“Congratulations, It’s a Roaster”

Our roasting machine arrived crated on a pallet today–I’m very excited. I took the crating apart, moved it off the pallet, cleaned the machine, and put it back together. We still need to hook it up to the afterburner and the gas line, but this was probably the most fun part.

Here’s the crated machine, just off the truck (you can see our afterburner in the background):

Here I’ve started breaking down the crate, and you can see the machine’s nameplate. Normally the nameplate on San Franciscans is brass, but for some reason a previous owner decided to paint the plate and all the fittings a uniform black. I don’t mind, though I’d prefer the original brass:

See more pictures, including the fully assembled machine, after the cut.

Here’s a “before” shot of the rest of our space, with sinks and furniture waiting to be installed, light fixtures waiting to be hung, and walls waiting to be painted:

The machine freshly uncrated, but still unassembled:

Me cleaning the machine with a vaccuum. I still need to give the roaster a once-over with an alcohol solution but we got the majority of the dust and chaff and stray old beans off:

….aaaaaaaaand the finished, fully assembled machine! We reconnected the exhaust pipes and the wiring on the fans, and it’s ready to be hooked up to the ducting and afterburner. Of course, we still have to install the ducting, which is a whole new ballgame…:

I’ll continue to update as we get closer to officially opening the doors of our roastery. I’m excited to be able to blog about the process as we go…if you’d like to see or hear about any particular steps in the process, feel free to shoot me a line and I’ll be happy to blog more about it.