Products / Coffee
Hoq Roast
A touchscreen box that drives your roaster and logs every batch to the cloud.
What it does
Roast is two parts. A Linux box with a touchscreen sits beside the roaster and drives it over the roaster's own network connection: burner, drum, fan, cooling tray, stirrer, beans in and out. It records every roast whether or not the internet is up. The Yoshan 1.5 kg is the roaster it drives today.
During a roast the screen draws bean temperature and rate of rise, marks turning point, dry end and first crack by itself, and can listen for first crack with a microphone. It draws the blend's reference roast behind the live curve and tells you how far ahead, behind, hot or cool you are. Auto drop sends the beans out at the drop temperature with a banner about 30 seconds ahead. Up to six steps per roast change fire, fan or drum at a time, a temperature or seconds from first crack.
roast.hoq.app is the other part. Each roast lands there as a batch with its curve, weights, readings and log. You compare batches on one chart, pick a reference roast per blend, and get an evening report by email. The roaster's own console runs in the browser too: one person holds control, anyone in the roastery can watch, and STOP works without control.
In numbers
6automatic steps per roast, each on a time, a temperature or first crack
30saved step sets you can load into any blend
10 minroaster dropout a roast survives with its curve and marks kept
245 °Cdefault ceiling at which the box drops the beans by itself
3 minminimum length before a roast counts as production
Specifications
| Roaster supported | Yoshan 1.5 kg, driven over its own network connection. Other makes are planned. |
|---|---|
| Where roasts are kept | Each roastery is one document in the owner's Hoq Storage drive. Session recordings are separate files beside it. |
| Offline | The box runs standalone. It keeps the blend catalog locally and records every roast, then sends it when connected. |
| Remote control | One person holds control at a time. If the browser holding control goes quiet for 15 seconds with the burner lit, the box cuts the fire. STOP needs no control. |
| Safety backstop | With beans in the drum, the box sends them out 15 °C past the blend's drop temperature, or at a 245 °C ceiling if that is lower. Only STOP holds it. |
| Preheat | Warms the drum to a target and holds it, puts the flame out if the drum runs too hot, and stops after 30 minutes at most. |
| Export | A batch's curve as CSV, or the whole batch as JSON. The box can also copy every roast to a USB stick. |
| Labels | Batch and canister labels print on a USB label printer at the roaster, with your logo. |
| Practice mode | The whole console runs on a computer against a simulated roaster, with no gas. |
Features
30 features: 22 shipped, 8 in beta. Listed from the product's feature ledger; each row shows the day it was last checked.
| Today page | Shows the live roast when one is running, the day's roasts with totals per blend, and the latest batches. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Evening report | Emails a summary of the day at the roaster: every roast, totals per blend, canisters and who roasted. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Live roaster status | A dot in the header says whether the roaster's box is connected right now. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Roasteries home | Opens with what is going on, draws the roastery with a roast in the drum (or the one that roasted last) large with its curve and the day's numbers, and shows every other roastery as a tile. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-23 |
| Every roast is a batch | Each roast becomes a batch with its blend, charge and drop weights, curve, readings and log. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Batch detail | Opens one roast with its curve, milestones, measurements and activity, and lets you rename or measure it. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| False starts | A roast shorter than three minutes is marked as a test and kept out of blend totals. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Compare roasts | Tick any batches to overlay them on one chart, aligned at charge or first crack, by bean temperature or RoR. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Recordings | Lists the raw recordings from the roaster, roasted ones by default, with what was in the drum. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Between-roast recordings | Stores the roaster's recordings of the drum between roasts with the rest, kept out of the overview, the latest roasts and the roasts arriving now. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-17 |
| Export | Downloads a batch's curve as CSV, or the whole batch as JSON. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Blend pages | Shows each blend across all its roasts: spread per number and every curve overlaid. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Reference roast | Picks one roast per blend as the reference the roaster's screen draws and warns against. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Where each blend cracks | Learns each blend's first crack temperature from where its last ten roasts were heard cracking and sends it to the box. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-23 |
| Shop tether | Sends each finished roast to Shop Manager as a batch, with its roast date, weights and Agtron. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Canisters from the roaster | Makes a canister in the shop from the roaster, prints its label and returns the code. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Shop queue | Shows calls on their way to the shop and the ones it refused, so nothing goes missing quietly. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Batch labels | Gives the roaster a batch's label with the shop's number and QR, blend and beans. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Remote console | Runs the roaster's own console in the browser through roast.hoq.app, with control held by one person at a time. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Watch without control | Any roastery member can watch a live roast without taking the controls. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Look | Changes the box screen's skin from the web, remembered per browser. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Wall screens | Pairs a wall touchscreen or tablet by a six-digit code to show each roaster's state, roast time, bean temperature, rate of rise and curve live, read-only, also as a tab of a Hoq station. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-13 |
| One-tap pairing from a Hoq station | A wall screen shown as a Hoq station tab hands the station a Pair link that opens Roasters with its code already filled in, one press to confirm, and survives signing in on the way. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-13 |
| Roastery settings | Sets the roastery's time zone and evening report. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Belongs to | Moves a roastery between you and an organization you administer, keeping its address, recordings and batches. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Push notifications | Pushes roast trouble, milestones, finished-roast summaries and a daily roundup to the phones and computers each person turns on, with the groups they choose. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Roaster gone quiet | Warns when a roaster's box stops sending in the middle of a roast, before the drop. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Agent at the roaster | Links a Grimaste agent that is told each charge, crack, drop and any trouble as it happens, as its own roast. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-04 |
| Sign in with Hoq ID | Uses a Hoq account and its organization for access. | Shipped | Checked 2026-10-02 |
| Roast for iOS | A phone app that watches and drives the roaster live, built against the published console spec. | Beta | Checked 2026-10-02 |
Works with
- Hoq BlendWhen a blend's recipe sets a drop temperature, the box shows the change and applies it on OK.
- Hoq PrintWall screens show each roaster's state and curve live as a tab on a Hoq Station.
- Hoq InventoryFinished batches can be sent on as stock conversions (built; see notes).
Your data
| Where it is kept | One document per roastery in the owner's Hoq Storage drive, with each recording as its own file beside it. The box also keeps every roast locally. |
|---|---|
| Getting it out | CSV per curve, JSON per batch, and a copy of every roast to a USB stick from the box. |
| If you leave | Not documented in the repo. |
APIs and standards
- JSON door: POST /api/roast/w/{key} with a session or Bearer key
- MCP server at /mcp/roast
- iOS app (beta, see notes)
- Standard: CSV
- Standard: JSON
Compared
| Checked 2026-11-01 | Hoq Roast | Cropster Roast | Artisan | RoastPATH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Not published | Static monthly price plus a volume price; volume charges start after 250 kg a month1 | Free software (AGPLv3)2 | Free, $9, $79 or $129 a month3 |
| Roasters supported | Yoshan 1.5 kg | not published1 | One-click setup for roasting machines of 80+ brands2 | Machines from 37 manufacturers per the company4 |
| Drives the burner, fan and drum | Yes, from the box, the browser or steps | not published1 | Yes, sliders, buttons and PID2 | Roast Replay automation on $79 and $129 plans3 |
| What you install | A dedicated Linux box at the roaster | not published1 | Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi2 | A desktop roasting app5 |
| Watch a roast live from elsewhere | Yes, any roastery member in the browser | not published1 | not published2 | Consultants can watch a client roast live3 |
| Green and roasted inventory | Not in Roast; Hoq Inventory holds stock | Live green inventory from the Core plan1 | Inventory in the paid artisan.plus service2 | not published5 |
| Free tier | Not published | Starter includes 10 free roasts a month1 | The software is free2 | Hobby plan, 1 roaster, 3 days of history3 |