The Fellow Tally Pro scale. Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
Coffee equipment maker Fellow has rounded out its catalog of manual coffee brewing products with the Fellow Tally Pro Precision Scale, Studio Edition.
Retail sales of the Tally Pro launched last week at a price of $185, following this spring’s sneak peek at the SCA Expo in Portland, Oregon.
Drawing upon the established aesthetic of Fellow’s popular electric gooseneck Stagg pourover kettles, the Tally Pro scale offers three modes of operation: Weight Mode; Timer Mode; and an innovative Brew Assist Mode.
Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
In Weight Mode, the scale displays measurements in grams, ounces, pounds and milliliters, up to the scale’s top capacity of 2,500 grams (approximately 5.5 pounds), in a resolution of 0.1 grams. Timer Mode shows weight and a timer displayed side by side.
In Brew Assist Mode, the device accounts for the weight of coffee added to a brewer, then displays in real time the amount of water users need to add to reach their designated, adjustable brew ratio.
“The mode that I’m most excited about is Brew Assist. The whole idea of it is trying to make it easier for the brewer to do the math around the ratio,” Fellow Founder and CEO Jake Miller told Daily Coffee News at the Expo. “We brought in users; we watched them brew; we repeatedly saw them whip out their phone and do the math. We can actually burden the hardware with that. It’s a pretty slick U.I..”
Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
A rechargeable battery offers 13 hours of usage time, and the scale can also be used while plugged in. As part of Fellow’s “Studio Edition” line, the device includes premium materials such as a glass surface, an OLED display, a metal weighing pan and metal knobs.
As with all Fellow electronics, there’s also an “Easter egg” hidden in the user interface. In Brew Assist mode, turning the knob to a brew ratio of 1:42 — a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy — and hitting the button reveals a video game called Jumpy.
“We’ve got Wormy, Bricky in the [Stagg EKG] Pro and now Jumpy,” said Miller. “We’ve done the Wormy world championships. This summer we want to bring in the other two games and just have a big arcade competition.”
Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
With a footprint slightly smaller than that of Fellow electric kettle bases, the Tally Pro stands 177 millimeters long, 150 millimeters wide and 33 millimeters tall.
Founded by Miller in 2013, Fellow launched with an immersion brewer called the Duo Coffee Steeper, which came to market through a successful Kickstarter campaign. The San Francisco-based company has since replicated its crowdfunding model with exponentially higher returns on multiple more recent products, in addition to raising $7.6 million in a 2021 Series A funding round and $30 million more in a Series B round last year.
The Fellow range of products includes travel and ceramic drinkware, storage canisters, a French press, different kettle types and other accessories. The company operates two retail stores in California, as well as an online specialty coffee whole bean marketplace.
A Stagg EKG Pro kettle from Fellow. Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.
“From day one, we’ve set out to create the ultimate pour-over experience, and with the launch of Tally Pro, people will be able to purchase every tool necessary for brewing the perfect cup of pour-over coffee through Fellow,” Miller said in a press release. “It’s the last piece of the puzzle we needed to complete the Fellow brew bar.”
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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