Belgian Aeropress Championship
The 9th Belgian Aeropress Championship is hosted by Wide Awake Coffee in Brussels on Friday 24th September. 27 Aeropress wizards will be competing for a ticket to the World Championship.
To participate you need to sign up for one of the regional qualifiers. These will be held in Ghent (09/09), Antwerp (10/09) and Brussels (17/09). For each qualifier, 27 people can sign up (first come, first serve). The 9 best of each region, get a ticket to the Belgian Finals at Wide Awake Coffee.
Important Resources for participants.
The documents below contain important information for participants. Please read before attending your qualifier.
Competition Rules.
All National and Regional Aeropress events follow the rules of the international competition. You can find the full rules here.
This year there is an important change compared to previous years. "Competitors may use a maximum of 18g of roasted coffee in their recipe and must prepare a minimum of 150ml of brewed coffee. Is it more difficult to get a stand-out, sensational cup from 18 grams of coffee when you're used to brewing with 30 grams or more? Probably! But that's what sets a world champion apart, right?"
Competition Coffee.
The official competition coffee for the Belgian Aeropress Championship is a natural anaerobic lot of Venecia from Finca Aurora. It makes for an intensely fruity & juicy cup with a magic acidity. We're curious to see how you will brew it. You can buy the coffee via this link.
Covid Restrictions.
Both the qualifiers & finals will be physical events. As COVID measures are currently more strict in Brussels compared to Flanders; we need to put some restrictions for the qualifier in Brussels and the final in Brussels.
- For both events, each participant will be allowed to bring one friend. Unfortunately we won't be able to allow more spectators.
- Every participant and +1 will need to have a COVID certificate. This could be a proof of vaccination, a negative PCR test (max 48h old), a negative rapid antigen test (max 24h old) or a recovery certificate (showing you recovered from Covid in the last 180 days).
Participation Fee.
The participation fee is 25€. This includes a free bag of competition coffee and a goodie bag from our sponsors. If you go through to the finals, you get an extra bag of coffee. But there's more, the winner of the Belgian Aeropress Championship will go home with a La Marzocco Linea Mini. The two runner ups will go home with a Knock Aergrind.
Competition Format.
Participants can sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis to their preferred regional qualifier. Once signed up, you will receive a bag of the competition coffee at home (10 days before the qualifier). In the qualifier, you will compete in heats of 3 participants. From every heat, one winner is selected that will be eligible to participate in the Belgian Aeropress Championship.
The 9 winners of each regional qualifier, receive an extra bag of fresh coffee at the qualifier event. They are now allowed to compete at the final in Brussels. This is again a knockout tournament. In the first round 27 participants compete in heats of 3. The 9 winners of the first round go through to the second round. The 3 winners of the second round compete against each other in the last round. The winner is crowned the Belgian Aeropress Champion 2021.
Format World Finals.
The winner of the Belgian Competition gets a ticket for the World Aeropress Championship in Australia in December 2021. Unfortunately, this ticket is very digital... Organizing a physical coffee championship with participants from all over the world is unfortunately not yet possible.
The digital format means finalists will work from the safety of their home on a recipe that produces the most delicious cup possible from the coffee supplied. Competitors will submit their recipe for judging, and the highest-scoring brewer will be deemed the winner. This is how it works.
- The Belgian Finalist will receive a pack of the competition at home.
- Competitors will have a set amount of time to work on their recipes. Competitors submit their recipe using the official online form, that will be provided by the WAC.
- The WAC will appoint a panel of judges with well-known industry professionals and cupping experience.
- The judges will be provided with a number of anonymised recipes that they will brew, taste, and score in accordance with our standardised scoresheet, looking for sweetness, clarity, body, balance, aftertaste, overall impression.
- Recipes will be distributed so that each competitor’s entry will be judged three times.
- On completion of scoring, the scoresheets will be de-anonymised and the results collated. Competitors will be given an average of their three judge’s scores.
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