Long speech short: science is a tool and a friend, helping to improve things. Science is not the final answer to things. If you are curious about what you do, science is one aspect to consider besides many others.

I’m somewhat ambivalent to the movement towards per-cup brewing. Firstly because I’ve tasted some very enjoyable Fetco brews in my time, but also because, though I love working with syphons, presses, and other filter brewing methods, many of these methods can lead to less-than-methodical processes that result in substandard brews — and in particular lack of consistency between brews. Take the recent craze for Hario V60 pour-overs, for example. While it may be possible for one very dedicated barista to brew V60 pourovers repeatedly and consistently at an easy pace, what happens during a rush? And what happens when you have a staff of 3 or 6 or 10 baristas? Will your customer be happy with each cup they get, or will they start coming in only when it’s slower, or only when they see certain staff on bar? To me, an abid, which when used with a paper filter produces the exact same taste profile as a pour-over, with less drama but far more consistency, is the clear winner for me in a commercial setting.

I think many people fear the removal of craft or the introduction of automation because they feel that while it may increase consistency and bring up the floor in terms of quality, they believe it will bring down the ceiling, limiting the taste in the cup. I don’t believe this is the case. A truly dedicated and skilled barista will apply his energies to exactly this area, making sure that they are getting the most out of any brewing method, including modifying the brewing method if necessary, or discarding it and moving on if they determine that it cannot provide the best results. And I believe that the introduction of technology that helps to control parameters (like the programmable bubbling that allows for consistently repeatable agitation in the Trifecta, for instance) or provide more accurate feedback (like the Extract Mojo) only helps this barista to have more control over this process, targetting improvements faster, and thus producing excellent results faster — and more consistently. For those who fear that automation of this kind will lead to complacency, I would say that a barista that is prone to complacency is going to brew a terrible V60 anyway — just think of all the little steps and attention to detail along the way required to do that correctly.

And finally, regarding the customer’s ability (or lack thereof) to discern past the aesthetics to the quality in the cup (which brings to mind James’ post here: http://bit.ly/dvrLet), I would have to agree that currently I think most customers are more likely to be wowed by good latte art than they are by the espresso in that latte being brewed to 20% extraction. But I think that all of us have to believe that given enough opportunity to taste superior coffee, palates will become educated, and quality will step to the fore — because we have experienced that transformation ourselves. In my lifetime I can also look to the evolution of the beer industry as proof. When I first started drinking 25 years ago, everyone I knew thought that macro-brewed lager was very good beer. Now almost no one I know does, despite how much money those companies spend on their commercials, packaging and marketing.

Michael:
You make an excellent point about using a cafe’s standard prep method as an educational tool for spurring quality home brewing. Ditto re: the frustrating breakdowns that come along with the high-tech approach.
But I think you exaggerate the consistency with which most baristas can brew using manual single-serve methods. When a cafe gets really busy, the single-serve coffee often suffers the most.

Oh yes, and here we learn that it takes 30 years to perfect one’s technique for pourover with cloth filter. :)

Similar to its cousin, the Sirocco SR35, the unique features of the Kestrel are that it’s a convection (air roasting) system in a drum configuration, and the cyclone/oxidizer that increases energy efficiency.

I have a similar topic’ed blog post brewing in my head for portafilter.net. Glad to see these sorts of ideas out there! Thanks!

I take your point about a homebrew class and brew rolled into one, but I’m sure you have some methods to maintain temp in your pourovers?

Or does it matter (in your opinion)?

As the other points, I’ll suggest there are those of us (myself among them) who will use “craft” as a defense because we’ve made our investments in equipment several years ago and they’re not all the newest toys. It’s a heckuva lot easier for someone starting from scratch to buy shiny stuff with gauges than for an established operation to junk it’s (still productive) capital equipment for more expensive stuff using only existing cash flow for those purchases.

Others may disagree. But that’s up there with the reasons we’re not running a Slayer and a 4 siphon bar with halogens (location/demand being #1 and #2). That time will come. But for now “craft” will have to do!