Irish Aeropress Champion Q&A
- Nov 22, 2019
- 4 min read
It's less than 2 days until 68 of the world’s best AeroPress brewers touch down in London to compete for the coveted Golden Plunger and it’s the first time in 10 years that the competition is being held in the UK. After battling competitors from all round the country we have a new IRISH Aeropress Champion.
This year the Championship was held by 3FE Coffee Roasters and held outside Dublin city in Jam Park, which is located in Airside Retail Park in Swords and it wasn't won by a local, oh no! it was won by a north man who ventured all the way down from Belfast to compete amongst the best Coffee Plungers in Ireland. Stephen Houston, who is the Head Roaster at Bailies Coffee Roasters located right here in Belfast, has a great history in competing in Coffee Competitions with an impressive two Brewers cup titles under his belt and now this. Check out our Q&A with the king of Brewing below and he might of mentioned his winning Recipe.
Q&A Interview With Stephen Houston
Hi Stephen for anyone who doesn't know you, tell us a bit about you
Hi, I'm Stephen Houston, I'm 33 years old, Head roaster for Bailies Coffee in Belfast and the current 2019 Irish brewers cup champion and Irish Aeropress Champion.
How did you get into the coffee industry?
Totally by accident, I had worked in various jobs and found myself in need of a new challenge and just over 5 years ago I saw that Bailies were looking a roastery assistant, thought It sounded good, something I could get in to, also there was a chance i was going to get a forklift lift license (childhood dream!) but soon as i had started I realized that this industry was so much more and became very quickly obsessed!
Now that your the champion what’s the secret to brewing a good Aeropress?
I like mixing it up with my recipes, trying different things with different coffees, but an easy way to make tasty coffee is get yourself a good grinder and use decent water!
How long have you been using the Aeropress?
about 5 years now.
Which Grinder did you use at the Nationals and will you be using it for London?
I used a Comandante Nitro blade C40 hand grinder and yes I'll be using the same in London.
If you could compete in any other National Aeropress championship in the world, where would it be?
that's a tough one, I'd probably like to compete somewhere with nice weather, or the view they had at the Hong Kong champs was pretty good!
How did you approach your Recipe
I wanted to use a simple repeatable recipe, that's consistent and of course tastes sweet and vibrant
Will you be using said recipe for the Worlds?
I will be using something similar!
What’s your standard go to recipe for the Aeropress?
I usually go for 14g of coffee, 95c water, inverted. add the coffee and pour in 200g water by 30 seconds, stir a few times, leave it until 1 minute, stir again, put the cap on and press from 1:10 to 1:50
Oh and double up the filter papers!
Other than the Aeropress, What’s your favourite way to make coffee?
I love using Kalita wave 155, I have 4 of them!
What Coffee are you currently drinking?
A new coffee being released by us next week, our first ever Burundi Natural.
Best Coffee shop you've been to and why?
It's a real tough one, there are so many great ones here and all over the world! probably one of my top has to be George Howell in Boston USA. Top service, great coffees and was a hub for all the world coffee professionals when I was there in April during the WBrC.
Your Favourite Coffee Roaster at the moment?
Apart from me (obviously) I have been really enjoying the coffee from Origin from the UK.
Have you any plans for when you head to London? Is there any Coffee spots that are on your must visit when your there
There are so many great coffee spots to go to! the ones I will try and hit up are Rosslyn, Origin, Kiss the Hippo, Workshop, Second Shot, Nude, I can't think of anymore off the top of my head but It also depends on how much time I'll have after the party!!
And Finally Do you want to tell the readers your Irish/NI Aeropress Winning Recipe or will you be keeping it a Secret?
for sure, its a slightly modified version of the WAC Champs recipe from last year:
Third Wave water
Comandante Grinder: 32 Clicks
Double Aeropress Filter papers
Inverted
35g coffee
Water @ 84c
Start timer and pour 100g in 30 seconds
Stir well for 20 seconds
Put filter cap on by 1:10
Slow press to 1:50
Add 50g of 84c water and 50g room temp water
Swirl and Serve
You can follow Stephens journey to the Worlds by following him on his and Bailies Instagram Accounts
@stphnhstn
@bailiescoffee
Comments