Portland Roasting Coffee

Hey Folks,

On August 19-22 I had the privilege of attending the 10th Annual Roasters Guild Retreat at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, WA. Guild retreats are an amazing opportunity for a number of reasons. While getting the opportunity to attend classes, workshops and gain accreditation, attendees also get to discuss issues with each other, talk shop, and hang out with other professional roasters.

The Roasters Guild is a trade association of the SCAA. The retreat has come to reflect combined efforts to educate and uplift the craft of roasting and establish professional development for Roasters across the industry through a certification program, trips to origin countries, classes at the SCAA’s annual Exposition and the Roasters Guild Retreat.

—Hey, it's me! Roasting away.

This year was I was able to take in a huge amount of knowledge and material to inform my work here as a Roaster.

First off were the classes. On my first day I was able to take a full day course that certifies me to become an instructor of SCAA course work. The class involved a good deal of material on Adult Education and understanding the format of curriculum for classes offered by the SCAA. I’m excited about the certification, particularly after working at the last Exposition as a Station Instructor and learning a great deal behind the scenes.

The next few days were scattered with other classes. My favorite was a class on grinding and particle size. Through a presentation and some hands-on analysis, we were familiarized with equipment and tools for evaluating grind size and developed an understanding of its effect on extraction of brewed coffee. This information is something I’m working on bringing back here to share for more adept quality control and assurance internally as well as for customers.

Another class we took ran us through a range of coffee lab equipment and calibration. Although we use Moisture meters, screen sorters, and an Agtron here at Portland Roasting, we also we able to look at and understand other equipment. I liked the head space analyzer. It’s not just that the name was funny—it actually measures the amount of oxygen inside a bag of coffee. Other tools we learned to use were Javalytics and Probat’s color meters. We were also taken through the formula for density measurement, which is great for evaluating the changes in green to roasted coffee.

–Cupping and peer calibration. We love sticking our noses in coffee cups.

In addition to these classes we also went in depth into the SCAA cupping form and calibrated our cupping proficiency with peers. This was a great exercise that helped us understand the cupping form and how to apply scoring more consistently. Later we had a series of Roundtable discussions about issues within the Specialty coffee industry. We discussed the relevance of Fair Trade Certified coffee today, “relationship” coffee in a $2.00+ market, the relevance of Q certification to consumers, and projections about whether there will even be enough specialty coffee to go around in the future. All in all it was a great discussion!

One thing I carried away was a quote from Peter Guliano about recognizing and applying the principle of “doing the right thing” as part of the “DNA” of the Specialty industry. After spending time with so many of these professionals, I definitely think it’s true that those in Specialty coffee, by and large, are out to do the right thing and see that as an inherent part of their purpose, not compromising or conflicting with their overall idea of “doing business.”

–Relationship Coffee: Will it survive $2.00+ markets?

Significant to the retreat was the time spent roasting and cupping coffee for the Single Origin blending competition—called “You Guatta Love it”—sponsored by Anacafe, the Guatemalan coffee association. We cupped coffees in teams and picked our favorites from the different Guatemalan growing regions and proceeded to create a plan to make the best blend of Guatemalan coffees. My team didn’t win, but my experience of working with other Roasters and on a variety of machines proved insightful.

–Ric Rinehart and Dan Joliff out by the roasters

Lastly, we did a fair amount of “whoopin it up” in the night time. Roasters do it right and I’m glad, because a lot of important sharing happens when people can wind down and take off the veneer of professionalism to let some informal passions out. It was great even as we hung out well past the planned blackout in Stevenson, WA as work was being performed on the Bonneville Dam nearby.

I really look forward to experiences with the SCAA and the Roasters Guild in particular. The passion for coffee is unmatched and the dedication to lifting up the craft and the position for everyone in the chain is remarkable. It’s the kind of thing that keeps the flame in me going to push for excellence as a Roaster.