RDC8

Market was a fantastic success on the day (except when my card reader decided to do a software update and was unavailable for half an hour!!). Sold 26 bags (250gm) and countless cups of "coffee to go". Weather stayed dry for most of the day and the wind died right down. However, the electric setup for the grinder didn't work - I think I have bought an underpowered inverter (luckily I tested everything during the week before!) -so ended up on making a judgement call as to the ratio of pre-ground to whole bean to take. Was left with bags of ground but ran out of whole bean and could have s

It's certainly all go for this weekend @Dartmoor Coffee! New sign boards. New advertising banner. 9kg of coffee roasted, bagged and ready to go (3 single origins and a blend) and yes - the electrics are sorted. I splashed out on a 120amp leisure battery and a 1000watt inverter; just for grinding - no Moccamaster. Weather is looking a bit dodgy for Saturday so hoping the outlook improves between now and then.

A company out of New Zealand - Kaffelogic - has produced a small roaster which might suit you. There was a bit of a thread on here a while back. @Beeroclock has one so might be able to give you some more insight. My bad - replied before I saw the post from @Benjamin8732. I need to remember to read twice and post once!

I had thought about getting a generator (hire or purchase); but I've seen a few markets where stand-alone generators are prohibited, or they can only be petrol, or they can only be diesel, or no refilling permitted, or ... I guess what I'm looking at is being able to attend as wide a range of markets/fairs etc as possible, regardless of the constraints/restrictions imposed.

Yes! I too would be interested to know if this is a common problem and how others might have dealt with it. How old and how many roasts has you Dalian done @Johnny Ess? Mine is coming up 4 years and about 650kg through it.

Thanks for this very comprehensive explanation @DavecUK. Lots to take in and certainly food for thought. At this stage I think I will drop the idea of trying to use a moccamaster and just take hot water in airpots to make up french press. This will be mainly for tasting samples. If the water cools too much before the market finishes then so be it.

After some further research I think I'm closer to getting this set up in time for the market. There seems to be a wide range of "generic" chinese branded inverters on ebay; just wondered if anyone reading this has had any particular quality issues with their inverter. (although I suspect the bulk of the global supply is manufactured in China and then branded accordingly!) Then there is the question of the battery specs. Is there a quick way to find out how long a given battery will last given an estimated power draw? I was also thinking of adding a brewer - such as a Moccamas

@Stevebee I am starting to think I might need to go down this route. My grinder is a Mahlkonig Guatemala; it appear to pull about 600w max at start-up and then settles at around 160-200 watts once under way. So i'm thinking a 1000w inverter like this: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SK652104.html?source=adwords&ad_position=&ad_id=315107931576&placement=&kw=&network=u&matchtype=&ad_type=&product_id=SK652104&product_partition_id=987624279487&campaign=shopping&version=finalurl_v3&gclid=CjwKCAjwhMmEBhBwEiwAXwFoEXJ1ffRfmsAAjYNJwffnXqYUgHSvAeduiN

Well, looks like our local council has finally given the green light for outdoor markets to resume so I'm provisionally booked in for a market on 22 May. So much to do and so little time! This time I'll be by myself so everything needs to run like a well oiled machine. No onsite power unfortunately so I will need to take some pre-ground retail bags with me. @Dartmoor Coffee - I have two vacuum jugs like yours so am hoping they will hold the heat. Did you pre-warm them (with boiling water) before adding the coffee? I imagine if they were cold to begin with then they would tend to suck heat

@Dartmoor Coffee - thanks for sharing the experience. The first one is always a bit hairy - but it sounds like you did make a good impression on those who tried your coffee on the day. Hopefully you will get some follow-on orders from those who took away your cards. Did you offer a unique discount? I found that was a good measure of impact as I could track the usage of the code(s) directly back to the market. It's good that you have a few things to try differently next time. Were you just using the one Moccamaster to manage the 4 different coffees? What did you do with each co

@Dartmoor Coffee - Hiya Phil, How did that first farmers market work out for you? Hope it was a great success.

@Dartmoor Coffee - yeah, the chaff on this bean is pretty bad (Honey Process). I end up having to use the vacuum cleaner to clear the drum before the next roast goes in! Thanks for sharing the profile. Did you get a Roast Vision reading for how dark/light this roast went?

So I experimented yesterday with switching the power off completely just before FC and coasting the rest of the way. Artisan graph below. (This is a honey-process pacamara from El Salvador and is causing me sleepless nights). Power went off around 30 seconds before FC (it's the purple line). Overall I was happy with the time to dry end as I wanted a longer drying time on account of the varietal and the processing method. I was also happy that the ET probe showed the air temp in the drum starting to level-off prior to FC. Not happy to see the BT readings go into free-fall once FC began! It was

ahhh ... no worries. I should have read all of the back-story. My bad!

Hi @DavecUK If this is still available then I will take it. Let me know and I will PM my email address.