Compliment Coffee started as a hobby and turned into an actual business within less than a year.  Here is my story of how it happened.  If you're interested in starting your own roasting company this may be helpful.

 

There is also a video on this on Youtube with the same audio.

 

I spent maybe a month figuring out how to actually roast a coffee bean (becoming a Micro Roaster) and spent another month trying to come up with an affordable way to design a home drum roaster we could use on the BBQ already around my place.  Here is a view and some still shots on how I created our first drum coffee roaster for about $55 and some free time.  Here is a link on how to become a HOME MICRO ROASTER if the video below is not working by chance.

Step 1:

Get Stainless Sheet Metal.

BE VERY CAREFUL.  STAINLESS STEEL IS VERY VERY SHARP AND SERIOUSLY HARM YOU...  I would suggest have a professional make this quite honestly.  There were a few times I did not feel safe constructing the drum.

 

Step 2:

Shape and Drill the Sheet into a Drum.  Roll it around a foam roller used for muscle work and then drill the ends together as shown in the next picture.

 

Step 3:

Cap the ends with more sheet metal and tie them on with Cooper wiring (safe to expose to the temperatures of roasting)

 

 

 

 

Step 4:

Form a door (sorry no picture...see the video)

Step 5:

Hire a welder... $20 for our drum to put the pole through and attach to the ends.

 

 

Step 6: Roast and enjoy! Become a bad ass Micro Roaster!

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Our Humble Beginnings:Compliment Coffee® Roasters was started as a social movement, ending in development of great coffee. Our dream was to share a good honest conversation over a cup of coffee, whether it was roasted by us or not... but roasting was fun and a great way to see friends, like BBQing.We started with small batches of coffee but at some point our friend's desire for coffee, regardless of our presence, came to the forefront. They began to ask use for samples and 1/2 lbs at a time to share with their friends, family and even co-workers.As demand for Compliment Coffee® increased so did our need to find an affordable source of fair trade organic coffee. We did and this is where we are... sharing our love for coffee, conversation and overall having a good experience with people we like... all we want is for your to share the experience people you like!Enjoy!