I'm not familiar with the course run by Klatch Coffee - but it seems to offer 1 to 1 training which would be a great learning experience. Best thing is to ask Mike for some references and get feedback from roasters who have attended the classes. One thing I would say is that the one of the key foundations for becoming a successful roaster is the ability to become a good coffee cupper. It's an area I need to develop, and in this respect Willem Boot's classes on Roast Profiling and Cupping were an excellent intro to cupping. 

 

Best of luck with your roasting education.

Permalink Reply by Matias Zeledon on August 3, 2011 at 10:57pm

 

i have a friend who took a class in VT, but i am not sure what the name of the place is.  He was very happy with it, i will ask him and let you know.

 

Matias