I think you are on the right track looking at getting some wholesale roasted beans. Also think about talking to a local roaster to see if you could provide the greens and a roast degree target. They may even let you hang out an learn a bit.

Just because you enjoy roasting as a hobby doesn't mean your time and energy should be expected on such a large project. Perhaps letting them know that it is 30+ hours of tending to a home roaster not designed for that duty cycle to do that volume and that may change the expectations.

I'm going to let them know I won't be able to do it with my equipment and help them with roasted options.

What you can do is this - which is what I do over the holidays. If you are set up for bags and labeling only. Let them design their own holiday label. You buy the coffee at a discount and bag it with their own customer label. I can do the roasting on my machine but my favorite part is having the customer do the label.

mckolit wrote:Not set in stone yet but if it goes through, I'm being asked to roast 125 pounds of coffee for Christmas presents. I have a Behmor 1600+. I usually roast 12oz batches. Most I've ever done in a session was four batches, which took roughly 2 hours. So at that rate it'll take me 40 days roasting everyday after work. Maybe go down to 30 days if I do more on the weekends. .

So you going to give people old coffee? Roasted by some guy in his garage with a crappy little machine that's not even a real roaster? Because by the time you roasted it all....it will be weeks old. And you have to put in a ridiculous amount of time to achieve it as well. I know you're enamored with your own ability to turn beans Brown..... But I would not expect other people to be so impressed. In fact I would not expect 95 percent of them to even have a coffee grinder..... And even less of them to have a decent coffee grinder this not just a whirly blade thing. And those beans will go right in the trash. For the vast majority of 250 people to get any use out of it you would have to grind the coffee and package it in K-Cups for them.

Sorry im blunt.... this is a really bad dea. But I think you know that.

What makes home roasted coffee good, is mostly that it's fresh. This is what you get that you can't get at the store.
If you want to give out a couple of bags to a few close family members or friends who appreciate it and actually use it that's one thing. As a mass gift, it will be just a waste of your time. I promise you the 250 staff would rather have a $10 gift card to local grocery

When my kids were in private elementary/middle school we had to either pay an extra $1000 ..... Or do 30 hours of service per year. Now due to all of my kids spacing I was at this one school for ...22 years..!!! K-8. For most people they did much their service by working booths at the school's Fall Fair, in addition to working concessions at sporting games. Well I made a lot of crafts to sell at the Fall Fair craft booth. Ideas my wife came up with. . And I can tell you in every case I would have rather paid the $1,000. By the time you added up the time and materials purchased for to make items I was deep in the hole. Not only that but I was out of all my free time for a couple of months where I would have rather been fishing or something

Other things to consider are that if you are paid for at all..... Do you qualify to be a commercial business in your state? Do you meet the requirements to be a cottage business if there are any allowed? In some states there are stringent guidelines , including that you must be a commercial kitchen, others are more flexible. Some make exceptions for farm produced goods only.

I agree. It's too big of a scale. But I disagree with the crappy little machine description. It's a capable small batch roaster. I was not going to be paid for the gig. They were going to buy the beans, I was going to roast.
I would have paid to get out of the volunteer work if I could afford to!

If you don't mind the mess and potential health issues of exposure to vast volumes of billowing smoke, you could opt for open roasting of coffee beans in a rather large wok over an open flame, stirring the coffee with a large long-handled paddle. Of course it should be done outside while wearing protective equipment (mainly a mask, respirator, apron and gloves). You could probably roast 125lbs in a day or two and get a good work-out in the process.

I've met a few roasters. They seem to be nice folk--not to generalize I'm sure there are some bastards out there. There is one in my area whom I am sure would be down for something like your project. Perhaps you could works something out with one in your area?

There is a local bean seller who does holiday roasting, maybe there is something like this in your area. https://www.diycoffeeroasting.com/class ... -roasting/

We'll, it's a go. I expressed my concerns about the volume and not wanting to give away 30 day old beans. They set it up so the gifts will be staggered in batches so that the oldest beans will be two weeks old.

They're in the process of buying the greens now.

They saw the pricing for greens vs roasted and even with the bulk discounts for roasted, it was still going to be out of their budget.

Will see how my behmor fairs through this process. I'll make sure all the fans and vents and stuff are vacuumed out.

So I'm going to limit the roasting sessions to one hour chunks. I get three batches per hour. Weekends should get two or more sessions.

Goal at the moment is 30 pounds a week. Yikes.

This is not a money making gig. This is all for gifts.

Only issue I've had while roasting multiple batches is the dreaded ERR 2. I typically roast p5 manual all the way. ERR2 is an issue during multiple roasts so it'll be an issue for the whole time. I will not have extra beans to make mistakes with so I'll be riding the B button.

Will see if I still like this 'hobby' after this.

So they are unwilling to pay the green vs roasted difference and instead want you to spend 30+ hours doing that labor in your off time? Geez... Let us know if your Behmor still works after all that coffee!