I want to post a quickee about the WBC Brew Bar hosted by our goodselves at the show. First and foremast a huge nod of thanks to Cindy Chang for listening and going for it. In Atlanta 2009, the brew bar was a small station with one uber and unspecified coffees.

This year, I wanted the Brew Bar to feature some of the finest coffees on the planet, made available through a myriad of new, old and interesting brew methods. Through the excellent prodding and probing of Cindy and Laura Lee, we got some of the finest roasters and brewers at the Brew Bar, all served by our own Uber Grinder, Uber Boilers and Ecoboilers. 

Thankfully, all reviews I have read (to date, gulp) have been very positive, not least due to the excellent addition of the 3rd World Aeropress Competition, hosted by Tim Varney and Tim Wendelboe.

I had a blast judging the WAC with Anette Moldvaer and Tim Wendelboe, amongst others (pic robbed from Fresh Ground!)

However I have a gripe and apology. The gripe is the craziness of the 3 days meant brews weren’t necessarily dialled in properly all the time. The dearth of volunteers meant being under-resourced. Consequently, quality baristas behind the bar were scarce. The excellent Faith Ortiz really did a wonderful job marshalling troops, serving the hoards and training eager volunteers who lacked some brewing knowledge. (You gotta have Faith). Don’t read this wrong, we had some superb baristas, just not enough of them. I also love the fact that newbee volunteers got a hands-on session with some of the finest baristas around.

The apology is secondly to those who may have received a bad brew. I was culpable myself a few times, jumping behind the Brew Bar without dialling in and winging a brew.

Sincere thanks to Michael Elvin and Paul Radin for serious help on the fit-out. Overall I loved it and hopefully we can make it all happen again next year. For aybody who came by, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it.

The Brew Bar Booklet can be downloaded here.

WBC Brew Bar

Proudly sponsored by Marco and featuring stellar coffees from some of the finest roasters in the world – Coffee Angel (Irl); Counter Culture (US); Da Matteo (Swe); Hasbean (Eng); Intelligentsia (US); Square Mile (Eng) and Tim Wendelboe (Nor).

Look for This!

Hand brewed by a slew of international barista volunteers (volunteer here if you fancy it), using a variety of brewing aparatus – Chemex; V60; Siphon; French Press and Aeropress. All brewed with the aid of Uber Grinders; Uber Boilers and Ecoboilers.

So come along for some of the finest brewed coffees - free! you’re bound to bump into someone interesting.

Amongst other stuff is the Ecosmart, a countertop water boiler with variable temperature selection, pulse options, volume selection and live temperature readout. The Baratza grinders will also be on display.

Of course we’ll have an Uber Grinder and Uber Boiler too- come play.

Our brewstation will feature hand brewed coffees from SquareMile and the singular Grower’s Cup brewers with their customised boiler for precision brewing. We’re excited to have some special guest coffees from Ninety Plus including the (in)famous Nikesse. Teasmith provides the teas.

We’ll also have upgrades to some of our commercial brewers – again to deliver precision to your brewing.  Guest baristas (i) include Colin Harmon on Wednesday, David Walsh, and a few others. Come see.

Vince Fidele of Mojotogo will be around the Marco booth showcasing the wonderful Mojotogo and will be on hand on Thurday afternoon if anyone wants to make sure they get their questions answered by the man himself. Scott Rao’s Everything but Espresso will also be at our booth for those interested.

Brewing Knowledge

I’ll be delivering a seminar on brewing techniques using hand brewing methods. I’ll cover the relationship between key brewing fundamentals and their effect in the cup. I am delighted to have a special guest Vince Fidele from Vstapps, of Extract Mojo and Mojotogo fame to guest present. Vince will go through the mojotogo and everybody will get a chance to brew and measure and taste. It’s on Friday 25th at 12.00 noon and WILL be finished in time for the WBC final. Book here.

World Aeropress Championships

An amazing competition, the 3rd World Aeropress Championship will be hosted at the Marco Brew Bar. Some of the world’s finest baristi (as) will go head to head to deliver the finest representation of Square Mile’s seasonal Yirgacheffe. Competitors include James Hoffmann, Ben Kaminsky, Nick Cho, David Walsh and Steve Leighton to mention but a few.

Oh.. and we’ll have some draught Guinness on our booth for end of day brews – at the right temperature of course .

Look forward to seeing you all there – come say hello.

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.

Probably the best burrset for brewed coffee in the world!

The final burrset:

• Based on a standard Mahlkonig Tanzania/Ditting 805 80mm burrset.
• Uses magnetic fixings so no screw holes to trap grinds/oils/goo.
• Custom grind profile for brewed coffee (maximised peak at 750/800 microns)
• Optimised glass-pearl blasting to retain tightest bell-curve possible.
• Titanium plated for long life.
• Awesome!

The final grind profile.

The Red is the final profile achieved

Come see and taste at Booth E105 at Caffe Culture or at the WBC Brew Bar By Marco, which is going to be a barista’s playground. More on that next week.

Links to previous Uber Grinder stuff:

1.                   The Exploration: April 2009 – The first questioning of which grinder to use with the Uber Boiler.

2.                   The Taste Research: September 2009 – Where we ‘designed our perfect grind using taste as the arbiter.

3.                   The Science Bit: February 2010 – Messing with different burrs and why the elimination of fines is crucial.

4.                   The Proof:  April 2010 – Charting all burr experiments to find the best burr.

5.                   The Specification: go to end of this link to download the Uber Grinder spec sheet.

The perfect partner, Baratza are as passionate about innovation and cup quality as Marco. Baratza supply a range of grinders for the domestic/professional marketplace, with coffee quality and user experience as fundamental cornerstones.

I met with Kyle Anderson, co-founder of Baratza for the first time in Host, Milan last October. It was petty obvious our companies had synergies worth exploiting. Much research, many samples and evaluations later, we launch the range exclusively in UK for the first time at Caffe Culture Booth E105.

I am pretty chuffed to offer our customers the exciting Baratza product range, which is timed to meet the market’s needs for small volume hand-brewing in commercial applications and high quality grinding options for the home-barista.

The Range: Maestro, Maestro Plus, Virtuoso and Virtuoso with Portaholder

Baratza has been the grinder of choice for the US speciality community for quite some time. With stock landing on our shores on June 20th, the range, Maestro, Maestro Plus and Virtuoso will be available from Coffee Angel, Hasbean and Square Mile from July 1st, with other distributors/outlets to follow.

A few related links -Dave Walsh’s Baratza review; Mike Philips tips on choosing a home grinder and Coffeegeek’s openforum reviews of Maestro, Maestro Plus and Virtuoso.

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!

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!

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 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.

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.