WHY UP↑SCALE › FOR WHAT? › COFFEE SCALE
The coffee scale app for espresso & pour-over that brews with you
A free app for your Bluetooth coffee scale: pick a recipe, put your jug on the scale - and watch your brew come alive. The kettle pours when you pour, the coffee drips into the jug, and one big line tells you what to do now. The scale measures every gram and every second, draws your brew against your recipe and even weighs the coffee in your jug.
- A live picture of your pour-over, moved by your scale - free
- Lift the dripper: the coffee in your jug, measured - with one scale
- Pour faster, pour slower, stop in 3 - 2 - 1: a coach for every pour
- Timer, flow rate and brew ratio live - your brew against your recipe in a chart
- Espresso: a live picture of your shot, the first drops timed, your portafilters remembered
No account, no adverts, works offline. On our scales and adapters - and with the free virtual scale on many Bluetooth coffee scales you may already own.
Espresso scale and pour-over scale in one app: the scale knows your recipe
Set the recipe once - it is saved on the UP↑SCALE, so every phone, tablet or computer that connects brews with the same numbers. Then just brew: the scale sees what you do and goes on with you.
☕ Espresso timer
- Hands free: put the cup on - it is tared; the first drops start the timer, the end of the flow stops it.
- Dose and ratio give the yield (18 g at 1:2 = 36 g), plus the shot time and the pre-infusion of your machine.
- Live: a picture of your shot, the coffee in the cup, the time, the flow and the ratio - each with its target - and the chart of the shot.
- The dose without a tare: your portafilters and dosing cup remembered. The first drops timed when you start with the pump, the peak flow after the shot.
- After the shot: on time, too fast or too slow - and what to change. Tell it how it tasted and it says what to do next.
- Early stop (PRO): STOP NOW a little before your yield, learned for your machine.
🫖 Pour-over mode
- Step by step from the empty jug: the dripper, the coffee spoon by spoon - the first water starts the timer.
- Your pours, stir, swirl, press - up to 12 steps, or one of 50+ published recipes ready-made.
- The live view and the live chart, a beep at every step, the steps spoken aloud if you like.
- Lift-off: the coffee in the jug, measured - the brew ratio and the beverage ratio.
- Every brewer: a dripper on a jug, in a stand, immersion (French press, Clever), the AeroPress.
Only here: what makes it unique
We looked closely at the coffee apps and the apps of the coffee scales - for pour-over and for espresso. We found none that does this:
A picture that brews with you
The live view is not a film - your scale moves it. The kettle comes up when water reaches the scale, the coffee bed grows with every spoon, the drips run into the jug, the spoon stirs, the plunger goes down. A hand on the scale moves nothing: only water poured. The espresso has its own: the stream from the spouts follows the measured flow, the glass fills up to your yield.
The coffee in your jug - during the brew, and learned
Lift the dripper at any moment, put it back and pour on: the coffee in your jug is weighed live while it still drips - with the one scale under it. From every brew the scale learns how much water your coffee keeps, so the ≈ mark shows the coffee to expect before you lift. At the end: the coffee you made, the water the grounds kept and both ratios.
A coach for every pour
POUR FASTER, POUR SLOWER, STOP POURING IN 3 - 2 - 1, a score from 0 to 100 for every timed pour - and a stir or a press never counts as water. The complete set, measured by the scale itself.
The brain sits in the scale
The flow from 40 weights a second, the steps, the lift-off, the water the grounds keep, the dial-in hint, the extraction yield, the trainer score, the first drops and the peak flow of a shot, the dose in a remembered portafilter: worked out by the UP↑SCALE itself and checked by published reference cases. Every phone shows the same recipe and the same result.
Your coffee scale, our brain
Already have a Bluetooth coffee scale? The free virtual scale runs our scale firmware in your browser and puts your scale in front of it. Everything on this page then works with it - its timer runs along and its keys work.
Cafe quality with proof
Every brew in a tamper-evident log of the scale with the barista's name, recipes that only a QM or an admin can change, and a daily report per barista as a sealed PDF that anybody can check.
From the recipe to the cup
A whole pour-over in the free app, from the first tap to the QR code of the recipe:
- Pick a recipe: James Hoffmann's V60 from the ready-made recipes - with its own pours, times and stir.
- Check it, change it: 20 g of coffee instead of 30 - the water and every pour follow at once.
- Put things on the scale: the jug, the dripper, the coffee - each step goes on by itself. A little more coffee than the dose (21.2 g)? The water and every pour grow with it, live.
- Pour: the bar says what to pour and when - the bloom, the wait, POUR FASTER when you fall behind, the stir. A pause in a pour (the filter is full) is fine: the kettle waits above it.
- Lift the dripper: the coffee in the jug is weighed - your coffee is ready.
- Share it: the QR code carries the whole recipe - as brewed, with the 21.2 g. Scan the one in the clip with your phone: it really works.
The live view: see what to do
A picture instead of numbers: the scale with your jug, the dripper with the filter and the coffee, a kettle on the counter. It follows what the scale measures - and the bar on top says in big letters what to do now.
- Step by step: the next thing waits above its place with an arrow - the jug, the dripper, the coffee. Each step goes on by itself when the scale has it (OK always works too).
- The coffee bed grows with your dose, spoon by spoon, up to the dashed line of your dose - red while you are below, green when it is right, and a short ✓ OK.
- The kettle comes up and pours when you pour - in slow circles - and goes back down when you stop. Only water the scale counts makes it pour: not a spoon, not a hand.
- The gauge: all the water in blue with the marks of the bloom and your goal, the coffee in the jug in brown, ≈ the coffee to expect.
- 🫖 LIVE VIEW / 📈 LIVE CHART: switch at any time - the live view is where every brew starts.
The levels in the dripper and the jug are an illustration - the scale weighs the sum. Measured are the ground coffee, the water poured, the flow and the coffee in the jug while the dripper is lifted (✓).
Manual: live view, pour-over mode
Pour-over timer: pours, pace and the pour trainer
The classic pour-over is the bloom and one pour. Many recipes want more - so write your own: up to 12 pours and steps.
- Pours: each with its start and the water poured by its end. Change the dose or the ratio and every pour follows. A pour that was too short is made up by the next one.
- The bar guides each one: "POUR 2/3 - UP TO 212 G", "WAIT 6 S - THEN POUR TO 212 G", "STIR NOW" - with a beep at every new step. Start the next pour a little early and it goes along.
- Pace: give a pour its time and the scale says POUR FASTER or POUR SLOWER (orange) when you fall behind or run ahead.
- STOP POURING IN 3 … 2 … 1: near the end of every pour it counts down at your pace of now - with the water still in the air counted.
- The pour trainer: every timed pour gets a score from 0 to 100 for how evenly you poured - after the brew with a tip for each pour.
- A pause is fine: the filter is full, you let it sink - the kettle waits above the dripper without a stream, the drips go on, and the pour goes on when you pour again.
- Stir, swirl, press are steps of their own - the spoon in the coffee bed is drawn, and pushing on the scale is never counted as water.
- Your pours: after the brew a small table - every pour with the water it brought, the time you really poured (a pause does not count), its flow and its score.
- 🔊 Speak the steps, 📳 feel them: the app says every new instruction aloud, and an Android phone vibrates at every step - your eyes can stay on the kettle.
Manual: pours and steps, spoken steps
Lift-off: the coffee in your jug, measured
The scale weighs the sum of everything on it - the jug, the coffee in it, the dripper and the wet grounds. So we turned one move of every barista into a measurement: lift the dripper.
- Lift it any time, for a moment: as soon as your hand is still, the coffee in the jug is weighed (✓ in the picture, a mark in the chart) - live while it still drips. Put it back and go on, nothing is lost.
- At the end: LET IT DRIP counts down to the total time of your recipe, then LIFT THE DRIPPER TO WEIGH. Keep it lifted - the brew ends by itself.
- Two ratios: the brew ratio (all the water : the coffee - what your recipe says) and the beverage ratio (the coffee in the jug : the coffee), and the water the grounds kept.
- It learns: how much water your coffee keeps is learned from every brew with a lift-off - the ≈ mark of the coffee to expect gets better with every cup.
- Your coffee is ready: the dripper goes away, the jug steams, the result stays until you take the jug off.
Manual: lift-off
The brew chart with flow rate: your brew against your recipe
The same chart for espresso and pour-over - live while you brew, and kept with every brew.
- The weight in blue and the flow in orange on its own axis - in g/s, from the scale.
- The recipe curve (dashed, with a corridor of ± 10 % of its time): where you should be at every second - the pre-infusion, the bloom, every pour.
- Your last brew as a grey line: faster or slower than last time? With the brew history (PRO): your best brew, to aim at.
- Marks: the phases, the pre-infusion, the early stop and every lift-off with the coffee in the jug.
- Zoom to 60, 30 or 15 seconds, drag back in time, two fingers to zoom, ⤢ full screen - it keeps running live.
- Pressure and temperature PRO for espresso: a pressure sensor or a thermometer next to the scale runs as a line of its own - tell us how it works with yours.
Manual: brew chart, sensors
Every brewer: dripper, stand, immersion, AeroPress
- Dripper on a jug (V60, Kalita, Chemex …): jug, dripper, coffee, water - and the lift-off at the end.
- Dripper in a stand on the scale: the same, lift the dripper out of the stand to weigh.
- Only the cup on the scale, the stand beside it: the coffee in the cup is weighed all the time, the pours go by the time. With a second scale under the stand PRO the water is known again - every pour by its water.
- Immersion (French press, Clever, AeroPress upside down): the brewer alone on the scale, STEEP counts down, take it off and it is done.
- AeroPress on the cup: at the press the bar says TAKE THE CUP WITH THE AEROPRESS OFF THE SCALE - press next to it, not on it: the force of a press can harm a load cell. Put the cup back and the coffee is weighed. The picture shows it in front of the scale.
Manual: methods
Coffee recipes for your scale: ready-made, your own, shared
One line ☕ RECIPE under the numbers shows your recipe in short - tap it to change it.
- Ready-made (free): published recipes, ready to load - in one block per brewer: Hario V60, Switch and Mugen, Kalita Wave, Chemex, Origami, Clever, French press, AeroPress and espresso, every number from the author's or maker's own page (the full list). For pour-over e.g. James Hoffmann's "Ultimate V60 Technique" and his AeroPress, Tetsu Kasuya's 4:6 method, the V60 Switch of Hario, World AeroPress Championship finalists and the brew guides of roasters like ORIGAMI, Onyx, Square Mile, Stumptown and The Barn; for espresso e.g. La Marzocco's normale (18 g, 36 g in 30 s), Flair's starting recipe for the Flair 58, the fast 15 g shot of the study "Systematically Improving Espresso" and Scott Rao's allongé. Each brings its dose, ratio and times - and its pours and steps. Pick, look, LOAD, brew.
- Saved on the scale: dose, ratio, times, pours, method, water temperature and grind - every phone that connects sees the same recipe.
- ⚖️ Water follows the weighed coffee: a little more coffee than the dose and the water, the bloom and every pour grow with it - the ratio stays, the coffee tastes the same. Or switch it off and keep the water of the recipe, e.g. for the size of your carafe.
- 🔗 Share (free): the recipe as a QR code or a link. Whoever opens it gets the app with your recipe offered - all its numbers, pours and steps, even when the recipe was never on their scale. Right after a brew it shares the brew as you made it, with the coffee you really weighed in. 📷 SCAN reads a code inside the app.
- 📚 My recipes PRO: up to 30 named recipes on the UP↑SCALE itself, espresso and pour-over together.
- 🫘 Beans PRO: the bag from your inventory and its roast date - every brew books its dose out of the bag.
Espresso shot timer: the first drops, the flow, your yield
- Automatic: put the cup on - it is tared; the first drops start the timer, the end of the flow stops it. A cup swapped while the scale waits starts no shot.
- Pre-infusion: the scale can not see the seconds your machine wets the coffee - set them in the recipe and the timer shows the time of the shot like your machine.
- ☕ Live view: the stream from the spouts follows the flow the UP↑SCALE measures, the glass fills with the weighed coffee up to your yield, and STOP NOW flashes up in time. A pressure sensor or thermometer next to the scale shows its value live on the machine in the picture.
- Four numbers live: the coffee in the cup, the time, the flow and the ratio - each with its target. After the shot they stay.
- Ready-made espresso recipes from published sources, e.g. La Marzocco's normale or a turbo shot - recipes.
- ⏱ Time to the first drops: press START with the pump - or let your machine or the timer key of your scale start the shot - and the UP↑SCALE measures when the first drops come: a hint for the grind, kept with the shot. With the automatic start it is never guessed - the first drops are the start there.
- Peak flow: the highest flow of the shot, from a second after the first drops - next to the average, in the log and in the history.
- Your portafilters, remembered: weigh each empty portafilter or dosing cup once and give it a name - up to 4, kept on the UP↑SCALE for every phone. Then put the filled one on and read the dose at once, no tare. The one you used last is chosen again.
- Dial-in: after every shot the scale says on time, grind a little finer or grind a little coarser - against the time your recipe wants for its yield.
- How does it taste? Sour, bitter, both, weak, strong or good: one tap gives the advice for the next shot.
- 🎯 Early stop PRO: STOP NOW a little before the yield - when the weight plus the flow × the lag of your machine reaches it. The lag is learned with every shot.
- No room under the spout? The external check: weigh the empty cup, take the time, weigh the full cup.
Manual: espresso timer, live view, first drops, portafilters, dial-in, taste, early stop
Your brew history: rate, compare, aim higher
One good brew is free. Getting better from brew to brew is what PRO is for.
- Every brew kept: its values (for a shot also the time to the first drops and the peak flow), its chart, its recipe - and, one tap after the brew, a rating, the bean, the grind, the water temperature and your notes.
- Compare two brews in one chart with their values side by side - what changed when it tasted better?
- Your reference: make your best brew the grey line of the chart - the next brews aim at it.
- 🔬 TDS - extraction yield: type in the TDS of your refractometer - the scale works out the extraction yield and shows the brew on the brewing control chart, with an advice. A pour-over uses the coffee measured in the jug.
- 📊 Your day: all brews of a day in one report - per mode the time and the coffee in the cup with their spread, the ratio, the shots on time and your rating. Printed or as a PDF.
- ⬇ To visualizer.coffee: one brew or up to 30 at once as shot files - with the chart, the pressure and temperature of a sensor, the dose, the drink, the grind, the bean, your rating and notes. Upload them at visualizer.coffee to keep, share and compare your shots online; the app itself sends nothing.
- Load the recipe of a brew again, or save all brews as a CSV table. The history stays on your phone, not in a cloud.
Manual: brew history, extraction yield, visualizer.coffee files
For cafes and roasteries: the same coffee from every barista
With the ENTERPRISE & COMPLIANCE edition the UP↑SCALE writes every finished brew into its tamper-evident activity log - the mode, the coffee in the cup, the time, the dose, the dial-in hint and who brewed it.
- 🏢 The cafe report of a day: per barista and mode the brews, the time and the coffee in the cup (mean ± spread), the ratio and how many shots were on time - and every brew below.
- 🖨 PRINT / PDF with its number, integrity code and the seal of the scale - check it on up-scales.com/check: one changed number breaks the seal.
- Recipe rights: an operator brews with the recipe but can not change it - the dose, the ratio, the times, the pours, the beans. Only a QM or an admin can.
- Users with their own login on the scale, and your rules of change control for every change.
You roast your own coffee? The roast log with the roast loss of every batch, the way from the green coffee to the bag and the sales of a roastery: the page for coffee roasters →
Manual: cafe report and recipe rights, ENTERPRISE & COMPLIANCE
Espresso machines: the scale your machine can read
An UP↑SCALE scale or adapter can also speak the public Decent Scale protocol. Espresso machines and controllers that support it then use our scale - for example GaggiMate (brew by weight) and the Decent DE1.
- Weight and tare for the machine: 10 times a second in 0.1 g steps - and the UP↑SCALE app stays connected at the same time.
- The machine runs our timer PRO: when the machine starts its shot, the scale opens the espresso timer by itself and records the shot - with the time to the first drops, as the machine started before them. The machine's stop ends it, and the shot is logged ("started and stopped by the machine").
- Brew by weight: set the target weight in the machine - it stops the pump itself at the weight of our scale.
- Your own machine, your own relay PRO: the early stop of the espresso timer can switch a pump relay over ESP-NOW - STOP NOW stops the pump right before your yield. An example sketch for an ESP32 is in the manual.
- Already own a Half Decent Scale? UPCENT↑420 puts our firmware on it - with all coffee functions free.
This needs an UP↑SCALE scale or adapter; the virtual scale in the browser can not be found by a machine. Tell us how it works with your machine. Decent, Decent Scale and DE1 are names of Decent Espresso International Ltd. UP↑SCALE is not affiliated with or endorsed by Decent Espresso or GaggiMate.
Manual: Decent Scale protocol, early stop and pump relay · connectivity →
Flow rate: measured on the scale, not guessed
Most apps work out the flow on the phone, from the weights that arrive over Bluetooth - with the gaps and the delays of the radio. The UP↑SCALE works it out where the weight is made:
- Every reading with its exact time - with our own load cell up to 40 a second, before the rounding; with another maker's scale as many as it sends.
- A straight line through the last second of readings, with single drops hitting the cup taken out - calm, but no slow average.
- A faster flow of the last 0.4 s for the early stop, where every tenth of a second counts.
- It starts again after a tare and after a jump - a lift-off, putting the dripper back, a bumped cup - so these never show as a flow.
- The chart draws the flow at the time it belongs to.
The maths of the flow, the yield, the pours, the jug, the dial-in hint, the extraction yield, the trainer score, the time to the first drops, the peak flow and the dose in a remembered portafilter are among the reference cases of the validation: listed on the check page, run on your own scale with the ENTERPRISE edition.
Manual: flow rate
Free, PRO, ENTERPRISE: what is in which
Everything for one good brew is free - for ever, no time limit. PRO is your coffee over time. ENTERPRISE is quality with proof for cafes and roasteries.
| Function | FREE | PRO | ENTERPRISE |
|---|---|---|---|
| One good brew | |||
| Espresso timer: auto tare, start and stop, pre-infusion, the live view, the four live tiles, the time to the first drops and the peak flow | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Up to 4 portafilters and dosing cups remembered on the scale: the dose without a tare | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pour-over step by step with the live view and the lift-off | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Your own pours and steps (up to 12), every brewer incl. the AeroPress | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pace, STOP POURING IN 3 - 2 - 1, the pour trainer, your pours as a table | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Brew chart with the recipe curve and your last brew, the log with every chart | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ready-made recipes, share and scan a recipe as a QR code or link | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dial-in hint, taste advice, spoken steps, vibration at every step | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Your Bluetooth coffee scale on the virtual scale, its timer and keys | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Machines read the weight and tare (Decent Scale protocol, our hardware) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Your coffee over time | |||
| Early stop at the yield with the learned lag, pump relay over ESP-NOW | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| The machine starts and stops the shot timer | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| My recipes: 30 named recipes on the scale | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Brew history: notes, rating, compare, your reference, CSV, files for visualizer.coffee, the report of a day | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| TDS - extraction yield and the brewing control chart | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Beans from the inventory, booked with every brew | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pressure and temperature sensors in the espresso chart | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| A second scale under the stand of the dripper | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cafe quality with proof (needs an UP↑SCALE device) | |||
| Every brew in the tamper-evident activity log, with the barista | - | - | ✓ |
| Cafe report per barista, printed or as a sealed PDF | - | - | ✓ |
| Recipe rights: operators brew, QM and admin change | - | - | ✓ |
PRO from 4.43 EUR a month or 119.90 EUR once; with your own coffee scale on the virtual scale (no UP↑SCALE hardware) PRO VIRTUAL for 24.90 EUR a year or 89.90 EUR once. ENTERPRISE & COMPLIANCE from 13.00 EUR a month. Try PRO and ENTERPRISE 14 days for free on your scale. On the UPCENT↑420 (our firmware on a Half Decent Scale) all coffee functions are free. All versions and prices →
Your Bluetooth coffee scale: Acaia, BOOKOO, Felicita, Timemore and more
You don't need new hardware: the free app runs our scale firmware in your browser and puts your coffee scale in front of it - the virtual scale. The coffee modes then run as on our own scales.
| Scale | Weight | Its timer runs along |
|---|---|---|
| UP↑SCALE 420 / 710, the RS-232 adapters, the Half Decent Scale with UPCENT↑420 | own firmware | it is the timer |
| Acaia, BOOKOO, Felicita, Timemore (Black Mirror 2, Basic 3, Dot), Varia AKU, DiFluid Microbalance, Skale, Eureka Precisa / Solo Barista, Atomheart Eclair, WeighMaster / MantaBrew, WeighMyBru, Decent Scale and its clones | 0.1 or 0.01 g | yes: started, stopped and set back to 0 with your brew (where the scale can) |
| Hiroia Jimmy, Wilfa Svart Uni, IKAPE, INSMART 863A, DIY coffee scales (mpy-coffee, coffee-scale) and many no-name scales | 0.1 g | no (or no known command) |
- The keys of your scale work in the coffee modes: its tare key tares, its timer key starts the shot or takes the next step - where the scale sends them.
- A new brew sets its timer back to 0, and the app never echoes the timer back to the scale.
- On an iPhone the free beacio extension gives Safari the Bluetooth the app needs, on an iPad the free Bluefy browser - then it is the same app with the same scale: how it works on Apple devices.
Testers wanted: the parts of the coffee modes that work with devices of other makers are built in and should work out of the box, but they still need more testing with real devices: pressure sensors and thermometers (Bookoo Espresso Monitor, Pressensor PRS, ESPROFILE, Popsicle, Transducer Direct, ETI ThermaQ Blue, MEATER), a second scale under the stand of the dripper, espresso machines and controllers with the Decent Scale protocol (e.g. GaggiMate, the Decent DE1), a pump relay over ESP-NOW, coffee scales of other makers on the virtual scale and the upload of our shot files to visualizer.coffee. If you use one of them, please tell us whether everything works for you - or which problems you see. As a thank you for your help, you get a free lifetime licence! Write to us: 
The names of these devices, machines and services belong to their owners; UP↑SCALE is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Tell us how it works with your scale. The full list: + every scale. Acaia, BOOKOO, Felicita, Timemore, Varia, DiFluid, Skale, Atomax, Eureka, Solo Barista, Atomheart, Eclair, WeighMaster, MantaBrew, WeighMyBru, Decent, Decent Scale, Hiroia, Wilfa, IKAPE and INSMART and the names of their products belong to their owners. UP↑SCALE is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Manual: keys and timer of coffee scales, scales of other makers
Buying a coffee scale? What matters - and what the app adds
A coffee scale is a fine, fast scale with a timer. What makes the difference when you brew - and which of it the free app brings to a coffee scale that does not have it:
| What to look for | Why | With the app |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 g steps | an espresso dose of 18 g needs it: with 1 g steps you are up to 3 % off | shown as the scale weighs |
| Fast readings | 10 or more readings a second keep the timer and the flow close to your pour | the flow line through the last second of readings, with their exact times |
| A timer that starts by itself | hands free: the first drops of a shot, the first water of a pour-over | auto start, stop and tare in both modes - also on a scale without an auto timer |
| Flow rate | grams a second: shows a pour that is too fast or a shot that runs too fast | live on every scale that connects, with POUR FASTER / SLOWER |
| Brew ratio | water or coffee in the cup to the dose: the number recipes are written in | live, with the target of your recipe; the dose you really weighed in counts |
| An app | recipes, a brew chart, a history | free in the browser - no account, no adverts, works offline |
| Size and splashes | an espresso scale has to fit on the drip tray of your machine; water and heat hit a pour-over scale | - (a question of the scale) |
- Coffee scale or kitchen scale? A kitchen scale with 1 g steps is fine for the water of a pour-over, but too coarse for the dose and for espresso - and it can not time, measure the flow or talk to an app. With a supported Bluetooth coffee scale, a scale with an RS-232 port and our adapter, or one of our own scales, the app does all of it.
- Do you need a coffee scale? To brew the same cup twice, yes: a scoop of coffee can differ by 20 % and more, the weight does not. The scale is also the only way to know the ratio you really brewed.
- Smart coffee scale with app: a smart scale is a Bluetooth scale - the app makes it brew with you: the recipe, the steps, the flow, the coffee in your jug.
- Build your own: the open Half Decent Scale runs our firmware (UPCENT↑420), DIY Bluetooth coffee scales with the mpy-coffee or coffee-scale firmware connect through the virtual scale - for makers.
The limits - honestly
- The live view is a picture: how much water is still in the dripper and how much is in the jug is a model - until you lift the dripper off.
- The flow is about half a second behind live: it needs a second of readings. A scale that sends only a few readings a second (many coffee scales send 5 - 10) gives a calmer but slower flow.
- Keep the app open while you brew: the live view, the chart and the beeps are in the app. On our scales and adapters the steps run on the scale itself; with the virtual scale the firmware runs in the browser tab.
- The scale can not see the pre-infusion - it adds the seconds of your recipe when the first drops come.
- The time to the first drops needs a start before them: START with the pump, your machine or the timer key of your scale. With the automatic start the first drops are the start, so there is no such time.
- Ready-made recipes only with published numbers: we add a recipe only when its author or maker published all its numbers - so the list grows step by step. Your own recipes have no such limit.
Coffee scale: questions and answers
Is there a free coffee scale app?
Yes: the UP↑SCALE app is free in the browser of your phone, tablet or computer - nothing to install, no account, no adverts, and it works offline. With a supported Bluetooth coffee scale it is an espresso shot timer with the flow rate and the first drops, and a pour-over guide with a live view, the brew ratio and 50+ published recipes. PRO adds the brew history and your own recipe library on the scale.
Can I use a kitchen scale instead of a coffee scale?
For the water of a pour-over, a kitchen scale with 1 g steps is enough; for the dose and for espresso you want 0.1 g steps - with 1 g steps an 18 g dose can be 3 % off. A kitchen scale also has no timer and no app connection. For the timer, the flow rate and the recipes the app needs a scale that connects: a Bluetooth coffee scale, a scale with an RS-232 port and our adapter, or one of our scales.
Which coffee scales work with the UP↑SCALE app?
Our own scales and adapters, and through the free virtual scale many Bluetooth coffee scales: Acaia, BOOKOO, Felicita, Timemore (Black Mirror 2, Basic 3, Dot), Varia AKU, DiFluid, Hiroia Jimmy, Skale, Eureka Precisa / Solo Barista, Atomheart Eclair, WeighMaster, Wilfa Svart Uni, IKAPE, INSMART, the Decent Scale and its clones, WeighMyBru and DIY coffee scales.
What is the live view of the pour-over?
A picture of your brew that your scale moves: the jug, the dripper with the coffee bed, a kettle that comes up and pours when water reaches the scale, the drips into the jug, the spoon at a stir step. A bar on top says what to do now. It is in the free version. The levels in the dripper and the jug are an illustration; the coffee in the jug is measured when you lift the dripper. The espresso timer has its own live view: the stream from the spouts follows the measured flow and the glass fills with the weighed coffee up to your yield.
How does the app know how much coffee is in my jug?
Lift the dripper off for a moment: the scale then carries only the jug, and as soon as your hand is still it weighs the coffee in it - live while it still drips. At the end of the brew this gives the beverage ratio and the water the grounds kept, and the app learns how much water your coffee keeps.
How is the brew ratio of a pour-over counted?
All the water you pour, the bloom included, divided by the dose - as in the usual recipes: 15 g of coffee at 1:16 is 240 g of water in total. When you lift the dripper off at the end, the app also shows the beverage ratio: the coffee in the jug divided by the dose.
What is a good pour-over ratio?
Most published pour-over recipes use 1:15 to 1:17 - for example 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water (the 1 cup V60 of James Hoffmann, the V60 Switch of Hario), 20 g to 300 g (the 4:6 method of Tetsu Kasuya) or 30 g to 500 g (the V60 of James Hoffmann). The app counts all the water, the bloom included, and keeps the ratio when you weigh in more or less coffee. All the published recipes with their grams are in the table on this page.
What is the espresso ratio for 18 g of coffee?
1:2 is the classic: 18 g of coffee to 36 g of espresso in the cup in about 30 s (the normale of La Marzocco). Other published recipes go longer, e.g. 18 g to 40 g (1:2.2, Flair 58) or 15 g to 40 g in 14 s (1:2.7, the turbo shot of Cameron et al.). The espresso timer takes your dose and ratio, shows the yield, the time and the flow live and says after the shot whether to grind finer or coarser.
Can I brew the 4:6 method or other recipes with several pours?
Yes: write your own pours and steps (up to 12: pours with their time and water, stir, swirl, press, release) or load a ready-made recipe, e.g. the 4:6 method of Tetsu Kasuya, the V60 (also for one cup) and the AeroPress of James Hoffmann, the V60 Switch of Hario or the recipe of the World AeroPress Champion 2021. The scale says what to do next, beeps at every new step, counts down STOP POURING IN 3 - 2 - 1 and goes on by itself.
What does the pour trainer do?
Give a pour its time and the scale compares your water with a steady pour over that time: POUR FASTER or POUR SLOWER while you pour, and a score from 0 to 100 after the pour for how evenly you poured. Free.
How does the app measure the flow rate?
On the scale itself: a straight line through the last second of readings, each with its exact time, with single spikes taken out. It starts again after a tare or a jump (lift-off, putting the dripper back), so these never show as a flow.
Does the shot timer count the pre-infusion?
Yes, if you set it in the recipe: the scale can not see the seconds your machine wets the coffee, so when the first drops start the timer it adds them - the timer then shows the time of the shot like your machine.
Does the app measure the time to the first drops of an espresso?
Yes, when the shot starts before the coffee comes: press START with the pump, or let your machine (Decent Scale protocol) or the timer key of your scale start it - the UP↑SCALE measures the time to the first drops and keeps it with the shot, next to the peak flow. Free. With the automatic start the first drops start the timer, so there is no such time.
Can the scale remember the weight of my portafilter?
Yes, for free: up to 4 empty portafilters or dosing cups, each with a short name, kept on the UP↑SCALE for every phone and tablet. Choose one, put it on the scale filled, and the dose shows at once - no tare needed.
What is the early stop of the espresso?
The scale says STOP NOW a little before your yield: when the weight plus the flow times the lag of your machine reaches it. It learns the lag with every shot. A PRO function; with an UP↑SCALE device it can also switch a pump relay over ESP-NOW.
Does it work with GaggiMate or the Decent DE1?
With an UP↑SCALE scale or adapter, yes: it can speak the Decent Scale protocol, which these machines support - they read our weight and can tare it, and with PRO their shot timer runs our coffee timer. The virtual scale in the browser can not do this.
Can I share a recipe?
Yes, for free: SHARE makes a QR code and a link with the whole recipe - dose, ratio, times, pours, steps, method, temperature and grind. Whoever opens it gets the app with the recipe offered; it does not need to be saved on their scale.
Does the app keep my brews?
With PRO, every finished brew is kept in your browser with its chart, values and recipe; you add a rating, the bean, the grind, the temperature and notes, compare two brews in one chart and make your best brew the reference line - and save brews as shot files for visualizer.coffee (upload them there yourself; the app sends nothing). Free on the UPCENT↑420. The free version shows your last brew in the chart.
Does the coffee scale app work on an iPhone?
Yes: Safari has no Web Bluetooth of its own, so on an iPhone the free beacio extension adds it to Safari, and on an iPad the free Bluefy browser - then it is the same app with the same coffee modes. Android phones and computers use the normal browser (Chrome, Edge).
Are the coffee modes free?
Yes: the espresso timer with its live view, the time to the first drops, the peak flow and your remembered portafilters, the pour-over with the live view, your own pours and steps, the lift-off, the ready-made recipes, the pour trainer, sharing a recipe, the dial-in hint, the brew chart and the log are in the free version - no account, no adverts, works offline. Your own recipe library on the scale, the brew history, the extraction yield, the beans, the sensors, the early stop and the machine timer are PRO; the cafe report and the recipe rights are ENTERPRISE.
More in detail
All jobs in short: For what? · your kind of work: For whom?
Cannabis social club software (KCanG)
The KCanG documentation workflow and a checklist of every record point - done while weighing.
Cannabis scale app: weed in grams, eighths & mg THC
The price and the mg of THC of every gram, jars weighed without opening, edibles dosed by weight - and labels, stock and lots.
21 CFR Part 11 audit trail & data integrity
Who, when, what and why in the scale - mapped to Part 11, EU GMP Annex 11 and ALCOA+, point by point, with the limits.
Device qualification: time sync & WORM storage
No clock in the scale, no WORM disk? Lock the time and the storage of every device - with templates, form and a signed record.
QA guide: computer system validation of a balance
Introducing it in a regulated lab: the QA tasks, what the app takes over, IQ / OQ / PQ, an estimate of the effort and the steps to the sign-off.
Pipette calibration & check
Gravimetric pipette calibration along ISO 8655-6, step by step on your lab balance: the scale takes every value, the uncertainty, the CMC, the register.
Daily balance check
USP <41> repeatability and minimum weight, Ph. Eur. 2.1.7, trade and HACCP checks in one minute a day.
Scale calibration & test suite
Eccentricity, linearity, repeatability and every other test of OIML R 76-1 Annex A at the scale, with checklist and final report.
℮ mark prepackage control
The 3 packers' rules, the sample plan, T1 / T2 and the lot report, step by step.
Tamper-evident sales records
Numbered, chained, sealed and checked by the scale - for an inspection.
Inventory by weight, lots & bags
Stock by weight with the loss, a lot number generator and store, fill weighing into bags and the sales log - on the scale.
Food scale app: nutrition, calories & carbs
Calories and macros live with the weight, 8000+ foods offline, barcodes, bread units for diabetics, the values of a cooked pot - and a food diary for the whole family.
Baking scale app: baker's percentage & sourdough
Recipes in baker's percentage scaled to any batch and weighed step by step, the true hydration of your dough with levain or poolish, the water temperature for your dough and the sourdough starter fed on time.