Grinders for a roastery: retail ground coffee and QC
A roastery needs a grinder for selling ground coffee and another for cupping and QC. What to look for in each, and the safety and freshness points that come with grinding.
6 min read Updated 9 October 2026
Many customers buy ground coffee: offices, filter cafes and home brewers without a grinder. Grinding in the roastery adds a step that affects quality, freshness, safety and labour. Choose equipment for the volume of ground coffee you actually sell.
Production grinding
| Feature | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Throughput in kg per hour | Match it to your ground volume per week; a small shop grinder will overheat on bulk work. |
| Burr type and size | Larger burrs grind faster with less heat; flat and conical burrs give different particle distributions. |
| Grind settings you can repeat | Marked, lockable settings for each grind size you sell (filter, cafetiere, espresso). |
| Heat | Heat during grinding drives off aromatics and, per HSE, raises diacetyl release; cool beans before grinding. |
| Cleaning access | Easy burr removal for cleaning and allergen changeovers. |
| Metal detection or magnets downstream | Burrs wear and can shed metal; many roasteries treat foreign body control as a critical point. |
QC and cupping grinder
A separate grinder for cupping and quality control avoids contaminating samples with production coffee. It should give a consistent, repeatable grind, be easy to purge between samples and be calibrated on a schedule. See production cupping.
Freshness and packing
Ground coffee stales and releases carbon dioxide much faster than whole beans. Pack ground coffee promptly, in bags with one-way valves, and consider shorter best before dates than for beans. If you grind to order, schedule it into the pack run so ground coffee does not sit open.
Maintenance
Grinder care
- Daily: brush out burrs and chute, empty retained grounds
- Weekly: check grind against a reference sample with a sieve or particle analyser if you have one
- By weight ground: replace burrs at the maker's recommended interval
- Record burr changes; the date matters for metal control
Where Roastnet helps
Questions roasters ask
- Can I use a cafe grinder to grind retail bags?
- For small volumes. Cafe grinders are designed for single doses and overheat on continuous work, which harms flavour and wears burrs.
- How often should burrs be replaced?
- Follow the maker's interval by weight ground, and watch for slower grinding, more fines and inconsistent particle size.
Official sources
Rules change. These sources were checked on 9 October 2026; always confirm the current position with the body that publishes them before you act.
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