Today the RoastLog team is flying out to Seattle for the annual SCA Conference (note, it’s hard not to type “SCAA”). This years marks the eighth year that we have officially exhibited at the conference, and the ninth one if you count our appearance in Atlanta. In 2009 Linsey and I crashed shared a booth at SCAA Atlanta with a friend and setup shop with two Data Bridge prototypes and a couple of laptops. Our goal there was simply to Read more…
Low inventory notification based on realtime roasting data! Managing green coffee inventory is as much art as it’s science. Maintaining the right balance of inventory to satisfy your production needs without taking up precious roastery space or putting excessive pressure on finances, can be a juggling act. At RoastLog we’re constantly looking for even the simplest way to help our users find that balance. From the inventory page, users get a visual cue for coffees that will likely run out within Read more…
Producer/Farmer & Contract details all under one roof! Green coffee purchasing decisions can be complicated; and in many respects, it’s what sets apart the best cafes and roasteries. Now it’s possible to collect and organize all the details related to your coffees in one place. In addition to details about bean lots, cultivation, processing and physical attributes, RoastLog now manages additional producer and contract-related information. Screen capture of Producer & Contract Details on new bean lot page. Producer info: Producer/Farmer Read more…
Understanding roasting events based on when they occur Time and temperature of roast events, e.g., first crack, provide significant details for understanding roast development. Looking at first crack and other roasting milestones through another lens, can help shed light on how these events impact cup quality. Within the details page for any batch of roasted coffee, one will find a slew of information – time/temperature curves, of course, and other granular detail such as batch size, bean lot details, shrinkage, Read more…
Understanding the overall amount of energy transferred from equipment to beans We’ve introduced a unique way of representing the amount of energy inputted into a given roast. Comparing the overall Roast Energy from one roast to the next might be a convenient metric to measure batch consistency. We also have a hunch that it may be handy for understanding milestone events by adding a dimension beyond time & temperature. As displayed in the RoastLogger for iPad app In the future, Read more…
Blind cupping is now supported in RoastLog! When initiating a cupping session, blind cupping is turned on by default. If your cupping session doesn’t require masking the identity of your coffees, display the names with a simple click of a button. Now you see it… Click to display Roastable names. Now you don’t… Cupping forms are initially configured for blind cupping. We’re working hard to make RoastLog invaluable for running your roastery. Let us know how we’re doing!
To give you complete control over your sensitive info in RoastLog, we are glad to introduce our latest feature: role-based permissions. This feature enables the creation of customized views and the selective sharing of information while providing control over the editing, viewing, sharing, deletion and creation of specific data within RoastLog. The best thing of all: the permissions feature is now available to our current users and a standard feature of all subscription plans. Go ahead, enter that info Given the proper tools, collecting business-related data is Read more…
There is no denying that the science and experimentation of coffee roasting are alive and well within the industry these days. The tinkering and optimizing remind me so much of the so-called maker movement. One of the most heralded terms being batted around these days is heating rate, or rate-of-rise as it’s commonly referred. What’s in a name… Whether you prefer to call it the rate-of-rise/R-o-R/RoR, or our preference: the heating rate, understanding how quickly the temperature of the coffee beans rises and falls during roasting is Read more…
We’ve long promoted RoastLog as software designed for running your business. So while RoastLog is probably best known as a tool for developing and logging roast profiles and managing green coffee inventory, did you know RoastLog is used by many roasters as part of their air quality management program? Roasting coffee is fundamentally a combustion reaction and combustion by-products are created in the process, e.g., NOx, CO, CO2, SOx, formaldehydes and acetaldehydes, in addition to particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and organic acids¹. These emissions Read more…
It’s official! RoastLog is now available for use with the Phidgets 4-input Temperature Sensor. This is something we wanted to do for quite awhile. Compatibility with the Phidgets device simplifies the transition to RoastLog from other software systems and opens up an affordable option for home roasters who may have already invested in a data bridge and thermocouple(s). RoastLog was originally designed as a closed system utilizing our own hardware (initially, the 1st generation 1- & 4-input Data Bridges; and now, the 4-input Bluetooth Read more…