Belgian Aeropress Championship 2015 : Results

A crazy crown, wonderful coffees and Jeff who won the cup; that is basically the story of the championships .... for the last 3 years.

We had a record high 25 aeropressers on the roster! Barista's, home or professional, from all over the country traveled to Antwerp last Sunday to compete for the prestigious price of becoming Belgium's best Aeropresser.
Knowing that the Belgian competitor made it to the World final each of the last 5 World championship - with 3 wins, it means a lot of top class coffee masters at work.

The coffee was the Rwanda Gakenke Muyongwe, gracefully donated by 32cup and roasted in Antwerp at the Caffenation Roastery.

The judges were imported from Amsterdam and Paris and were very pleased by what they cupped.
And the best cup was, once again, made by Jeff Verellen.
Of course he was the man everyone expected, but still a big hand for how consistent he works his way through the heats and semi final, to press his best cup in the finals.
It tasted like a perfect candy and maybe the best coffee we ever had in this competition.

Here the recipes from 3rd Place, Roeland Rypens, a non-professional who made it all the way up to the bronze aeropress!. 2nd Yf Feller, working as Barista and Roaster for Labath, Gent. And 1st Jeff Verellen, Head Roaster at Caffenation and representing Belgium at the WAC in Seattle, USA.

Roeland, 3rd :
Sort out coffee beans (discard pales, damaged beans,...)
Fill Bonavita kettle with 500gr of filtered water in from Bunn ( 93°) leave lid off), filter by Brita PPM 150
Load paper filter in cap and rinse thoroughly
Grind 24 gr Coffee ( Grind 5 on Mahlkonig EK43)
catch grinds with paper cup and transfer them into other paper cup ( fines & chaff sticks to walls)
Add 23 gr coffee beans in the Aeropress in inverted position
Pour 10 sec until 45 grams.
Let beans bloom for 28 seconds
Pour 15 seconds until 235 grams of water weight.
Stir twice
Screw cap into place
Let coffee settle for 80 seconds
Clean the Cupping bowl
Flip aeropress carefully
Press slowly 35 seconds
Stop pressing when air makes the grinds visible
Avoid pressing air & oils through
Make sure no particles have landed in the cupping bowl.
Ready to serve!

Yf, 2nd :
Grind 17,75 grams 'cupping grind' - relatively course
Bang the fines out with a Espro filter
Take a double paper filter and pre wet with very hot water and level it
Get some Spa Blue up to 78 degrees
Bloom 50 ml for 30", in a 'cold' aeropress
Pour 30", while breaking the crust, up to 250 ml total
Keep the aeropress positioned on a 'cold' glass server
Put the plunger in and pull it slightly back up to prevent dripping
Then press 30" til the 'crema' is just above the grounds
Serve in a non-heated cupping bowl

Jeff, 1st :
Preparation:
-Picking out odd beans, sours, damaged, chipped, lights.
-Charge a pvc tube of about a meter with static, wear a lot of wool or rub a scarf on it, wear rubber soles.
-After grinding I sent the grinds trough the PVC tube, see that you don't lose your static. (Removes chaff and some ultra light particles)
-Sieve, I still use a Sowden mesh. Try to only sieve the ultra fines (dust) this removes bitterness, makes the bloom a lot easier(!).

Water:
Spa water with about 50 milligram of added magnesium.

Core recipe:
Aeropress in regular mode.
A cold receptacle, a dash of cold water in it //20 grams.
18 grams grounds prepared coffee (see above)
Bloom at 84c for 30 seconds or till wet grounds just hardened up. //40 grams of water
Get water at 80c pour and re-wet slowly (about 20 seconds) all the grinds //100 grams
Top up with water at 76c, just pour in the middle, no agitation, as slow as possible (about 40 seconds) //130 grams
Plunge very slow, here is where you can calibrate your grinder, about 3,5 to 4 kg max should you press, anything above that and I would grind coarser.
Don't push too far - it may not make any 'hissing' sound

thanks wouter for the photo's