Alchemist wrote:But shoosh - a little over 1 lb a week - that doesn't sound that crazy at all.

...seems to be the norm around here.

Len

A pound a week is very reasonable, especially if you have more than one consumer in the house. My personal consumption tends to swing up slightly during the winter and when the new lots arrive in-country.

Well if I consider only myself... Yes about 40 pounds per year would be a good estimate. As a home roaster that roasts various coffees from South and Central America to Sumatra for friends and family over 300Lbs. per year green.

Great polling idea!

I do not roast for other people very often. My in-laws and other relatives are in town for the holidays, and they just love Starbucks . I took a few pounds to the get together last year and gave it out. They were looking forward to it this year. I roasted 5 pounds and did not have enough. I just roasted another 3 pounds to catch the two I missed. 8 pounds may not sound like much, but with a half pound batch Hottop, that was a lot of roasting.

300 pounds of green is a lot. Just curious, what kind of roaster do you use. Most high volume home roasters run a BBQ grill. With 300lbs, a 5lb commercial roaster would be nice.

Yes sir,
I bought a grill and converted it last year (2005). Built my own stainless steel roasting baskets...The ones on Ebay are pretty pricy for what you get. I have access to a sheet metal/machine shop so I was able to fabricate the baskets from stuff I bought from McMaster Carr and modify the Grill. So roasting five or six pounds per week is a snap. My friends pay just over my costs to run the operation. I figure in propane, depreciation, coffee costs and that is about it. So even if the roast does not come out as I had planned they are still getting a better than average premium coffee for a rock bottom price. I always tell them that if they don't like it just throw it out and I will get them another roast asap, I haven't had anyone complain yet.. perhaps they are very forgiving... It is a learning experience to say the least.
In the past year (2006) I have learned alot about running this grill/roaster and have not ruined a batch. But I must say when I first started out in 2003 my 1st experience was horrifying then but amusing now. I had built a roaster out of 2 indoor Farberware indoor rotisseries that I had gotten on Ebay. I read a bunch of material on home roasting from Sweet Marias and I had read Ken David's book... So I thought I was all set. I bought my first batch of beans from Ebay and one fine Saturday in Feb. of 2003, I began my 1st roast... well to make a long story short... It was about 12 degrees outside that day so I decided to do the whole operation on one of my shop benches (Wood). The roast hit 1st crack and then very shortly after hit second crack and then very very shortly after that to my amazement and horror the 1lb batch torched with a flame that rose about 18 inches above the cover of my home built roaster! My wife freaked as she saw me flying out the front door to my shop with a pair of welding gloves carrying and then thowing a huge fireball into a snowbank. Whew... well to say the least I spent another day or two analyzing the experience and quickly learned to use my little electric roaster with some finesse.
Once I got pretty good at it my friends from around the area wanted to try some of my roasts and I always obliged. As the need got larger I realized that my new favorite hobby had to expand...

This is a picture taken this morning... 15 degrees outside my shop so when the roast is finished I let the rotisserie keep turning, open the lid and throw on a few sprinkles of powdered snow... Winter makes cooling the beans a no brainer.

The converted grill is nothing special, it is a bottom of the line Charbroil. The main thing I concentrated on was the type, amount, and placement of heat deflectors in order to get a uniform flow of heat to the entire basket. I have done that with some trial and error. It does a good job and I get the amount of beans roasted that I want with minimal effort. The roasting basket I made from 18 Gauge Perforated stainless sheet metal, the paddles inside are .125 in X 1" stainless angled and the caps are 18 gauge stainless. Anyway here it is.