When our freshly brewed coffee tastes fantastic, we often wish for one thing: to prepare it the same way again, for ourselves and those around us. But making coffee 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 help themselves with 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, constantly develops the app further, and sets an example when it comes to data protection and transparency.
We are enthusiastic about Beanconqueror and have now used the app several times in videos. In this article and the accompanying video, we introduce you to Beanconqueror.
By the way: if you want to import the information about our coffees into the app, you can now do so easily via a button. You'll find the 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 extraction. Whether 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-capable scales, thermometers, and even refractometers or pressure sensors (compatible with, e.g., Faema E61 brewing groups, the Flair, or Cafelat Robot) with the app. These are displayed to us as a graph during brewing. We don't have to do all of this, but a connected scale unlocks many interesting possibilities.
Beanconqueror not only has an incredible range of functions but is also very flexibly customizable. You can use the app, for example, as a flavor database for tasting results, as a recipe book, as a tool to compare brewing equipment or grinders, and even as a green coffee archive as a home roaster. There are no limits to what you can use the app for. And the best part: the app is constantly being further developed. Curious?
Let's dive in and look at different usage methods.
Recording filter coffee extractions
We brew 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 us to select. We enter the brewing temperature, note the grind size, quickly check if the scale is connected, and press the start button when brewing begins.
We add the water for the bloom phase. Thanks to the connected scale, the amount of water added is visualized in real time. In addition to time and weight, we see real-time flow as well as calculated flow. These graphs can also be deactivated in the settings.
If desired, we can mark the first drops and the end of the bloom phase with a button. Brewing continues until the final amount is reached. When the dripping ends, we stop the timer.
If you like, you can now add a note and rating for the coffee. In the parameters, you can enable many additional options, such as saving the TDS, photos, or the effective drink quantity. Was the brew your favorite? Then save it as such and find it quickly in your brew archive.
Recording espresso extractions
Instead of the filter coffee method, we select a portafilter. Our input window changes and Bluetooth-capable pressure gauges are connected in addition to the scale. These create a new option: we can automatically start the extraction when a definable pressure value is reached. Of course, we can also continue to start the extraction manually, capture the first drop, and any bloom phase manually.
The graph now shows a pressure curve in addition to the weight on the scale. With espresso, we can also have the app automatically stop the extraction via the scale when, for example, a minimum flow of 0.1 g/s is reached.
And it gets even more impressive. If you have Bluetooth-capable temperature controllers like the ThermaQ Blue or BlueTherm from ETI Ltd, you can even integrate temperature curves. Naked Portafilter offers an appropriate adapter with which both the pressure sensor and the thermometer can be connected to the Faema E61 and similar machines. That's simply genius!
Functional variety and flexibility
Recording extractions is the heart of the software, but the range of functions goes much further. The app is flexibly designed. You choose for yourself which functions and input options you want, also per brewing method if needed.
Is water important to you? Then you can unlock a water database and track water in addition to grinders and filter methods.
Do 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 and nothing less.
You design your views, interfaces, and workflows according to your taste.
Open source, transparency, and data protection
In terms of transparency and data protection, the app is exemplary. When we thought about our CO2 calculator for roasters, Beanconqueror was a source of inspiration in this regard.
It is transparently shown which data is tracked, how the app is financed, and what financial expenses arise. Lars and the supporting developers also openly share the complete source code.
Want to support Beanconqueror? You can do so here.
Supported tools
We are currently testing various Bluetooth-capable devices, and so we have also read through the lists of supported devices in Beanconqueror. There's quite a lot, and you shouldn't underestimate what Lars and a small open-source supporter community are accomplishing here.
Practically speaking, each Bluetooth scale and each interface has to be integrated individually. And while common sense would conclude that all scale manufacturers should celebrate this, some behave rather shamefully by not supporting open systems or even actively putting obstacles in their way. Unfortunately, at this point, Acaia must also be mentioned as the world market leader in Bluetooth coffee scales.
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 which additional 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 add beans or import them from roasters that support Beanconqueror. We're doing this with more and more coffees and are continuously adding more. In our case, you can import the bean information from the website. Some roasters have even printed a QR code on the package. That's also practical.
Once you've scanned in the beans and entered the quantity, Beanconqueror tracks consumption and shows you how much of that coffee you still have. All of this feeds 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'd rather not know, you don't have to look at these numbers.
Thanks to our Lelit Bianca test, my portafilter usage has increased significantly and has pushed the V60 and Hario Switch off my personal best list, says Beanconqueror.
The following roasters have currently entered information in Beanconqueror:
- Us 😉 (in the German and Swiss shop)
- The Coffee Board
- Onoma Coffee
- Max Hase
- Roestbar
- Van Gülpen
- Good Karma Coffee
- Hoppenworth & Ploch
If we've 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 instrument that makes brewing easier and at the same time opens up a large playing field for us. All of this free of charge, secure in terms of data, and with short lines to the developer, who offers direct support on Discord, via email, on Telegram, and in English and German coffee forums.
Beanconqueror is a great enrichment and a gift to the entire coffee community. We want to say thank you for that and look forward to further exploring the app and presenting it in more videos.
We're just getting started with Beanconqueror. At the same time, the app is developing so dynamically and taking inspiration from the community that we're pretty sure there's more to come. In that sense… here's to more, and thanks, Lars.
PS: We exported the first espresso shots from Beanconqueror and imported them into the Visualizer, which can also be used to archive Decent espresso shots. Another tool we'll take a closer look at.
