Bean to Brew is First Crack’s flagship course. Want to learn to roast? This is the best bang-for-your-buck education available. In fact, it’s free for First Crack’s co-roasting and white labeling customers!

Bean to Brew is a 16-hour course complete with official certification of completion. This comprehensive course exposes students to cutting-edge approaches, up-to-date industry knowledge, and current ‘best practice’ strategies for every facet of coffee.

Students receive an approximately 200-page coursebook (enhanced eBook) complete with approximately eight hours of video (lectures and practical skills), fully-cited text, graphics, a study guide, practice test and answer key. As with all First Crack courses, Bean to Brew has two components: theoretical principles, and practical skills. Theoretical concepts covered include (but are not limited to) coffee history, quality variables across the value chain, green varieties, grading, green defects, processing, seasonality, certifications and sourcing, storage and freshness, sample roasting, brewing basics, phases of the roast, roast variables, profiling, roast strategies for non-standard coffees, roasting for espresso, blending, decaffeination and flavoring, profiling software, roast defects, heat transfer, transferring profiles across machines of different make and size, consistency across varying batch sizes, pricing, branding, roastery design, business goals, and more. Practical skills include (but are not limited to) cupping, palate development, green coffee grading, sample roasting, roast profiling, production roasting, QC in the context of a roastery, cleaning and maintenance, safety and operation, and more.

This hands-on course has students roasting, cupping and brewing from day one. The course has been taught to thousands of students ranging from absolute beginners to seasoned coffee professionals alike.

Graduates leave with the ability to step into almost any roasting job conceivable.

Bean to Brew can be taken in-person or online (online students contact us for a list of required equipment). Travel expenses not included.

Price: $1,050 per person. Free for co-roasting and white-labeling customers*
*For new businesses a $1,050 deposit is required, which can then be applied to roaster rental or roasted coffee. Must be used within 12 months.

Contact us for more information or to schedule a course!