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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on August 21, 2009 at 7:27am

Since seems everybody and their brother starting down the roasting path wants a 3-5k size roaster cheap deals are few and far between. When I was looking a couple years ago never saw one as cheap as you're looking. Doesn't mean you won't find an insanely good deal if you work long enough at it. I opted for new US Roaster Corp 3k with PLC profile control and haven't regretted the decision. The USRC 3k is not offered as a table top but rather floor standing with base integrated chaff collector. It's been quite the solid work horse with ample power and control. Routinely do up to 8# production batches, capable of roasting ~200# eight hour roast day (based on 3 batches per hour roasting while cooling). The most I've roasted in a day is 168#, but not an 8 hour session.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on August 21, 2009 at 5:20pm

How much did your USRC 3k run you, if you don't mind me asking? If you do, that's fine too. It doesn't actually have to be "tabletop," I had just seen that name thrown around so much with smaller grinders so I used it. Thanks Mike. And you're obviously happy with USRC, you have a 12k now don't you?

-bry

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

Since seems everybody and their brother starting down the roasting path wants a 3-5k size roaster cheap deals are few and far between. When I was looking a couple years ago never saw one as cheap as you're looking. Doesn't mean you won't find an insanely good deal if you work long enough at it. I opted for new US Roaster Corp 3k with PLC profile control and haven't regretted the decision. The USRC 3k is not offered as a table top but rather floor standing with base integrated chaff collector. It's been quite the solid work horse with ample power and control. Routinely do up to 8# production batches, capable of roasting ~200# eight hour roast day (based on 3 batches per hour roasting while cooling). The most I've roasted in a day is 168#, but not an 8 hour session.

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on August 21, 2009 at 9:04pm

Fall '07 ~$12k inc. PLC profile control, auto-dump etc...

No, haven't upgraded roaster yet. Really learning running the coffee house cafe (and in my case including deli) side of the business smoothly and getting it profitable has sucked up so much time and energy haven't focused nearly enough on building the wholesale roasting side the past just shy of 2 years.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on August 22, 2009 at 3:06pm

miKe mcKoffee aka Mike McGinness said:

Fall '07 ~$12k inc. PLC profile control, auto-dump etc...

No, haven't upgraded roaster yet. Really learning running the coffee house cafe (and in my case including deli) side of the business smoothly and getting it profitable has sucked up so much time and energy haven't focused nearly enough on building the wholesale roasting side the past just shy of 2 years.

Why did you feel the need to go with the profiling system? Just curious. What advantages did you see yourself having with a profiling system vs. not having a profiling system. I think I already know how you are going to answer this...

-bry

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on August 22, 2009 at 6:34pm

Ability to multi-task once profile(s) dialed in (constantly being checked and tweaked of course)... Have not regretted the extra ~$4k for the automatic profile control system.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on August 23, 2009 at 3:59am

That's what I thought and how I've been feeling about it. As much as I would love to say that I have nothing better to do than stare at the numbers and fluctuate the air and gas back and forth, we all know that isn't the likeliest for those of us in management/"always on bar."

Thanks for the heads up.

Also, do you find yourself running one bean on the "known" profile and then just barely tweaking it a little? Obviously any good roaster (person) is going to play with the profiles to continually maximize the flavors, but I imagine it's probably loads easier if you have a program remembering everything for you.

-bry

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