Author: Pete Denison

The Bean Brewding Walking Coffee Tour

/ Pete Denison / 5 Comments

A brisk August Saturday morning, with many Brisbane locals headed to the Ekka. My wife and I? Something much bigger. The date had finally rolled around for the Bean Brewding Walking Coffee Tour of Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Both my legs and palate were ready for a big morning ahead.

Background

Glenn, George and Ben of Bean Brewding describe their website as “the collaboration of three Brisbane coffee drinkers”. In addition to reviewing various independent coffee establishments (league table on the site), they also aim to “to promote the Brisbane coffee scene with quality, quirky and ethical establishments”.

I have been a regular reader of the blog and enthusiastic Twitter follower for some time now, and was keen to get on board with the latest coffee tour, after reading about the tours that had been run in the previous 2 years. I also find I tend to become ‘local’ to one or two establishments, and probably don’t visit and experience as many great coffee destinations around town as I should, and this was a chance to do just that, with a few other like-minded individuals.

What follows is not intended to be an in-depth rundown of the tour, however highlights what you might expect to experience should you decide to join the guys on one in the future.

The Coffee Tour

1. Bear Bones Espresso – Exploring coffee roasting

Tour assembly at Bear Bones Espresso

Tour assembly at Bear Bones Espresso

The first stop for a pre-tour pick me up and breakfast fuel-up was Bear Bones Espresso in McLachlan St Fortitude Valley (whom deserve a special thank you for opening on a Saturday just for the tour). A quick meet and greet from our guides, along with receipt of our tour “passports” and itinerary began the day smoothly. It was the responsibility of owner Trent and the Bear Bones team to educate these ‘tourists’ on the key principles of roasting the humble green bean.

A pre-tour chat and slideshow from their visit to Ethiopia also provided a fantastic background into the growing, harvesting, processing and buying which occurs in a typical coffee country at origin.

This was followed by a demonstration of a couple of roasts through the sample roaster on the premises, and I was grateful for the opportunity to put some green beans through myself. Somehow the whole process seemed a little more sophisticated than my breadmaker and heat gun roasting set up in the backyard at home.

It was great start to the tour, and also gave me some ideas for improving the roasting profiles I use at home, and introduced some concepts I had been unfamiliar with, for example the “double roast”, where the beans are pulled out early and cooled, before being reintroduced to the roaster to continue the process (the aim being to allow the outer surface of the bean to contract by cooling; locking in more of the flavour producing compounds). Interesting – though perhaps a little sophisticated for my skill level.

Roasting at Bear Bones Espresso

Roasting at Bear Bones Espresso

A few final words, bagging of the beans I had roasted to take home, a Bear Bones bag of coffee for each tour member, and we were on our way. A great way to start the tour, and if you are ever in the area, go and have a chat to the guys and have a look at the fantastic art on the walls while you’re there.

Bear Bones Espresso
2/66 McLachlan St
Fortitude Valley
Web: bearbones.com.au
Facebook: bearbonesespresso
Twitter: @bearbonesbris
Instagram: @bearbonesespresso

2. Bellissimo Coffee – The art of espresso based coffee

A leisurely few minutes of walking saw us arrive at the bustling Bellissimo Coffee in Wandoo St. Thankfully a dedicated space was set up to accommodate the tour so we did not disturb the regulars enjoying their Saturday morning cup or two.

Here we were provided with a background on the principles of making great espresso at home, a demonstration, and the chance to step up and give it a go ourselves. As both a manual brew drinker and user of a home based espresso machine for many years now, it was nice to hear most of the principles and techniques I follow are still considered best practice, and I can happily continue to work on improving my consistency at home.

Further discussion ensued around the merits of spending your hard-earned cash on home equipment, and on which specific aspects of a home set-up this should be spent on. Thankfully the conclusions were generally in line with the advice I often give when asked, which is, to save a bit of money on the machine to put towards a decent grinder. I am sure “grind on demand” is firmly etched into a holy tablet somewhere.

To finish we received an information sheet containing a 10% discount voucher for Bellissimo and a round of takeaway orders to keep us on schedule. We then sipped a beautiful creamy Bellissimo blend all the way to our next destination.

Bellissimo Coffee
30 Wandoo St
Fortitude Valley
Web: bellissimocoffee.com.au
Facebook: BellissimoRoast
Twitter: @BellissimoRoast
Instagram: @BellissimoRoast

3. Blue Sky Coffee – Alternate coffee brew methods

Next!

Blue Sky Coffee is certainly an impressive space, with a cafe fronting Commercial Rd, roastery at the rear, and enough space in between to set up some brewing stations for events of high importance such as coffee tours and the like. Danny and the Blue Sky team had three separate stations set up where we learned techniques, and sampled coffee brewed from the V60 Pourover, Espro Press, and Capsule/Pod machines.

As you can imagine, two of those three stations resulted in great brews, however you cannot dismiss the burgeoning capsule market, nor deny the merit in efforts by specialty roasters to provide alternatives to the current mass-produced capsules.

The Blue Sky Team

The Blue Sky Team

A favourite of mine was the V60 lesson, as the majority of my manual brewing at home is done with this device, and I am always keen to see how professionals brew using this technique. I generally never leave without managing to pick up a few hints, and this occasion was no different.

With a view to finishing the tour with a bang, I managed to discuss a few more details on brewing equipment with the staff, and purchased a set of Hario scales to enhance my home brewing endeavours. In addition, I downed an espresso made on a beautiful Ethiopian single origin, and picked up some Kenya Gattina beans to brew at home. All this, along with the $5.00 Blue Sky Credit given to each member of the touring party and some complimentary food, lead me to conclude I had done pretty well for the day.

Blue Sky Coffee
32 Commercial Rd
Newstead
Web: blueskycoffee.com.au
Facebook: BlueSkyCoffee
Twitter: @blueskycoffee
Instagram: @blueskycoffee

In Conclusion

What can I say? My wife and I had fantastic morning out with a bunch of like-minded coffee tragics/nerds/enthusiasts (however you would like to describe us), along with our friends from the Wired Owl Coffee Co. Yes, the tour was primarily about coffee, however to me, events like these are as much about support and appreciation as they are about learning and fun.

The three ‘beans’ of Bean Brewding all hold full-time jobs, and it is no mean feat to get something like this up and running, let alone have the day go so smoothly and run to time as planned. In addition to a great learning opportunity, I derive just as much satisfaction from being able to support small, independent operations, whether they are blogs, tours, writers, or podcasts, and have a mountain of Teespring shipping receipts that will attest to this.

The Bean Brewding guys have shown a great deal of commitment, organisation, effort, and ultimately courage to pull the trigger and say “the tour is on” – and hopefully then sell enough tickets required to make it a success. Believe me, it was the best $35.00 I have spent in some time. Congratulations guys, your effort is much appreciated.

The bonus here? An exploration into something I am just a little obsessed with; a local, easily accessible event; and a fantastic bunch of industry folk happy to get behind the tour, who generously gave up their time to provide something pretty unique, and are not only passionate about their craft, but extremely willing to educate those far less knowledgable than themselves. A big thank-you to all those from Bear Bones, Bellissimo and Blue Sky who made the day such a success.

Keep an eye on the Bean Brewding blog for upcoming events, particularly the Coffee Tour page, or follow Twitter or Instagram for snippets and great photos of their travels around the Brisbane coffee scene. Thankfully there are future tours planned, and should I have the opportunity for another, I hope to see you there.

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link to posts of interest from around the web:

The Brooks Review
In his own typical style, Ben Brooks takes the reviewing by numbers system apart, using an article from The Verge as an example. There are many reasons reviews can be questionable, this being yet another:
Why Reviewing by Numbers is a Bullshit Practice and Needs to Stop

Pentorium
I’ve yet to try out Tomoe River paper, and what better way to do just that than with a great looking notebook. As stated in the review, this is exclusive to online store JustWrite and currently available in A5 or A6 with blank pages only (dot grid would be lovely):
Tomoe River Handcrafted Notebooks from JustWrite

Pen Paper Ink Letter
Heath from PPIL outlines a fountain pen and paper starter set with quite a few goodies for $100. I always enjoy these types of posts not only to see if there are any products out there for me to try, but also whether I would recommend the same or similar items if asked:
The PPIL Fountain Pen and Paper Starter Set

The Pen Addict
This is one from the dim, dark past, posted by Brad back in June 2012, outlining a reader submitted Hi-Tec C refill hack into a Retro 51. Why am I poking around in the archives? Well, next up in my Field Notes rotation is the Expedition Edition and as many of you know, to deal with the Yupo synthetic paper, a decent ballpoint is required. Rather than open my wallet, I opened my drawer and found a couple of unused 0.7mm Uni Jetstreams, the refills of which are now snugly hacked into my Retro 51 and Kaweco Classic Sport pens, and performing very well indeed. Now all I need is an actual expedition, upon which to take my new carry:
Hacking a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Refill into a Retro 51

The Gentleman Stationer
No doubt I will try the Kon-Peki myself at some point in my journey through Blue-Black to Blue ink spectrum, however to date have not done so. My most recent purchase being the Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite, which is on the darker end, though indeed a beautiful ink. Until then, I will happily read about others experiences, and keep asking, is that too light for me?:
Ink Review: Iroshizuku Kon-Peki

Inktronics
Of course there is no need to limit things to blue, black or somewhere in between, as I love a good red ink as much as the next penperson. From the image at the beginning of this post, it’s now clear to me that Darth’s light saber is indeed derived of Diamine Ink:
Inktronics Reviews Diamine Red Dragon Fountain Pen Ink

Modern Stationer
Why else do we read reviews, other than for thoughtful, objective views and perhaps some guidance on where to look for our next purchase. When things don’t always go to plan, with enough information (in contrast to The Brooks Review link above) we can all still decide for ourselves. Doug’s review of the Kaweco AL Sport ticks all of these boxes and more. The pen community delivers yet again:
Kaweco AL Sport Review

The Atlantic
Certainly not a short read this one. Here The Atlantic profiles Blue Bottle Coffee and its efforts in scaling production of a specialty iced coffee of sorts. Living in Australia I have obviously not tasted this product, however post this link as I find such endeavours quite interesting. Larger scale production of something like specialty coffee always carries the dangers of a proportional shift away from the original beverage as the magnitude of the scale increases. Perhaps things will be different this time:
The Future of Iced Coffee

Coffee Contrarian
A response to the above article, from Kevin Knox, who describes himself as a “semi-retired veteran of the coffee and tea trade”. The closing paragraph of which probably sums up his thoughts:

At the very least, I shouldn’t be the only one with an industry background pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes – or rather, that there’s (almost) no coffee in this “coffee.”

Probably worth reading both articles, and perhaps a few more before making up your own mind. In the end, it will no doubt be the consumer who decides. In the context of sales figures, whether it actually is “specialty coffee” or not (whilst important to some) will most likely end up irrelevant:
“The Future of Iced Coffee” leaves me cold

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link to posts of interest from around the web:

The Newsprint
Whilst a good majority of posts I link to from The Newsprint will be pen or tech based pieces, I really enjoyed this two-part photo essay from Josh Ginter’s recent trip to New York. Regardless of the topic, you can guarantee there will be great photography. Yes, an obligatory Field Notes pic appears, though you’ll have to find it yourself:
New York 2014: Part 1
New York 2014: Part 2

Jet Pens
In the spirit of the epic The Well Appointed Desk pen refill guide, comes the Jet Pens guide to everything notebook. Again, one for the reference collection:
Notebooks Explained

The Modern Stationer
After picking up a clothbound Clarefontaine Notebook recently, I was interested to read some other thoughts on this paper. I myself had a couple of issues with ink drying time, particularly with a very wet ink (Montblanc Meisterstück 90 years Permanent Grey). I believe I was a little ambitious given it was a during a meeting requiring somewhat rapid note-taking:
Clarefontaine Basics Life. Unplugged Staplebound Duo Review

Presentation Magic
Follow up to a link from a couple of weeks ago, the focus this time on videos used (or overused) in presentations. This is certainly something I have noticed in recent times myself, mostly with good effect, however there is indeed a limit:
Think including a TED talk or video can improve your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation?

Capital Public Radio
Whilst a shortage of high quality coffee is never a good thing, the reality of both crop and employment decimation through the coffee rust problem becomes a little more real with stories such as this:

Mendez’s brother sends money when he can. But the family is deep in debt, both from the smuggler who tried to help them cross the border, and from their previous failed crop.

Rust Decimates Guatemala’s Prime Coffee Crop And Its Farmers

Analogue and digital: an equal partnership

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments

Digital_analogue

I recently published a post on the merits of improving my handwriting or “penmanship”. This had the flow on effect of triggering some consideration about my note-taking in general, which commonly occurs in both digital and analogue (hand-written) forms.

Digital or Analogue – Why not just choose one?

Why not simply go all in with handwritten notebooks, a manual calendar or perhaps a Bullet Journal type system? I don’t believe this to be possible in the way I like to interact with my work, hobbies, thoughts, and just about everything I either enjoy, or am required to accomplish on a day-to-day basis. In reading that sentence over, more accurately, I choose not to work this way.

I’m sure if I wanted to, I could “go off the grid”, however I enjoy using my digital tools as much as I do my analogue ones, having put a good deal of effort into setting things up so they work well together, as I have seeking out great pens and notebooks. I believe the two can co-exist happily, complementing each other, rather than requiring isolation or resulting in duplication. Just the other day for example, working through a tutorial on the longer form writing Mac application Scrivener, it seemed appropriate to jot down the key points in my Field Notes Arts Edition.

If I am entirely honest, with so much more to learn, I would be pretty disappointed not to pursue greater integration and understanding of my technology, or ongoing expansion and evolution of my pen and paper collection.

Getting the Job Done

ShelterwoodFirst and foremost, the essence of any tool is that it does what you require of it. For note-taking, whether a list, outline, mindmap or draft blog post – it gets the job done with a minimum of friction. True, certain situations dictate only certain tools can be used. For example I cannot check the weather forecast or send a text message with pen and paper (or perhaps I can).

The first half of this very post was drafted on my iPad mini with Editorial, an app which constantly amazes me with its features and automation, though I probably use less than a quarter of them. The latter half of the post with pen on paper, upon which I had written:

…as I sit here in the pre-dawn lamp glow drafting this post in longhand, I cannot think of a more pleasant sound than the Pelikan nib gliding across this Rhodia paper.

Agreed. Probably a little more than simply getting the job done.

The Appeal?

Day_One_SS_1

Day One

Hardware design of both mobile devices and Macs is certainly important, however for most of us remains fairly stable over extended periods of time, and is something I probably take for granted. Thinking about why I enjoy my digital tools, it is generally in terms of the user interface and software features. The beautiful way Day One captures and presents moments in my life; the power of Drafts or nvALT in capturing and processing notes; the automation of Editorial; or elegant simplicity of Vesper.

My analogue tools? More deeply engrained in the senses. Sounds, textures, colours. The feel of blank paper and how this changes when full of words. The wear patterns of a Field Notes notebook by the time the last page rolls around. Once archived, the joy of page one in the next. The different weight and balance, finish or colour of a new pen. The sound of a pen across a page as it crafts a line with the purest ink.

Wrapping Up

The fundamental question for me, is whether or not there is joy, delight or inherent satisfaction in the way I interact with my surroundings or tools, be they analogue or digital.

In the tools I choose to use, the answer is yes, and applies equally to a powerful but beautifully designed iOS or Mac application, as it does an exquisitely honed fountain pen nib gliding across the finest paper.

Some have suggested with technology marching on (which I readily embrace), the death of the pen is nigh.

To those who know the truth? We just post the cap and write on. Smiling.

Wiser Web Wednesday

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

Wiser Web Wednesday – a weekly link to posts of interest from around the web:

Gourmet Pens
Azizah takes a look at the Rhodia Ice No 16 Notepad. I have linked to a review of one of these previously, however this one is worth having a look at for the gorgeous colourful test writing alone. I was also pleased to read I am not the only one disappointed by “messy tears”:
Review: Rhodia Ice No. 16 Notepad A5

Nock Co.
Nock Co. is fast becoming another one of those sites where you go specifically for one or two items, and checkout with a full cart. Are you kidding me? Now we have TWSBI pens and Organics Studio inks to throw in as we wander the store. Great value too, however the groan you heard was the collective stationery budget around the world stretching a little thinner:
Nock Co. On-line Store

Mac Sparky
Following along nicely from last weeks link to Les Posen’s Presentation Magic, now up for sale on the iBooks Store, is David Sparks latest Field Guide, which will help you create exceptional presentations. It’s also made specifically for the iBooks format. You can read a little more about it on David’s blog:
The Presentations Field Guide is now shipping

The Pen Addict
As I do not own one myself, it was only fitting I read about Brad purchasing his third! No bitterness folks. All jokes aside, I have always been wary of acquiring one of these untried, as I do have concerns the clip position may annoy me a little. This is a great looking pen though, and the title contains two my favourite descriptors, gun-metal and matte:
Pilot Vanishing Point Gun Metal Black Matte Fountain Pen Review

Serious Eats
Another article by Nick Cho for Serious Eats, this time on the science and technique of making French Press coffee. A coarser grind and longer brew time of 6–8 minutes probably a little different to what most are used to:
Coffee Science: How to Make the Best French Press Coffee at Home

Matt Gemmell
What better way to put down some thoughts on the lost art of handwriting than a letter. No, really… a letter.
Handwriting

Pentulant
A review of the Kaweco AL Sport, in a fantastic grey body. Why, it’s almost gun-metal:
Pen Review: Kaweco AL Sport

Kickstarter
If you are anything like me, consideration of various pen and paper related Kickstarter projects is a fairly regular occurrence. This one is a beauty, which I have backed to the tune of two each of both the No 1 and No 2 notebooks. The customisation feature is a winner, and though still deciding on the cover, inside it will be dot grid on Tomoe River paper:
Stateside Co. Notebooks