The second BAC brewing competition

Just a quarter since hosting our first brewing competition, the Bae Area Coffee (BAC) club ran its next iteration.

The event was hosted at Paper Son cafe, a shop closely tied to Bae Area Coffee. Locals may also recognize the site for the Komakase coffee omakase popup; the local specialty coffee community runs strong.

I was a judge at this event, which puts me in the strange position of trying to document the event while remaining blind to the influence of competitors brew technique; the carafes are at least presented blind :p

Judging with me were Alex of Paper Son and Josh of Komakase. Our other Komakase-er, Kieran, ran MC-ing duties.

Most importantly, Thomas and Janesh took initiative to orchestrate and coordinate the event format, as well as operations during the event.

Like the first event, Thomas and Janesh took point to orchestrate and coordinate the event and format. As mentioned in the previous post, the most crucial step to get this going is a venue. Paper Son coffee is a friend of Bae Area Coffee, and offered their space to host the event. You may also may have seen this space as the site for the Komakase coffee omakase popup; the local specialty coffee community runs strong.

The format was similar to the first event - competitors have a 15min practice session at the start of the day, then are bracketed into knockout rounds of 5min setup and prep time, 10min brew time. At least 150mL of brewed liquid must make its way into a carafe served blind to judges. 3 votes are cast, with a possible tie breaking judge if needed. To level the playing field and keep things focused on the brews, outlets are provided, but only for kettles. Janesh kept a running circulation of prescribed water (55ppm total, 63% spring salt, 22% epsom, 5% magnesium flakes, 10% baking soda) to keep that factor consistent, which is perhaps the most crucial thing to dial in for during the practice rounds.

Entrance fees would include a bag of beans used for brewing in competition. This time, competition beans were provided by Hydrangea, a washed yellow Sudan Rume from Jardines Del Eden in Colombia. This was a curveball pick by Bill - Sudan Rumes are more commonly found processed as a natural, and if you recognize the farm name, you’d also know they’re among the predominant farms for co-ferments. With very few folks having experienced a washed process of this varietal and prior biases for the farm possibly impacting expectations, this was a clever pick to have participants explore this flavor profile for the first time and keep them on their toes during practice rounds.

The gear I saw was not out of the ordinary. The roster of grinders included Comandantes, 1Zpresso ZP6, Kingrinders, Kinu POB, Timemore C3 Pro. Drippers were standard fare as well, though I noticed they were all cones. Though grinder variance and influence exists at any level, electric grinders are disallowed here to prevent these competitions from appearing like grinder showdowns.

What particularly stood out was how many participants were sorting beans. Even during the practice rounds, folks cracked open the beans and sorted out not only obvious quakers and defects, but affinitizing visually similar beans. Some folks even dumped out the entirety onto trays to go through their whole bag.

Unlike formal competitions where career progression, fame, and industry influence is at stake… we don’t have any of that on offer. There is no routine, no narrative, no performance aspect. There will be a winner, and folks want to do the best for themselves, but there is an underlying understanding that this is simultaneously a peer calibrating and tasting exercise. Folks were not shy to go up to one another and ask what they’re doing. After judges make a decision each round, the participants can taste test what results their peers brewed up.

As is customary at BAC events, I’ve got heaps of my roasts to hand out. This round, I’d been messing around with rehydrated roasts.

During intermission for lunch, we played around with some casual brews, where I ran the competition beans through an Option-O 01 with SSP 102mm HU’s and PCS prebreaker, a setup I’d never tried. I’m familiar with Hydrangea roast styles, but not the water mineralization, the burr, or the bean. I can happily say I botched those couple brews terribly. The first few rounds of competitors I’d been judging on were all dialed in better than my blind brews, which is to say, using what you know goes a long way, and that nice gear alone doesn’t solve problems. I’m proud of the brewing standard our community set in this event.

Judging brews for competition is not easy on the body or mind, sipping 20+ brews over multiple hours. Even if spitting (suggested), fatigue will set in if you’re not used to prolonged cupping/tasting sessions. As much as an honor it may be to be asked to judge, ask yourself if you have the practiced stamina and focus to appropriately assess the competitors efforts through to the end. And stay hydrated.

Given the small-stakes nature of the event, judges gave feedback on each brew at the end of each round. This was double-edged - I noticed some participants overreacting and overcompensating to feedback in the next round without the time and space to refine their adjustments.

My overall observation was that folks did a consistently good job dialing into unfamiliar water and beans. The differences among most brews were mostly on a consistent spectrum ranging from flatter sweetness with plum, stonefruit, and purple floral notes on one end, to sharper presentations of grapefruit, yellow fruits, and herbality on the other other end.

The winners:

3rd place: Camille (@birdie.press)

Camille had a meteoric run through the event - this was her tenth day since starting pourover, and she’s already dialing for water and by taste, wow.

Gear:

Dripper: Hario V60 ceramic | Grinder: Timemore C3 Pro | Filter: Cafec Abaca | Fellow Shimmy

Recipe:

Dose: 19.5g, 1:13.3 ratio
Prep: Fines sifted with Fellow Shimmy
1st pour at 93°C to 95mL, 1minbloom
2nd pour to 160g, pouring gentle circles to wet grounds then a slow center pour
3rd pour to 260g, pouring gentle circles to wet grounds then a slow center pour
Light swirl to level grounds bed
Total drawdown time: 2:50
After brewing, vigorously swirling the carafe and cooling for 2-3min

2nd place: Ricky (@rickyyzzzzz)

Ricky’s brews continued to get better through the rounds. In the last round, he managed to express some complex tropicality in his brew.

Gear:

Dripper: Hario Switch w/ Ceramic V60 | Grinder: 1Zpresso ZP6 @4.8 | Filter: Cafec Abaca

Recipe:

Dose: 20g, 1:15 ratio
Prep: Chaff blown out from grounds, dripper preheated on kettle, fines sifted
1st pour at 96°C to 60mL into closed Switch, 40sec bloom before opening Switch
2nd pour to 120mL, waiting until grounds bed nearly drained
3rd pour to 200mL, waiting until grounds bed nearly drained
Close Switch, 4th pour to 300mL with 75°C water, stirring for 30sec before opening Switch for final drawdown

1st place: Alexey (@metalnikov)

Alexey’s brews stood a notch above the rest with flavor presentations not seen in any other brew. Among the consistent yellow fruit, grapefruit notes, and stone fruit notes, his notes consistently expressed a level of tropicality and lychee note that were not only minimally present in other cups, but was dialed stronger throughout the rounds.

Gear:

Dripper: Kinto Oct | Grinder: Comandante mk4 | Filter: Cafec Abaca

Recipe:

Dose: 16g, 1:15.6 ratio
Prep: Before each round, I sorted the beans and removed any that were too pale, chipped, or too small.
1st pour at 80°C to 50mL in 10sec with gentle agitation, 30sec pause for bloom
2nd pour at 95°C to 150mL
3rd pour at 95°C to 250mL

Credits

Thanks to our prize sponsors Apax Lab and Cafec for providing prizes for the winners. It’s heartening to see coffee gear companies support small-scale events like this.
Thanks to Paper Son and Alex for providing the venue to host this event, which is the toughest part to getting these events rolling.
Thanks to Hydrangea for providing the beans.
Thanks to BAC members Janesh, Josh, Kieran, and Thomas for organizing and executing the event.