The Golden Bean 2013 - Coffee Roaster Competition

[Javaphile]

Congrats to the winners one and all!


Java "Job well done!" phile

[Andy]

Thanks for posting that up malliemcg.

Awesome effort CS'rs!
Check-out Richard Davies bag full... amazing to roast with that consistency, nice work.

For the peace of the household tonight when I get home I'm also happy to see Zed the defending household champ scored two silver medals. Wicked effort from the 3 kids and I can't wait to fly back tonight to tell them (halfway home now)

I look forward to hearing what some the CS'rs blends were too!

[malliemcg]

My milk based (silver) this year was (roasted weight)
482g - Peru Ceja de Selva Estate
85g - Rwanda Nyungwe
43g - Ethiopia Sidamo Guji
40g - India Monsoon Malabar Gold
- really missing the Tanzania faircrack pulped beans.

My bronze espresso was the rwandan with nothing else. Roasted to 5-10 seconds into second crack for each batch.

Andy you'd have to be pretty happy how consistently the offspring performed... They each picked up a gong in each home category. How long before you're offering a tutoring service as a pay for option

[Steve82]

My silver milk based blend, most of them no longer available, but you get the idea. All separate 350g roasts green.

500g roasted
Rwanda Nyungwe 170g - start of second crack, close to rolling.
Ethiopia Oromia Coop Limu 130g - Cusp of second crack
Nicaragua Dipilto Typica 100g - hard n fast 3 degrees shy of second crack
Bali Gunung Agung/Sulawesi Tana Toraja 50/50 pre blend 100g - long and slow to first snaps of second crack.

Look foward to reading other winning combos.

Cheers

[Andy]

Those sound like interesting combinations. Certainly a Rwandan pattern there, Sarah used it too.
Obviously the judges liked what it did.

[fatboy_1999]

Well. A bronze for each. Lots of bronze medals awarded. I'm new to this, does that represent the bulk of the field or not?

Anyhow, my milk blend:
Uganda Kisoro
Sulawesi Tana Toraja
50/50. Blended pre roast. 2nd crack + 10 (just on rolling).

Espresso blend:
Uganda Kisoro
Sumatra Aged Late Picked
Indian Elephant Hills
40/40/20. Blended pre roast. 2nd crack + 10 (just on rolling).
Probably a bit heavy on the Sumatra with this one but I thought I'd try something that stood out a bit.

Brett.

[kwantfm]

Congratulations to all... I managed a bronze in the home roaster espresso. Post roast blended:

50% Brazilian Daterra Estate Santa Colomba (just into second crack)
25% Java Banyuwangi (just into second crack)
25% Ethiopian Harrar Longberry (just prior to second crack)

I'm really excited as I've only been roasting for four months. This is extremely encouraging and it's great to have access to a competition like this.

Thanks Andy for the advice to just put something in that I like to drink myself...

[dbd]

Well I had two blends entered, and I don't know which is which in the medals yet.

I call this one my old beans blend because some of these beans haven't been on bean bay for a long time.
60g Peru Ceja de Sevla Estate
60g Sulawesi Blue
80g Yemen Bani Ismail
50g Nicaragua CoE 2010
That's for each 250g batch => 208g roasted.

This blend I've only tried in the last month, after I finally ran out of the Yemen Bani and Nicaragua.
60g Peru Ceja de Sevla Estate
60g Sulawesi Blue
80g Yemen Mocha Ismaili
50g Guatemala Huehuetenango

-Shane.
Roasted in the Gene Cafe to a little before second crack.

[Andy]

These blends are all sounding interesting and obviously they were done well as they scored medals.

Well. A bronze for each. Lots of bronze medals awarded. I'm new to this, does that represent the bulk of the field or not?

The categories have a gold medal for the highest scoring, 5 Silvers for the next highest scoring and then 10 bronzes for the next group. At first this method seemed a little odd to me but after you see the judging and the sheer volume of coffee this is the fairest method of awarding medals and is a method used by a lot of other food and wine judging.

What happens in a competition this size is that you can end up with a lot of different coffees (different styles, still valid, great coffees) all on the same score or pretty close to the same score so this 1,5,10 medal system makes a lot of sense for anything that is judged by humans where a single point might make a big difference.

I'm not privy to the actual scores but I would expect a fairly small points spread for anything that won a bronze and not a big point difference from there to silver.

[Dimal]

Way to go the Freeman Clan...

You guys have definitely got coffee flowing in your veins. Can't wait to see what the future brings....

Congrats to everyone...

Mal.

[trickydicky2]

Thank you malliemcg for posting the results. I'm in shock right now as I got 8 from 8. (Richard Davies)

I will put up the 8 blends used tomorrow. At the moment I'm just stunned

Congrats to all the home roasters who had a go this year, medals or not

[trickydicky2]

The 8 coffees were composed as follows. Yes, the names are ridiculous I know:

Espresso

'Nano Nano'
Maui mokka ka'annapali BB
Kenya kiang'ombe peaberry PD
Colombia caracolito peaberry PD

'Salvation'
El Salvador x4
La Gloria COE MG
Miravalle COE MG
Calandria MG
Alaska BG

'The Heretic'
Panama Santa Teresa gesha PD

'Moloko'
Brazil Serra Los Crioulos COE MG
Kenya Gachami AA MG
Panama Santa Teresa La loma lot 91 PD

Milk

'Resurrection'
Bolivia 8 estrellas BG
Panama Santa Teresa gesha MG
Panama Gallardo gesha MG
El Salvador Siberia pacamara MG

'La Gloria Del Diablo'
Nicaragua La minita BG
Nicaragua javanica BG
Colombia La Esperanza BG

'Kakaos Theory'
Yemen matari PD
Colombia La Esperanza BG
Ethiopia yirgacheffe washed gr2 BG

'The Devil's Purse'
Brazil Serra Los Crioulos COE MG
Guatemala Carmen COE MG
Rwanda buf remera COE BG

As you can see, a lot of different green coffees. Some are sold out now, but info on most is available on the vendors' websites. They are all in the mid to high price range, and no doubt had the potential to place higher in more experienced hands. I think it's awesome that there are such excellent green coffees available to home roasters from these guys and others

Suppliers:
BB
BG Bean Green
MG Ministry Grounds
PD Plantation Direct

(Andy, only one of yours here sorry, purely due to the 2.5kg minimum being a whole hill of beans for me. That said, I couldn't resist getting some of the grade 1 yirgacheffe last week, and will be treating myself to something else from beanbay)

I came up with the blends based on the supplier descriptions of each coffee, selecting combinations with a distinctive end profile in mind. E.g. La Gloria Del Diablo is full bodied with a roasted nut and dark chocolate profile plus a hint of orange peel. Salvation is mid bodied with sweet tangy citrus, caramel and some floral and berry notes. Some have worked better than others, and mostly I end up thinking "it would have worked better if...". Sigh

In all but 2 cases I roasted origins separately then post blended. (Pre blended to make the exercise more manageable in a couple of instances). Total 750g green per blend to give 600g+ brown. 500g sent to GB. The other 100g+ of each blend is either on my kitchen bench or already in the knock box. In general the espressi were taken to first crack plus a couple of minutes to give a medium roast, and the milk coffees a minute or so more to medium-dark. Nothing hit second crack as far as I could hear. I can't be more specific on colour as I have no roast colour chart

Roaster is a gene. Bought this almost 4 months ago as a means to have a try at home roasting and learn something. It's fun! The house smells like a barn fire. There's toasted chaff lurking in the strangest of places. I have a wife of vast but finite patience who luckily also loves coffee!

Roasting the GB entries accounted for 26 of the total of 84 batches I have roasted since getting the roaster. The submissions were either version 1 or 2 of a particular blend idea. Most of the first 58 roasts done on the machine were either self training on how (not) to roast (which remains a work in progress) followed by roasts to look at different single origins

With hindsight 8 was far too many to do full justice to. If i enter again it will be a lot fewer

Hope this is of interest and encourages others to try entering

[Steve82]

Thats a crazy effort trickydicky2! Kudos

And people think I am ridiculously obsessed with my beans....I got nothing

[lemoo]

grats to everyone! managed to snag a bronze in both milk and espresso. curious to know how many entries there were

anyhoo, my entries were:

Espresso
Guatemala Plan Del Guayabo - Pacamara Honey Processed (BG)
Guatemala La Esperanza - Honey Processed (BG)
Guatemala Huehuetenango (BeanBay)

Milk
Panama Hacienda La Esmeralda - Palmyra (BG)
PNG Kimel A (BG)
Brazil Fazenda Recreio Microlot (BG)
Sulawesi Blue Peaberry (BeanBay)

Just made blends with what I had and what I thought worked. The best thing about roasting coffee and experimenting with blends is you never know how good it is till you try it!

[LindaD]

And such a great mentor like Andy to help them achieve this.

Well done Sarah, Tiana and Zed!. What a thrill that must have been.

Congrats to all the CS'rs that entered too! Well done.



-Linda