The Golden Bean 2013 - Coffee Roaster Competition

[Andy]

No idea... but lots of them!

[kwantfm]

How many home roaster espresso entries were there?

[Andy]

I was lucky enough to be part of the home roaster section espresso judging tonight.

We (Criag and I) judged 3 or 4 pairs of espresso and they varied from good, to great and a little ordinary. Two tables of judgin pairs worked their way through all the home roaster espresso category and it was a privilege to get to try these coffees. All I can say is that the great one we got was very very good. I have no idea who's it was but we will find out on Saturday night which was the best. If the one that Craig and I judged is the winner then well done, it was an awesome coffee and one that would have put most commercial coffees to the test.

With any luck we get to try some on the milk based ones in the coming days too. This is a great week of amazing coffees, I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the week holds.

Well done CS'rs!

[Andy]

I finished work after 10pm tonight so decided to leave the kids little sample roasts till after I get back from Port Macquarie on Sunday. It will be good to try them then and see how I would score them.

Tonight I did try a couple of roasts that a CS'r sent me (in red bags). I received them last week and waited till as close to the Golden Bean judging day to try them. Both were stunning, not just "stunning for a home roast" these were really great coffees. Well roasted and very well blended. The espresso was bold, possibly too bold if it's judged early in the day but if the "luck of the draw" means it's judged later I think will be perfect to stand up against a whole lot of coffees that blur into similar styles. I really like it. The milk based was the opposite, a little softer and will score really well in early judging with excellent balance and enough fruity interest to want a second sip.

If these are the standard of CS entries they I expect the judges will be blown away and will find many commercial coffees through the week at a much lower level.

Well done and good luck!

Should be a fun week. I'll post something when I can and will try and Instagram some pics when I remember.
;-)

[Andy]

There were a few raised eyebrows.

...only by miserable keyboard warriors that were too gutless to say something to my face.
I certainly didn't hear anything of the sort and would have been very angry at any suggestion that I, my kids or the competition would do anything shonky. If they spent less time on negative crud and more on learning to roast they might be better roasters.

But it sounds like you're launching a dynasty there.

They don't get a lot of choice. It's the end of 2 weeks school holidays and my kids spent way more than half of those days at the Snobbery helping pack, sweep, mow, clean etc etc... welcome to small business kids!

Last Wednesday they all had a Behmor each, went and picked some beans and did their roasts, it was awesome watching their dedication in roasting 4 x 350g each and then blending them for their entries. All the roasts looked great although one of Tiana's Vanuatu roasts was a CS10.2 she blended with a CS9 second roast to get a reasonable average! After they bagged their 500g we had a small amount of each left that I plan to try on Monday, they look great and should taste pretty good too.

[lemoo]

^ this.....

[fatboy_1999]

Wheras if I get beaten by Zed or Tiana, I will simply think they produced better coffee than me regardless of their age or apparatus.

[commanda]

Andy,

Yes I know the judging is blind.

Try explaining to Joe Public that it is being run for the first time (last year I'm talking about), sponsored by Coffeesnobs, and the gold was won by the son of the sponsor. There were a few raised eyebrows.
I'm not being serious here by the way about your kids entering.

If I can't beat a mere child with a push-button off the shelf roaster and a single origin bean, then I can't be that good.

But it sounds like you're launching a dynasty there.

Amanda

[Andy]

Oops, sorry for the lag Amanda.

Talk Coffee is right, Zed is most definitely defending his title but not so much defending from you guys, he's determined to beat his older sister again and this year has even more pressure as Tiana (his younger sister) has entered too.

All the coffees in all the sections are 100% anonymous, as judges we don't even get to see the beans as the Barista area is separate to the judging tables. All we get to see are identical pours in the cup we score per the rules. All the highest scorers are then judged for a second time with different judges to ensure there is no chance of error.

Last year I didn't get to judge any of the home roasted entries as they were done by a selected group. This year all the head judges are judging the home roast section which is awesome and I can't wait to taste what the CS'rs have put together.

Good luck to all home roasters and pro roasters in the other categories.

[TC]

Does this mean, to avoid any potential conflict of interest, that last years winner will not be entering?

Amanda

As far as I understand, the judges don't know whose coffee they're judging. Given a team of seven, I reckon Zed should be defending his title

[commanda]

Judges of the home roasting section will be:
(trim) Andy Freeman, (trim)

Does this mean, to avoid any potential conflict of interest, that last years winner will not be entering?

Amanda

[kwantfm]

I've just packaged up my two bags and sent them in the post. So now I feel like I can tell my disastrous story (it often feels like my roasting experiences are tinged with disaster).

I had decided a little while ago to roast Wednesday night 25th as this timing would represent a reasonable trade off between coffee freshness and ensuring that the post got the beans there on time. I got back from work about 8:30 pm, a little flustered, not having had enough sleep over the past few nights and knowing that I had to roast 1 kg of beans (for my set up that's seven separate roasts) in one evening.

My plan was to send in two samples: a single origin melange and a classic Italian espresso blend. I roasted the single origin (Uganda Bugisu) just fine. Three different roast levels, a good stir, straight in the bag.

The espresso blend proved more problematic. Did a couple of Brazil roast bases. Whacked them in a steel mixing bowl. Then proceeded to roast my Java and Ethiopian. Ended up whacking them all in the mixing bowl. Now my individual roasts end up with about 150 g of brown beans... so the four roasts that I had devoted to the blend (two for the base, one each for the Java and Ethiopian) produce 600 g in total with 500 g going to the competition bag. This means that I had 100 g left to have at home and try in a few days. I put the remainder in a Mason jar. Just as I'm finishing up, I open up the Mason jar only to get wafts of unmistakable smokiness... I'm feeling devastated. My devastation mainly arises from the fact that I've been whacking all of the beans straight into a mixing bowl and not keeping them separate. I do distinctly remember that after roasting the Brazilians that they did look darker than usual... but in my sleep deprivation haze I just ignored it. I close up the Mason jar and open again in 5 minutes... more hints of smoke. Mixing bowl straight into the bin.

I ended up pouring four day old roast blend into the bag and sending.

Moral for me... for pre-roast blends I'll always keep the components separate until right at the end and make sure that I'm satisfied with component quality before mixing.

In the immortal words of a long ago professional golfer "What a stupid I am!".

[Andy]

For the Golden Bean competition 2013 the head judge will be Anne Cooper who will oversee the calibration and all judging and on the machine side, Habib Maarbani will be the Captain of Baristas making all the competition coffees.

Exciting news is that the head judges of each of the commercial Golden Bean categories will judge the home roasting section with the head judge being site sponsor and AASCA president Craig Dickson.

Judges of the home roasting section will be:
Mel Caia, Sasha Jade, Andy Freeman, Pat Connolly, Shae Macnamara, Brent Williams, Craig Simon.
There is a great mix of people from different parts of the industry and a LOT of professional experience.

Time is nearly out, download your entry and get the beans in your home roaster ASAP!

[sidewayss]

Ok. Well,

If anyone has received their bags and don't have any notes for instructions nor any stickers to put on bags, then best to roast, pack the bags with the coffee beans, then send them by post with a compliment slip with your name, address, email address as well as phone number you used to fill in the entry form at the beginning, put it inside the shipping parcel or box so that they know where and whom it came from so that they can put on the code on the coffee bags for judging.

Judging is on the 9-12 October. Best to get cracking and send as soon as possible so that it gets there with time to spare and the beans will have stabilized.

[kwantfm]

I have the same issue