drgary wrote:I missed getting together with all of you -- looks like you had a great time. Maybe we can schedule a meetup in late January or early February at my place, which is mid-Peninsula. I think I have 20 amp circuits and would check that. I will have my North TJ-067 1 KG propane roaster by then and should have it sufficiently dialed in that others can try it out.

Boy, that's worth a ticket to San Francisco. Since we'll be fed up with winter in Northern Indiana by then. I'll bet I could even persuade my wife to come along.

What a great time and a beautiful day for a get-together, I want to thank AC for hosting and everyone else for participating in the event. I really enjoyed sharing coffee with everyone, and trying out Rio's bench mounted Zassenhaus grinder. I don't know about being known as "Professor Espresso," I still have a lot to learn, but I think I've made my own ways with my small home levers in my little corner of coffee. I'm standing on the backs of a lot of forum members and years of following lever espresso threads and videos for ideas as well as some hands-on by Dr. Gary. Since I seem to be hogging the pictures in the thread, I'll post one that I took of the new table that AC put together for the event with Rio in the background.



I had a dump bucket going for emptying out my catch bowls and cups and the boiler water at the end of the event and I was amazed at how sweet and fruity the dump water smelled by the end of the event when I dumped it prior to hitting the road.

One thing I noted at this event was that I was having a bit of trouble pulling a balanced shot of the Linea Espresso from my Faema Faemina and seemed to have better luck with Rio's Counter Culture Rustico. I'll have to pull some more shots of the Linea Caffe Espresso at home to see if this difficulty continues or if it was due to a change in water and the environment throwing off my technique. Most comments indicated the shots were on the sour side.

Gary, if you put together the next HB gathering, you can be sure I'll mark off that day - wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm quite surprised this one came together in a few days - mostly thanks to Rio, since I was buried in a project most of the week, and let him handle all the arrangement save for one: I'd been planning on making an espresso table for a while now, and this gathering provided the final impetus to have something fabricated. Thanks to a good friend down in Salinas, who welded up a basic but perfectly suited rolling table on Monday. Great size for intended purpose for a 2 group, but as you can see it rapidly filled up with an assortment of lever machines and grinders. It all barely fit!

I wish I had gotten a few better shots of Chris's wonderful toolbox. He is a true tinker at heart...

As for roasting, I did manage to get a quick 1.5lb roast of Monkey at the very end of the day - mainly to send something back with my friend James, who's suffering from corner market offerings in Pescadero- and I just pulled the best shot of the week, having finally dialed it in... (and let the beans rest for two days) On Saturday my roast was a week old, and behaving oddly, so lattes were easier to get away with.

So here are some more photos (iPhone, not mine..) for your viewing pleasure.

and a two more showing my neighbor Jozie (who used to work for Keurig ) getting her introduction to levers, and my KKTO roaster... < http://kkto.wikispaces.com/ >

Darn it...somehow I missed this one...and in my neck o'the woods. Looked like a fine time was had.