This guide is intended for folks that just need to get roasting, and desire a turn-key project.  

 

In this path, we make most of the decisions for you based upon years of testing and happy customers.  

 

Choose this path if you’d rather focus on roasting and less on building roasters.

Choosing a drum\roaster

What drum\roaster size is best for me?
Choosing a drum size is a common question by many.  We’ve have a flow chart here for helping understand the process or, cClick one of the items below.
For the home user and hobbyist.

We recommend a 2LB Drum Everything kit for home and hobbyist users that expect very light use and have no intentions of ever roasting for business.  See all 2LB options here.  

 

If you consume large amounts of coffee you may want to opt for the larger 4LB Kits

 

It’s quite common for you to begin roasting exceptional coffee, share with family and friends, and in no time people are willing to pay you for fresh coffee.  This has a curious way of turning a hobby into a business.  If you think that could end up being you, then opt for the larger 4LB drum Everything kit.  See all 4LB options here.

If you’re on the fence, about going larger, go ahead and get the next size up, as we hear many folks wishing they had gone larger, but never wishing they had bought smaller.

 

 

DRUMIDEAL BATCH SIZEMAX BATCHMAX VOL /HR
2LB Drum2LB2LBup to 6LB per hour
4LB Drum4LB5LBup to 15LB per hour
6LB Drum6LB7.5LBup to 22.5LB per hour
8LB Drum8LB10LBup to 30LB per hour
12LB Drum12LB15LBup to 45LB per hour

IDEAL BATCH SIZE: Guaranteed even roast

MAX BATCH SIZE: Usually achievable with extra heat available, evenness may suffer in some machines, results may vary.

For the cautious business roaster

If you’re looking to start a business, but you’re unsure of yourself, your business plan or your customer base, you might start with smaller business drum.  While we’ve seen a few people start a business with a 4LB drum, it quickly will result in quite a lot of roasting time.  

At a minimum, we find the 6LB Everything Kit to be the most suitable for entry level business roasting.  

If you are sure of yourself, your business plan or business model, and have access to a substantial customer base, we recommend starting with the 8LB Everything Kit or the 12LB Everything Kit. 

Remember, these drums will roast these volumes 3x and hour.  So the 12LB Everything Kit can roast up to 45LB of coffee per hour when fully loaded, the 8LB,  30LB and so forth.  These volumes are calculated by overloading the drums by 20% 

 

 

DRUMIDEAL BATCH SIZEMAX BATCHMAX VOL /HR
2LB Drum2LB2LBup to 6LB per hour
4LB Drum4LB5LBup to 15LB per hour
6LB Drum6LB7.5LBup to 22.5LB per hour
8LB Drum8LB10LBup to 30LB per hour
12LB Drum12LB15LBup to 45LB per hour

IDEAL BATCH SIZE: Guaranteed even roast

MAX BATCH SIZE: Usually achievable with extra heat available, evenness may suffer in some machines, results may vary.

 

For the dedicated business roaster

If you are sure of yourself, your business plan or business model, and have access to a substantial customer base, we recommend starting with the 8LB Everything Kit or the 12LB Everything Kit. 

Remember, these drums will roast these volumes 3x and hour.  So the 12LB Everything Kit can roast up to 45LB of coffee per hour when fully loaded, the 8LB,  30LB and so forth.  These volumes are calculated by overloading the drums by 20% 

 

 

DRUMIDEAL BATCH SIZEMAX BATCHMAX VOL /HR
2LB Drum2LB2LBup to 6LB per hour
4LB Drum4LB5LBup to 15LB per hour
6LB Drum6LB7.5LBup to 22.5LB per hour
8LB Drum8LB10LBup to 30LB per hour
12LB Drum12LB15LBup to 45LB per hour

IDEAL BATCH SIZE: Guaranteed even roast

MAX BATCH SIZE: Usually achievable with extra heat available, evenness may suffer in some machines, results may vary.

Choosing a heat source

A propane or natural gas grill is the preferred method for roasting.  Accurate heat control makes the roasting process much easier and quicker.  This is our recommendation. 

Grills – Grills are the most common and easily accessible method.  Purchase one, or use one that you already have.  There are some requirements.  NOT ALL grills will work with the RK Drum, so picking the correct grill is important. See Grill Requirements

While we don’t recommend grills specifically, the following brands at Home Depot, (as of 2019), work for anything up to 12lb, and can be had for $200 or less. We do not guarantee that these grills will work, please see Grill Requirements to ensure that the grill you pick out will work with your RK Drum.

NEXGRILL

DYNAGLO

SPECIAL NOTE:
If you are planning on buying a grill anyway, go ahead and buy a grill that will fit a 12LB Drum, this way, since all of our kits are cross-compatible you can just swap the drum out if you wish to upgrade later on.  

volume

The easiest way is to choose one of our kits that has most or everything you need.  Select a roast volume below to see the kits.

  • 2LB Roasters – Roasting for the family or for the professional sample roaster.  ¼LB-6LB per hour volumes.
  • 4LB Roasters – Entry level hobbyist or business roaster.  ¼LB-15LB per hour volumes.
  • 6LB Roasters – Mid-level hobbyist or business roaster.  ¼LB-23.5LB per hour volumes.
  • 8LB Roasters – Large volume business roaster.  ½LB-30LB per hour volumes.
  • 12LB Roasters – Largest volume business roaster.  ½LB-45LB per hour volumes.
  • Need bigger?  We have custom drums up to 150LB/hr.  Call us. 470-798-9464 or Skype Logosm  NAME: rkdrums

5.  Not sure what you need?  Check out the roaster flowchart here to help you decide.

selector tool mini

What are the requirements in a grill?

Grill Requirements for RK Drums

Understand that NOT ALL grills will work for your roasting application, so picking the correct grill is important. 

One of the most common questions we get is “Will this or that grill work?”  Determining if your grill will work is quite easy!

You can find a video showing how to measure whether a grill will fit an RK drum, as well as specific measurements for each drum size here.


While we don’t recommend grills specifically, as of 2019, the following brands at Home Depot seem to work well for anything up to 12LB, and can be had or $180 or less.


NEXGRILL
DYNAGLO

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are planning on buying a grill anyway, go ahead and buy a grill that will fit a 12LB Drum, this way, since all of our kits are cross-compatible you can just swap the drum out if you wish to upgrade later on.  
Just tell me which Grill I need to buy.

While we don’t recommend grills specifically, as of 2019, simply because it’s a major task to keep track of all of them, and most of them will work in any case.  The following brands at Home Depot seem to work well for anything up to 12LB, and can be had or $180 or less.



Please, double check these brands against the below requirements. anyway with a tape measure. Nothing worse than dragging your grill home, only to find out it won’t work.
NEXGRILL
DYNAGLO

We make it easy by providing a video of Shane measuring a grill at Home Depot to determine if it will work with the RK Drum. Also on the same page, below the video are the specific measurements for each size RK Drum.


SPECIAL NOTE: If you are planning on buying a grill anyway, go ahead and buy a grill that will fit a 12LB Drum, this way, since all of our kits are cross-compatible you can just swap the drum out if you wish to upgrade later on.  
Can I use my Meat Grill?

Using a meat grill is generally frowned upon by the coffee purists.  It’s possible the carbon, soot, meat flavors and aromas in your meat grill could contaminate your roast.  

 

The reality is that most likely your meat grill is not going to significantly impact your coffee however.  It’s likely people won’t come back to you and tell you 

“Hey, your coffee tastes kind of like steak.”

Most probably the elite coffee cuppers of the world could possibly detect some of these negative traits in your coffee, however, if you’re simply after a fresh, great cup of coffee at home, then we are confident that your meat grill will still deliver a cup of coffee far superior to that of store-bought coffee. 

 

There are a good number of folks that do use their meat grill since they already have it, and it’s just more convenient.

 

If you do use a meat grill, you may want to use some C Clamps, or wood clamps to simply clamp your motor assembly to the grill so you can remove it easily for grilling out.

 

On a final note, meat grills tend to rot out relatively quickly, being out in the environment, and being subject to lots of grease, soot, moisture and heat.  These combined can take out even the nicest of grills in just a few years.

 

Our recommendation for people wanting to roast professionally, and also preserving their roaster investment is to buy a dedicated grill for coffee roasting only, and to store it under cover.  Most people still have their coffee grill 20+ years and counting since it doesn’t get exposed to the weather or the grease and soot of meat roasting.  

 

It all comes back to your goals and your approach.

 

Either way, you’ll need to make sure that the BTU and size requirements are met, see the requirements question above.

Will the Grill I have work?

Most likely it will work on one of our drums, see the requirements above.

Does a more expensive grill make better coffee?

NO!  Do not feel the need to buy an expensive grill for the coffee’s sake.  If you want it for your own reasons, knock yourself out.

What are the size requirements in a charcoal grill?

Charcoal Grill Requirements for RK Drums

Understand that NOT ALL grills will work for your roasting application, so picking the correct grill is important. 

Dyna-glo Heavy-Duty Compact Charcoal Grill, Size: 568, Black

Make sure that your charcoal grill meets the dimensional requirements provided here.  You’ll still need the equivalent BTU heat output to roast well however, but usually this means “more charcoal”.

Can I make wood smoked coffee?

Yes.  You can do this either on a gas or charcoal grill.  

You can smoke the green coffee beforehand and then roast, much like a pork butt, or other meat, or smoke during the roast process.   Your results may vary.  We are hearing more and more of this, particularly from folks looking for a roasted coffee niche.

Check our Youtube channel for a demo of this:

https://blackbalsam.co/rkdrums/roast-videos/

What is the advantage\disadvantage to using charcoal

Charcoal presents a more challenging platform for roasting in that it is more difficult to add and remove heat precisely, quickly.  If your charcoal grill has a way of managing heat well, this may be less of an issue.   In coffee roasting, timing is everything, and we use heat to speed up the roast or take away heat to slow down the roast.  

Check out the recommended roast profiles for target times and suggested temperatures here.

In this way, you may find dialing in the correct time for the roast for each given volume more challenging.   For this reason , we recommend gas\propane as you can control the heat with the turn of a knob.

 

Once you understand the amount of airflow required to adjust heating for your particular roast volume, then you may find that heat control is less of an issue.

 

Some people, however, interpret the charcoal as imparting unique flavors to the coffee and it may represent a niche, business advantage, or simply a more interesting cup of coffee.