Need some coffee roasters to give me feedback on school project

[petereps]

Hello everyone.

I've been home roasting coffee for about 4 years on an old HotTop I bought years ago. I am currently in school studying software engineering, and for one of my school projects I wanted to make something for roasting coffee. I realized that there was no good roasting "journal" style app for logging roasts by hand. Since I can't afford fancy roasting software to track my roasts, I thought I'd make a basic roasting note taking app that also creates a profile of the roast.

Since coffee roasting is such a niche hobby, I'm having a hard time finding users to give me some feedback on what they like/don't like. If any of yall could try out the app and let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate it! The app is called "Coffee Keeper" and its on the google play store.

Hope I'm not spamming, just genuinely want to improve the app. And it's not exactly easy to find coffee roasters to try it out without reaching out. Thanks!

 

[Musicphan]

From what I see on the Google Play store it's more of a brewing journal vs. roasting journal - right?

 

[topher]

I found the app. I am not sure what to do with it. You have "Roast Name", "beans" and "steps". The app has a timer at the top. Not sure why when you stop the timer it doesn't log it to "Steps" I really didn't understand how the app worked..maybe I was looking at it wrong. Just for s and g's would it be a bit more simple to have say:
Begin weight
Roast drop temp
Turn time/temp
first crack
second crack
end time
end weight
shrink
and a section to log temp and time?

 

[petereps]

From what I see on the Google Play store it's more of a brewing journal vs. roasting journal - right?

Both!

I found the app. I am not sure what to do with it. You have "Roast Name", "beans" and "steps". The app has a timer at the top. Not sure why when you stop the timer it doesn't log it to "Steps" I really didn't understand how the app worked..maybe I was looking at it wrong. Just for s and g's would it be a bit more simple to have say:
Begin weight
Roast drop temp
Turn time/temp
first crack
second crack
end time
end weight
shrink
and a section to log temp and time?

Really appreciate your feedback. You gave me some great ideas on how to improve it. As for using it in its current state: You start the timer, then start adding steps (fill out the "steps" section) and as you hit "Add Row" under steps, the time automatically fills in. I can see your confusion though, and your suggestions sound much more intuitive. I'll try and implement your suggestions this weekend. It helps to get some opinions from an experienced roaster. Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Tremontcoffee]

Interesting school project.
We currently use Artisian software to track roast batches
I would say after reviewing it you would understand the minimum requirements the app you’re building would need.

 

[petereps]

I found the app. I am not sure what to do with it. You have "Roast Name", "beans" and "steps". The app has a timer at the top. Not sure why when you stop the timer it doesn't log it to "Steps" I really didn't understand how the app worked..maybe I was looking at it wrong. Just for s and g's would it be a bit more simple to have say:
Begin weight
Roast drop temp
Turn time/temp
first crack
second crack
end time
end weight
shrink
and a section to log temp and time?

I updated the app last week based on your input. The roasting page is much easier to use now and clearly shows how to log a roast. Thanks again for your critiques, helped a lot.

 

[addertooth]

My handwritten notes are usually jotted in haste.

I sometimes have two thermometer readings written, due to lack of logging software, and no USB interface to feed a logger. The roaster I used does not support a bean temperature probe. It is a Gene Cafe roaster.

One temperature is an exhaust gas temperature via a type K thermocouple in the chaff collection chamber, the other is an optical pyrometer measuring external drum temperature.

My visual/smell notes are handwritten as well. The usual handwritten notes are 1 minute intervals.

Then there are the metrics of the bean roast itself. They look something like this:

Green bean description: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Misty Valley
Date: 30 September 2022
Ambient temperature: 82 degrees F.
Key temperature steps Planned for roast:
Pre-heat/Dehydration: 402
Initial Roast temperature until First Crack plus XX seconds: 473
Final Development temperature: 437

Bean starting weight: 227 Grams
Bean finishing weight: 198 Grams
Weight loss percentage: 12.77 % (it would be nice if the program performed this calculation based upon starting/ending weight)

Full Yellow Time: 6:15
First Crack Time: 09:55
Lower to 437 Time: 10:25
Drop Time: 12:45
Drop Temperature: 415
Development Percent: 22.22 % (It would be nice if the program performed this calculation based upon the time of first crack and drop time)

The minute by minute roasting notes include descriptions of the bean color, notation on the chaff lightening/lifting/etc, Puffing, seam-spreading, visual cracks, oils appearing *(for darker roasts), smoke seen in the exhaust, then the full spectrum of smells detected from the roast, grass, wet-grass, spicy grass, dough, bread baking, etc...

Final notes: such as "lots of chaff" "no-chaff due to SWP", "shorten roast to 12:30 next time", "use lower roast temperature next time", etc...

Sometimes I re-visit my roasting notes at cupping time and add flavor notes. This lets me know if I hit my target, or if I need to adjust the roast next time.

 

[shadow745]

My handwritten notes are usually jotted in haste.

I sometimes have two thermometer readings written, due to lack of logging software, and no USB interface to feed a logger. The roaster I used does not support a bean temperature probe. It is a Gene Cafe roaster.

One temperature is an exhaust gas temperature via a type K thermocouple in the chaff collection chamber, the other is an optical pyrometer measuring external drum temperature.

My visual/smell notes are handwritten as well. The usual handwritten notes are 1 minute intervals.

Then there are the metrics of the bean roast itself. They look something like this:

Green bean description: Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Misty Valley
Date: 30 September 2022
Ambient temperature: 82 degrees F.
Key temperature steps Planned for roast:
Pre-heat/Dehydration: 402
Initial Roast temperature until First Crack plus XX seconds: 473
Final Development temperature: 437

Bean starting weight: 227 Grams
Bean finishing weight: 198 Grams
Weight loss percentage: 12.77 % (it would be nice if the program performed this calculation based upon starting/ending weight)

Full Yellow Time: 6:15
First Crack Time: 09:55
Lower to 437 Time: 10:25
Drop Time: 12:45
Drop Temperature: 415
Development Percent: 22.22 % (It would be nice if the program performed this calculation based upon the time of first crack and drop time)

The minute by minute roasting notes include descriptions of the bean color, notation on the chaff lightening/lifting/etc, Puffing, seam-spreading, visual cracks, oils appearing *(for darker roasts), smoke seen in the exhaust, then the full spectrum of smells detected from the roast, grass, wet-grass, spicy grass, dough, bread baking, etc...

Final notes: such as "lots of chaff" "no-chaff due to SWP", "shorten roast to 12:30 next time", "use lower roast temperature next time", etc...

Sometimes I re-visit my roasting notes at cupping time and add flavor notes. This lets me know if I hit my target, or if I need to adjust the roast next time.

Awesome... I normally just fire my roaster up, toss the coffee in and let it rip until green turns to brown!

 

[addertooth]

Awesome... I normally just fire my roaster up, toss the coffee in and let it rip until green turns to brown!

Yep, that is certainly a method.
I am taking copious notes, as I am still trying to perfect and tune all of my roasts. I don't want to pay big bucks for some of the more exotic beans, if my next roast is not an improvement upon the previous roast.

 

[shadow745]

Yep, that is certainly a method.
I am taking copious notes, as I am still trying to perfect and tune all of my roasts. I don't want to pay big bucks for some of the more exotic beans, if my next roast is not an improvement upon the previous roast.

My next step will be hand roasting each bean individually using natural sunlight with seriously enhanced magnification... might take awhile so I will update in a few yrs after I finish the first pound, bwahahaha...