My Pourover Bar Fabrication

[seldomseensmith]

Thanks man!!!

Our current plan is to dial in water/bean ratios, and pre-weigh beans for each individual cup. So we'll have a bunch of tiny ziplock bags, each with enough beans for one cup of coffee; we're only serving one size, 10oz. My partner shadowed at Dolcezza Gelato in DC last week. They brew coffee from all the big boys in the industry, and they only do pourovers. They use the pre-weigh system I'm referring to, and it seemed to go great.

Always open to suggestions. Anybody think of anything else to add to the bar?

That same Intelli location I referred to above does the same thing. They have beans pre-weighed in little metal containers. All of the containers are in a cubby hole stacked on top of one another. They look similar to this: http://www.freundcontainer.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_6774T12_A_cn_E_67 . You might want to invest in something like this versus plastic bags. It would look better and would be reusable, although more expensive at initial purchase.

I like it!!! What size do you think I should order?

[Warrior372]

You know I was wondering the same thing. They give 'volumes' in ounces, but who knows how wells that translates over to bean volume in grams . . . . . I wonder if they could send you samples of 2 or 3 different sizes?

What coffee to water ratio are you looking at for your 10oz of brewed coffee? 22g:12oz?

I am guessing you would probably want the short ones with a larger diameter so you can stack more without having them tip. I would guess the: 6623T11 Short tin 4oz 3.1" diameter x 1" tall. What I weigh my coffee in is a 3" diameter plastic tupperware container, so I just weighed 22g (coffee was pulled 5 cracks into 2nd for reference) into it and  the coffee came to about 3/4 of an inch high. That is a complete guess though, use you best judgement as you are the one paying for them .

[peter]

Or, weigh what you'll need in grams, and put it into a measuring cup, allowing for a little headspace in case some beans are lighter from a darker roast level.

[Tex]

Mr Rainmaker is here!

If you're anticipating your business will be so slow that you can rely on pre-measured doses of coffee, don't bother. If you're not grinding the coffee as it's ordered you're serving stale coffee! A busy coffee house can get by with an automatic espresso grinder if they know the top of the grounds will hit the bottom of the doser in a matter of minutes (And some of us believe even this is too stale!).

If you're grinding, weighing, and storing the coffee in those cute little tins you're not doing your customers any favors!

[Warrior372]

Not to get sidetracked off of the pourover, but what kind of espresso machine are you going to use in the shop? Have you considered getting a tap installed in the countertop for selter water? That same Intelli location introduced me to seltzer water with, but separate from, your espresso. They give you a demi, plate and spoon for the espresso and a tiny rocks glass full of carbonated water from the tap that might be 3-4oz. I find it to be very nice and refreshing. It works really well as a palate cleanser between shots of different espresso.

As well as it works I think stuff like that is an important part of giving your shop an identity. I have not seen any other shops that do this, although I am sure several do. One thing I can guarantee though is that no generic run of the mill shop would do such a thing.

Oh the other place I saw this was at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO. They actually had flavored seltzer to cleanse the palate between beers. The day I stopped in it was cranberry. You could either have plain or flavored. The flavored could get cool, as long as it was subtle, if you play to the noted of your particular espresso, i.e. strawberry, blackberry, meyer lemon, etc.

[MMW]

Mr Rainmaker is here!
(image snipped to reduce clutter-MMW)

If you're anticipating your business will be so slow that you can rely on pre-measured doses of coffee, don't bother. If you're not grinding the coffee as it's ordered you're serving stale coffee! A busy coffee house can get by with an automatic espresso grinder if they know the top of the grounds will hit the bottom of the doser in a matter of minutes (And some of us believe even this is too stale!).

If you're grinding, weighing, and storing the coffee in those cute little tins you're not doing your customers any favors!

I think the idea is store the beans pre-weighed to be ground just before making a pour over there Tex.

[Warrior372]

Mr Rainmaker is here!

If you're anticipating your business will be so slow that you can rely on pre-measured doses of coffee, don't bother. If you're not grinding the coffee as it's ordered you're serving stale coffee! A busy coffee house can get by with an automatic espresso grinder if they know the top of the grounds will hit the bottom of the doser in a matter of minutes (And some of us believe even this is too stale!).

If you're grinding, weighing, and storing the coffee in those cute little tins you're not doing your customers any favors!

Tex, you pre-weigh the whole beans into those small containers and use something like a mahlkonig guatemala to grind beans from each container per order. It works on the grandest of scales, as I would guess the Broadway and Randolph Intelli locations push through 100lbs of coffee per location a day easily. Everytime I am in the Broadway location there are at least 10 people in line. This could be at 8AM, 1PM, 5PM it does not matter the time of day.

[Tex]

Not to get sidetracked off of the pourover, but what kind of espresso machine are you going to use in the shop? Have you considered getting a tap installed in the countertop for selter water? That same Intelli location introduced me to seltzer water with, but separate from, your espresso. They give you a demi, plate and spoon for the espresso and a tiny rocks glass full of carbonated water from the tap that might be 3-4oz. I find it to be very nice and refreshing. It works really well as a palate cleanser between shots of different espresso.

I like this idea - heck, even a seltzer bottle would do the trick if you're a small coffee house. When things get slow you can use it for a Laurel & Hardy moment.

[Tex]

Mr Rainmaker is here!

If you're anticipating your business will be so slow that you can rely on pre-measured doses of coffee, don't bother. If you're not grinding the coffee as it's ordered you're serving stale coffee! A busy coffee house can get by with an automatic espresso grinder if they know the top of the grounds will hit the bottom of the doser in a matter of minutes (And some of us believe even this is too stale!).

If you're grinding, weighing, and storing the coffee in those cute little tins you're not doing your customers any favors!

Tex, you pre-weigh the whole beans into those small containers and use something like a mahlkonig to grind beans from each container per order. It works on the grandest of scales, as I would guess the Broadway and Randolph Intelli locations push through 100lbs of coffee per location a day easily. Everytime I am in the Broadway location there are at least 10 people in line. This could be at 8AM, 1PM, 5PM it does not matter the time of day.

OK, I get it now; whole bean weight. But I just checked and two level scoops of my coffee measure is a consistent 28 grams (I did it 20 times). I guess you'd have to recalibrate your measure when you changed beans?

The thing is, I come from a school of management that says reduce processes to their lowest common denominator, not add layers of complexity.

edited: A simpler solution might be a Compak A-8 Automatic with auto dose control?

[Warrior372]

I hear what you are saying Tex, but the more you can eliminate variables during high stress / high speed busy periods the better your coffee will be. Something that seems to be a constant gripe of high quality shop owners is the questions of 'Is every drink we serve something we are proud of and would drink ourselves?'. The feedback I have read to this question is that during rush periods you can only be so consistent without losing customers because of lack of speed, there seems to be a fine balance there.

The only variability with the spoon method is that every time you change the roast level of the pourover coffee offering you might have to find a different spoon. From the sound of it he is going to slightly vary the water:coffee ratio based on the particular coffee he is serving at the time to make the best cup from that coffee?!? Complete guess, but a gram or two of any given coffee can alter the final cup quite a bit.

[Tex]

I hear what you are saying Tex, but the more you can eliminate variables during high stress / high speed busy periods the better your coffee will be. Something that seems to be a constant gripe of high quality shop owners is the questions of 'Is every drink we serve something we are proud of and would drink ourselves?'. The feedback I have read to this question is that during rush periods you can only be so consistent without losing customers because of lack of speed, there seems to be a fine balance there.

The only variability with the spoon method is that every time you change the roast level of the pourover coffee offering you might have to find a different spoon. From the sound of it he is going to slightly vary the water:coffee ratio based on the particular coffee he is serving at the time to make the best cup from that coffee?!? Complete guess, but a gram or two of any given coffee can alter the final cup quite a bit.

I agree with you 100% - eliminate variables whenever possible. I'm just not sure that someone sitting down with a bag off beans, a scale and a box of tins, is the best use of someone's time? I'd probably opt for a more hi-tech solution and buy a grinder that dispenses by weight.

From a bean counters perspective, it's a continuing variable cost versus a one-time fixed cost.

[Warrior372]

Haha. Good point! The person who shows up at 4AM gets to do the bean counting / weighing for 30 minutes before the rush starts. That would be cool is there was a hopper type system you could situate above an industrial grinder that would drop a predetermined weight of beans into the grinder. Hop on that one Tex!

[seldomseensmith]

Not to get sidetracked off of the pourover, but what kind of espresso machine are you going to use in the shop? Have you considered getting a tap installed in the countertop for selter water? That same Intelli location introduced me to seltzer water with, but separate from, your espresso. They give you a demi, plate and spoon for the espresso and a tiny rocks glass full of carbonated water from the tap that might be 3-4oz. I find it to be very nice and refreshing. It works really well as a palate cleanser between shots of different espresso.

As well as it works I think stuff like that is an important part of giving your shop an identity. I have not seen any other shops that do this, although I am sure several do. One thing I can guarantee though is that no generic run of the mill shop would do such a thing.

Oh the other place I saw this was at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO. They actually had flavored seltzer to cleanse the palate between beers. The day I stopped in it was cranberry. You could either have plain or flavored. The flavored could get cool, as long as it was subtle, if you play to the noted of your particular espresso, i.e. strawberry, blackberry, meyer lemon, etc.

Thanks for the recommendation, and we actually have this all dialed up and ready to go. We are sharing the space with a restaurant; cafe 7am-2pm, restaurant after that. So our coffee bar will have soda water on tap for the restaurant. I was served soda water with my espresso at Blue Bottle, and immediately knew it was something we'd do in our cafe.

[seldomseensmith]

Mr Rainmaker is here!
(image snipped to reduce clutter-MMW)

If you're anticipating your business will be so slow that you can rely on pre-measured doses of coffee, don't bother. If you're not grinding the coffee as it's ordered you're serving stale coffee! A busy coffee house can get by with an automatic espresso grinder if they know the top of the grounds will hit the bottom of the doser in a matter of minutes (And some of us believe even this is too stale!).

If you're grinding, weighing, and storing the coffee in those cute little tins you're not doing your customers any favors!

I think the idea is store the beans pre-weighed to be ground just before making a pour over there Tex.

This is correct

[Warrior372]

Not to get sidetracked off of the pourover, but what kind of espresso machine are you going to use in the shop? Have you considered getting a tap installed in the countertop for selter water? That same Intelli location introduced me to seltzer water with, but separate from, your espresso. They give you a demi, plate and spoon for the espresso and a tiny rocks glass full of carbonated water from the tap that might be 3-4oz. I find it to be very nice and refreshing. It works really well as a palate cleanser between shots of different espresso.

As well as it works I think stuff like that is an important part of giving your shop an identity. I have not seen any other shops that do this, although I am sure several do. One thing I can guarantee though is that no generic run of the mill shop would do such a thing.

Oh the other place I saw this was at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO. They actually had flavored seltzer to cleanse the palate between beers. The day I stopped in it was cranberry. You could either have plain or flavored. The flavored could get cool, as long as it was subtle, if you play to the noted of your particular espresso, i.e. strawberry, blackberry, meyer lemon, etc.

Thanks for the recommendation, and we actually have this all dialed up and ready to go. We are sharing the space with a restaurant; cafe 7am-2pm, restaurant after that. So our coffee bar will have soda water on tap for the restaurant. I was served soda water with my espresso at Blue Bottle, and immediately knew it was something we'd do in our cafe.

Awesome!