Notes · 2026

The Pour Log

Short operational notes from the Hamilton Street bar and the Tuesday–Thursday route. Dates are 2026 because that is the year we opened.

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Setting a grind for a floor of 60

A floor of 60 drinks on a kitchen timer. The machine sits down the hall, the water is whatever the tower supplies, and the person who empties the hopper is whoever draws the short straw at 07:10. In January 2026 we took the first 20 kg week on that kind of floor and wrote the grind on a card the kitchen could read without calling the bar.

We started with the bar’s 19 g / 26-second espresso target and immediately threw it out for their brew basket. The machine ran hotter than our group heads. A setting that tasted like chocolate and red apple on Hamilton Street tasted thin and loud in their kitchen. We opened the burrs two marks, timed a 1.6-litre batch, and wrote the number on a card taped inside the cupboard.

The card lists grind mark, dose if they weigh, brew time, and the rest day of the bag. It also lists the Tuesday drop window. When the water filter in that tower was changed three weeks later, the same card told us why the cups went bitter before anyone mailed the bar. We recut on the next Thursday.

Sixty people will finish 20 kg in a month if the kitchen is the only coffee on the floor. They will finish it faster if meetings run through lunch. Floor Service exists for that volume: weekly bags, a machine check, and two barista hours so the card stays true after someone “helps” by twisting the collar. Desk Fuel covers the 10–30 person version of the same problem with 12 × 340 g.

If your floor is guessing at a collar mark, send the machine name and a start week. The sample kit is three 340 g bags and drip packs. Offices over 15 people do not pay for that first taste.

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Why our batch brew refill costs $1.50

Batch brew is $3.50. A refill before 11:00 is $1.50. The second number looks like a mood. It is a labour and litre number we locked in February 2026 after the 06:45 flask started emptying twice before the office rush left Yaletown.

A full flask is about 2 litres. It costs beans, filter paper, and the four minutes someone is not pulling shots. If we poured every second cup at no charge, the brew station would become a sink. If we charged $3.50 again, people who work two blocks away would walk out with a paper cup they did not finish. The refill sits between those two failures.

Eleven o’clock is the cut because that is when the flask flavour drifts and the lunch board takes the brew burner. After 11:00 you buy a new cup. Before 11:00 you bring the same cup back, we mark the till as refill, and we pour from the flask that is already on the bar. We do not remake a fresh pour-over at the refill price. Single origin stays $6.50 because it is a six-minute drink on its own kettle.

Reusable cups still take $0.50 off the first pour. The refill stacks on top of that first till line, which is why the morning regulars look like a cheaper ticket than they are. The rule is posted above the brew bar so the queue does not negotiate it at 08:05.

If a flask tastes stale, we dump it. That dump is why the refill is not free. Beans and time already went into a litre we will not serve. The $1.50 keeps the second flask funded without turning batch brew into a loss leader that starves the pour-over.

See the brew ledger

Two machines, one queue: what changed

In March 2026 the Hamilton Street bar crossed the point where one group head could not hold a ninety-second promise. The queue told us first. Tickets stacked, oat drinks waited on a single wand, and decaf stole the only grinder for forty seconds that the caffeinated line did not have.

The second machine did not add a second menu. It added a second path. House blend stayed on grinder one. Decaf moved to grinder two and stayed there all day. Milk drinks split across two wands. Batch brew stayed on its own station so the brew bar stopped borrowing a body from the espresso line.

Throughput moved from a stressed 400 cups toward the 600 we quote now. The number that mattered more was drink time. When a ticket sits past ninety seconds, the room gets loud in a way no playlist fixes. Two machines brought the median ticket back under that line on weekdays. Saturday still peaks when the patio fills; we do not pretend otherwise.

The cart business borrowed the same diagram. A full-day cart staffs two people for the same reason: one on tickets and milk, one on the group head and the grind. A half-day cart with one person caps at 120 drinks because the ninety-second rule still applies in a lobby.

We kept one queue on purpose. Two queues invent arguments about which machine is faster. One rail of tickets, two machines, two grinders. The guest sees a single line. The bar sees a split of labour.

Read how the bar is run

Packing 20 kg for a Tuesday route

Twenty kilograms is not one bag. It is a stack of 340 g and 1 kg packs, labelled by floor, grind, and rest day, strapped so a Helmcken loading zone stop lasts four minutes instead of fourteen. Tuesday is the heavier of the two route days because more towers want a 7 a.m. window before the lobby fills.

We pack the night before. Each bag gets a roast date, a rest confirmation, and a grind mark if that floor has a card. Floor Service orders of 20 kg a month usually split across four Tuesdays so the last kilos stay inside the rest window. A kitchen that takes 5 kg at once ends up with stale last cups. Weekly drops keep the hopper inside the window we sell.

The van runs a loop we rebuilt in April 2026 after two missed 7 a.m. windows on the same downtown block. The new sheet groups towers by loading-zone rules so those early drops stay possible. If a concierge desk is closed, the bag goes to the backup name on the account, then we mail the floor. A miss on our side is replaced within 24 hours or credited as one quarter of the monthly fee on weekly tiers.

Kilometres outside Metro Vancouver are billed at $1.15 CAD. We do not hide that on the quote. A second weekly day is $45.00 CAD a month and only exists if the van can take it without breaking the 7 a.m. windows already sold.

Packing 20 kg is dull work on purpose. Dull means the Wednesday brew on that floor tastes like the card. If you want that kind of dull on your counter, the plan page lists Desk Fuel and Floor Service in Canadian dollars.

See the weekly route plans

Put your floor on the next Tuesday sheet.

Send a head-count and a start week. We quote the same business day.

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