Our Roasters!
The heart of our operation! What started as one, quickly grew to two. And now four roasters! These roasters are manufactured by our partner Sonofresco who has been recognized as producing some of the highest quality roasters using the latest technologies currently available.
The three larger roasters are called flagship models and each allow us to roast about 1KG of fresh coffee about every 15 minutes. The smaller black one has half that capacity, but also allows us to adjust down to as little as 100 grams at a time. This is called a sample roaster. All three of our flagship models, and the sample roaster have the capability of monitoring and manipulating the unique characteristics of each bean by allowing us to create roast profiles unique to Brown Bag Coffee Roasters.
Each of these roasters is connected to a computer and through the use of specialized software we are able to control the amount of heat applied precisely over time. With this specialized equipment in place, we can dial in the exact qualities of each bean to bring out the best each has to offer. Very few roasters can claim the level of control we have over our roast profiles.
There are two major technologies used to roast coffee in the world today. These are drum roasting and fluid bed roasting.
Our roasters use fluid bed technology. Fluid bed is newer technology developed in the last 30 years. Fluid bed sends heated air from below the beans allowing them to roast and remove the outer coating of the bean - called the chaff. In traditional drum roasters this chaff largely remains in the drum during roasting. Removing it allows the beans to develop a much brighter flavour profile which is typically sought after in a drip, pour over or french press.
The best way to think of fluid bed roasting technology is if your home BBQ was combined with a large theater air pop corn machine! Compared to drum roasters, fluid bed is significantly more energy efficient as well.
At BBCR we have also opted to use propane as opposed to natural gas. While both are considered a clean gas, propane is more efficient with over twice the BTU per volume. This means we are using less to produce the same amount of coffee! Natural gas is also a green house gas which produces toxic emissions. Propane is very clean burning and is non toxic.
You can rest assured that delivering you the highest quality, healthy coffee is our top priority which we have thought about since our very inception, and not as an after thought.
Want to see them in action? We invite you to reach out to book a studio tour, and roast up some fresh coffee as you get a first hand look at what we are up to.