Cold Brew: On-Demand Production Workflow

Cold brew adds production steps that don't exist for whole bean coffee. This article walks through the on-demand workflow — where a customer order creates demand to roast, blend, and brew cold brew in the exact amount needed for that order.

Which workflow fits how you produce cold brew?

There are a few different ways to produce cold brew in RoasterTools. Use the table below to figure out which one fits how you produce.

What "on-demand" looks like in RoasterTools

When a customer orders cold brew, RoasterTools creates demand to produce exactly the amount needed for that order. Auto Plan generates the production tasks:

1. Roast task — for the beans in your cold brew recipe
2. Blend task — if your recipe uses a blend
3. Package task — your team brews the liquid cold brew and puts it in the final container (growler, jug, keg, etc.)

Completing the Package task creates the inventory needed to fulfill the order. There's no separate cold brew inventory to track — production starts when the order comes in.

Where does the actual brewing of the cold brew liquid happen?

There's a step in this workflow that isn't represented as its own task in RoasterTools: converting the beans to liquid cold brew.

Physically, this happens between blending and packaging — your team steeps the grounds, filters, and gets the concentrate ready. In RoasterTools, all of that work is captured under the Package task alongside putting the liquid in its final container.

So in practice, "Package task" for cold brew means: brew the liquid + put it in the container. Don't mark it complete until both steps are actually done — completing it is what signals the order is ready to fulfill.

Setup steps

You'll create a coffee product where the bag represents one unit of finished cold brew, and the recipe represents the beans that go into brewing that unit.

Step 1 — Create a bag for your cold brew variants

The bag ties a customer order to a specific amount of roasted coffee.

1. Go to Sales > Products > Bags and click New Bag.
2. Name it after your unit — for example, One Gallon Cold Brew or 5 Gallon Keg.
3. In the Weight field, enter how much roasted coffee goes into one unit.
4. Click Save.

Step 2 — Create cold brew products

Create a cold brew product for each package type you sell.

1. Go to Inventory > Products and click New > Coffee Product.
2. Name it for the cold brew product you're setting up (e.g., Cold Brew Keg).
3. Select the Recipe — the roast or blend of beans you want to use for cold brew liquid.
4. Activate the bag from Step 1 and enter the wholesale price.
5. Click Save.

How orders flow through production

Once setup is complete, here's what happens every time a cold brew order comes in.

Step 1 — Order is placed

A wholesale customer orders cold brew products.

Step 2 — Auto Plan generates production tasks

When you run Auto Plan, RoasterTools generates the tasks needed to create the product and fulfill the order:

• Roast task — for the beans in your cold brew recipe
• Blend task — if your recipe uses a blend
• Package task — your team brews the liquid cold brew and puts it in the final container

Step 3 — Your team completes the production tasks

Work through the tasks in order: roast → blend (if applicable) → package. The Package task is where the physical brewing happens — steeping, filtering, and getting the concentrate into its container. Don't mark Package complete until both the brewing and the packaging are done.

Step 4 — Fulfill the order

Completing the Package task creates inventory of the cold brew variant. You can now fulfill the order.

Tips & FAQs

Q: What if we produce more concentrate than was ordered?

A: You can add inventory to the cold brew product if you have extra. That lets you fulfill an order from existing inventory without needing to produce more.

If you regularly brew more than the order quantity, you're actually producing in bulk. Switch to the Bulk Cold Brew Production workflow so the extra gets properly tracked as inventory. On-demand only works cleanly when batch size matches order size exactly.

Q: Should I make cold brew visible on the Wholesale Portal?

A: Depends on how you want orders to come in. If you want customers placing orders to drive production, turn Available on Portal on. If you'd rather keep this internal so your team enters the orders, leave it off. You can change this anytime.

Q: Can I switch between on-demand and bulk later?

A: Yes. The two are separate products, so you can run one for a while and switch to the other. Just deactivate the version you're not using to keep the portal clean.

Q: Why does my team see a "Package task" instead of a "Brew task"?

A: RoasterTools uses "Package" as the generic name for the final production step on any coffee product. For cold brew, that step is brewing + packaging combined. When it's complete, the concentrate is brewed, in its container, and ready to fulfill.

Q: Can I use whole bean or do I need to grind for cold brew?

A: Activate whichever grind matches your process. Many teams use whole bean and grind fresh at brew time. Leave other grinds inactive on the cold brew bag so they don't show up as ordering options.