Looking for feedback on my new pourover bar design!

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
nicholasnumbers
Posts: 336
Joined: 9 years ago

#1: Post by nicholasnumbers »

Hi all,

Long story short, I designed a new pour over bar and am looking for feedback. I started to think about brewing drip the same way that you brew espresso. There's weight of coffee in, and weight of coffee out in a specific period of time.

I never liked measuring water. I always preheat my glassware, rinse my filters, preheat my cups, so trying to accurately measure how much water was actually flowing was sort of a pain. I totally get that you can measure the ENTIRE weight of what you are brewing, but with this method you're still weighing the saturated grounds and not the true yield. I know that this may be taking it too far for some people, but for those that measure TDS, with a specific coffee and grind, you can measure TDS and know what your true yield and time would be. It essentially lets you brew coffee better and more consistently.

One of the other things I wanted to achieve with this design was a place to put your timer, so I designed in a magnetic, removable timer tab. Everything else I've seen on the market was made of wood or acrylic, and didn't have enough room for a scale/proper glassware and just didn't fit in with a modern kitchen.

So, since I couldn't find anything I liked, I designed one myself. I went for the aesthetic that a certain large tech company has.

A detailed shot of the aesthetic:



Video snapshot to see the design:



A video demonstration can be seen here:
Please give feedback. Be brutally honest. Would you buy this? Is it cool enough to market (to the few people who may be interested)? Is the way that people currently brew simply good enough without separation of the saturated grounds?

I made 10 prototypes for testing and feedback. Most are spoken for, but if there is enough interest I'll do a small production run. PS: These are food grade aluminum specifically finished with a certain method for the right aesthetic. Price point would be around $99.

Thank you for your time and let me know what you think!

Nick

Mrboots2u
Posts: 645
Joined: 10 years ago

#2: Post by Mrboots2u »

If your pouring from above , does the timer obscure the scale readout ?

User avatar
[creative nickname]
Posts: 1832
Joined: 11 years ago

#3: Post by [creative nickname] »

For me, it is crucial to get real-time feedback about how much water I've added during the pour, even during bloom when nothing will have dropped into the cup yet. So I would only use a scale stand if it allowed me to monitor the weight of the filter cone, which your setup won't do. Bonavita has one option, modeled off of lab equipment, that works well; I think Hario sells another design that fits that criterion.

I also think I'd prefer a wood or polished metal aesthetic, but others might disagree.
LMWDP #435

nicholasnumbers (original poster)
Posts: 336
Joined: 9 years ago

#4: Post by nicholasnumbers (original poster) »

Mrboots2u wrote:If your pouring from above , does the timer obscure the scale readout ?
Nope, the timer doesn't interfere with the view of the scale. I designed the tab to be at an angle; maybe it didn't show very well in the video.

Thanks!

nicholasnumbers (original poster)
Posts: 336
Joined: 9 years ago

#5: Post by nicholasnumbers (original poster) »

[creative nickname] wrote:For me, it is crucial to get real-time feedback about how much water I've added during the pour, even during bloom when nothing will have dropped into the cup yet. So I would only use a scale stand if it allowed me to monitor the weight of the filter cone, which your setup won't do. Bonavita has one option, modeled off of lab equipment, that works well; I think Hario sells another design that fits that criterion.

I also think I'd prefer a wood or polished metal aesthetic, but others might disagree.
Got it. Thank you for your feedback! I did see the Hario one. I guess I am trying to better understand why it's been done that way vs. the way I am presenting here.

What makes monitoring the weight of the whole brewing process better than separating the saturated grounds?

Thanks again!

User avatar
Eastsideloco
Posts: 1657
Joined: 13 years ago

#6: Post by Eastsideloco »

nicholasnumbers wrote:Would you buy this?
No. Like most of the folks on the H-B forum, I'm super nerdy about measuring the water that actually saturates the coffee grounds. (The only reason espresso shots are measured differently is out of necessity.) But there are plenty of people doing manual coffee brewing at home who just want to fill a cup with coffee, mass measurements be damned. Of course, those people probably have no use for time measurements either. This could be just as well, as the timer you're using kind of ruins the aesthetic of your brewing station, IMO. (You might consider upgrading to a Hario scale with a built in timer.)

If you haven't already done so, check out the manual brewing stands for sale on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=coffee%20brew%20stand

Your product is unique enough to stand out. The price point seems appropriate given the materials and finish. You could sell of these to the general public. Hardcore coffee nerds will insist on a stand they can put on a scale. If you want to reach that market, I'm sure you could design a v2 stand using these same materials that meets this design criterion.

nicholasnumbers (original poster)
Posts: 336
Joined: 9 years ago

#7: Post by nicholasnumbers (original poster) replying to Eastsideloco »

Thank you! This is exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for. I never really thought about measuring the bloom water weight.

Can someone please educate me on why some coffee shops still use pour over bars that separate the cone from the yield? is it just an aesthetic/show type of thing? I've been to shops where they've explained to me why they separate the yield and now I'm learning more from you guys.

Appreciate the help!

Nick

brianl
Posts: 1390
Joined: 10 years ago

#8: Post by brianl »

I believe those types of coffee places will measure the water before pouring. therefore, you don't really need a scale as you're pouring except as a sanity check.

I personally just cut a piece of 2 by 4 to make a box and drilled a hole for the cone.

User avatar
yakster
Supporter ♡
Posts: 7319
Joined: 15 years ago

#9: Post by yakster »

For a cafe brew bar, the workflow is much easier to have a coffee server underneath the filter so that you can start the pour and go work on something else, come back, pull the server and pour it into the customer's cup without having to take the filter off. Then you can pull out the paper filter and rinse the filter holder and start it again. This also keeps the coffee filter over the drip tray so you don't have to worry about making a mess on the counter.

At home, I just put my filter on my carafe or cup (or in the case of the Chemex or Kalita 185 the filter is in the carafe) and brew on a scale. I have a ramekin nearby to put the filter holder on when I'm done brewing. the glass lid in front of the ramekin is a Chemex lid, which I find seals in the heat better on the Kalita 185 than on the Chemex. (because there's no pour spout groove to break the seal)

-Chris

LMWDP # 272

User avatar
[creative nickname]
Posts: 1832
Joined: 11 years ago

#10: Post by [creative nickname] »

At the competition level, most competitors use scales, as it allows them to monitor the speed of their pours, so that they can make things as consistent as possible. (It is standard in competition brewing recipes to specify quantities to be poured during different time periods quite precisely.) That sort of thing doesn't really work as well in a busy shop environment. On the other hand, if you do 100-200 pour-over brews a day, I imagine you can get pretty darned consistent through sheer practice. Unfortunately, that isn't really an option for those of use who do this as a hobby rather than a trade!

At home, it really doesn't add much time or complexity to place my cup and pour-over device on top of a scale, so I prefer to do that as a way to get a bit more consistency in my brewing. Also, I like to heat up about twice as much water as I will be pouring, as the extra thermal mass helps slow heat loss from the kettle water during the course of the pour; this means I can't use the weigh-before-pouring approach.
LMWDP #435

Post Reply