Richard Muhl wears a number of hats at Five Senses, he’s just as comfortable with the cap on backwards MacgGyver style as he is with the hair net on in a high tech laboratory. As the person that heads up the R&D Department and Technical services departments at Five Senses, he’s learnt to be versatile! Fuelled on Coca-Cola and backed by a can-do attitude, he’s tackled some mammoth jobs for us, none bigger than the recent installation of our 90 kilogram Geisen roaster. Geisen are our kind of company, starting with the drum from a 1937 Probat roaster they effectively allowed us to pour out our wish list of features and they made it happen. Over to Rich …

When the shipping container arrived moral was high, just enough to keep everyone enthused throughout the unload of the imposing 5.7 tonnes of precision German engineering.

With everything in pieces behind me I felt like an artist looking at a blank canvas. In front of me was a huge, empty room purpose built for all of the Victorian roasting equipment. Clearly space was not going to be a problem.

The install took a few weeks of very long days … and working late into the night.

All in all the Giesen is an exciting new stage in the progression of Five Senses as a business. Capacity is an obvious win, especially for the roasting boys who are looking a bit tired from the super early starts, but more importantly the Giesen gives us an array of variables to allow us to manipulate roast profiles and unlock the absolute best from any chosen green bean.

Two things to look out for in the timelapse video below is:

1) Getting the 1.5 tonne roaster off its pallet using an electric fork lift, a pallet lifter and a few pine planks. At the time, a few nervous glances were exchanged between Gavan and I, but in the end we managed to get it into position without anything toppling over. Having said that though, it would have made for a much more action packed video if it had.

2) The two time Victoria Barista Champion in ‘casual’ roasting mode!

Giesen timelapse from Five Senses Coffee on Vimeo.

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