1st HUKY Roasting Competition discussion?

[hankua]

I'm at my local Roastery (Bold Bean) and they can host a roasting competition for us. Maybe 20-25 entrants, and judging would be using cupping bowls. I would be collecting samples by mail, taking notes, photos, etc, etc.

They have a EK43 for cupping and a Slayer 2 group espresso machine. I think the espresso part is too much trouble along with cupping, so limiting it to cupping would be easier. I'm not sure how many bowls for each roast, they normally use several.

LA would also be a good spot for this as there are many specialty shops there. So I'm just throwing this out for discussion. BB can supply the beans or another common retailer.

My idea for this would be everyone using the same bean and starting with maybe 4-5 lbs of green. It wouldn't really be fair if someone was dialing in their roast with 20lbs vs another member with only 4lbs.

So what do you think?

[SusanJoM]

Nice idea.

You might want to wait until the Mill City Roasters competition and the next H-B competition are over before trying to schedule a HUKY specific competition?  Or you might not.

Are you going to want a show of hands as to who would and wouldn't participate?  If so, that might be a good time to figure out if those interested in participating will or won't be participating in the other activities.

[hankua]

I think having a Huky specific roasting competition kind of levels the playing field. Except for members having an advantage with their favorite perforated/solid drum 

We can use a Columbian or Guatemala that BB has on hand; lets just ballpark $25 for 4lbs shipped in a flat rate padded USPS envelope.

When you start comparing different roasting platforms: Quest, Hottop, Behmor, North, USRC, Santoker, Feima, etc; sometimes it hard to extrapolate the profile to your own equipment.

There's no prizes or trophys involved, just some recognition within the specific community for submitting a really good roast. And if you under or over roast (which I've done), the judges usually will point it out in a nice way. This makes it a good learning experience.

[Johnny4lsu]

I'd possibly be interested. Who is BB?

[hankua]

Bold Bean is our local specialty coffee roaster, just using abbreviations. There are two to four people who do cuppings; owner, head roaster, assistant roaster(who is a home roaster), and head barista.

[MJ5150]

I'm still a couple weeks out from receiving my Huky. I would be able to participate if this was the end of May.

-Mike

[Gregr]

I'm in. Maybe in the future we can do one just for espresso.

[hankua]

Good!

Espresso is doable, grinder would have to be single dosed like an HG-1. This Roastery has a Mahlkonig K30 Vario, not sure about how well it single doses and clears out between different coffees.

I'm thinking using their cupping bowls is going to take less time; hopefully it could be done in an hour. So at least for the first time (I've never done this) I'd like to keep it simple and have notes on each selection (that's going to be my job).

As for the bean selection, my idea is something common like a central; but that's just one opinion. I'll go along with the majority opinion, cost should be factored in.

I'll be willing to ship out the greens out at cost, if the group wants to use Bold Bean's inventory. It's going to be less than a bag, and he can reserve it for us.

Zach (Bold Bean) retails his coffee for 12-14$ For a 12oz bag, so they are selective about checking out greens before purchasing.

[SusanJoM]

So, Hank, how many participants do you need/want to make it do-able?

And what is your time frame?

[hankua]

I'm thinking 5-10; 20-25 max.
May should work out for roasting.

[harlancoffee]

I'm in! This sounds like we could all learn quite a bit from things like this. 

[jyalpert]

I'd be happy to participate as well.

Jeff

[kenneroast]

I'd like to participate. Should be a lot of fun, and I'll use any reason to log more hours on the Huky. 

[JavaBuzz]

I'd be interested. Could also maybe just have it be a "roast and learn" (except would be all Huky owners) as well, if that made things easier for a first run? Should lower the cost and planning needed a bit too.

Espresso would be interesting but difficult to judge, because dialing in equipment right/wrong can change the quality of the espresso so much. Maybe that could be reserved for people local to your area, and they could compete by pulling their own roasts/shots of the same bean for everyone else. A roaster's-barista competition, if you will.

[kenneroast]

I'd be interested. Could also maybe just have it be a "roast and learn" (except would be all Huky owners) as well, if that made things easier for a first run? Should lower the cost and planning needed a bit too.

I second this idea. It would be great to participate in a Huky driven roast and learn. The couple I've read through seemed pretty awesome, but I recalled there being different roast applications.