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What did you learn from your coffee brewing method today?

Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker

Likes a fat handle in his hand
I do this same thing on darker roasts. It works well with immersion brews like the French press, aeropress and Clever (presumably the Hario Switch as well, but I’ve never used one). It’s a YMMV thing, but basically it’s a good technique for beans roasted dark enough that you don’t actually want to extract every last bit of flavor compounds out. Once you extract past the initial roast there are the pleasant nutty, caramelized sugar and dark chocolate notes that are so desirable in dark roasts. The goal is to get those without pulling out the burnt wood and astringent charcoal flavors just beyond. It can make for an amazingly smooth cup. Just be sure to use enough coffee so that it isn’t weak.

With lighter roasts I will go all the way up to boiling if needed. Under extracted light roasts are not my thing at all. At a certain point with some of those you lose so much heat when the water contacts the coffee bed and brewer it can be hard to extract enough.

I totally agree with you. Based on what I have learned about advanced coffee making, ( Remember folks, my journey never ends, it only gets better as time goes by ) you want to use a lower temperature 195F when you are brewing a dark roast, this way you don't extract a bitter flavor out of the beans. Where as, with a lighter roast, you want to go with a higher temperature 200F+, it helps to maintain that overall sweetness one would expect with a lighter roast.

I have Stirling Kenya Sweet & Bold Dark Roast Espresso & Stirling Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Sweet & Bright for my Light Roast. Each of these have to be brewed differently to achieve a perfected brew. And additionally, I find, when using a lighter roast, more grounds are required, to achieve the same space in mass, in the filter basket, and to secure a nice smooth juicy berry flavor, with my Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee.

Where as, with my Kenya Dark Roast Espresso, I need to use less grounds to fill the basket, and also to control the strength of the brew that comes out. This is another reason why I want to get a proper brewer, that doesn't limit me on space in the grounds filter basket. I want the freedom available to me, so that I may lock in my coffee to water ratio's, to secure perfection. Yes, I am like the Borg, I will not be satisfied with anything less then perfect. LOL!
 
I totally agree with you. Based on what I have learned about advanced coffee making, ( Remember folks, my journey never ends, it only gets better as time goes by ) you want to use a lower temperature 195F when you are brewing a dark roast, this way you don't extract a bitter flavor out of the beans. Where as, with a lighter roast, you want to go with a higher temperature 200F+, it helps to maintain that overall sweetness one would expect with a lighter roast.

I have Stirling Kenya Sweet & Bold Dark Roast Espresso & Stirling Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Sweet & Bright for my Light Roast. Each of these have to be brewed differently to achieve a perfected brew. And additionally, I find, when using a lighter roast, more grounds are required, to achieve the same space in mass, in the filter basket, and to secure a nice smooth juicy berry flavor, with my Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee.

Where as, with my Kenya Dark Roast Espresso, I need to use less grounds to fill the basket, and also to control the strength of the brew that comes out. This is another reason why I want to get a proper brewer, that doesn't limit me on space in the grounds filter basket. I want the freedom available to me, so that I may lock in my coffee to water ratio's, to secure perfection. Yes, I am like the Borg, I will not be satisfied with anything less then perfect. LOL!
I think at some point along your coffee journey you’d appreciate a French press. No other brewing mechanism can match its flexibility. You can try any combination of grind size and water temp/ratio in small or large batches. This morning my son asked me to show him all the different brewing methods I’ve accumulated and it turns out I have eight on hand. If I had to narrow it to three I’d keep the French press, V60 and Aeropress. If forced to only use one it would be the French press and there’s not a close second place.
 
That a microwave comes in handy, I know I know, that's sacrilegious, but sometimes it's like that.
I have a glass and plastic French Press. I fill it up half-full of water and throw it in the microwave with the beverage setting to warm everything up while my kettle boils. I never fill the kettle up all the way so it boils faster and I don't have to worry about using up too much water pre-heating my press and cups.

Yep, they do come in handy with this hobby.
 
To add to the French Press discussion :devil:

I own something like this, I use it occasionally for unplanned after dinner coffee:


Apparently the exact one I have isn't available where I bought it anymore, but it's small capacity like this. If I was buying a larger one, and I might, I would get the new one from Fellow(or maybe the bigger version of this).
 
Here's what I learned yesterday...

1.) I would never get any work done if I had to work from home. While taking the day off to study, I took numerous breaks to try different coffee ratios and brewing techniques, did some test lathers for soaps, played around with my pocketknife collection, etc. Way too many thoughts going through my head and too many hobbies to suddenly take an interest in to get out of work.

2.) I can make some very bad pour over coffee. I always thought that would be the easiest type of coffee to make. Some were so bad that they went down the sink immediately. Granted, I tried different ratios for that and don't actually have a real pour over device. I had a coffee basket from a brewer long gone, the typical wide mouth kettle and the cheapest filters money can buy in the cabinet. But still, what I assumed was the easiest method was not. The Bunn makes a lot better drip coffee than I did manually.

3.) The KISS method made me the best coffee of the day in the French Press. Measured out some Bustelo, measured out the water and didn't think of anything else. Pre-heated the Press, poured the water in all at once, one stir after it was poured, put the lid on for 4 minutes and pressed all the way down. 21g for 350g of water. The chocolate notes were truly amazing. Lots of sludge at the bottom of the cup but since it was a smallish cup and I drank it fast, it wasn't a huge problem. Same ratio and method this morning with some canned Chock Full O Nuts and the same great cup of coffee. Not going to try different ratios any more. Sticking with what works.
 
Morning, I often read that some of you add cinnamon to your coffee, first question is why, followed by how much, and then when, does cinnamon melt in coffee? Please help me understand.
 
Here's what I learned yesterday...

1.) I would never get any work done if I had to work from home. While taking the day off to study, I took numerous breaks to try different coffee ratios and brewing techniques, did some test lathers for soaps, played around with my pocketknife collection, etc. Way too many thoughts going through my head and too many hobbies to suddenly take an interest in to get out of work.

2.) I can make some very bad pour over coffee. I always thought that would be the easiest type of coffee to make. Some were so bad that they went down the sink immediately. Granted, I tried different ratios for that and don't actually have a real pour over device. I had a coffee basket from a brewer long gone, the typical wide mouth kettle and the cheapest filters money can buy in the cabinet. But still, what I assumed was the easiest method was not. The Bunn makes a lot better drip coffee than I did manually.

3.) The KISS method made me the best coffee of the day in the French Press. Measured out some Bustelo, measured out the water and didn't think of anything else. Pre-heated the Press, poured the water in all at once, one stir after it was poured, put the lid on for 4 minutes and pressed all the way down. 21g for 350g of water. The chocolate notes were truly amazing. Lots of sludge at the bottom of the cup but since it was a smallish cup and I drank it fast, it wasn't a huge problem. Same ratio and method this morning with some canned Chock Full O Nuts and the same great cup of coffee. Not going to try different ratios any more. Sticking with what works.
Yeah it’s maybe a bit counterintuitive, but the most unforgiving brew method is pour over. Grind size and pour speed/pattern become very important when it’s not steeping the grounds like an immersion brew. “Channeling” was most likely occurring on the batches you found undrinkable - some grounds getting over extracted as the water raced through the cone in hidden channels while other grounds didn’t get extracted enough. If you’re interested in pursuing pour overs it’ll go a lot smoother with a brewer made for it and some way to control the pour more accurately. A gooseneck kettle isn’t mandatory, but it makes it a lot easier.
 
Morning, I often read that some of you add cinnamon to your coffee, first question is why, followed by how much, and then when, does cinnamon melt in coffee? Please help me understand.
I do this sometimes, but not regularly. When I do it’s just to change things up, usually a little fresh grated nutmeg as well. I’ve seen others claim health benefits from it. I don’t measure it, but a little goes a long way - I just sprinkle a little on top of the grounds. It doesn’t melt. The water just pulls a little flavor out of the ground cinnamon similar to extracting flavor from the coffee grounds. I’ve seen other methods where people will put entire cinnamon sticks into immersion brewed coffee, but I haven’t tried it.
 
Hats off to every other poster here, as I learned that I have very low standards when it comes to coffee as I routinely look down on the office Bunn coffee maker that doesn't get anything other than Folger's (I keep telling them that using more Folger's does not equal better coffee). While I look down on them with my Costco Keurig mug I never noticed y'all towering above me.
 
While I look down on them with my Costco Keurig mug I never noticed y'all towering above me.
Don't worry, we are not a judgmental lot. This thread has become a place to brain dump so we don't clog up the daily thread, it's also just a place to share any small improvement that made a difference for you... or small mistake that you want help improving. Please feel free to post here and especially the daily thread, even a picture of the Bunn and Costco mug would break up our home science labs!
 

Phoenixkh

I shaved a fortune
Today, I tried the James Hoffmann French Press method in its entirety. For the first time, I didn’t push the plunger down at all. That is the only change I added.

The coffee was noticeable less strong and didn’t taste as nice to me. My wife tasted it and came away with the same impression, with zero prompting from me.

Conclusion: I’ll use the extra 5 minutes but gently press the plunger until the grounds just touch the bottom. That has produced consistently excellent results.
 
The coffee was noticeable less strong and didn’t taste as nice to me. My wife tasted it and came away with the same impression, with zero prompting from me.
Please, before abandoning this, try a more standard dose of coffee. You know that you are way under the recommended as is plus you are under extracting with your temperature choice, what you were tasting previously is probably not improving your coffee, only increasing the TDS. Please try 50g once, with the same method above.
 
That my Aeropress makes a better cup than my French press. (Or maybe it's that I make a better cup with my Aeropress than my French press.) I was a FP guy only for a LONG time. But years ago I was introduced to an Aeropress and it became my primary because I am the only one in my house who drinks coffee so I prefer to make one cup at a time. I have gone down the rabbit hole of measuring to the .1 gram and timing my blooms and timing my steep time, but end of the day the Aeropress is just so darn user friendly that I can take a big spoon of freshly ground coffee and make a cup without thinking about it. Here's where the learning starts.

Last week I had some other people at the house who wanted coffee so I decided to make a full FP. (Again, it used to be the only thing that I used.). But it just wasn't as clean and as smooth of a cup of coffee as my Aeropress. So...end of the day, the Aeropress is my brewer of choice, and I'm not sure that there is much that will change my mind.
 
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