Please post your thoughts and questions here. Thanks

Because the Brew Coffee competition is purely for the home hobbyist, therefore no commercial interest nor advertisement.

The coffee will be scored at the same scale as Ken's customary evaluations, so this will be an excellent venue for the hobbyist to check her/his roast.

Good job Henry and Jim, this format addresses one of the biggest gripes of previous year's brew side competitions: minimal feedback. Exciting.

Henry said

Because the Brew Coffee competition is purely for the home hobbyist, therefore no commercial interest nor advertisement.

I'm not quite sure what that means. Last year i was unable to compete but previously the brew competition was not from the selected beans but anything you had and some of the most expensive geshas were a winner. My feeling is the competition should be with a limited 3-5 beans and preferably not to have them as partial unknowns, i.e. given a list of what they are and not have them labeled a to e. I have no loyalty to any one supplier such as SM and in this spring competition had some of the best espresso I ever made with the Costa Rican honey from a supplier I had never heard of.

Marvin

I'm sure having an open selection makes the cupping aspect of the competition more interesting, but I agree with Marvin. A closed selection keeps the competition among the roasters (people), not the coffees.

I feel sad for you.

Henry has lined up one of the most prominent coffee reviewers and tasters in the US, the person who basically invented home roasting. You have a chance for him to review a coffee you love and enjoy roasting and get his opinion. But instead you are complaining.

Is winning really that important to you? Then sit this one out. Or, better yet, submit some $200 per pound geisha you normally would never buy just to score highly. Either way, you'll be drowning yourself in your own vanity instead of jumping into a rare opportunity.

How did you guys line up all these star judges? I'm impressed! Cant wait...
Curious if anybody asked how many lbs of the El Centro is still left with Roastmasters.com? Should I hurry and hide away my stash right away just in case it runs out?

I'd buy it ASAP. Highwire was interested in it and was asking if it was still available. I bought what now totals around 7 or 8 pounds, a month ago, so I'm set.

I made an americano using the leftovers from the competition (of course, using the winning entry) and it was hard to believe it was only one coffee. It's a phenomenal espresso, and it will be a challenge to pick a winner I imagine.

fu11c17y wrote:Curious if anybody asked how many lbs of the El Centro is still left with Roastmasters.com? Should I hurry and hide away my stash right away just in case it runs out?

I've been in touch with Barry Levine , the owner of Roastmasters. They have set aside 75 pounds for the competition. I hope that's about right.

pShoe wrote:I'm sure having an open selection makes the cupping aspect of the competition more interesting, but I agree with Marvin. A closed selection keeps the competition among the roasters (people), not the coffees.

My last post on this was too preachy; I apologize. Paul and Marvin have a point; but I really don't want to waste the opportunity here:

Ken Davids' reviews will have the same format as those published on Coffee Review. They will include agtron measurements, detailed scoring, and the qualitative write up. This means that ten people will get the best reviewer in the business providing them a detailed review.

Now, given this opportunity to get an expert review of your roasting, would you prefer to submit:

• A coffee you love to roast and drink; one that represents you fully as a home roaster.
• or a roasting homework assignment using a coffee that will leave you and the judges cold, just so that others won't be able to submit an expensive "insider" coffee that may get lots of unmerited points

My first instinct is that people submitting an exotic insider coffee are just screwing themselves out of the opportunity to get a superb review of their actual roasting practice. But I do admit that competition brings out the inner a**hole in all of us. So let me add this:

The real winners this year are the ten people who will get these Ken Davids reviews. I will be selecting them, and I will make sure that the winning group isn't flooded by "insider" coffees that are unavailable to most HBers. I hope this is a better response to Marvin's and Paul's reservations

I am not sure of the best way to achieve this; and I'd appreciate suggestions. One possibility is to handicap, say at 2.5 points, all privately sourced coffees that weren't available to all comers via the regular channels, i.e. SM and the other greens retailers, clubs, or coops.