Phew, so much to do at Caffe Culture, so little time – WBC; WAC; Brew Bar; ; Lectures; Networking (Partee!). Three days – put these on your to-do list: Read the rest of this entry »

The final burr-set. Well, if anything is really final, that is!

The final burrset for now, shall we say.

Those who have followed the Uber Project will be aware of the Uber Ginder. For those who don’t kow what I’m blathering on about all relevant links are at the bottom of this post. Read the rest of this entry »

In the first of a couple of pre Caffe Culture/WBC 2010 posts, I am delighted to say Marco will exclusively launch the Baratza range of Coffee Grinders in Europe for the first time at Caffe Culture.

Read the rest of this entry »

The enemy I refer to is the Americano. Anybody who knows me will know I have very strong feelings about the value of an Americano as an alternative to a cup of ‘correctly’ brewed coffee. I think  the Americano is a very poor substitute. I presented a seminar on this subject at Caffe Culture 2007, the slides of which are here.

Often requested, the Americanos served in the UK and Irish markets are for the most part an exercise in delivering a cup of inconsistent rubbish. Last Friday in Dublin at the Art of Coffee I stopped to grab a quick coffee, knowing there was a chance of a good experience as Ruslan, who is behind it, is a good guy and he uses coffees from the excellent Coffee Angel . Disappointed to find no filter on offer, I had a fine capp. While leaving, I noticed something that tickled my fancy.

I was impressed to see a counter top font squeezed in between the espresso machine and grinder, used to dispense a fixed pre-set volume of water at a fixed temperature  as the base of a double-shot Americano. I was obviously pleased to see it as it is a Marco unit, but more so because of Ruslan’s positivity towards it. The unit ensured the Americanos he served were always consistent re. shot to water ratio and signifcantly increased his output at peak times as there was no water draw on the espresso machine.

10L under counter boiler feeds the counter top font

Squished between the Anfim and the Espresso machine is the font as seen from the customer's side

Apologies if this post sounds like a shameless plug! It was simply the first time I had seen anybody try to manage Americanos with anything approaching care. I must nod again to Karl at Coffee Angel, as he did it first. I might even buy one next time i’m in. Hmmm…unlikely…..actually,  erm……nah…..never!

Spurred by David Walsh’s recent post on grind size and the villified omigrind, a latent bugbear of mine has been stirred from the far reaches of my oft-troubled mind. Namely where did these traditionally accepted norms for brewing (contact) times come from?

Technology and physics inevitably provide the answers. Just as technology facilitated everything from the steel reinforced architectural marvels of the second half of the 20th century to the moulded consumer products of the same era, so too does technology and her master, physics, provide answers to where accepted contact times for different brew methods derive from.

Let’s examine a few of those methods and the brew times associated with them. In all cases, we must remember, grind size and contact time are inextricably linked. It is undeniably true that, all other factors being equal, a fine grind will extract more than a coarse grind over the same contact time. You will also find if two brews have the same grind profile, the brew with a longer contact time will extract more.

French Press Accepted norm: 4 minutes

Why: The physical need for the wire mesh on an FP to allow its succesful depression while holding back solids and releasing liquid determines the mesh size. If ground coarse, the maximum of grinds can be caught by the mesh, which s good. Most commercial grinders yield less fines the coarser you grind. So coarse grind is required to maximise the FP as a brewmethod and coarse grinds need long contact time. How long?  It depends on the actual grind chosen but 4 minutes has become the industry norm as a good average.

Pour and Serve Automatic Brewers Accepted Norm: 4-6 minutes

Why: The filter basket. Most of these brewers  have a basket with an industry standard filter paper, which will hold up to 500ml comfortably. They will not hold a full brew of 1.8L (3 pints) without flooding. Physics dictates the need for a basket to have an exit hole to suit the incoming flow rate of water delivery. This relationship must  to allow incoming water enough contact time with the coffee bed to extract correctly and allow the successful exit of the brew before basket flooding. Too fine a grind will choke the brew exit and flood the basket. Thus, what has become known as a filter grind or medium grind is used. The success of this medium grind is linked to so many other factors that a fixed contact time is impossible to prescribe. Hence, the rather loose standard of 4-6 minutes.

Bulk Brew Accepted norm 6-8 minutes

Why: More brew volume out means more water in. If a 6 litre (3 gallon) brew is required, it physically takes a bulk filter (drip) brewer a longer time to pour 6L through the coffee bed while avoiding basket flooding. This longer contact time then determines the need for an increase in grind size,to avoid over extraction.

Bulk Brew with Bypass 

Does this help: Bypass is an additional feature to facilitate operations and logistics of large volume brewing, rather than brew quality.  It is the addition of hot water to a final brew, thus diluting the brew. It exists for two main reasons – speed up commercial delivery of large brew volumes without flooding baskets and/or facilitate the same grind profile for smaller and larger brew volumes by maintaining contact time but compensating the stronger brew through dilution, thus suiting pre-ground packs for volume roasters.

I could go on but to spend any more time will inevitably result in an undesirable level of bitterness, which really should be avoided!

Just back from SCAA and a post of findings and thoughts will follow.  This particular post is a bit overdue and takes precedence. I have posted about the Uber Grinder part of the Marco Uber Project a couple of times, initially where we wanted to explore the taste profiles resulting from different particle distributions and latterly about the results of trying to achieve the elusive ‘perfect’ burr.

I promised to post the grind profiles of the tests carried out. I will try to minimise the text and get straight to the plots. Everybody loves pictures! Note, all these experients were scientific analyses only – no taste comparisons were filed.

The first plot shows the Uber Grinder Burr for Marco, called type ‘M’ in the reports. The work continues to further refine this already excellent burr-set. Obvious commentary: the minimal amount of fines and height of the peak are the two key components we were after.

The next plot compares the ‘M’arco burr with a crushing burr. Interestingly, the profile is quite close to the M burr. With marginally more fines (not good) and a marginally higher peak (good), it gives the M a run for its money. While the general consensus was a crushing burr delivers a ‘worse’ particle shape than a standard burr, it was not verified on a taste test. The belief is the extra heat generated by the crushing burr and the inferior particle shape gave the ‘M’ the win. 

The next came the speed test, whereby the M was put through its paces at a standard 50Hz, 5Hz and 100Hz yielding 1420, 142 and 2840 revolutions per minute. The fastest speed delivered the worst plot, while the slowest speed, at 10% of standard matched the regular speed almost exactly. While grind temperatures were not measured, the slow output speed of the 142 rpm gave the win to the type ‘M’ but only just!

 

Up stepped the glass pearls. Here we played with the ‘seasoning’ of blades, a process whereby the burrs are blasted with tiny glass beads to effectively blunt the burrs slightly to give the teeth a consistent output with no ‘scraggly’ bits, if you know what I mean. Unsurprisingly, the lesser the blasting the better the profile.

Finally, we brought in an outsider – a cast 100mm burr. What’s there to say? Type M by a street.

 What does all this tell us: The current iteration of the Uber Grinder with type M burrs is still the best available. However, further improvement will come by minimising the ‘seasoning’ and the addition of titanium plating. I hope I didn’t break anybody’s head with all this guff.

The Über has gone down under, carefully chaperoned by 5Senses.

The very fine folks at 5Senses kinda scare me. The incredible work they have done with Synesso in Oz is quite astounding. They really know what speciality coffee is about and their continuous crusade for coffee excellence is inspiring.

Uber Boiler driven by UKBC Runner Up Dale Harris at the 2010 Irish Championships (Photo courtesy of @DailySpud)

I first met Ben Bicknell of 5Senses in Atlanta at the WBC 2009, when Über was but a pup. He came back a few times to ask, probe and query this uber-thingy. When in Cologne for the Cup-Tasting and Latte Art Championships, Dean Gallagher came and played with the Über and the Extract Mojo on our booth. Over an enthusiastic talk at the show it was clear the good ship 5Senses was the steadiest vessel for Über in Oz.

Oz is the land of espresso excellence I’m told, quality brewed coffee being the Scarlet Pimpernel of the speciality world. Partnering the Über with the Abid Clever Dripper,  5Senses are bravely bringing excellence in brewed coffee to a heretofore filter coffee wasteland. (This amazing video is borrowed from David Walsh’s excellent blog)

Abid Clever Coffee Dripper from The Other Black Stuff on Vimeo.

I fully expect and look forward to the incomparable Richard Muhl to dissect the Über and wreck our engineers’ heads as part of the Über Project’s evolutionary journey. Let the games begin.

A quick update re BREWHAHA.

We will run 3 sessions per day, approx 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30, taking 3 competitors per session, if there is the demand of course.

The Prize:

New to Ireland and the UK, the renowned Baratza grinders are soon to be available from your friendly Micro-roaster/Coffee website. They will be on sale from next month sometime. For now the only way to get one in the British Isles is to get in the top 3 at the BrewHaha. The top three will also take home a hario brewer courtesy of Karl at Coffee Angel.

Thanks also to Steve at Hasbean who is providing the coffee for the BREWHAHA free of charge.

Remember, it is free to enter, 5Euro to have a go a 2nd time, 10Euro a third and so on, with all entry fees going to Coffeekids.

This one has been ticking around my head for quite some time. The inspiring Rasmus Helgebostad of kaffemisjonen in Norway has been the key catalyst in bringing the Brew Haha to life, with an obvious nod to the World Aeropress Championship (WAC) which sprung from the loins of Tim Wendleboe.

I don’t like the signature drink aspect of barista competitions, believing it to be superfluous and disconnected from the quality barista’s remit. Champion baristas (baristi, whatever) should be expert in brewed coffee. End of.

 With this in mind, fuelled by a few beers, Rasmus and I kicked the idea around, going so far as to posit it to the SCAE to run with in London this year, maybe in conjunction with the WAC. Rasmus then actually put an e-mail to me outlining and refining our discussions. From that came the excellent SCAE Ireland’s agreement to run with it at this year’s IBC.

 The idea is pretty simple. Anybody can enter on the day for free, needing no paraphernalia. They step up to the plate, armed only with knowledge, where everything is provided: coffee; grinder; brewer and of course, an Uber Boiler.

 Their tasks – in 10 minutes complete 2 brews:

1. Brew through a Hario V60 to hit 1.36% strength and 20% extraction, which will be verified with a Refractometer and Extract Mojo.
2. Choose from the V-60, a Chemex, an Aeropress or a French Press and brew what you believe is a perfect cup, scored by the sensory judges.

How to score: 45% for brew one; 45% for brew 2 and 10% for flair/entertainment.

 Here is a one pager with the rules.

 And that’s it. Hopefully we will not fall on our faces! If you are around Third Floor Espresso (3FE) at the Twisted Pepper on 6-8^th April, drop in and compete. The top three will get a nice prize, I promise.