Wednesday, June 21, 2023

The Coming of the AutoComb + How To Roast Coffee

The Coming of the AutoComb

BH Unlimited Update, June 21st 2023

Today we launched pre-orders for our long awaited espresso distribution tool, the AutoComb. Here's what we'd like you to know:

1. It consistently distributes grinds very well.
2. It's built for brutal hospitality environments.
3. The entire process takes less than 5 seconds.

Pre-orders are shipping sometime in August or September. If we don't send them out by November 1st, we'll offer you a full refund.

If you're watching the WBC this week, keep an eye out — there are 15 national champions using the AutoComb on stage.

How To Roast Coffee

We have a couple of helpful little apps to share with you in our How To Roast Coffee course this week. Gas engineers and roaster manufacturers can't seem to agree on what units to use to describe the pressure and capacity of your gas supply. It can be confusing trying to make sure your machine gets the power it needs — so if you don't know a kilojoule from a Btu, or can't say how many inches of water make a kilopascal, then we've made it easy for you to switch from one to another.

Try the converter apps here!

Once that's sorted, Scott Rao talks you through the process of tuning your burner to make sure that you're using that gas supply as efficiently as possible. Getting this right is crucial — it gives you more power, and hence better development of your coffee, and it will also save you a ton of money in wasted gas in the long run.

Before that, though, we have one more lesson on drum speed — it's such an important setting to tune and so often overlooked. In the last lesson, Scott explained why it's so important to get the drum speed right. This week, he shows you exactly how to check your speed and adjust it. Even if your roaster display shows you the drum speed in rpm, it's worth checking it for yourself every once in a while.

Quick links

We are so excited to see everyone at World of Coffee this week! Our Terroir book launch is sold out, but if we don't get to meet you there, here are some other things we're looking forward to seeing this week:

First up, the WBC started today, and you can bet we'll be watching closely. If you can't be there in person, catch the livestreams here.
A few coffee science talks caught our eye — covering everything from sensory science and roasting, to chemical analysis and breeding new coffee varieties.
Friday is all things Scott Rao: Showcasing coffee from Prodigal at the ROEST stand at 10am, then a demo with IMF at 2pm — and finally a conversation with the current World Roasting Champion Felix Teiretzbacher. Any of those are sure to be interesting if you want to keep up with what's new in coffee roasting — and of course, Scott is giving one of his famed Masterclasses on Saturday.

If you enjoyed playing with our drum speed simulator app and seeing how beans move inside the drum, then you might enjoy this short clip which shows real coffee beans in a transparent roasting drum.

Coffee Education — Without the Advertising

BH provides a level of detail about coffee production that platforms like Youtube are unable to obtain, because we are a subscription service — our members pay us to produce the best, most detailed information for them, rather than creating videos that get the most views for an advertiser.

At BH we never do ads for other company's products on our website. There's no product placement in any of our courses, newsletters or blog posts. Our only income comes from what you pay for your subscriptions.

When you see machinery or coffee gear mentioned in any of our educational material, or featured in our course videos, we have chosen to use that equipment because we like using it, because we think it's historically significant in the evolution of the espresso machine, or because it shows you something you need to see about modern coffee culture. It's as simple as that.