Keys To The Shop : Equipping Coffee Shop Leaders

RoR # 22 : Master Insights on Roaster Maintenance and Care w/ Doug Graf, Vintage Coffee

May 29, 2023

Doug Graf, a roaster maintenance expert with over 30 years in the industry, shares invaluable insights on coffee roaster setup and care. He emphasizes the importance of proactive maintenance to prevent major equipment failures and discusses common issues like airflow problems and fire hazards. Doug highlights the need for structured maintenance plans and the benefits of documenting actions taken. Additionally, he inspires new coffee roasters, encouraging them to leverage resources and networking opportunities provided by initiatives like the Roaster's Yield Retreat.

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Intro

00:00 • 4min

Mastering Coffee Roaster Maintenance

04:27 • 15min

Proactive Maintenance: The Importance of Early Communication

19:01 • 2min

Essential Coffee Roaster Maintenance

20:34 • 11min

Empowering New Coffee Roasters with Abundant Resources

31:19 • 2min

Navigating the Challenges of Coffee Roasting

32:54 • 14min

Essential Insights on Coffee Roaster Maintenance

46:30 • 3min

Setting up and maintaining a roaster for functionality, safety, and quality output is perhaps the biggest challenge of roasting. There are many variables and trades that go into it and it is easy to skip some steps, be less than detailed, and rush the project. I don't need to tell you, that is s a recipe for disaster. Perhaps nobody in roasting tech knows this more than the man who gets called to both set up roasters, and swoop in and deal with all sorts of emergency situations and repairs. Today on RoR we are talking with the legend, Doug Graf of Vintage Coffee.

Doug Graf has been rooted in the roasting, and roasting tech, repair and installation world for over three decades. From running his own family business for twenty years- to full time instal, repair, and consulting work for roasters over ten years, Doug Graf has maybe literally seen and worked on it all. Through his consulting company, Vintage Coffee, he provides consulting, training, repair and maintenance, plant design, and start up for coffee roasters of every size. Vintage is also a service representative for Canada for Loring Smart Roasters.

As you might guess, he is also a very active member of the roaster guild where he generously shares his hard earned wisdom and runs the roasters tent at the guild retreats.

In our conversation we talk with Doug about his career and focus on his advice and insights on how we should approach setting up and caring for our roasters and roasting spaces, and what the most common mistakes are related to maintenance to help us avoid needless troubles in the roastery.

We cover:

Task frequency
Wait time and working with the trades
Planning and patience
Trusting experts
Major mistakes we make
Checklists and systems
Anticipating the investment
The DIY trap
Intuition's role

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