The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

[Andy]

Did you hear the exciting news?

For the first time in the 6 year history of the Golden Bean Roaster competition there will be 2 new roasting categories for...

COFFEESNOBS HOME ROASTERS

The two new categories only for home roasters are:

Category 11 – Coffeesnobs (Espresso)
Category 12 – Coffeesnobs (Milk Based)

This is a great chance to get your coffee blind judged by industry roasters and baristas and your chance to win the kudos of all your peers on the CoffeeSnobs forum if you bring home the bling!

Conditions are:
Coffeesnobs Categories – must be roasting for own use only (no commercial roasting) and coffee roaster must be valued under $5000.

Closing Day of Entry - Wednesday 03 October 2012 (Two weeks prior to the Golden Bean)

Entry Form:
http://www.cafeculture.com/wp-conten...try-Form-1.doc

Conference Form:
http://www.cafeculture.com/wp-conten...nce-Form-2.doc

Please see the Cafe Culture site for more information:
Golden Bean Roaster Competition & Conference | Cafe Culture

I'll also provide a $150 BeanBay credit to the winner of
each of those two categories if you win using our green beans.

So get roasting, tasting, blending, tweaking and creating what could be the winning entry

Good luck CoffeeSnobs!

[sidewayss]

This is exciting.

I'll give this a shot, only for the camaraderie, not to win!

I'm going to feel sorry for the judges having to wade through hundreds of under-done and charred roasts submitted by Coffeesnobbers.

[Andy]

This is exciting.

I'll give this a shot, only for the camaraderie, not to win!

I'm going to feel sorry for the judges having to wade through hundreds of under-done and charred roasts submitted by Coffeesnobbers.

It is exciting but I suspect the judges will be very surprised by the quality of the roasts.

[Steve82]

Interesting to note that depending on how you time your roast date and allow X amount of days for post to get there by the 3rd at the latest, coffee will be 2.5 to 3 weeks old by the time it is judged.

[commanda]

I have a question. Well 2 really.
Does one receive any feedback from the judges? For a $75 entry fee I'd like to think so.

I home roast. But also roast coffee for my boss (crawler, ain't I). At the same rate (qty=250g/wk) as I roast for myself. And yes he pays me for it. Does that disqualify me?

Amanda

[Dennis]

Not to disparage the Golden Bean competition but hopefully to shed a little light and reality on how the process has worked up until now. I think the process improves every year.

Each coffee is judged by 2 people. They may be sales reps in the coffee industry who don't normally drink espresso or could be accredited judges. The level of experience in tasting and judging can be at very different levels. This means that a coffee that wins a medal will always be a good coffee. It also means that some good coffees that might actually be better than the ultimate medal winners will be eliminated through no fault of their own.

Out of interest and if my memory serves me correctly, last year there were approx. 300 entries each for the espresso and milk-based categories while there were circa 80 entries in the syphon category. So it is harder to win a medal in the general espresso and milk-based categories because these are more contested.

Every year we've been told that the judges comments will be forwarded to the competitors upon request. I've asked for feedback more than once and it hasn't been provided.

I can't answer the question about eligibility Amanda but hope what I've said helps.

[commanda]

Out of interest and if my memory serves me correctly, last year there were approx. 300 entries each for the espresso and milk-based categories while there were circa 80 entries in the syphon category. So it is harder to win a medal in the general espresso and milk-based categories because these are more contested.

With a CoffeeSnobs membership in excess of 20,000 we could easily swamp this.

[Andy]

I home roast. But also roast coffee for my boss (crawler, ain't I). At the same rate (qty=250g/wk) as I roast for myself. And yes he pays me for it. Does that disqualify me?

Hi Amanda,
that certainly won't disqualify you.
It's all about home roasting and selling $10-$50 of beans to friends, family (and bosses) to help fund your bean habit isn't a problem.

Cafe Culture and myself really wanted to keep the rules short and "fair use", the last thing we want is 20 pages of legal crud to wade through and plug holes in. If you home roast and you don't have a roaster over $5k in value you can enter.

[Coffee2Di4]

The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

I'm tempted to send in some of the Hawaii Kona that I finally got up the nerve to roast today - the most beautifully even and attractive roasted bean that I've ever seen! Alas, it will be a bit too far gone to send (and, besides, I want to drink this nectar myself - I'm so selfish!!!)

[lemoo]

Hmm, its definitely a tempting proposition
but it would be nice to get feedback as well instead of just the "no you did not make it to the next round" etc.

[texx]

With a CoffeeSnobs membership in excess of 20,000 we could easily swamp this.

at $75 per entry i dont think there is much danger of it getting swamped . plus 500gr of beans plus postage , it's going to run close to $100 so i aint going to swamp it that's for sure .

[Andy]

Yeah, entry is high but so are their costs and at the end of the day they need to make a dollar too.
Sydney Show and other comps can be $200 per entry and you compete against fat wallet pros.

This is the first time in the country that a professional comp has created a category for home roasters, I think it's a good thing and could be a great stepping stone for a budding home roaster (or even Barista) to add something cool to their CV.

[dbd]

Pretty big news for CS.
Nice one Andy

[tasadam]

The Golden Bean 2012 - Coffee Roaster Competition

This does sound exciting.
I'm also a little unsure about the age of the beans by the time they are sampled. More reading to do. But, as Andy says, it's fantastic to see a competition like this supporting and encouraging home roasting.

[Kev_Chilvers]

This new category has been added to recognise and provide an award for home roasters. We have Australia's best barista's preparing the coffees and all are judged by industry peers. We also felt it was important add this category as many home roasters make the step to become cafe owners or commercial operators

In terms of scoring it will be much more automated then previous years. Via a new system feedback will be provided to all entrants post event.

If any Coffee Snobs members are interesting in attending the event there are a number of workshops / seminars and functions which you can attend / participate.

Key note speaker for Golden Bean 2012 is Dr Chuck Hahn, Director & Brew Master of Malt Shovel Brewery.