Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Yes, it was a great day and thanks so much to Ben and Mary.

I have a short writeup and some pix to come which should go up this week sometime.

Grant

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

I wound my way down Helena Valley Road on my way to Biobeans.  

This was wild country over 2km from the nearest McDonalds in Midland.  I made a note to search left and right for savage pygmies armed with blowpipes.  While there were plenty of blowflies, the pygmies were obviously running scared this day.

Seriously the country was very nice, nestled in the foothills of Perth and in the middle of some nice bush.  It was also one of them ‘out of the box’ Perth late spring days with the temperature hovering about 30 degrees and the air alive with the gentle buzz of bush flies.  Seriously though the flies on us were few, having been allured by Lilly and Lola their two cows.  I have a nice picture of one of them flicking dust into the air which they do to terrify the flies and keep them off them little private bits that make cows, cows and bulls, bulls.  Inside their lovely house were two jugs of milk obviously not homogenised and not standardised to a standard fat content of 3.5%.  Indeed it became obvious that this was not your standard household at all thanks to Ben’s Dad who is an architect and who designed the house from paper and ink(to start with).  The house is a ‘work in progress’, Ben assured us, although to be frank, it was refreshingly different and the living area had a mezzanine floor  or loft and a high pitched roof which gave the whole area a lovely spacious feel.

The essential feature of the living area and the most important item in this part of the house was the espresso machine (organ music in the background of your choice [ch61514]), a lovely La Cimbali M21 junior.  This place of worship was framed by a natural wood table and a suitably humungous grinder.  I had to bring along my grinder as Ben’s machine would only grind a minimum of 100kg at one time.  Well, it did look pretty big to me anyway.

The true place of worship though was the altar of the Toper 10kg drum roaster.  When I saw this I almost dropped to my knees blinded by this personal epiphany.  I could swear I was on the road to Damascus but I got out my UBD and reassured myself that this was Perth.  Seriously, this is one serious piece of kit that does bring forth religious symbolism in the mind a bit too readily.  

Oh, dear I want one…

We all had a look at the machine although Ben had to stop us from dropping coins in the bean funnel (it seemed like the right thing to do).  We all stopped, bowed our heads and prayed that the good Lord would send us one of these machines for Xmas even if it resulted in Santa’s sleigh crashing as a result of overloading.  Hey, this baby weighs 280kg and is probably not suitable for air freight.

Ben has fitted a gas control system to this work of art.  His eyebrows are still growing back after an early initial experiment.  I have a picture of the offending aperture below.  Ben got a bit annoyed after a few unnamed CS people took the opportunity to mail their Xmas cards.  Hey, it is the right colour and everything, what’s the problem? [ch61514]
Anyway, the machine is now working like a treat.  The room it is housed in is very neat and clean although we noticed that there was no air conditioning.  I am picturing Ben in bare feet and a towel wrapped around his waist in January.

We then moved inside for the espresso tasting, the machine was fired up and ready for some action.

Matt brought along two friends, Damien and Rachael.  Rachael thought we were all crazy, well coffee crazy anyway but had a good time in spite of the caffeinated crazies around her.

It was always going to be interesting as the bean was the same for all of us, Ben’s East Timorese Maubisse.

Everyone was their own barista which is cruel but fair I figure as if you don’t like the espresso you produce then you just have to pull finger and try harder!

I brought along the Rocky which did its job well.

I tried for a medium roast on the ET blend but it was a tad too bland.  I normally do more of a ristrettos on my machine which suits a medium blend more as it concentrates the flavour.

Anyway the winner in these contests is the one with the best blend who can make the best of that blend using the equipment at hand.  Ben beat all comers by nailing the roast and producing a very sweet nectar indeed.  Matt came in not too far behind with his blowtorch version of the Maubisse and this earned him a kg (I think) of one of the Biobeans coffees (I can’t remember which one).

It did turn out to be quite interesting roasting the same bean to different endpoints and using different techniques.  The exercise really showed that there is a large amount of variation in flavour even with the same bean.
Finally we had to go over and meet the rest of the family, Lola, Lilly and Kenneth.  They were buzzing, errr… with excitement, well buzzing anyway.

Thanks to Ben and Mary for hosting this event.  It was a great day out and we all enjoyed your company and hospitality.


Grant

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Here is a picture of Bens Toper 10kg roaster.

Now this has got to be the 44 Magnum of roasters!

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

This is Ben and Kenneth having a difference of opinion.

Does Ben uses this technique on recalcitrant cafe owners too?

;D

[nunu]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Too shiny! Ack my eyes!

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Lola and Lily. Two good looking cows (no offence intended).

Got some nice milk from these lovely animals. They are a small breed and quite suitable for people in cities with small cottage blocks.

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

The group of caffeinated crazies at Biobeans...

[nunu]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Looks pretty sedate for caffienated crazies. Should use a longer shutter speed next time to make them look really high speed and crazy :P

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

nunu:

Yeah, they need some digital enhancement and a bit more caffeine...

Grant

[Andy]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Great pics and really good write-up Grant... sounds like a day well spent.

Thanks to yourself for organising the day out and thanks to Ben & Mary from Biobean for opening their doors to let some CSrs poke-around.

[smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[wattgn]

Re: Perth Cafe Day November 19th 1pm at BioBeans

Here is one more picture of that offending aperature where we mailed our Xmas cards...