I have been in touch with this group of business associates since October 2019 about them investing in a new roasting project that will require a 60kg or 120kg batch coffee roaster and associated production equipment. Back then I had the 5kg batch roaster to show them, which isn't quite the same as an industrial roaster that starts at the 30kg batch I have now. They were keen to visit and see the equipment, but the have many business's and between that and then Coronavirus it all got delayed. Which in a way was fortunate because in the end I purchased a roaster that actually looks like the one they are interested in, and because of Coronavirus they had to delay plans. They were going to visit last Wednesday, but it did not happen. Yesterday afternoon they rang to say they were coming today! Given I roasted with the big batch roaster Saturday, Sunday and Monday I would not have expected to need to roast anything with it today. But amazingly the orders are flying in right now and in fact I needed to roast Papua New Guinea coffee, Brazilian Peaberry, Thailand Doi Chaang for one order of 20kg, and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe 30kg batch because I am selling 30kg a week of that now. They were due to arrive at 1pm but ended up arriving at 2.45pm just as I was loading the last roast - not ideal but they got to see a full 30kg batch roasted, cooled and then run through the destoner - which did remove a stone! A solid hour and half talking non stop to answer their questions while also trying to roast perfectly with what is still new equipment to me - challenge accepted!
It's amazing to think that back in March 15th this year that same space looked like this as I was starting to get prepared for the 30kg Roaster arrival. And I'm more then a little bit proud 90% of the work involved was all done by me, weekends, late nights and early mornings at work - whatever it took. Sure my Dad helped a little with getting the 30kg roaster into place, our electrician ran the three phase power supply to the roaster, and our local gas engineer ran a gas supply to the roaster and connected it all up. But painting, ducting, wiring a double socket and then single socket, wiring a intermediate ducting fan outside and running the feed to a controller next to the roaster, hooking up a PC with wall mounted LCD screen to run Artisan Scope - all my own work.
And here we have the full control area, middle right the intermediate fan variable speed controller - during roasting the fan only needs to be at half speed, when the roast finishes and I drop the coffee to cool I increase it to full speed. To the left of that the Carbon Monoxide detector - the roaster has a forced exhaust as in it actively sucks out the burner gasses with it's own fan - but you can never be too careful. Below electrical fire extinguisher and fire blanket, coffee burns really well if you are not careful so does the chaff. Fingers crossed never had a fire in three and a half years of roasting but it happens. Green panel is the roaster controller with touch screen, above it the LCD for FrankenPC to run Artisan Scope that connects to the roaster via an ethernet cable from the roaster controller to the PC. It's still amazes me that the back up PC I set up annoyingly had it's propriety PSU die and I managed to splice wire a stock PSU to the propriety micro motherboard 24pin plug - it worked and then needing a 64bit system it took the 2 x 2gb ram I got for a different rig entirely and installed 64bit Windows 10 no hassle after four days of messing with the other machine. I still don't understand why when the motherboard of the other pc is more then capable of 64 bit I could not get a 64bit installer to work - only thing I can think about is thee CPU on the board is not capable -_- The little table I made was for the upright Tower that refused 64bit, FrankenPC has the PSU front right now and hard drives behind it so all weight is wall side - if it I tipped it side on the custom (drilled holes) for the stock PSU would be against the wall negating the PSU cooling. So it has to sit flat like that which means it does not fit the table very well - but all the weight is wall side. The pipe is legacy building heating that is not used anymore - I could remove the pipe bit it is more effort then it is worth.
Looking at FrankenPC from the other side, the crazy custom PSU power cable pops out of the slot where the CD Drive should be. Now the LCD has a power cable that needs a plug, the FrakenPC has a power cable that needs a plug - and I only put a double socket in so I would have to unplug something to plug in a vacuum cleaner or anything else which isn't ideal. Or I could have used an extension but that's just a load of plugs into something - and I had this top right junction box hanging around at work and I always have moulded plug power leads from decommissioned machines so I hard wired the LCD lead, FrankenPC power lead and also a single socket to run my amp so all three devices are just using one socket. Makes it all tidier and easier.
From starting my little roastery in a back room with the 1kg and 5kg roasters pictured top three and a half years ago, it's now expanded to adding the 30kg batch roaster that takes up the whole top end of the warehouse to itself.
Hive UK Northern Meet Up
All this hard graft in tidying up the shed means it is now a almost reasonable space to accept visitors, deep in the darkest depths of the #brits discord I have made furtive mutterings about a potential Hive UK meet up - and now I'm pretty close to making that happen.
The current plan is for September or October, hopefully Coronavirus will have eased a little and we follow all Government guidance on being Covid Safe with antibacterial gel, hand wash, extra hand washing - keeping social distance and face coverings.
#teamuk has a big established base, @shanibeer has organised many events, @steevc has been to many in the London area, including one last week organised by @nathanmars
Arranging meet ups is always tricky, locations are a problem, finding a date that suits all is harder, renting space costs - you have to be really tenacious to book space for events and @shanibeer has made this effort many times.
Having my own space it becomes easier because the only limitation is it will need to be a Saturday or Sunday when my business is officially closed. The actual date can be polled to find something that suits the most number of people that wish to attend, so right now nothing is fixed but if I can get feed back from interested parties on this post or on the #brits discord that will help to start narrow things down. Moving into August I plan to do a poll post to get an idea of the most popular dates, with the ultimate aim of setting a date that suits the most people that wish to attend.
Hive UK planned schedule of discussion
Guests arrive and mingle, refreshments will be available supplied by local business's to include buffet, coffee (of course) with various brewing methods, Tea for those that do, soft drinks and water along with Kraft Beers and Wines for those not driving sourced again from local business.
Hive blockchain and increasing onboarding including services like https://hiveonboard.com
Discussion on growing Hive token value including adding users, dapps, building interest in the token and adding value to the blockchain.
Showcase of our #brits musicians to include @darrenclaxton and @nickyharvey and any others shared by the group.
Full 30kg batch roast on my coffee roaster with detailed explanation of the roasting process, the coffee roasted will be given away in 250g bags as beans or ground to suit guests.
Time and weather permitting we will take a walk into Halifax town centre to look around the Piece Hall.
Access is super easy, Halifax Train Station is 10 minutes brisk walk from my premises, and connects with most lines even London has some direct trains or at most one change at Leeds or Bradford. Driving is straight forward off the M62 you can take Junction 24 to Halifax from West Side (Manchester) or Junction 26 East Side (Leeds and Hull) and it's straight roads right into Halifax centre.
This is still very much an idea rather then a reality, but if enough people show interest in attending then it will surely happen.
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Visit #brits Discord Channel Join #teamuk and make your posts easily found, post with the tag or create a post in teamuk community so your fellow Brits can easily find and support your work. Let's work together to make #hiveuk an active community on the Hive Blockchain.
I distribute coffee roasting machines and also espresso coffee machines and roast my own Speciality Coffee Range. being one of the premium coffee suppliers Yorkshire including a wide range of filter coffee sachets. Finally I have a dedicated website to my Artisan small batch roasted coffee featuring roast and post packs and super easy coffee subscriptions.
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The Coffee Break Discord Voice Chat Show, in @thealliance Mondays 10pm UTC hosted by @c0ff33a and @enginewitty
Catch me live and unleashed every week on @threespeak with my c0ff33 vlogs
