Home Coffee Roaster Competition 2018

[Andy]

...reference for when the results are released that was the code that was on the bag that I should of looked at or is that just the order number from the email?

The coffee code is the last 4 digits of the invoice number when you ordered your Home Roaster entry.
You will find it in BeanBay under [My Previous Orders]

The coffee remains anonymous that way, the back room barista's (and me on the great wall 'o Brazens) don't know who's coffee is who's, it's just a number on the bag.

When all the judges forms are done they have that number on the top of the sheet, I'll get them all on Saturday and collate them into a sheet of scores then next week when I return we'll post the sheets out to everyone.

[Janus]

Tamworth eh, ole Janus hails from them there parts. Might boot scoot my way back into town for a little volunteering myself

[rusty888]

I can understand the acclimatisation.
Flying to Melbourne now just feels like a short drive for me. Still would love to be watching those hot the wall with that much coffee.

Silly question. The reference for when the results are released that was the code that was on the bag that I should of looked at or is that just the order number from the email?

[Andy]

Thanks again Andy.

That set up looks like an all nighter in the making. Soo much coffee.

I'm up for an all nighter (plenty of samples tasted through the day... I'm at about 1800% safe caffeine intake) but the judges were burning out around 4pm and by 5pm they were "well done".

It's a tough gig doing coffee all day and keeping a usable palate. I've done it for longer than I care to count but I certainly understand how many burnout earlier.

Typically all the judging is done and dusted before 5pm, even with lunch and arvo breaks most judges hit the wall early afternoon and start to disappear into the shadows rocking back and forward mumbling "no more, no more"

[Andy]

Certainly give it a go by contacting the competition organisers prior to next years competition.

Tell 'em you are a CoffeeSnob and I'm sure they'll be open to you volunteering. I heard a rumour that next year's Golden Bean might be hosted in Tamworth...

BYO Akurba.

[rusty888]

Thanks again Andy.

That set up looks like an all nighter in the making. Soo much coffee.

[matth3wh]

I would love to see if I can volunteer for next year’s Golden Bean. Away camping with the family at the moment. Would have loved to have seen it all in action.

Looks like a great setup.

Hope it all goes well. [emoji106]

[Andy]

Here we go!

I flew into Port Macquarie last night and setup all the Behmor Brazen brewers. Set to 45 sec pre-soak and 92C brew temperature and calibrated to sea level (I can see the ocean and dolphins out the window).

Spent the morning smashing out the chain-store filters, the afternoon doing commercial filters. Teagan and Shakira are helping clean each brewer between brews and delivering each pair to the table of 10 filter judges (these two young ladies are worth their weight in gold). We are producing a huge amount of coffee in a small amount of time thanks to the world record bank of 10 Behmor Brazens in a row.

Great venue, has plenty of power supply to run 10 brewers at once, never seen anything like it before as that many machines in a row would normally throw circuit breakers everywhere. I don't know for sure but I'm claiming this as a world record, 10 brews side by side is crazy.



Thankfully, CoffeeSnobs site sponsors Espresso Company Australia have provided two Anfim bag grinders to feed the brewers. These are serious grinders and are doing a wonderful job of consistent grinding for all these beans with near no retention.




These seriously rock if you need to grind fast and accurate. I'm loving the fact I can tip 40g of beans in, grind them cleanly and have 40g of grinds come out (not like some other grinders that "eat" 10% by storing it inside somewhere!)

So most of tomorrow we will continue the commercial filter category and then if time permits I'm hoping on getting the CoffeeSnobs Home Roaster Filter to the same table of judges that have done all the the commercial filters as they will be well "calibrated" to the category.

Will update as I can.

[rusty888]

Yeah I was talking about say getting another 2.5kg bag in a seperate 3kg sachtel that I could use.

Completely understand the logic Andy in someone might want to buy heaps.

[Steve82]

The whole idea of the secret control bean was to keep a level playing field with minimum cost.

Many of the commercial roasters I spoke to last year were jealous of our little comp.

I think the format is / has been a great idea! Makes one think differently about roasting in general. It would be great to simplify commercial comp into the same 3 categories but perhaps with a different secret control bean for each category.

Judges are calibrated with known samples of the same coffees roasted as best represents them.

This years bean seems to be really good for espresso.

[Andy]

I think Rusty was talking about purchasing extra beans to do more test roasts as opposed to two entries.

We could possibly do that but the freight jumps-up a lot and I'm wary of getting to a point that someone buys 20kg does 50 roasts and has a big advantage over the rest of the entries.

The whole idea of the secret control bean was to keep a level playing field with minimum cost.

Many of the commercial roasters I spoke to last year were jealous of our little comp.

[Janus]

Hey Rusty, I believe Andy advised that multiple entries were allowed, so you could just buy two entries and ship 2 x espresso next year
And have plenty of beans left over to play with, woohoo.

Last year there were 26 entries in the home roaster comp (according to my results sheet). From memory you'll get the results emailed and the entry number/code will be your reference (no names), then you'll get a comments sheet from the judges by mail. Andy correct me if i'm wrong.

I've been drinking some leftovers from my competition roasts for the last week. I'm happy with the results for the most part, I get plenty of sweetness without any bitterness, and a nice finish. I'm not getting much in the way of fruits and I would have preferred a little more acidity on the filter roast so it's possible i'd have gotten a better result in the cup by dropping them to cool 15-30 seconds earlier. GLTA.

[rusty888]

So at least I can say I made the top 25 :-)

I really struggled with this batch. But as a novice somewhat expected but couldn’t get one I really enjoyed so am quite interested in what people did that had a behmor.

Thanks again Andy for offering this. I remember last year reading about and never thought I would start roasting and could join.

My only comment is maybe choose what roast types you want to enter. I don’t drink filter but would of loved to used two entries and different profiles for espresso. That and the ability to just order another bag of beans to roast with as practice and not send back.

Can’t wait for the feedback and compare with the 60gram samples I have left with the roast.

[Dimal]

Unfortunately, my Corretto setup doesn't allow me to roast smaller batches with any consistency otherwise, I'd be in like Flynn...

Mal.

[Andy]

The missing entry (before you guys started electrifying jelly zombies in power points) has appeared today and all the entries have been shipped to the competition in two big cartons:

Home Roaster Espresso and Filter entries:
https://www.fastway.com.au/tools/track/?l=QD0001377445

Home Roaster Latte and CoffeeSnobs entries:
https://www.fastway.com.au/tools/track/?l=QD0001377444

There were 25 entries in total, not very many considering the amount of home roasters we have here but I know everyone that enters enjoys the process and the opportunity to have a crack (particularly compared to the commercial expense of $330 +beans +freight).

Now all you can do is wait for a week then try your remaining beans to see what the judges are getting.

I fly up there next week and will post updates in here but the results won't be known till late on Saturday night at the presentation dinner.