ROASTING
Learning to roast, one question at a time.
The Gene Café taught me to observe. The Kaleido M2 is the next laboratory: more signals, more control and a clearer chance to test what actually changes a roast — and what the cup says afterward.
This is the public map for that learning. The aim is not to collect profiles or pretend there is one correct curve. It is to move deliberately from Beginner → Intermediate → Advanced, earning complexity through repeatable experiments and recorded evidence.
HOW THE LEARNING WORKS
Question → test → evidence → understanding → better question
Each main roasting lesson should add something distinct. Start with a question, establish what I currently think is happening, change something deliberately, record the result, taste the coffee where that answers the question, and finish with what is known, what is new and what remains uncertain.
Hardware, software and tools support that path. They do not become the path simply because they are interesting.
CURRENT TRACK
Season 2 — Beginner: learn the machine and the core signals
The M2 era begins by resisting the temptation to chase profiles. First I need to understand the actual machine, establish a boring baseline, learn what its signals mean and see whether I can repeat what I just did.
0. Commissioning & Controls 101
Next. Confirm the delivered M2-C, electrical and ventilation requirements, Artisan connection, real control ranges and basic machine response. Initial seasoning flights use unwanted robusta as commissioning evidence, not as a sensory baseline.
1. Establish a 250 g baseline
Upcoming. Roast a familiar working batch without trying to be clever. The purpose is to create an observable reference for later comparisons.
2. Read BT, ET & RoR
Upcoming. Learn what the temperature channels and Rate of Rise actually look like on this machine. A signal is information, not a cup-quality score.
3. Repeat the baseline
Upcoming. Repeat before optimising. If the same plan does not produce reasonably repeatable machine behaviour, more complicated profile design is premature.
4. Change the heat deliberately
Upcoming. Make one clear heater-power change, wait for the machine and coffee to respond, and learn the delay between action and visible effect.
5. Change the airflow deliberately
Upcoming. Make one airflow change and observe what happens to heat transfer, exhaust behaviour, the temperature signals and the roast itself rather than assuming “more fan” always means the same thing.
The Beginner track then extends into first-crack observation, weight loss, colour, development and cup outcome as combined evidence. New links will appear here only when the experiment or lesson actually exists.
WHAT COMES AFTER
The progression earns complexity
Season 3 — Intermediate
Control, repeatability and roast planning.
Use deliberate heat and airflow decisions, compare plans with actual roasts, learn to predict rather than merely react, and test whether repeatability survives changes in coffee and machine state.
Planned. This track opens only after the Beginner foundations have been earned.
Season 4 — Advanced
Deliberate profile choices, sensory validation and transferable principles.
Design roasts for an explicit purpose, compare cups systematically, test ideas across coffees and batch sizes, and distinguish a robust principle from something that only works on this machine.
Planned. “Advanced” describes the learning stage, not a claim that I have become an expert.
SUPPORTING TRACKS
Useful tools — kept in their proper place
Some work matters enormously without being a main roasting milestone. These sidecars support the experiments without turning the project into a software or hardware channel.
Hardware & setup
M2 commissioning, ventilation, probes, electrical measurement, cooling and practical ownership.
Software & data
Artisan, Green Bean Ledger and evidence review: useful when they make a roast decision clearer, not as ends in themselves.
Build & tooling
CoffeePI, RoastFriend and supporting integrations. They enter the main story only when they solve a demonstrated roasting problem or change what I can learn.
THE FOUNDATION
The Gene Café chapter remains part of the evidence
The M2 is a new learning platform, not a reset button. More than 160 Gene Café roasts taught me about repetition, weight loss, first crack, machine state, failure, repair and the limits of the information I could see. That history stays available as a separate reference rather than being mixed into the new M2 progression.
Gene Café CBR-301 Field Guide
The practical machine reference built from official documentation, direct observation, photographs and repeated home roasting.
Roast notes
The working archive of individual roasts, comparisons, machine changes, failures, recoveries and cup observations. It remains useful evidence, but it is not the same thing as the structured M2 learning path.
THE RULE
A tidy curve is not the destination.
The goal is better understanding: what changed, why I changed it, what the roast evidence shows, what the cup adds, and how confident I should be before carrying that lesson into the next roast.
For the physical ideas behind the controls, start with coffee-roasting thermodynamics. For the coffee being heated, return to Understanding Coffee.