A Roast Master FAB Series machine in San Diego. Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
Fluid-bed roasting equipment company and green coffee seller Roast Master made its U.S. coffee trade show debut at World of Coffee in San Diego last month, launching a new generation of its FAB series of commercial fluid-bed roasters while promoting green coffee sales.
(Read all of DCN’s WOC San Diego coverage.)
The FAB (Fluid Air Bed) series, now in its fourth generation, includes the new 300-gram-capacity FAB 300, along with updated versions of the 1-kilogram FAB 1000, 2.5-kilogram FAB 2500 and 6-kilogram FAB 6000. The FAB 300 and FAB 1000 on display at the company’s WOC booth showed off the aesthetic and technical updates in the new generation.
According to the company, retail prices range from $9,500 for the FAB 300 to $33,500 for the FAB 6000.
Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
“We’ve just got a lot more smooth curves and lines. Overall, the machine looks more professional, more like an Apple product,” Alex Lowe, co-founder and CEO of Roast Master USA, told Daily Coffee News. “In terms of functionality, a whole new software package and a huge new screen gives a lot more capability to a roastmaster. But then, of course, it also has the operator mode, which is just ‘put in the green and hit start.’”
Beyond exterior refinements, the new machines’ larger web-connected touchscreens allow finer real-time control over roast variables, as well as fully automated profiles and mid-roast profile edits.
A newly automated hopper drops green coffee into the chamber when the machine reaches its designated starting temperature. A more powerful cooling-tray fan helps collect chaff and cools beans more quickly after the roast.
Cooling tray and roast chamber exhaust are routed through a single vent at the top of the machine. The machines also support central monitoring of performance and usage, while owners of multiple machines can view, control and distribute profiles remotely.
Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
While all four new models are for sale, Lowe said San Diego-based Roast Master USA is focused largely on its green coffee services, providing FAB series machines at no cost to cafes that enter into wholesale exclusivity agreements for coffee.
“We provide profiles, training, maintenance of the roaster. They buy green coffee from me and they roast in-store,” Lowe said. “All the stuff that it takes to get up and running is very daunting. We provide all that.”
Lowe, a U.S. Navy veteran and co-founder of Artís Coffee in Berkeley, California, previously ran shops with live on-demand roasting using fluid-bed roasters made by Java Master. Lowe said he later served as director of west coast operations for Java Master, then teamed up with Swedish engineer Carl Langenskiöld to design roasting machines with a similar fluid-bed approach but different features and designs.
A Roast Master FAB Series machine in San Diego. Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
Those machines officially launched under the Roast Master name in 2019, with Lowe heading Roast Master USA. Roast-Master Limited lists its head office in Hong Kong and a factory and world distribution operation in Taiwan. In the U.S., Lowe said he remains focused on green coffee services alongside the new machines.
“There’s very few things you can do in a business to generate that kind of bottom-line profit with no upfront costs and really no change other than a little ventilation system and training your staff to roast,” said Lowe.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
