03/07/2026
Community. Partnerships. Shann here. I don't post to our socials often, but wanted to share something. This week, like many in the Ottawa / Gatineau region I heard about the closure Kichesippibeer (https://www.instagram.com/kichesippibeer/). This is obviously a sad story, for what has been an staple in the craft brewing world in Ottawa for some time. What I noticed though was the outpouring of amazing stories about the team and ownership. From customers. To partners. And industry peers. While I didn't know Paul and his team, it's apparent just how respected they were.
When I started BBCR, I noticed quickly that there was a lack of community in the roasting world - at least in the Ottawa / Gatineau region. It has been something myself and a few other like minded folks have been trying to create. And I think there is a lot of good happening. I struggled to share something that has happened to us recently. But I think based on the community I see above, our story might bring some increased perspective into our community.
BBCR roasts using a Sivetz SRM-15 Fluid Bed roaster. This is a state of the art machine. Fluid bed, unlike a drum roaster uses a bed of hot air to roast. Because of this we are 100% convection roasting, where a drum also has some conduction from the hot roast chamber.
On February 17 our roaster made an incredibly loud noise. With quick reaction, our roaster was shut down into safety for us to look at what happened. Looking into our loft motor - which is what creates the bed of air, one of the fan blades had broken off. With how fast these move, it caused catastrophic damage to the whole motor assembly, as well as damage to our blower shaft, fan belt and gaskets between the assembly and the roast chamber. In terms of a fluid bed roaster, this is the worst scenario it can be. I immediately called Sivetz and we got to work on a list of replacement parts. But, we were down. And we can't really afford to much downtime as our partners and customers count on us providing fresh coffee daily.
Community. Thankfully, we are fortunate to have many friends in the roasting community. 2 quick calls later and we had support from our friends at Kafia Coffee (https://www.instagram.com/kafiacoffee/) and Cloud Forest Coffee (https://www.instagram.com/cloudforestcoffee/). No questions. No talk of money. Just immediate support to make sure we can continue servicing our customers and partners. It took nearly 2 weeks for us to get back to 100% and throughout this journey I only received support and compassion from our friends and partners. We can not expression enough how much respect we have for Gord, Stacey, Francis, Ben and the entire teams at Kafia Coffee and Cloud Forest Coffee. If you haven't please give our friends a try. Not only great people, but also roast damn fine coffee.
While I'm saddened about another amazing local business closing, I can only hope that should we need to do so in the future our community will look at us as positively as it has Paul and his team.
Sorry for the long post - but I thought it was worthwhile to give thanks, and be transparent.
