What did you learn from your coffee brewing method today?

[GoodShave]

Last night, I swapped out my Hario Switch V60 glass cone with my plastic Hario Mugen cone to make a Mugen-Switch.
This should reduce water going between the filter and the dripper (instead of going through the coffee grounds).
It also means I don't have to warm the cone before brewing the coffee.

I tried it out this morning with my Bridge City Coffee Fell & Fair blend beans this morning using the Coffee Chronicler recipe. I will need to dial in things for this new dripper setup but I excited to explore this new setup. I will probably try this Tales Coffee recipe that is meant for the Mugen-Switch soon. This is another recipe I may try which would include using my Melodrip.

 

[tjsgarden]

Hey Guys
I usually hang out in the shaving GRUME & GRUYERE threads.
I started the coffee rabbit hole about 3 months ago. Today I ordered the Flair Pro 2 for espresso. For pour over, I am using the Next Level Pusar. The Pulsar has almost limitless pour over potential and the Flair will (hopefully) give me pressure profiling potential.

 

[GoodShave]

I came to the realization that I generally grind my beans finer than expected for a given recipe or per the 1Zpresso grind guide for my grinder per brew method is because I compensate for the faster pour rate dictated by my Brewista Artisan kettle spout angle combined with the height of my kitchen counter. If I brew on a lower surface like my kitchen table, I think I can pour slower with the Brewista Artisan kettle. I use the pour speed gauge on my my 2021 Acai Perl scale as a guide.

I have debated getting a smaller, lighter pour kettle with a different spout angle such as the Timemore Fish03 Hand-drip Kettle, but I don't want to have to deal with heating the water hotter (to deal with the temperature loss of a cold kettle) or warming the pour kettle and watching the temp drop to the desired brew temp before pouring into my brewer. I have become accustomed to setting the temp on my Brewista Artisan electric kettle and having it hold the water at the temperature I want while I finish all the other prep work (grinding the beans, cleaning out the grinder, setting the filter in the brewer, etc.).

 

[GoodShave]

Today I tested my theory on counter height and pour speed. I brewed my coffee today on my kitchen table which is lower than my kitchen counter. I think the height made things worse as the angle I need to pour from meant a faster pour at this lower height. Granted, I was a little distracted in my pouring this morning as I was too focused on the recipe and hitting the right weights.

I changed my mind and have a pouring kettle on the way. Less kettle weight/mass and a different spout design should help immensely with getting my pour speed under control.

 

[GoodShave]

Today was my first day to try out my new Timemore Youth Pour Over kettle with brewing a cup of coffee.
Last night, I played with preheating the kettle and measure heat loss. I boiled water in a regular kettle and poured it into the room temperature Timemore kettle. The water temperature dropped from 100c to 93.6c.

The kettle box and documentation does not list how much water the kettle holds. The websites I searched say it holds 700ml (to near the top edge) but the effective amount you can actually pour is 600ml. I agree with that.

For brewing, I preheated the Timemore as stated above but set my Brewista Artisan kettle to hold water at 96c. I used the Timemore water to rinse my filter and heat my brewer. When my coffee was in my brewer, I dumped the preheat water out of the Timemore into a measuring cup (to recycle the water for the next day's preheat). I changed the temperature on the Brewista from 96c to 100c (since my recipe called for 100c water). When it hit that temperature, I put the Timemore kettle on the scale and poured the amount of water for my recipe from the Brewista into the Timemore. I then brewed my coffee.

Since my water was to the exact amount of the recipe, I had to shake the last drops from the Timemore into my dripper. I also think it became more challenging to keep the pour stream solid as I neared the bottom of my water supply. I think next time I will add +50g or +100g to my Timemore to keep the stream solid to the end of the recipe total for water. Any left over water, I will pour back into the Brewista for the next brew.

I use tap water for preheating in my regular kettle and filtered water in the Brewista for brewing tea and coffee.

 

[GoodShave]

I ran across this video on pour techniques and it has to be the most detailed video I have ever seen on the topic. There were a lot of advanced topics included in this video.

Timecodes:
0:00 - Hook
0:24 - Title B Roll
0:32 - Introduction
2:02 - Things You Need
3:56 - The Pour Variables
8:51 - 7 Different Types of Pours
14:02 - How To Use Them

 

[Hercule]

To answer the original question regarding what I learned from today's brewing method: use thirty seconds more in the microwave.

 

[WThomas0814]

I learned that I like coffee more than breathing.

 

[MaxCurveSuper]

This is going to sound weird from a guy who picked up the Aeropress almost 10 years ago and forgot about everything else. Always used fine grind, RO water, 60 second steep, slow press, YUM.

My brother started using one of these gizmos at home after adopting it for camping. Coffee at his house was weaker than I like but strangely good.

Farberware Yosemite, Hortons Bean - ground somewhat fine, tap well water - run through calcite acid neutralizer and softener, grounds by volume to high level in basket, bring to perc on high gas heat then reduce to very low for a slow steady perc time of 15 minutes, allow the basket to drain a bit then remove. I think the perforation style in the basket makes things work far better than other percolators I have tried over the years.

I have been trying for years to eliminate coffee additives. I still use Truvia but have finally been successful at ditching cream. I still treat myself with cream once in a while, but am learning to appreciate the complex flavors ‘neat’ coffee can offer.

In a style that I learned from the great Aeropress, make it strong and dilute about 50% with water. I am kinda liking this…

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Dude, that looks like the same stove top percolator that I have, mine's a Farberware 8-cup model. It makes delicious coffee, I've regulated mine to be used on a propane stove for power outages. Because I don't like the idea of firing up my electric stove everytime I want to make coffee, I use an SCAA certified automatic drip brewer instead.

I also have an electric plug in percolator that I used for a few years, then gave it to a family member. But the electric one decided to start making weak coffee, not sure if its a temperature problem, or a running time problem, don't know. I just decided to start making coffee for them as well, because mine can actually make delicious coffee.

But ya, the stove top percolator from Farberware is pretty decent. Before I got my generator, I would use it on the propane stove from Coleman every power outage, sure helps to warm you up on a cold day with no heat, drinking some hot coffee. Thanks for sharing your process!

 

[MaxCurveSuper]

Dude, that looks like the same stove top percolator that I have, mine's a Farberware 8-cup model. It makes delicious coffee, I've regulated mine to be used on a propane stove for power outages. Because I don't like the idea of firing up my electric stove everytime I want to make coffee, I use an SCAA certified automatic drip brewer instead.

I also have an electric plug in percolator that I used for a few years, then gave it to a family member. But the electric one decided to start making weak coffee, not sure if its a temperature problem, or a running time problem, don't know. I just decided to start making coffee for them as well, because mine can actually make delicious coffee.

But ya, the stove top percolator from Farberware is pretty decent. Before I got my generator, I would use it on the propane stove from Coleman every power outage, sure helps to warm you up on a cold day with no heat, drinking some hot coffee. Thanks for sharing your process!

It is the Farberware 8-cup model.

I have a gas range with 1 very small low temp burner keeping heat energy in the very center.
Understanding that burning is bad, I stuck a thermometer in the spout to see what temp I was actually percolating at. If I recall it was over 200F but not at a boil.
The instructions call for a 5 minute perc time, my brother was doing 10, I found flavor stronger and more to my liking at 15. It takes about 15 minutes to start a perc before I move to low burner. So a pot of coffee has an agonizing half hour wait in those early morning hours.

I am not sure I would get the same result on an electric.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I learned I like the metal filter over paper. I feel like the paper absorbs some of the bean oils. I do Pour over and I also use an aero press.

 

[GoodShave]

I learned that pouring more slowly into the Melodrip yields more even extraction.

I brewed two cups of coffee back to back using the Melodrip B recipe, the first with my Brewista Artisan kettle without the flow restrictor plug installed. The second brew was with my Timemore Youth pour over kettle which has the flow restrctor built in. Both are goose neck kettles.

The brew without flow restriction allowed the Melodrip base to fill up more quickly which meant more holes were dripping water at once. With flow restriction, the Melodrip base did not fill up as quickly which meant fewer holes were dripping at a time which lead to less disturbance of the brew bed and more even extraction. The brew without flow restriction was a little under extracted. The brew with flow restriction was a better cup.

That was just how the brews went for the beans, water temp, and grind size I was using for the day. I have had good brews with other beans and settings without flow restriction. I just happen to brew back to back cups and thought I would do a comparison since I recently picked up the Timemore kettle.

 

[GoodShave]

I previously thought that the reason I was not getting a good filter fit with my Hario Mugen-Switch (Hario Mugen cone mounted to the Hario Switch base) was due to the filter tip being obstructed by the ball in the Switch base.

Today, I was brewing with the Hario Mugen and had a similar filter issue. I came to realize that unlike with the the Switch glass cone (which has ribs like a regular V60), you have to have the V60-02 filter at the right depth in the Mugen cone (which has no ribs) before adding any water or the filter will stick to the walls prematurely causing large air gaps between the filter and the cone which could allow for side channeling.

I had been using a different method of setting the filter which works great for V60s but not so great for the Mugen unless you have the filter height set just right. So today, I went back to my old way of setting V60 filters and the Mugen brewed well as it normally would.

So, that means I will go back to the Mugen-Switch at some point and revisit my filter setting technique.

 

[Mempho]

Always store the carafe where your houseful of kittens can't get to it..

 

[GoodShave]

Today was the first day using my new Oxo electric goose neck kettle to brew coffee.

I noticed that it does not lose heat quickly like the Brewista Artisan kettle. It took at least two minutes or so before the kettle started heating again to maintain the temperature after I poured the bloom (since there was very little heat loss). I also noticed having the kettle off the base for 2.5-3 minutes, when I put the kettle on the base, it did not go into warm mode. It was on but acted like the kettle was just turned on. As I waited for the draw down, the kettle (still on the base) turned itself off. That auto shut off is an undocumented feature. Empty with lid, the Oxo weighs 741.9g vs. 693.9g for Brewista. So that heat retention comes with a weight cost. The steel is probably thicker on the Oxo than the Brewista. The timer on the Oxo works well but as the user manual states, you cannot operate the timer until the kettle reaches the target temperature. But unlike the Brewista, placing the kettle back on the base does not cancel the timer (a frustration of mine with the Brewista since instinctively, I put the kettle on the base to save counter space). You have to press the button on the Oxo base for the timer to stop/cancel.

Today was also the first time using the HyperChiller (HC3). I brewed a pour over into a server and poured the server into the HyperChiller. Swirling the HC works faster than just letting the coffee sit in the HC, but both methods work. I swirled the coffee in the HC for 90 seconds and poured it into a mug. The temperature of the coffee was like the coffee had been sitting in the refrigerator all day! It was very cold. Since there was no ice in contact with the coffee, there was no dilution to the brew. It worked very well. This will come in handy when the outdoor temperature is too hot to drink hot coffee.