What's your coffee today? What brew method? Photos

[Eric_75]

Good morning, coffee crew.

Eight O'Clock French Roast. Black.

It's 31° in SCS right now with a high around 39°. Partly cloudy with no rain expected. I got about 8 hours of sleep last night, so I'm feeling pretty rested up. I'm not happy with the outcome of the game last night but it is what it is. The Quest for 6 continues.

Not much going on today other than catching up on some emails. Here's to a peaceful Monday.

Have a blessed day, friends.

 

[Leverspro]

Monday pull. Same Brazilian coffee but a fresh roast with a different profile.

 

[rudygu]

Round 2: mid-morning pull of Don Pablo signature with the Flair Pro 2. A bit of hot water and half & half was added.

 

[Leverspro]

Round 2: mid-morning pull of Don Pablo signature with the Flair Pro 2. A bit of hot water and half & half was added.View attachment 1795162

You've got a good Monday going there.

 

[Major Overkill]

Ah, into every week a Monday must fall, yes?

The Major started the day by opening up a new set of speakers for the living room. So, he opened up the box and prepared to place the subwoof in a good position where it would be both inconspicuous and not require any further furniture reorganizing. Much to his shock, the satellite speakers have rather brutally foreshortened RCA wires: about 3' long, each. Guh #1. Not exactly conducive to a good setup.

No worries, though. The Major Hass got to have a few lengths of speaker extension cable, right? Ah, that's a no. The closest thing he found was an oddly specific splitter: 1/8" headphone jack on one end, running to 2 RCA cables on the other, one for each channel.

Guh #2. Or maybe Gah #1.

Well, surely the Major's father-in-law, who's managed the remarkable achievement of being even geekier than he is, must have a set of RCA cables, right? One call later, including sweetening the offer with lunch, his father-in-law reported no RCA cables in his place either, Guh #3. Or maybe Gah #2.

Of course, please note that the nearly guaranteed way to find the RCA cables that both of us were certain we had is for me to go out and buy a new set. After that, no doubt, the sets we each have will fall out of the ceiling on our heads, or something.

The perfect place to get a new pair of RCA cables is, of course, Radio Shack. Unfortunately , there haven't been terribly many of those open since the company as a whole declared bankruptcy in 2015. So, all the Major needs to do is find a time machine, travel back almost 10 years, buy a new set of RCA cables, then connect them. He'll worry about that whole "breaking the laws of time" thing later, right?

But, since he doesn't have a TARDIS handy, the next best solution is to see if be can get a set of cables at Best Buy or something else.

Good times?
-MO

 

[tjsgarden]

Good Day Coffee Krew!


These beans are 11 days after roast. (17.1g in-output 36g.)
I'll say my skills pulling a shot with the Flair are improving.
I used 1 step finer grind today. Using a new small round mirror, I applied a small amount of pressure until I could see an outer ring in the bottom of the basket. I applied a little more pressure until the bottom of the basket was saturated and output filled in nicely. Then I ramped up pressure to about 8 bars and held steady. At 32g output, I released most of the pressure til I hit 36 grams. The coffee was delicious!

 

[rudygu]

Good Day Coffee Krew!

View attachment 1795288
These beans are 11 days after roast. (17.1g in-output 36g.)
I'll say my skills pulling a shot with the Flair are improving.
I used 1 step finer grind today. Using a new small round mirror, I applied a small amount of pressure until I could see an outer ring in the bottom of the basket. I applied a little more pressure until the bottom of the basket was saturated and output filled in nicely. Then I ramped up pressure to about 8 bars and held steady. At 32g output, I released most of the pressure til I hit 36 grams. The coffee was delicious!

That is pretty much the profile I use, but I vary the ratio and pressure. I pull dark roasts shorter than 2:1 and closer to 6-7 bar, light roasts closer to 2.5-3:1 and 8-9 bar.

 

[tjsgarden]

That is pretty much the profile I use, but I vary the ratio and pressure. I pull dark roasts shorter than 2:1 and closer to 6-7 bar, light roasts closer to 2.5-3:1 and 8-9 bar.

Trevor
Thanks for the good advice.
Repetition is helping me learn the workflow.
I probably would have bought the Flair 58+ if it didn't take up more counter space, but now I am very satisfied with the Pro 2.

 

[Eric_75]

Good morning, coffee crew.

Eight O'Clock Original. Black.

It's 29° in SCS right now with a high around 38° today. Another partly cloudy forecast with no rain expected. I got about 6 hours of sleep last night. I woke up feeling pretty good this morning. Since it's Taco Tuesday, I'll be heading over to the Butter Run Saloon for tacos and a cold beer.

Have a blessed Tuesday, friends.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

Good Morning Coffee Crew

Brewer: Behmor Brazen Plus 3.0
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso+
Scale: Timemore Black Mirror Nano
Coffee: Bones Army Of Dark Chocolate
Temp: 200F PreSoak: 1-Minute

Drinking the delicious Bones AODC today folks


​

Ah, into every week a Monday must fall, yes?

The Major started the day by opening up a new set of speakers for the living room. So, he opened up the box and prepared to place the subwoof in a good position where it would be both inconspicuous and not require any further furniture reorganizing. Much to his shock, the satellite speakers have rather brutally foreshortened RCA wires: about 3' long, each. Guh #1. Not exactly conducive to a good setup.

No worries, though. The Major Hass got to have a few lengths of speaker extension cable, right? Ah, that's a no. The closest thing he found was an oddly specific splitter: 1/8" headphone jack on one end, running to 2 RCA cables on the other, one for each channel.

Guh #2. Or maybe Gah #1.

Well, surely the Major's father-in-law, who's managed the remarkable achievement of being even geekier than he is, must have a set of RCA cables, right? One call later, including sweetening the offer with lunch, his father-in-law reported no RCA cables in his place either, Guh #3. Or maybe Gah #2.

Of course, please note that the nearly guaranteed way to find the RCA cables that both of us were certain we had is for me to go out and buy a new set. After that, no doubt, the sets we each have will fall out of the ceiling on our heads, or something.

The perfect place to get a new pair of RCA cables is, of course, Radio Shack. Unfortunately , there haven't been terribly many of those open since the company as a whole declared bankruptcy in 2015. So, all the Major needs to do is find a time machine, travel back almost 10 years, buy a new set of RCA cables, then connect them. He'll worry about that whole "breaking the laws of time" thing later, right?

But, since he doesn't have a TARDIS handy, the next best solution is to see if be can get a set of cables at Best Buy or something else.

Good times?
-MO

Major, I sent you bacon to hopefully make you feel better. Although for me, I am going to eat some sausages wrapped in pancake on a stick soon. The main issue that you are having, is that times changed so fast, you are only just now starting to catch up to the changes. Local brick and mortar shops like RadioShack are long since dead. Any company who did not get with the times, and open up an online presence, died a horrible death.

Unless you have a Micro Center nearby, ( we don't ) your SOL. Your only recourse is to buy your speaker cables online. Make sure to stay away from the speaker cable garbage made in China, that is sold on the Amazon store. All quality cables are hand made in Europe. If you really want mass produced garbage, you can go ahead and buy whatever you need on Amazon.

But if you want quality gear, look across the pond for the best hand made goods. Yep, its going to take weeks to get to you, no quick shipping from across the pond, and not cheap shipping either. But if you want to buy something cheap to get you buy, you could get something on Amazon. Then you can order some quality hand made gear from across the pond, and wait for that to get there.

You are still a speaker guy, I too used to be into speakers, and rocked 5.1 surround sound systems. After so many years however, I discovered the wonders of headphones. After a few more years, my tastes became refined, and thats when I got my Denon AH-D9200 headphones. Most recently, in an effort to improve my experience even further, I just ordered a hand made audio cable from Forza Audio Works for my Denon cans.

With shipping included, my total cost came out to 245 dollars. What are the benefits of this cable you ask? This cable is top of the line pure OCC copper, which will provide for a warm sound, none of that tinny sybilance garbage you get from silver cables. Also, the original Denon cables suffers from microphonics, the new cable does not.

The new cable is also a thicker gauge, which adds durability, but not so thick that it ruins the sound entirely from a sound standpoint. Another factor, is that the cables look far better as well from an aesthetics point of view. Since these are hand made, the cable artist actually goes through the painstaking lengthy process, to braid the cables.

Weight is controlled so as to not be too heavy, or to be too rigid, maintaining flexibility is key in an headphone cable. Also, I chose Viablue connectors, because they are high quality, and they look good as well. And I chose the 2.5m length, which is equal to 8-feet. And incase you are wondering, the company is located in Poland.

I wish you good luck my @Major Overkill friend!

 

[Wid]

Good Tuesday morning fellas

This morning we have some Panama Red made in the Bunn. A shot of half and half was added.

 

[R7photo]

GM

Brazil Fazenda Vila Boa Anaerobic Natural​

4 days from roasting, flavors more pronounced and in harmony creating a delicious cup
Have a great all

 

[Leverspro]

Tuesday pull. Brazilian on three days post roast rest.

 

[Major Overkill]

Ah, into every week a Monday must fall, yes?

The Major started the day by opening up a new set of speakers for the living room.

Following up, the Major was able to pick up some extension RCA cables. The speakers sound damned good.

-MO

 

[Major Overkill]

It's a winter wonderland!

So, how else to celebrate but w/a nice cuppa Bones Army of Dark Chocolate made in the stainless steel pourover. Black, natch.

-MO

 

[linty1]

At work again and completly forgot I had an old can of beans from my previous bag... the jamaican blue mountain beans. Anyways, broke out the kit... haven't made a coffee at work in a while... through the grinder and clever... and.. yup. Old beans. not rancid or anything like that, but you can tell that it tastes.... a little different. Still an ok cup.. I would say this is nearing the edge of good/drinkable for me.. would still rather this than fast food drip coffee which just tastes like cig butts for me.

 

[tjsgarden]

Good Morning Koffee Krew!
I woke up knowing I wanted two cups this morning. I haven't tried 40g in the Pulsar yet. Since the depth of the coffee bed was higher, I decided to go 1 step more coarse. 125 g of water in...immersion for 1 minute, stir and then open the valve to percolate the rest of the pour. Total of 629g of water. I'm drinking the 2nd cup now...Kathy also had a cup.

My wife and I both agree the Rhino Ceros is not as bright and alive as we like in a pour-over. Perhaps a lighter roast for pour-over and a darker roast (like the Ceros) for espresso??? Any thoughts or opinions?

Temp: 200F PreSoak: 1-Minute

Does the Behmor brewer have an automatic pre-soak function?

 

[Leverspro]

Good Morning Koffee Krew!
I woke up knowing I wanted two cups this morning. I haven't tried 40g in the Pulsar yet. Since the depth of the coffee bed was higher, I decided to go 1 step more coarse. 125 g of water in...immersion for 1 minute, stir and then open the valve to percolate the rest of the pour. Total of 629g of water. I'm drinking the 2nd cup now...Kathy also had a cup.

My wife and I both agree the Rhino Ceros is not as bright and alive as we like in a pour-over. Perhaps a lighter roast for pour-over and a darker roast (like the Ceros) for espresso??? Any thoughts or opinions?


Does the Behmor brewer have an automatic pre-soak function?

With the Pulsar do you only close the valve for pre infusion and then leave it open for the rest of the pour?
I use the same coffee for espresso and drip, but I'm definitely aiming to optimize espresso with the beans I buy and the roast profiles I use as I drink espresso seven days a week and pour over only on the weekend for a second mid day cup. I do have a separate grinder for each format but I don't use enough coffee for pour over to ever choose a bean and roast for it as primary. My experience with espresso is that a medium to dark roast, not second crack dark, but definitely not light is easiest to get good espresso. Brewing very light roasted coffee is all the rage in trendy shops here on the West coast, but I believe it's a more difficult task and might require some equipment, like different grinders and pressure flow control to do it best. I personally don't care for the fruity goals of light coffee in espresso and enjoy them more with the brightness of a good pour over.

 

[tjsgarden]

With the Pulsar do you only close the valve for pre infusion and then leave it open for the rest of the pour?
I use the same coffee for espresso and drip, but I'm definitely aiming to optimize espresso with the beans I buy and the roast profiles I use as I drink espresso seven days a week and pour over only on the weekend for a second mid day cup. I do have a separate grinder for each format but I don't use enough coffee for pour over to ever choose a bean and roast for it as primary. My experience with espresso is that a medium to dark roast, not second crack dark, but definitely not light is easiest to get good espresso. Brewing very light roasted coffee is all the rage in trendy shops here on the West coast, but I believe it's a more difficult task and might require some equipment, like different grinders and pressure flow control to do it best. I personally don't care for the fruity goals of light coffee in espresso and enjoy them more with the brightness of a good pour over.

"With the Pulsar do you only close the valve for pre infusion and then leave it open for the rest of the pour?"

The Pulsar has a variable valve. If for what-ever reason I think coffee is pouring out too slow or fast, I can adjust the output flow.
This morning, I opened the valve all the way because the output seemed slightly slow; (probably due to increased amount of beans and perhaps the grind should have been slightly more coarse).

I enjoy a lighter roast for pour-over, like you I prefer the brightness and complexity compared to darker roast. So far, I have had more success getting good shots with darker roast with the Flair. I'm a newbie with manually pulled espresso...maybe Trevor, @rudygu could offer some ideas about pulling lighter roast. Based on what I have learned from others, it requires a higher temp and is more difficult to dial in a grind size.

 

[rudygu]

Perhaps a lighter roast for pour-over and a darker roast (like the Ceros) for espresso??? Any thoughts or opinions?

My experience with espresso is that a medium to dark roast, not second crack dark, but definitely not light is easiest to get good espresso. Brewing very light roasted coffee is all the rage in trendy shops here on the West coast, but I believe it's a more difficult task and might require some equipment, like different grinders and pressure flow control to do it best. I personally don't care for the fruity goals of light coffee in espresso and enjoy them more with the brightness of a good pour over.

This is exactly my preference. I’ve experimented enough with light roasts And espresso now to understand I’m not a huge fan. There have been a couple I enjoy as Americanos, but generally it’s too fiddly. Much simpler (and efficient) to just make pour over with those beans.

I enjoy a lighter roast for pour-over, like you I prefer the brightness and complexity compared to darker roast. So far, I have had more success getting good shots with darker roast with the Flair. I'm a newbie with manually pulled espresso...maybe Trevor, @rudygu could offer some ideas about pulling lighter roast. Based on what I have learned from others, it requires a higher temp and is more difficult to dial in a grind size.

Take what I say with a grain of salt as I’m not an expert, but I am comfortable pulling espresso with light roasts . I can use the Flair Pro 2 or my modest consumer Kitchenaid semi auto to do it. For both of these devices my Encore ESP is good enough to get acceptable results, so In my experience you don’t need super specialized equipment to do it. However, you do need to grind very fine without choking the machine and you need to be able to control the shot time. The water temp does need to be high enough, but I‘d place that behind the other things I mentioned. The ability to control the pressure is nice to fine tune the shot, but as long as it’s not crazily high I wouldn’t worry about it until everything else is mastered.

To pull light roasts with my semi-auto I need one piece of aftermarket gear. It uses a standard sized 58 mm portafilter, but none of the stock baskets work well for light roasts so I picked up a “deep extraction“ basket. This basket allows me to grind much finer and maintain a consistent flow without choking the machine or channeling. I always use a puck screen on top of the coffee and I feel it helps tremendously. Placing an appropriate sized circle of filter paper in the bottom of the portafilter, below the coffee, will also increase the flow rate and allow finer grinding. I know that is counterintuitive, but it really does work that way. basically it keeps the fine particles from clogging the holes in the basket and allows more flow. My process to dial in amounts to grinding fine enough to choke the machine then backing off and going coarser until I get the smooth, steady flow I’m looking for. I almost always pull these roasts longer than the standard 2:1 ratio - more like 2.4-2.7, so in my case I’m looking for something like 18 g coffee and a 45 g shot yield. It’s important to use some sort of WDT tool as well to avoid channeling. The worst pulls I’ve ever had were ground a bit too fine, but still flowed ok because there was so much channeling. That amounts to an uneven, under extracted mess.

My Flair Pro 2 process is much the same, except I use all the stock parts. Make sure the brew head is well preheated and the puck is well prepped with WDT. I look for a grind that will pull around 2.5:1 without exceeding 8 bar. The time it takes to pull is generally around 30-35 sec after the first drips come through the basket, but I don’t think the time matters as much as the rest. This method results in a shot that is a little better than the semi-auto (presumably due to pressure control and profile) but not so much that I fret over it.

Sorry for the rambling reply - I’ll try and tldr it: WDT, use a puck screen, make sure your basket allows you to grind fine enough without choking and pull longer shots than 2:1.