Tinker Coffee Co.

Overview

Tinker was founded in early 2014 by brothers-in-law Stephen Hall and Jeff Johnson — Hall a wine industry veteran, Johnson a 10-year IBM technologist — who started in the historic Herron-Morton Place district with a 1991 Probat L-12 and rebuilt the company in 2018 around a Loring S35 Kestrel at 1125 W 16th Street. Eight Indianapolis locations now include the roastery (open to public), Butler-Tarkington, downtown Market Street (in a former Starbucks space), the AMP at 16 Tech, two cafes at Indianapolis International Airport, and IU Health University and Methodist hospital outposts.

Known for

• Indiana's defining specialty coffee roaster
• Brothers-in-law founders with complementary wine/tech backgrounds
• Loring S35 Kestrel roaster
• Best Coffee in Indiana — Food & Wine
• Open-roastery cupping classes

Why it matters

Tinker is the cleanest example of how a traditionally Probat-on-the-side roastery scales without losing its bones — the Hall/Johnson brothers-in-law model is Indianapolis's specialty backbone, and their 'naiveté' approach (Hall's word) of jumping in without coffee-industry backgrounds and learning at scale produced a roastery that now operates inside two of Indiana's most-trafficked airport terminals.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

Jeff Johnson (analytical roasting focus per founder profile)

color sorting

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roaster machine

Loring S35 Kestrel (current); 1991 Probat L-12 (original 2014 roaster)

filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

1125 W 16th Street, Indianapolis, IN (Riverside neighborhood)

espresso equipment

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annual volume tonnes

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Café

Roastery (1125 W 16th St); 5555 N Illinois St (Butler-Tarkington); 380 E Market St (downtown); The AMP @ 16 Tech (220 Waterway Blvd); 2 cafes Indianapolis International Airport; IU Health University Hospital; IU Health Methodist Hospital

Recognitions

• Best Coffee in Indiana — Food & Wine

Sources

• https://www.yelp.com/biz/tinker-coffee-indianapolis
• https://www.tinkercoffee.com/pages/locations
• https://crema.co/roasters/tinker-coffee-co
• https://indychamber.com/2023/02/22/i-am-indy-chamber-tinker-coffee/
• https://my-indiana-home.com/food/giveaway-made-in-in-tinker-coffee-co/
• https://www.drnkcltr.com/tinker-coffee-co
• https://downtownindy.org/go/tinker-coffee-co