It's fun to sample coffee and see the latest gear, but the main reason I go to the SCAA conference is to meet the people I interact with throughout the year in person. Often my assumptions about a member's personality based on online interactions are quite different from the reality (e.g., I learned that Sherman Chong has a deep appreciation of irony and sarcasm... who knew? ). So tonight's entry is dedicated to a photo montage of some of the people I met at the conference:


Nasi from Coffee Shop Solutions


Jason from Slayer Espresso


Matt and Erin from Counter Culture Coffee


Chris from Espro


Bruce from Espro


Lorenzo from Barista Guild


Josh from Coffeekind


Ed from HB (farmroast)


Jim from HB (another_jim)


Sherman from HB


Gary from HB (Gary S.)

See SCAA 2013 Reports for more coverage.

This thread will contain pictures and posts about people at SCAA 2013.

Thursday: Brewer's Cup
One of the criteria for the Brewer's Cup was to quantitatively define final beverage. To that end, samples were taken from each cup presented to the judges, and a refractometer measurement was performed. Any reading under 2.00% was considered "coffee". 2 stations were set up, each with matching judges' table and measurement equipment.

An interesting observation on equipment - most of the competitors brought their own electric kettles and grinders instead of opting for the provided water dispensers and Guatemala grinders. Just as interesting was the widespread use of Baratza's Vario-W among the competitors. I didn't check to see whether they were using the ceramic or steel burrs though . Additionally, I didn't observe competitors bringing their own water supplies.

View of the stage for the Compulsory Round:


Chris from Dillano's Roasters, one of the TDS volunteers


Judges for Station 1:


Judges for Station 2:


Refractometer measurement table view:


Tommy Kim in the middle of his 3-stage pourover technique:


Erin McCarthy, two-fisted pourover and eventual 2013 Champion:

At the USBC, it was nice to see Chicago represented. Zaida DeDolph of Time Bandits, LLC (Halfwit Roasters, The Wormhole Cafe) gave a strong performance:


A few minutes later, Katie Carguilo, the 2012 USBC Champion, delivered some impressive espresso drinks:


Later on, Bill Crossland and Dan Kehn (hb) stopped talking about restrictor valves long enough for a photo opportunity:


At the Breville booth, Phil McKnight was kind enough to take the lid off and give us a peek inside the Frankensteined rotary pump BDB


At the EspressoParts booth, Dan Kehn (hb) and Matt Myers talked about the changing of the guard and of Matt's plans for 2014.


Jason Prefontaine and Dan Kehn talk about misdirection, flow rate and the upcoming 1 group machine, AKA "BabySlayer":


Greg Scace (gscace) stopping in to pull a shot on a Uniq 2-group machine:


Nasi Kajana, the US distributor for Kees Van de Westen's machines, threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't drink bourbon with him:

Greg Scace looking at a particularly new and improved product


Randy Glass explaining the Hottop


Jay Caragay judging the Latte Art Demonstration


Ed Bourgeois (farmroast) talking about a brewers cup coffee


Matt Hassell, roaster for George Howell, discussing the profiling details of the Mamuto roast


Emilio Estevez Diaz of Single Origin Coffees discussing wine style fermentation for wet processing

Before the memory of SCAA 2013 fades from memory, I would like to post more photos of the people I met at the conference, starting with Nick Cho, owner of Wrecking Ball Coffee:


Nick Cho from Wrecking Ball Coffee

He's serving coffee from a Kalita Wave brewing in the satellite cafe location. Using Prima Coffee stands, Nick slow pours two at a time (hence the blurry image!). Next is Heather Perry, USBC champ, working the La Marzocco booth:


Heather Perry from Klatch Coffee Roasting

Kevin Nealon from Counter Culture Coffee admires Sherman's focus below:


Kevin Nealon (foreground), Lydia Troxler Iannetti and Daryn Berlin (background)

Finally, Scott Guglielmino from La Marzocco USA:


Known as "Scott G." to most people