Home coffee roasting lab: get feedback and learn from your own roasts

Around Chicago and already roasting coffee at home but wondering, “Is this working?”

Join us at Sip Society's Home coffee roasting lab: get feedback and learn from your own roasts: a collaborative, guided tasting designed for home coffee roasters who want constructive feedback, clearer direction, and a community of like-minded learners.

This is not a roasting demonstration or equipment class. Instead, it’s a guided tasting and discussion lab where participants bring their own roasted coffee to share, taste, and evaluate together.

What This Workshop Is

• A peer-driven coffee roasting feedback session
• A guided cupping and brewing experience
• A place to compare roast approaches, curves, and results
• A low-pressure environment to ask questions and learn from others

What You’ll Do

Participants will:

• Share home-roasted coffee samples with fellow roasters
• Taste coffees through guided cupping and/or brewing
• Discuss roast profiles, development time, and decision-making
• Review roast curves and roasting specs (time, temperature, airflow, charge weight, etc.)
• Receive structured feedback from Sip Society’s coffee educators & peers
• Learn how different roasting approaches show up in the cup

This is about connecting data to flavor—and learning how to taste what your roast decisions are actually producing.

What to Bring

Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring:

• 200 gram samples of coffee they have roasted at home
• Any roast curve documents or roast logs
• Notes or questions about challenges they’re experiencing
• No roasting equipment is needed.

Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is ideal for:

• Home coffee roasters with basic roasting experience
• Roasters looking for feedback without buying new equipment
• People who enjoy collaborative, discussion-based learning

Why This Lab Matters

Most home roasters roast in isolation. This workshop creates:

• Faster learning through shared experience
• Clearer understanding of what’s happening in your coffee
• Community among people experimenting at similar skill levels

Coming together to taste your own roast is one of the most effective ways to improve without increasing cost, complexity, or pressure.