new side business question

[chrism]

I am starting up a new side business this year where I want to setup a small table at local events/festivals and I wanted to know if anyone has experience doing this using those 42 cup coffee urns? I have never used one but it seems like a decent way to make coffee and keep it hot since I won't have a true coffee stand (until I can build up enough capital to afford one). I am on a shoestring budget and any helpful advice would be appreciated!

 

[John P]

The urns of for storage/dispensing. You need a commercial brewer as well.
Check your local used restaurant equipment place.

 

[topher]

We have a 10 gallon brewer that we use for coffee ice cubes only. They are not cheap.

 

[topher]

Wait a second...42 cup? So you are talking about either a 1.5 gallon brewer or a 2 gallon brewer? Sorry its early here.

 

[chrism]

The one I was speaking of was the Hamilton 42-Cup Coffee Urn. It actually brews 42 cups worth of coffee at a go and is priced under $50. I think if I had 2 of them at local events/festivals they might work out really nice. I live in a community with less than 50,000 people so I don't think I would need anything too much bigger but anyone with more experience please feel free to speak up and let me know if I am wrong.

 

[topher]

I think you are talking about a peculator. I would not recommend these. Peculators boil the coffee. You should always use just below boiling water to make your coffee. If you boil the water it sours the coffee. You might want to look at a 1.5/2 gallon brewer. One of my stores goes through over 200 lbs of drip coffee a week between 6 different coffees. We are able to keep up on one dual brewer from Wilbur Curtis. You would have to invest a bit more than $70 to $100 to produce a quality product.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

I think you are talking about a peculator. I would not recommend these. Peculators boil the coffee. You should always use just below boiling water to make your coffee. If you boil the water it sours the coffee. You might want to look at a 1.5/2 gallon brewer. One of my stores goes through over 200 lbs of drip coffee a week between 6 different coffees. We are able to keep up on one dual brewer from Wilbur Curtis. You would have to invest a bit more than $70 to $100 to produce a quality product.

I have coffee house in community of 10,000.
We never had any decent coffee house before mine about 12 years ago and how we are doing pretty well here.

I would not use none commercial coffee brewer to serve your customers.
You want to be known as good coffee. Not just another coffee.

Look into used Curtis, bunn, or even better coffee brewer. If you look hard enough, you will be able to find decent used one for about 100-200 dollars.

 

[Zimmy]

Echoing previous comments... Don't go the percolator route... Not only do they boil the coffee but they take a good couple hours to warm up when you are looking at that much volume... Before purchasing a brewer, keep in mind what power supply you will have available... Many of the commercial brewers run on 220 and access to that at festivals/farmers markets is not always possible...

Are you trying to serve quality/quantity/both?

Manual brew is my preferred setup at these events... This way we can really hone in on quality and present our brand properly... This does mean less supply or more staffing in general... Also, even if I don't have power I can run a gas burner to heat water...

Some setups even do large french presses and then decant into a presspot... For a cleaner cup it can be run through a secondary filter...

I guess the big questions are:
What does the space you will be setting up in look like? (multiple places?)
What do you want your image to be?

Cheers!

 

[chrism]

I will be setting up in multiple places, mostly outside. I also plan on setting up shop at our local farmer's market.

I want to try to include quality and quantity if possible.

I had never given thought to a manual brew solution but I think that might actually work best. It would allow me to control how much coffee is made and not waste so much as well as definite better quality on the finished product. I had thought about building a power supply for my brewers out of a car battery and a inverter but I really like the gas burner idea.

I want my image to be a great local coffee roaster that attends the events/festivals to sell coffee as well as serve it by the cup. I don't ever anticipate wanting to run a coffee shop due to the smaller size of my location and associated costs that go with it.

 

[Zimmy]

At one event we did french press into press pots for quick cups of coffee and also offered a selection of by-the-cup pour-overs...

Sidenote: I like to use the time (3-5ish minutes) it takes to brew a cup to bring the customer into our coffee world and share a little knowledge (as much as they seem to care for) about the process and end quality differences...

I wish you the best...
Cheers!

 

[chrism]

Let me play Devil's advocate and ask what could I do if I wanted to concentrate more on quantity vs. quality? I want to have a quality product but starting with very little investment money might make that difficult to start with so I want to see both options.

Also, thank you to everyone that has replied to my initial question.

 

[Zimmy]

Clarifying question: Would you be brewing on site or taking brewed product to a site?

IMHO it will probably be more expensive to get set up to do large quantities... Not to mention loss due to excess...

Cheers!

 

[Ktabor1]

Go for it! It works great

I own a Rancillio espresso machine which I use events and it works great people love it! I operate as a catering service and do not have a coffe cart or true stand; I just use a table and a tent. i attached my machine to a water pump and generator. it is perfect for 5ks, tailgating, ect.. your gonna have a lot of fun and making a nice buck. I’m 22 years old, and I am very close to making a coffee shop dream a reality. Please enjoy this Indiegogo video I made as a part of myrecent effort indiegogo.com/projects/blue-sail-cafe-and-coffee I know I can do it especially with help from awesome coffee lovers!!

 

[chrism]

I was thinking that I would just brew on site so that it isn't old products I would be selling. The local festivals don't have any vendors setup that sale coffee so I wonder if I could have a success starting out using the Coffee Urns and building a coffee cart with a car battery and power inverter to provide the power, just until I can make enough to put together something better. I would love to do some of the other things you guys have suggested but I am very limited on start up funds unfortunately.