Rob Hoos' Roasting Lab Launches iOS, Android Apps and Roasting-Specific AI

Roasting Lab released native iOS and Android apps in late February 2026 and introduced a roasting-focused AI agent trained on Hoos’ books, training materials, and Roasting Lab community content, expanding the subscription-based platform that spun out of Rob Hoos’ consulting work and has run as a paid professional development hub for three years.

The mobile app appears on stores as Roasting Lab Community and positions itself around mentor-led, practical instruction. The app listing opens with Hoos’ bio: “Hi, I’m Rob Hoos. I am a coffee roaster, author, consultant, and mentor with over 20 years in the industry. I’ve been roasting coffee since 2009 and helping roasters worldwide refine their craft since 2013.” The listing highlights Community Forum and Technical Discussion, Specialized Workshops, and specialized content for different roasting platforms, including deep dives into machines like the Loring.

Rob Hoos framed the app rollout as something he had planned. “Moving to having a dedicated app for people’s phones is something I’ve been planning for some time,” Hoos said, adding that “the way of accessing the community is new, but the community has deep roots.” Hoos also described the platform’s audience and ethos: “I love this platform for anyone who is serious about their coffee roasting.”

The new AI tool is explicitly trained on internal Roasting Lab materials rather than broad web scraping. That training set is described as Hoos’ books, his training materials, and community content, and the product messaging places control on keeping outputs roasting-specific. The stated design goal is “to stay roasting-specific and grounded in real-world practice rather than pulling in random internet noise,” a positioning meant to steer the assistant toward production-floor solutions.

Roasting Lab’s stated membership span runs from home roasters to production operators. Hoos cited examples ranging from “home roasters who are just starting up with 50-gram batches to people running 5-bag coffee roasting machines, 300 kilograms per batch,” and the platform lists common discussion topics such as diagnosing roast defects, dialing in flavor targets, and translating profiles between machines.

The Roasting Lab Community copy emphasizes values and pedagogy: “Roasting Lab helps roasters at any stage go from isolated trial-and-error to supported learning,” and promises a “no-judgment zone” focused on honesty, curiosity, and practicality. The listing also states a hands-on approach: “I focus on how to manipulate controls to achieve your desired flavor profiles and how to maximize the potential of your specific equipment.” Screenshots of the app interface were shared in promotional materials accompanying the launch.

Several operational details remain undisclosed. Roasting Lab has not published specific pricing or subscription tiers tied to the app and AI access, and the company did not provide technical details about the AI implementation, such as vendor, model architecture, on-device versus cloud processing, or whether community posts will further train the assistant. For roasters weighing adoption, the immediate markers to watch are availability by region, pricing and subscription inclusion, and the safeguards Roasting Lab puts in place to keep AI guidance production-safe and reliable.