The Beginning of Something Great

I took the plunge. I decided life was too short and that being practical and conventional within that short span was becoming toxic. I decided that pursuing my dreams could no longer be put on hold. It was time to start something great, something that will make me jump out of bed in the morning excited for what the day might bring. It was time to start calling my own shots, it was time to risk much for the sake of following my passion. That passion is coffee.

After many long nights of roasting 3/4lb batches of cofee on my faithful Behmor 1600 I decided it was time for something, bigger, better and unfortunately more expensive. Choosing a commercial quality roaster was tricky. There are many requirements that all have to come together. My requirements were that it needed to roast large enough batches to keep sane, while roasting small enough batches to meet Puget Sound Clean Air qualifications without the use of an expensive afterburners (which add more exhaust) and expensive permits. It had to be from a manufacturer with a solid reputation, that offers gold level cutomer support and parts replacement. It also had to be a roaster that would provide amazingly even roasts and wonderfully clean roasted coffee. One of the last requirements, but one of the most important is the roaster's size and dimension. The roaster has to be small enough that it can fit through a standard door way and light enough thay I can unload it off a truck and get it up my stairs with the help of a few friends.

Enter the Diedrich IR-3. The IR-3 was the near perfect balance of all that I was looking for. The roaster has very minimal exhaust and is very eco-friendly. It only requires 13,000BTU/HR gas input, by comparision my small home barbq burns through 26,000BTU/HR. The roaster is is so effecient that Puget Sound Clean Air only requires a record of the machine, but not routine inspections or permits. The IR-3 also roasts 3kilos/6.6lbs a batch. Each batch averages 16 minutes which equates to being able to roast approximately 25lbs and hour. That sure beats the 2lbs an hour I was averaging with the Behmor 1600. Ultimately I was impressed with Diedrich manufacturing's build quality, experience in the market, knowledgable staff and the relatively close proximity. Deidrich's staff keeps pretty much all of their roaster's parts in stock and can get something out quickly if and when their are problems.

The roaster is due for delivery February 24th, 2008. I will keep everyone updated with another post once the roaster arrives. Right now I am looking at having the roaster operational by April 1st and I am sure there will be plenty of blogging oppertunities about the process of getting this roaster setup and the challenges ahead.

-Mark