Roaster News
Roasting 101 Resource: Connecting with us on Zoom
This is a guide for students who are enrolled in our remote roasting classes, hosted on Zoom. During the class, we will be leading demonstrations and facilitating conversations using the video feature and the chat box. Below are some instructions for connecting via Zoom. Before the session begins: You will be able to connect… Read More
Roaster News
Is Mill City Roasters a Chinese brand?
Comment from What’s the Best Coffee Roaster? on Youtube: holly1 day ago Thanks for your input, it is still an opinon from a chinese brand whose competitive advantage was price. But you got a few points clear, there’s market paranoia and some brands are cutting corners somewhere and pressing with bulls** arguments. I’m shure this… Read More
Commercial Coffee Roaster News, Roaster News
Roasters + Baristas: Information Exchange
Welcome back to our ongoing educational series in which we find ways to bridge the gap between the roaster and the barista. In our last post, we explained the importance of using the same brew methods to help calibrate the language that roasters and baristas use about a coffee’s flavor. We recommended that roasters try… Read More
Commercial Coffee Roaster News, Roaster News
Mill City Picks: Cafe Equipment
Our founder, Steve Green, tends to refer to Mill City Roasters as a small business incubator. What he means by that is we’re a place where people start. We help them with equipment, training and education, and all the little questions they have along the way. Our instructors teach students to roast, which is fitting… Read More
Commercial Coffee Roaster News, Roaster News
Dogwood in Sprudge
Our hometown friends at Dogwood Coffee Co have just been featured in Sprudge. The roastery-cafe was intentionally designed to be functional, welcoming, playful and uniquely Dogwood. Their 30kg and 500g Mill City Roasters are helping them to sample, profile and bring quality-driven coffees into production. In addition to their roasters, Dogwood is using a prototype hydraulic… Read More
Roaster News
How do our large roasters compare?
Ridiculous. Our machines are constructed as solid plate steel weldments. They are heavier and quieter than almost everything on the market, and just happen to be robust and powerful enough to profile roast full batch sizes for as long as you care to stand there. The only people talking about continuous use or vibration problems… Read More
Roaster News
Double Walled Drums and Other Improvements
We’ve recently made several noteworthy improvements to our roasters at the factory: Honeywell gas valves, increased burner sizes on the 3 kg – 30 kg roasters, and double walled drums on all gas roasters from 1 kg on up. I wish I was less of an engineer and enough of a marketing guy to tell… Read More
Coffee Roasting Support, Roaster News
Common Issues for New Roasters
We field calls on a daily basis. Let’s take a look at the most common errors as you begin to learn that new roaster. Not using full charge. North roasters are designed to use full charge. Don’t go smaller in charge size until you have mastered the full charge roasting profile. Then master a 90%… Read More
Coffee Roasting Support, Roaster News
How to start a commercial coffee roasting business?
How hard is it to roast coffee commercially? A roastery is typically easier to set up than a burger joint, but tracking down regulatory requirements can sometimes be tough because your local authorities are usually much more familiar with burger joints. Here is a short list of things to consider: Facility: Roaster set up: gas,… Read More
Coffee Roasting Support, Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
Airflow – Settings and Use
The North Coffee Company roasters come equipped with variable airflow. While a dial of 0-100 suggests a wide spread of airflow, we recommend the use of 3 settings: Low Medium and High Don’t get hung up on dial numbers. Instead, use a simpler approach by employing a cigarette lighter to determine settings. Let’s do that.… Read More
Roaster News
2nd Annual Focus on the Roast Winners!
Fun, exciting, spirited contest this year. 115 entrants, with 7 proceeding to the second round roast-off. Results have been tabulated: 1st place, Austin Tsai, Granada Hills, CA. Austin won a 500g North sample roaster 2nd place, Cody Larson, Northfield, MN. Cody walks with a Tonino Roast Color Meter 3rd place, Austin Amento. Redlands, CA. Baratza… Read More
Coffee Roasting Support, Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
Learning to Roast
Thought we would do a quick blog based on what we experience with new and novice roasters. 1. Safety. Where are your fire extinguishers? Always, be safe, have them available and in the same place, between you and the exit. 2. Give yourself time to learn. Before I roasted on the gas drum roaster in… Read More
Coffee Roasting Support, Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
Roasting Beyond Basics
Rate of Rise, Roasting 102 Now that you have fully mastered Roasting 101, let’s move on to roasting with attention to rate of rise. We will use Fahrenheit throughout the discussion. Rate of rise, you say? Don’t make it more difficult than it is. Rate of rise is merely tracking and roasting with an… Read More
Roaster News, Roasting Coffee
“A Love Affair with Coffee” – Rob Boyer
The following is from our 1st place finalist in Focus on the Roast, Rob Boyer of ‘A Love Affair of Coffee’. Read More Read More
Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
Starting a Business
Adam Moore bought one of our 1K roasters and sent along some introduction thoughts. Adam has agreed to “think aloud” and discuss how he approached setting up his business, how he established a business plan, and how he went about setting up the roastery. Thanks Adam, and we love our logo smacked onto the top… Read More
Roaster News
Visit to North Coffee Equipment in China
We’ve been back from our visit to our manufacturer in China, North Coffee Equipment, Ltd of Shenzhen, for over a month. If it wasn’t for shipping nearly 40 roasters, attending the SCAA show in Seattle, and launching our Focus on the Roast competition last week, I’d probably feel a little guilty that it’s taken me… Read More
Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
Seasoning the Drum
Lots of calls lately from folks who have never roasted or folks stepping up from homeroasting rigs. Let’s see if we can help with a blog on seasoning your roaster drum and get you roasting! Read More Read More
Roaster News
“Chinese Coffee Roasters”
This is another ancient post and many, many things have changed. Since this post we’ve officially partnered with our team in Shenzhen, redesigned all of the roasters, and helped fund the new factory expansion. We are currently producing the only NRTL certified roaster built in Asia and build the most powerful, most sophisticated specialty coffee… Read More
Coffee Roasting Training, Roaster News
BoldJava Tackles a Kilo
On Roasting New Charge Sizes Worked most of the morning developing a 300 gram sample size in the 1K North roaster. Seemed to get it down on about the 5th sample. Bamm! Thought it might make for a good blog but I wanted to nail a kilo first. Time for the big leagues. We have… Read More
Roaster News
Why do commercial coffee roasters cost so much?
Most of the companies building coffee roasters in the US are producing machines in very limited volumes. I know from experience that in the 50-500 unit range, there’s no way to realize the kind of efficiencies of scale you’d see in a mass manufactured product. In other words, there’s no assembly line, per say. They… Read More