PouredOver

2011-05-09T18:37:00.000-07:00


photo: cameronbrowne.com

The Clive Stand

This beautiful pour over bar, the Clive Stand, is the proud product of Mark Hellweg. Mark put together this bar with input from a local artist/craftsman and feedback from baristas, including myself. The Clive Stand does the same work as any other 3 up pour over bar, yes, but it's more elegant. Allow me to elaborate:

It's smaller, that saves bar space.
It looks good, always a plus.
It's made of salvage wood, that's Green.
The holes are beveled 60 degrees, that fits those Harios like a glove.
A little ridge in front of the pitchers centers them under the cone, like a tennis ball on string in your garage.
My friend Mark invented it, undeniable!

The real Clive Stand, standing up.

A week or two ago, during SCAA's trade show in Huston, I was made aware of some low-brow rip-off's, at least one that counts as corporate. Corporate, that means they have enough money to get their own and they spent it mocking up someone elses'. Also, they're in Florida, what does that tell ya? Lame. No excuse for it, none.

The 'C' shaped side panels are meant to represent Mark's brand, Clive Coffee.

So it is now, with much disappointment, that ask of you; do not buy these products. Thank you.

Examples:

2010-07-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Experiments in Hario Temperature Stability

I'm working on a project to narrow down the accuracy of temperature measurements in the Hario V60. Preliminary testing shows differing results across multiple pouring techniques. The first technique (A) is a continuous (or nearly continuous) pour. The second (B), a bloom and fill, or two part pour and finally a five pour technique with agitation was tested (C).

The arrangement is pretty straight forward. We worked with a couple different probe types and placements. These are select results and show only what mostly happened. A complete write up and more testing will follow.

Each of these test brews contained 28 grams of coffee and brewed to between 450 and 473 milliliters. I considered not publishing that; this test wasn't measuring deliciousness, just temperature. Still, all but one pouring technique yielded favorable results. Poor brews were likely due to lack of practice in the pouring method.

We learn here what we always learn: our testing methods and equipment are insufficient. Go back, prepare better, get new tools, record more and take better notes. Lastly, why Fahrenheit?

Thanks to Sam, Kasey, Jared, Intelli and Water Avenue Coffee. And always, thanks to Roust About Products.

2010-03-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

Concept Cafe

Looking toward the beginning of April, I see great opportunity. I'm headed to Portland, OR and joining a company called Water Avenue Coffee. WAC is well underway and you'll hear all about it when we're ready. WAC plans to open the first week in May. Meanwhile, there are other ideas.

A short-term, concept project, has presented it's self and is great venue for some delicious coffee; it's called Temporary Coffee, a division of Water Avenue Coffee.

Temporary Coffee is the brain child of Matt Milletto, Director of Training at the American Barista and Coffee School and founder of www.BaristaExchange.com; and seasoned roaster Brandon Smyth, Partner and Head Roaster at Water Avenue Coffee . Adjacent to the school, Matt and Brandon identified an empty space with all the makings of retail coffee. Temporary Coffee brings the offerings of WAC in a sort of 'sneak prevue'. It allows us to what we do best; focus on coffee preparation.

For a limited time we'll offer an elegant program of espresso beverages and pourover coffee, featuring but not limited to:

Rwanda Abakundakawa Coop FTC - Fully Washed
Honduras Micro-Lot Santa Barbara, Jesus Moreno
Sumatra Permata Gayo FTC Organic

As a compliment, we're serving croissants from Peal Bakery and potentially meat and cheese baguettes from Olympic Provisions.

We hope you can join us for this special offering, starting April 1st.

Temporary Coffee

1028 SE Water Ave.

Portland, OR 97214

M-F 7-2

2010-03-02T09:14:00.000-08:00

Coffee Fest New York

These and a host of other gadgets will accompany me on the bar at Coffee Fest New York. Visit me at booth #231 where I'll be brewing pure deliciousness. March 5th - 7th at the Medowlands.

2010-01-29T23:21:00.001-08:00

The Second Best Use for Your Right Hand

The Skerton is Hario's mid level hand powered grinder. Its primary features are adjustable, conical, ceramic burrs and the $44 price point.

From Right, Skerton, Roman and Mini Slim.

At first glance, the grinder is shapely. The bean hopper is smokey polycarbonate plastic and its overall shape resembles an hourglass. In my hand it feels stout, in part due to the ground coffee receptacle, a ridged glass bowl that conjures mason jars and lantern globes.

Hand grinding coffee is a surprising amount of work and this isn't the first time I've done it. On my first attempt with the Hario, I guessed at a grind setting. I was way off and spent 20 minutes grinding 25 grams of whole bean. I only realized the powder fine setting after I finished and looked inside. It was so fine, I dumped it into the dosing chamber on a Super Jolly and made a shot. I was able to dial the Skerton in and make quality espresso despite a significant time cost. Nevertheless, this grinder performed consistently all the way down to the finest setting.

The Skerton suffers from the same simple problem as its competition. The inner burr, driven by the crank, is floating. The inherent side to side play causes for variance in particle size. The benefit is that the deflection protects it from damage if a foreign object finds its way in.

After several tries, I got the knack for the cranking technique. The grinder's shape lends it to the in-between-the-knees approach. Sitting down, you hold the grinder between your legs, using them as a brace. The key to consistency in particle size is a smooth, circular action. Not too fast, but not too slow. I was able to grind 25 grams for use in the Hario V60 in 3 minutes. Not too bad. The handle is long enough that there's no real resistance.

Parts, Mini Slim left Skerton right.

There have been complaints online that the open top allows beans to escape the hopper. There is a simple lid modification posted on Home-Barista and this post also attempts to address the floating burr. A simpler solution is to slow down. I get better grinding results this way, anyhow. As I adjusted the grind size toward the larger end of the spectrum, smooth rotation became more and more important.

Hario skerton hand grinder from pouredover on Vimeo.

Grind adjustment is easily achieved by removing the stop-nut atop the handle. Remove the assembly and turn the star shaped washer. My only complaint surrounds the need to reproduce a grind setting. Eventually I came up with this simple solution: Tighten the grind size adjustment all the way down. Use a Sharpie to make a mark on the star washer and make a corresponding mark on the hopper, the zero point. From this baseline you can easily adjust in whole, half or quarter turns from zero.

Grind size in descending order.

The same stop-nut used to access the handle and grind adjustment provides easy disassembly for cleaning. The Skerton can survive a ride through the dishwasher.

This grinder is attractive, durable and seriously out performs the coffee-pulverizing whirling blade alternative for a very reasonable price. I couldn't be happier. I believe in the effects of a more consistent grind on coffee brewed at home, and the positive results in the cup would go a long way toward making delicious favors more accessible.

The firs best use for your right hand is, of course, drinking coffee.

2010-01-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Herkimer's newly modified Synesso.

Herkimer Synesso Mod from pouredover on Vimeo.

In the lab at Herkimer Coffee in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood something exciting is happening. Using a timer, regulated line pressure and a pump bypass valve, a Synesso Cyncra has been modified for pre infusion brewing with variable pressure.

In stage one, the timer provides 4 seconds of 5 bar, regulated line pressure. The timer is easily adjusted, this was just a starting point. When the timer runs out, the pump receives full power but a bypass valve diverts a portion of the flow to the drain. Using about 7 bar, the bypass phase then leads to stage two.

Stage two is full pump pressure, approximately 8.5 bar. Based on visual cues the Barista goes back to bypass after just a few seconds.

The result was viscus, sweet, espresso with a huge amount fat to coat the mouth. Pure deliciousness.

2010-01-14T20:12:00.000-08:00

Brief report; Thursday at the CEL

The Coffee Enhancement Lounge features common hours every Thursday.

According to their web posts, "The Coffee Enhancment Lounge (CEL) is Seattle areas' premier coffee lab." Visions Espresso Service's CEL is analogous to a coffee community centre. The CEL features commercial quality equipment in a an environment that is open, often free and can be booked for private use. The brain child of Sarah Dooley, a long time Seattle Barista and organizer, the CEL has also been the site of the ongoing Barista Round Table Meetings.

Front, Laila and Nick cupping.

Today featured cupping and palette building exercises. Coined "Flava Wheel", presumably by Sarah, the event was describes as "...a hands on approach to the Coffee tester's Flavor Wheel..." A large of array of production roasted coffees we're accompanied by two tables of fruit, vegetables, nuts and chocolate.

Sarah Dooley preps for pallet building.

The environment was informal and the cupping table was stacked. Stand outs included Veltons El Salvador Finca Alaska as well as StumpTown Kenya Gaturiri and Guatemala Finca El Injerto.

Things wound down and we found ourselves eating the dried fruit and chocolate from the table. I must have eaten five dates. The conversation started with cupping notes and went toward cafe war stories, equipment tech, and industry gossip.

Talking shop with Rob Britt, Laila Ghambari and Nick Cho.

2010-01-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

PouredOver thought we knew how to make a Chemex, but, we were wrong.

2010-01-13T01:02:00.000-08:00

PouredOver field trip; Hario USA.

"A smattering of Edwin's imports were on a table near the door. Roasters from Mad Cap in Grand Rapids, MI to Square Mile of London, UK have provided samples of their finished product."

Two trains and one bus, or so I thought...

Amtrak canceled the north bound service out of Seattle this morning, citing track maintenance. As a testament to the mass transit squalor in this country, they scheduled a bus, instead - and it's faster. So I'm headed to visit with Edwin of Hario USA and Finca Vista Hermosa by bus.

Edwin and a shelf of Hario stuff.

Just when I was bumming out about having booked train travel intentionally and missing my mark, I met Jon. "These people", Jon said in the station, sitting on a twenty foot long wooden bench. A bench made from real wood with tall backs, over head even, without arms or other devices to keep you from laying down.

Jon is really hating life. He scheduled train travel from Chicago to Seattle on the Empire Builder, one of the oldest, longest lines in the nation. "I wanted to go on this train trip because I design and build highways in the Chicago area." he told me. It's plain to me that Jon feels bad about building roads and his train trip is a kind of soul search. Amtrak canceled that trip too, citing more rail maintenance.

At least I got to ride Seattle's Link Light Rail to the Amtrak station.

This bus is ridicules, it's nicer than any coach class train car I've ever been in. It has genuine synthetic leather seats, little movie screens and a bathroom. They feed us single-serving pastries and orange juice from concentrate. The bus driver gives his safety speech, and goes on a tangent in the middle: "The rest room is in the rear. Gentlemen, please sit when you use the rest room, the ride is a little bumpy and..." I get the feeling that he also cleans the bus.

Onyx Coffee Bellingham, WA

Bellingham, WA is cute and a college town. It's under the plight of the college and business is chained to the school schedule. The air is clear and the ocean is close. Bellingham is that place you'd love to live, but could never find a job.

Anticlockwise from centre; Scott, Tim, Aaron, Nathan, Edwin and Kelli.

On the ground floor of a condominium, a three group Linea and a two group Simonelli compliment the syphon bar and piles of pour over equipment. Edwin's company, Onyx Coffee, is right downtown and next to the infallible Boundary Bay Brewery. The coffee lab is small and well equipped. The welcoming space is long and narrow, with east-facing windows. As I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to run into Velton Ross of Velton's Coffee Roasting Company, on his way out. My time in the Onyx lab was happily shared with a crew from Herkimer Coffee.

A smattering of Edwin's imports were on a table near the door. Roasters from Mad Cap in Grand Rapids, MI to Square Mile of London, UK have provided samples of their finished product. We brought plenty of our own, Herkimer roasted from; Brazil, El Salvador, Ethiopia, and Indonesia.

Lots of coffee roasted round the world.

The Hario V60 was the flavor of the day and we dug right in. Edwin brewed the first one and then let us run with it. I'm used to the idea, and although all of the visitors have poured over, I happened to be the only one with significant V60 experience. We talked about flow rates, grind and filters. Edwin illustrated flow rates by running water through various pour over devices under the faucet. The V60 was the only one that didn't hold any water; the flow on all of the other devices is restricted by their aperture.

It took us a couple to dial in but the coffee was superb. We played with temperatures from 198 to around 204 depending on the roast and origin. Having Scott, lead roaster at Herkimer, in the room made dialing in an exacting and rewarding effort. I love the mouth feel in just the right cup of pour over coffee.

V60 Pour from pouredover on Vimeo.

2010-01-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

Left, Square Mile Coffee. Right, Dunkin Donuts.

**Update** Yeah, okay, I get it... you think I was trying to compare the relative darkness and there are a host of issues with that. I was simply pointing out that they were in the same room. It's funny, come on.

2010-01-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Slayer bits on the table.

2010-01-08T17:29:00.000-08:00

Matt and Brandon from the American Barista and Coffee School talk tech with Eric in the Slayer studio.

2010-01-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

Hand Pour Brewing, Me and the Hario V60:

I'm a die hard Chemex fan. There are a couple things about the V60 that have really captivated me including the spiral ridges, more on that below. It's not that hand pour is the greatest brew ever. I don't think it provides the cleanest cup or the most even extraction. I think even extraction is rubbish. Hand pour is an aesthetic and engaging practice that anyone can learn to enjoy.

When I first got into Chemex brewing it blew my mind. I emailed Danger Dan straight away and we discussed the technique. Later, I of course saw the infamous James Hoffman video. James provides a fantastic base for understanding hand pour technique and my process is only slightly dis similar to his. If you haven't seen it, you should http://www.vimeo.com/2643633 Actually, I normally do it this way for customers.

I've been Hario brewing for a few months. I figured it's time to jot down my thoughts.

The spiral ridges along the side of the V60 allow air to move up and out as liqued flows into the cup. They aslo allow for brewed coffee to exit the filter all around, rather than just out the bottom. This combined with the large size of the aperture means extraction is controlled by grind and not the paper, the aperture or back pressure from below.

Another reason I lean toward the V60 over the Chemex is that I can remove it full of water. I like to keep the cone full of hot water throughout the brew. Not only does this keep all the grinds in the water all the time but it maintains more heat energy in the brewing chamber. I just pop the thing off and onto antoher cup. Removing a Chemex filter full of water is asking for it.

This is only one technique and there are many. The Japanese have been hand pour brewing for decades. Barismo recently published a post with several non English videos.

I begin in the normal fashion by weighing out my dose. 60 grams per liter and plus minus a couple to taste or based on my experience with a particular roast. Select a grind that provides a total brew time of around 3 minutes and no more than 4. Because the V60 is not flow restricted like other pour over brewers, it's a little faster.

Preheat all components and rinse throughly the paper filter. Be sure to fold the seam over. I have a clear plastic V60 and I can see water run right out the seam.

Water should be off boil, 92c or 198f.

After adding the ground coffee to the cone, use your finger to make a small depression, or a well, in the middle of the coffee bed. The well really helps new pourers to control this phase. Start your timer and pour in about 1 or 2 milliliters of water per gram of coffee. This should be just enough to saturate the bed. Pour from the centre out in rings. Avoid pouring onto the sidewall of the filter as this will cause bubbles. This is where a good kettle really pays off.

Letting the bloom carefully saturate the coffee bed helps to prevent dry spots and water channeling.

At this point there should be little to no dripping. Wait 30 seconds or about until the bloom deflates.

I don't put the entire operation on the scale. I use a volumetric carafe. Because the cone is full of hot water the scale doesn't tell us much.

Begin pouring again, in circles out from the middle until the cone is nearly full. Pause, don't over flow. Pour slowly right in the middle. Pour slow enough not to cause bubbles or churning in the brew. Repeat this part as needed to keep the cone full.

Watch your timer and when the time and volume come together, remove the cone. Normally by this point the top of the brew is white and thin looking, that's over extraction and we don't want it in our cup.

Enjoy!

Hario V60 Brewing from Tom P on Vimeo.

2010-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Hario V60 that my Grandma sent for Christmas.

2010-01-03T11:44:00.000-08:00

My favorite Stumps.

They came to visit me at Porch Light today.

2010-01-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

2010-01-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

Grand Canyon in winter.

2009-12-29T23:38:00.000-08:00

Avatar is the grown up version of FernGully.

Avatar is also totally, totally racist. It's the story of a white man becoming one with another race and eventually their leader and savior. Think District 9. What's worse is that the natives in Avatar wear African jewelry and dreadlocks. The matriarch is basically a New Orleans Voodoo practitioner. The voice actors are also primarily black, like Zoe Saldana, Laz Alonso and C.C.H. Pouner.

My roommate tipped me off to this awesome essay. Here is Telegraph.co.uk post I found that pretty much says the same thing.

I guess I could have done my home work first and not given them my money.

2009-12-29T23:05:00.000-08:00

Grand Canyon self portrait. 23, Dec 09. 07:43a.m.

Hat by Dot Armstrong (grandma).

2009-12-29T22:52:00.000-08:00

Cactus.

2009-12-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

More Grand Canyon. The sky was overcast, not high enough and the sun doesn't shine down there until it's high in the sky. I'm having a hard time with the photography.

2009-12-29T10:25:00.000-08:00

Grand Canyon.

12, December 2009.

1/80, f11 iso 100. 22mm focal length.

2009-12-28T22:59:00.000-08:00

View Larger Map

I was fortunate to have two trips into the Mojave this winter. Once to Joshua Tree and once to the Grand Canyon. It made for a lot of driving.

2009-12-18T11:32:00.001-08:00

last stop before the canyon, empire espresso.

2009-12-17T21:45:00.001-08:00

Grand Canyon in winter as presented by the New York Times.

Weather data for where I'm headed.