ancillary equipment

[henry]

I have a new Diedrich 12 KG roaster being shipped to me next week. I have no weigh and fill destoner sealer etc. I will be roasting between 3000 to 5000 lb. per month for the near future (hopefully more later). I use the foil bags with the one way valve curently. Does anyone have any suggetions for equipment which would fit my volume of useage? Thanks.

henry

 

[Temuri]

I use destoner for 60 kg roaster and mainly for robustas. I doubt that you shall need it for 10 kg batch.

 

[henry]

Thanks... I can scratche the destoner off the list. Any ideas on weigh and fill machine and a sealer? Thanks.

 

[Davec]

Thanks... I can scratche the destoner off the list. Any ideas on weigh and fill machine and a sealer? Thanks.

I personally would keep the destoner on if you can get one cheaply. I have roasted on a 25kg probat and was amazed at the stuff you can get in any arabica coffee (there is not only crud in robusta). Remember, it only takes one stone nail or hard foreign body to ruin a grinder and loose a customer for ever. A personal view, but if I had a business establishment I would not buy coffee from a roaster who didn't use a destoner.

In my 1kg Toper, I installed neodymium magnets on the exit chute of the cooling tray and used to hand check every batch, when green and roasted. Those batched were only 1kg not 10! However, i used to worry all the time about stones, screws etc.. in the customers coffee.

As for sealing the coffee pouches, I did look at a commercial machine (they need to be a constant heat sealer and not the impulse type), they were really expensive £450-800 took about 15 minutes to get fully warmed and were usually left on all day, because if you needed to seal a bag you didn't want a long wait. They are often foot operated with crimp (heated) jaws and the foot pedal mechanism can break also the crimped heads often cut through the outer foil. A lot of people think you need to seal the bejeesus (and press like hell) out of the bag and you actually see quite ugly damaged top potions where the crimps have cut through the outer foil layer.

The PTE coffee pouches are actually designed to have enough heat and pressure applied to melt the coating and that is what stick's them together....crimped jaws are totally unnecessary.

A cheap option for you would be to use what I did and a 1kg bag can be sealed in two passes (unless you get a larger one than mine). I had no trouble with it and still use it today. It sealed a lot more bags than an expensive commercial one would before it needed an element change and the commercial ones often come with a spare element because they do go quite frequently.

http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/coffee-po ... substitute

It is seriously not a joke, try it and you will be amazed at how well they work and you have very little to loose, obviously you can get larger and superior ones to the one I got (I was trying to keep costs down). I also swear that it was easier to use and a lot better than the £600 heat sealer I used at the roastery!

Weigh and fill machines can be a pain and with thee 25kg probat, everything was weighed and sealed by hand using trade/retail certified scales, to be honest with a 10kg roaster, I would have thought the cost and upkeep of a weigh and fill machine wouldn't be worth the trouble. I would however recommend a very good set of scales, that are easy and efficient to use. I spent around £200 on my scales (and don't regret a penny of it)!