When our home-brewed coffee tastes fantastic, we often wish for one thing: we want to prepare it that way again, for ourselves and for others. But coffee preparation is the interplay of many factors, and it's not so easy to master an espresso shot or a filter coffee brew exactly the same way twice.
Some home baristas use a notepad, some freestyle from time to time, and more and more are using Beanconqueror. Beanconqueror is the app by German developer Lars Saalbach. He provides Beanconqueror to the coffee community free of charge, continuously develops the app, and is exemplary in terms of data protection and transparency.
We are thrilled with Beanconqueror and have used the app several times in videos. In this article and the accompanying video, we will introduce you to Beanconqueror.
By the way: if you want to import the information about our coffees into the app, you can now easily do so with a button. You will find these buttons integrated with many of our coffees.
In a Nutshell - What is Beanconqueror?
Beanconqueror is available as an app for Android and iOS. The app allows you to track almost all variables of a coffee brew. Whether it's brewing method, beans, grinders, scales, or pressure sensors, and much more; everything can be entered or even integrated into Beanconqueror.
Integrated means that we can connect many Bluetooth-enabled scales, temperature measuring devices, and even refractometers or pressure sensors (linkable with, for example, Faema E61 brew groups, the Flair or Cafelat Robot) with the app. These are displayed as a graph during brewing. However, we don't have to do all of this, although a connected scale unlocks many interesting possibilities.
Beanconqueror not only has an incredible range of functions but is also highly customizable. For example, you can use the app as a flavor database for tasting results, as a recipe book, as a tool for comparing brewing equipment or grinders, and even as a green coffee archive if you're a home roaster. There are no limits to the uses of the app. And the best part: the app is constantly being developed further. Curious?
Let's dive in and look at different ways to use it.
Tracking Filter Coffee Brews
We're brewing filter coffee. We've already set up the grinder and brewing method beforehand, as well as the coffee to be brewed. They are now available for selection. We enter the brewing temperature, note the grind size, briefly check if the scale is connected, and press the start button at the beginning of the brew.
We pour the water for pre-infusion. Thanks to the connected scale, the amount of water added is visualized in real-time. Alongside the time and weight, we see the real-time flow and the calculated flow. These graphs can also be deactivated in the settings.
If desired, we can mark the first drops and the end of the pre-infusion with a button. The brewing continues until the final amount. When the dripping stops, we stop the timer.
Anyone who wants to can also add a note and rating for the coffee. In the parameters, many other options can be activated, such as saving TDS, photos, or the effective beverage quantity. Was this your favorite brew? Then save it as such and you'll quickly find it again in your brew archive.
Tracking Espresso Shots
Instead of the filter coffee method, we select an espresso machine. Our input window changes, and Bluetooth-enabled pressure gauges are connected in addition to the scale. These create a new option: we can automatically start the shot when a definable pressure value is reached. Of course, we can still manually start the shot, and manually record the first drop as well as the end of a possible pre-infusion.
The graph now shows a pressure curve in addition to the weight on the scale. For espresso, we can also have the brewing automatically stopped by the scale, for example, when a minimum flow of 0.1 g/s is reached.
And it gets even more impressive. If you have Bluetooth-enabled temperature controllers like the ThermaQ Blue or BlueTherm from ETI Ltd, you can even integrate temperature curves. Naked Portafilter offers a suitable adapter that can connect both the pressure sensor and the thermometer to Faema E61 and co. That's simply brilliant!
Functional Variety and Flexibility
Brew tracking is the heart of the software, but its functionality goes much further. The app is flexibly customizable. You choose for yourself which functions and input options you desire, and if necessary, for each preparation method.
Is water important to you? Then you can activate a water database and track water in addition to grinders and filter methods.
If you want to save the Free On Board (FOB) or farmgate price of your coffee, you can enable that. You log and save what you want. Nothing more, nothing less.
You design your views, interfaces, and workflows to your liking.
Open Source, Transparency and Data Protection
In terms of transparency and data protection, the app is exemplary. When we were considering our Co2 calculator for roasteries, Beanconqueror was an inspiration in this regard.
It transparently shows what data is tracked, how the app is financed, and what financial expenses are incurred. Lars and the supporting developers also make the complete source code available.
Want to support Beanconqueror? You can do so here.
Supported Tools
We are currently testing various Bluetooth-enabled devices, so we also read through the lists of supported devices on Beanconqueror. There's a lot that can be done, and the work done by Lars and a small community of open-source supporters here should not be underestimated.
In fact, every Bluetooth scale and every interface must be individually integrated. And while common sense suggests that all scale manufacturers should celebrate this, some behave rather ingloriously by not providing support to open systems or even actively putting obstacles in their way. Unfortunately, Acaia, as the world market leader in Bluetooth coffee scales, must also be mentioned here.
What is currently supported?
Scales
- Decent Scale
- Acaia Scales
- Felicita Scales
- Hiroia Jimmy
- Skale 2
- DiFluid Microbalance
- Smartchef Scale
- Blackcoffee.io
- Eureka Precisa
(As of September 8, 2023) There are always updates. It's best to check directly in the app to see which other scales have been integrated.
Pressure Gauges
- Pressensor
- Smart Espresso Profiler
- Popsicle - Do It Yourself
Miscellaneous
- Refractometer DiFluid R2
- ETI Ltd Thermometer (ThermaQ Blue)
Bean Storage and Statistics
Beanconqueror can also be your bean storage. You can create beans or import them from roasteries that support Beanconqueror. We are doing this with more and more coffees and are continuously working to add more. In our case, you can import the bean information from the website. Some roasteries even print a QR code on the package. That's practical too.
Once you've entered the beans and the quantity, Beanconqueror tracks your consumption and shows you how much coffee you still have. All of this populates your personal consumption statistics. How much coffee have you ground? How long have you brewed in total? How much money have you spent on coffee...
If you prefer not to know, you don't have to see these numbers.
Thanks to our Lelit Bianca test, my espresso machine usage has definitely increased significantly and has pushed the V60 and Hario Switch off my personal favorites list, says Beanconqueror.
Currently, the following roasteries have uploaded information to Beanconqueror:
- We 😉 (in the German and Swiss shop)
- The Coffee Board
- Onoma Coffee
- Max Hase
- Roestbar
- Van Gülpen
- Good Karma Coffee
- Hoppenworth & Ploch
If we have forgotten your roastery, please comment below this article so we can update the list.
Conclusion and Thanks
Beanconqueror is a really great tool. A superb tool that makes brewing easier and at the same time opens up a large playground for us. All this is free, data-secure, and with short lines of communication to the developer, who offers direct support on Discord, via email, on Telegram, and in English and German coffee forums.
Beanconqueror is a great asset and a gift to the entire coffee community. We would like to say thank you for this and look forward to further exploring the app and presenting it in more videos.
We are just at the beginning with Beanconqueror. At the same time, the app is developing so dynamically and incorporating impulses from the community that we are quite sure that there is still a lot to come. In this sense... for more and thank you, Lars.
PS: We exported the first espresso shots from Beanconqueror and imported them into the Visualizer, which can also archive Decent Espresso shots. Another tool we will be looking into.
