Could you guys help me getting a commercial coffee bean grinder?

[arthur103]

I am thinking about getting either one of Mahlkoenig VTA 6, BUNN G2 Trifecta or Ditting KR804.
I will be soonly open a coffee roastering company which is not so big. (thinking about getting 3 or 5kg Joper roaster and a single drum sample roaster from Joper as well).
telling you the capacity of the roaster so you can get general idea how big would my roasting company would be.
I am not looking to start as big. but will definitely looking to upsize or upgrades roaster later for sure but want to start as small since not so exprienced roaster for myself and still young. but don't mind spend more money on better machinery if i have to upgrade the grinder if i get one of cheaper one. I would rather spend more money in the begining and save on upgrading
here is my questions.
could you guys tell me pros and cons on those listed grinders?
I mainly use it as cupping, sampling.
I heard Ditting grinder is good for heavy usage and wondering if others are as well as Ditting grinder.

if there is anyone who used one of or couple of listed grinder before plz give me some idea of what it's like to using one and pros and cons based on your use.
thanks for your time. Hope I can get some replies from you~ Thanks

 

[eldub]

We use the Bunn 3lb coffee mill in our shop. It works fine for all but an espresso application, imo.

Not really sure why you would want to spend money on a 3-5 kg machine as well as a sample roaster. I can roast as little as a pound on our 12kg roaster. When we first opened the shop, I wanted to roast tiny batches. Now that I know the beans better from various producers and countries I'm more apt to roast 5-6 lbs of a new bag as a test batch. The majority gets roasted to the level I expect to cup best at but I'll also pull small samples from the barrel w/ the trier at lighter roast levels in order to cover all of my bases.

 

[JumpinJakJava]

Great advice from eldub. You will not go wrong with any of the above grinders. I would throw Grindmaster into the mix for consideration. Mahlkoenig & Ditting will
grind well for espresso, but you will sell most of your espresso whole bean. I have owned and still own and use Bunns, Grindmasters, and a Ditting. Heavy duty
quality grinders. You could buy 2 or 3 used Bunns or Grindmasters for the price of one used Ditting and the Mahlkoenigs are real pricey. May have to clean well
and replace burrs. These machines have a 1/2 hp motor, hard to hurt. If you are set on a separate sample roaster, you could purchase a Hottop and save a ton of money.
Do not know your finances. But I am old school. My kids call me a piker! But eldub is right, on the size of the roaster you are looking at, sample the lb. on it.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I have used all of them and they are all good grinders.

If you can find used ditting, I would go with it but most of the commercial grade grinder will achieve what you are looking to do.

 

[BuzzRoaster]

I love my Grindmaster, it has never let me down. I did a few mods to it so it has an infinite number of grind settings instead of the factory presets. I found they were a bit off. The burrs are very easy to adjust as well.

 

[BryanG]

Restaurant Supply shops that have used inventory are great resources. I grabbed a Ditting for $300, they had Buns for $250.

 

[arthur103]

I mean getting two roasters one either 3 or 5kg and one around 100g of capacity sample roaster lol

 

[arthur103]

Well i am inexperienced so i thought i should start with smaller one. So eldub u think i should start with a bigger roaster? Instead of getting 3-5 kg go with over 10kilo ones? I heard is it not that easy to do small batches as 1lb with larger roaster more possibility to over roast.

 

[arthur103]

Also I would use grinder as hand drip application mainly so it would be fine for me i guess anyways thank you so much for all the replies

 

[CoffeeJunky]

It really depends what you want to do at the end.
If you are planning on growing your business, I would listen to Eldub.
He is one of the micro roaster who started small and now he is pretty decent size roaster in Iowa.

I don't see needing of 100 gram roaster.