Tipping is a visual marker in coffee roasting that tells us we have applied too much heat transfer into the coffee seed too quickly. As a result of the excessive heat, the coffee seed burns through the tail end where it would naturally germinate. See below for an example of (minor) tipping. As coffee roasters, we avoid tipping because it is considered a roast defect. Tipping can introduce an ash-y, burnt or smoky taste to your brew, and even subtle astringency to the finish. However, delicious coffee can still have... Read more...

We're 6 months into roasting. While that's not much time in the grand scheme of things, after nearly 100 batches of coffee on this little Proaster THCR-01, it felt right to reflect and share some lessons learnt while profiling. This blog post is for other newbie roasters or hobby roasters looking for foundations to build their drum profiling system on. Here's a TLDR for those with less patience or time on their hands. Taste your coffee with other professionals. When you build heat momentum, keep it. Taste drives profiling, not... Read more...

Last updated May 9th, 2026. Tune in soon for updates on drop 4! If you purchased Drop 4: A/B Experiment, leave your profiles reviews here. Instructions for participants Wait until the coffee is at least 10 days rested before brewing. Ideally, the coffee is 18-20 days rested. Brew each coffee (your way) and take notes on flavors, roast character, and structure. No you do not have to brew each coffee on the same day. If you do want to do this, I propose you try cupping them (see Base Coat IG... Read more...

(11/21) Update: We've added some experiment results to our writeup and added a profile reveal. We are closing the quiz too. A larger writeup about coffee structure is still in the works! Profile Reveal and Quiz Results This quiz turned out to be hard! I think part of that was the terminology we used was very "roaster-minded" and for that we apologize. Moving forward, we'll make sure we're either setting up the question better or helping catch folk up to roast terminology before we go asking you "what had the... Read more...

(10/28) Update: We've added some experiment results to our writeup. Since we're effectively playing with 9 response variables (data points), this is very inconsequential to what statements we can make about airflow and moisture loss. The initial results do beg two larger questions though: 1) are we measuring properly? I am curious about batch size as a result of this work along with what other measurements might ensure accuracy (batch moisture content for example). 2) does pressure buildup in the barrel have a significant influence on weight loss? This comes from... Read more...