Roast Lab Coffee Roasting Tools
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Independent & educational

Learn to roast coffee on purpose

Tool guides, free calculators and reference articles for home and small-batch roasters. No products for sale, no affiliate pitches - just the reasoning behind each piece of equipment.

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Free calculators

Plan a roast before you charge

Work out green coffee weight from a target yield, estimate charge temperature and development time, or dial in a brew ratio. Every calculator shows the formula it uses.

Green coffee weight Roast profile estimator
Reference library

Understand what you actually taste

From first crack and development time to cupping vocabulary and defect diagnosis - the concepts behind the numbers your roaster is showing you.

Read the blog Cupping guide

Independent & educational

Written as a reference resource. We do not sell coffee, equipment or accessories.

Safety kept front and centre

Every equipment guide carries the specific fire, heat and ventilation hazards involved.

Free calculators, no signup

Green coffee weight, roast profiling and extraction ratios. Every formula is shown.

Reasoning, not just numbers

Guides explain why a setting matters so you can adapt it to your own machine.

Tool categories

Five areas of a roasting setup

From the machine itself to the cleaning routine that keeps it safe, every tool is grouped by where it fits in a roast.

All 28 tools

Roasting Equipment

The machines and hand tools that carry a batch from green charge to drop.

6 tools Browse →

Green Coffee & Storage

Keeping green coffee stable and dry so it roasts the same way twice.

6 tools Browse →

Temperature & Measurement

Probes, thermometers, loggers and meters that turn a roast into data.

6 tools Browse →

Cooling & Cupping

Stopping the roast quickly, then tasting what you produced.

5 tools Browse →

Cleaning & Maintenance

Chaff handling, degreasing and the routines that keep a roaster safe.

5 tools Browse →
The roast, step by step

Four stages from green coffee to cup

Each stage has its own tools, measurements and failure modes. Understanding the sequence makes every individual tool easier to place.

  1. Illustration: Green Coffee Selection
    Step 1

    Green Coffee Selection

    Check moisture, density and screen size. Record the lot and arrival date before anything else.

  2. Illustration: Charge & Roast
    Step 2

    Charge & Roast

    Preheat to a stable idle temperature, charge by weight, and watch the turning point form.

  3. Illustration: Development & First Crack
    Step 3

    Development & First Crack

    Mark first crack, control the rate of rise, and decide how much development the coffee needs.

  4. Illustration: Cool & Rest
    Step 4

    Cool & Rest

    Cool fast to stop development, weigh for roast loss, then rest before you brew or cup.

Most referenced

Popular tool guides

The equipment and instruments our readers look up most often.

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Roasting

Drum Roaster

A horizontal rotating drum heated by gas or electricity - the most common home and commercial roaster design.

Roasting Equipment View →
Roasting

Fluid-Bed Roaster

A hot-air roaster that suspends beans in a stream of heated air, roasting fast and clean.

Roasting Equipment View →
Roasting

Sample Roaster

A small-capacity roaster built for quick evaluation batches of 50-120 g.

Roasting Equipment View →
Roasting

Bean Probe

The temperature sensor that reads the actual bean mass inside the drum.

Roasting Equipment View →
Charging

Green Coffee Beans

Unroasted coffee in its raw, stable state - the input to every roast.

Green Coffee & Storage View →
Charging

Precision Scale

A scale accurate to 0.1 g for charge weights, yield checks and roast loss measurement.

Green Coffee & Storage View →
Roasting

Thermocouple Probe

A fast-response temperature sensor used where response speed matters more than absolute accuracy.

Temperature & Measurement View →
Roasting

Data Logger

A multi-channel recorder that captures roast temperatures over time for later analysis.

Temperature & Measurement View →
Charging

Moisture Meter

An instrument that reads the moisture content of green or roasted coffee.

Temperature & Measurement View →
Free tools

Calculators that show their working

No signup, no email, no data stored. Each calculator displays the formula it uses so you can check the maths yourself.

Free tool

Green Coffee Weight Calculator

Start from a target roasted weight and roast level to find the green coffee you need to charge, plus the weight you will lose.

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Free tool

Roast Profile Estimator

Estimate charge temperature, first crack timing, total roast time and development time ratio for your machine and batch size.

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Free tool

Extraction & Ratio Calculator

Convert dose, ratio and brew method into water volume, expected extraction time and a reference TDS range.

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From the blog

Reference articles

Concepts explained without the mystique - useful whether you roast on a drum, a fluid bed or a sample roaster.

All articles
Roasting9 min read

Understanding First Crack and Development Time

What is actually happening inside the bean at first crack, why development time ratio matters, and how to use DTR without becoming its prisoner.

Theo Nakamura January 22, 2026
Green Coffee8 min read

Green Coffee Storage: Keeping Beans Fresh

Green coffee is a living product. Here is how moisture, temperature and light quietly change it, and what actually slows the drift.

Mara Ellis February 3, 2026

Not sure where to begin?

Start with the green coffee weight calculator to plan your first batch, then work through the beginner's guide to home roasting.

Read the beginner's guide