3.Acidity. Unlike sweetness, acidity might knock you over the head and be quite easy to detect. People often mistake acidity for bitterness—if you want to avoid this, try my tip on page 252. Acidity usually presents itself as an overall feeling or quality. If the coffee feels bright, juicy, zingy, sparkling, or sharp in your mouth, that’s likely acidity. Another way to think about acidity is by comparing the coffee to how your mouth feels when consuming other acidic foods, like salad dressings, vinegars, wines, apples, or citrus fruits. However, the coffee shouldn’t taste sour or unpleasant. If it does, it is likely underextracted.
4.Flavor Notes. On the fourth taste, you’ll be thinking only about what flavors this coffee reminds you of. During this stage, alternating between the first coffee and the second coffee might be most helpful. Write down whatever comes to mind, even if it sounds silly. You might be surprised that your friends write down different but related tastes and associations.
COFFEE TASTING CHART
CHAPTER 6
Brewing Methods
BY NOW YOU’VE PROBABLY COME TO REALIZE that coffee is a fickle beast. Just when you think you have it figured out, its taste changes, it behaves differently, or it becomes stale. It’s easily swayed by external factors, from the weather to the water to your eager hand. When making coffee, the goal is to repeat delicious results. There is no point otherwise. But how do you repeat results when the primary ingredient seems comfortable wallowing in a dark, inscrutable pit of inconsistency? You need to know where to start.
That’s why this chapter provides you with base specs and suggested methods for each of the 10 devices covered in chapter 2. Some devices include more than one method. For each method, Andreas and I dialed in the base specs across multiple brews using different kinds of coffee and consistently saw good results. These specs are a good place to start. You may find they work perfectly for your setup, or you may find you need to adjust them here and there to account for your environment or your preferences. But to get started, here’s the information we included:
•Base specs. Each method offers a snapshot of the base specs that Andreas and I tested with, including the grind size, brew ratio, temperature, and timing. These are the items you can play around with to perfect your cup. You can use the brew ratio to scale the yield up or down, but note that some other variables, like time and grind size, might also need to be adjusted.
•Water. Most of the recipes call for water off boil, by which we mean 30 seconds to 1 minute after it’s been brought to a boil. A couple of methods require more specific temperatures. I also indicate that you should boil more water “as necessary” along with the amount needed for the recipe. I find it’s easiest to fill the kettle with a couple hundred grams more water than necessary. You can use the extra water to wet your filter beforehand (which we always recommend) or to immediately rinse your device afterward, which keeps cleanup quick and easy.
Perspective
Keep in mind that you can literally just dump water into a lot of the devices in this chapter and end up with something better than what a typical automatic machine can make. All of the details included here are aimed at optimizing the cup and replicating the results.
•Grind size. Our descriptions of grind size correspond with the chart on page 29. I’ve also included the Baratza Virtuoso grind setting that we used for our tests. If you don’t have a Virtuoso, you may be able to find conversion numbers online—Baratza doesn’t have consistent settings even among its own models. This lack of grind size standardization is certainly one of the most annoying things about home brewing today, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Physics! At the very least, you’ll be able to get close to the right grind size by using the grind references in the aforementioned chart.
•Equipment icons. Each method includes icons that indicate the minimum amount of equipment we recommend using for an optimized cup: either one device (burr grinder), two devices (burr grinder and scale), or three devices (burr grinder, scale, and gooseneck kettle). These mostly correspond with the information on page 83, but there are a couple of fun surprises, too. I am assuming that everyone has a kitchen thermometer already, but in general, I don’t think thermometers are strictly necessary for home brewers. The few methods I strongly recommend a thermometer for are marked with a corresponding icon. A stopwatch, on the other hand, is always necessary. I use the one on my phone. Obviously, you can make any method with a full brew bar or you can choose to use no coffee equipment. You do you.
•Grams. It should come as no surprise by now that I strongly suggest the use of a gram scale for most methods—except, of course, for the ones I don’t think benefit from it (which are marked). In other words, most of these recipes were developed using grams to measure both coffee and water. Because I know some of you still don’t believe me about the life-changing magic of a kitchen scale, I have also included conversions for US customary units. You’re welcome! Keep in mind that these measurements are nowhere near as accurate as the gram measurements. For one thing, I had to round them in some cases in order for them to be actually useful. But also, measuring by volume is fundamentally inconsistent for all the reasons described in chapter 1 (see page 24). It also won’t be easy to use the brew ratios to scale up the recipes if you measure by volume.
Burr grinder
Scale
Gooseneck kettle
Thermometer
In case you’re curious or want to use your knowledge to create your own recipes, I’ve included some conversion charts on the opposite page to help you swap between grams and US customary units. Again, the US customary units have been rounded. If you are familiar with measuring water in milliliters, you are in luck, as 1 gram of water equals 1 milliliter of water.
One last word of advice: in the beginning, I recommend that you choose one brewing device—based on the considerations you learned about in this book—and keep at it until you perfect it. Once you know a device inside and out and understand all of its idiosyncrasies, manual coffee brewing will become that much easier and that much more intuitive. Practically speaking, even if you have a bunch of devices, like we do, you’ll probably gravitate toward one or two of them most of the time anyway. Happy brewing!
WATER MEASUREMENT CONVERSION CHARTS
WHOLE COFFEE MEASUREMENT CONVERSION CHARTS
THE FRENCH PRESS
(Press Pot, Coffee Press, or Cafetière)
The Eight-Minute French Press Method
Most coffee guides will tell you that to make French press coffee, you should pour water over the grounds and let them sit for four to five minutes. I used to make it that way, too. However, thanks to barista Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball in San Francisco, I’ve found that extremely coarse grounds and longer steep times (up to eight minutes) produce a more even, delicate cup. Because of this, Andreas and I have included specs for both the eight-minute method and the five-minute method here—shorter brewing times do have an early-morning appeal, after all.
The eight-minute method works best with a very coarse grind. Start with the coarsest setting on your grinder that still produces an even grind (the coarsest setting on our Virtuoso chews up the beans).
BASE SPECS
Grind: extra coarse (39 on Baratza Virtuoso)
Brew ratio: 1:14
Water temp: off boil
Total brewing time: 8 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Makes 400 grams (13.5 fluid ounces)
28.5 grams (¼ cup + 2 teaspoons) fresh whole coffee
400 grams (13.5 fluid ounces) water, plus more as needed
METHOD
1.Pour the water into a kettle and set it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil.
2.While the water heats, set a timer for 8 minutes but don’t start it yet. Grind the coffee to an extra coarse size, transfer it to the brewing chamber of a French press, and gently shake the chamber to level the grounds. Set it on a kitchen scale and zero the scale.
3.When the water just starts to boil, remove the kettl
e from the heat. Start the timer and quickly but carefully add the water to the French press until the scale reads 400 grams.
4.After 30 to 45 seconds has elapsed on the timer, gently stir the water with a spoon until most of the grounds start to sink to the bottom (there will still be a froth with some grounds at the top). Place the plunger over the vessel, but do not depress it.
5.When the timer sounds, slowly and gently depress the plunger. It’s important to do this carefully. Forcefully depressing the plunger will result in an unwanted amount of agitation, and you’ll risk ruining your balanced cup by unleashing the bitter, astringent flavors that are still in the bean.
6.Serve immediately or transfer to a separate carafe. Use any extra hot water to rinse the device. Enjoy!
BREWING TIPS
Most of the methods in this section call for a stopwatch. For this method (and the Five-Minute French Press Method), it’s easier to set a timer and wait for it to sound.
One of the best things about using a French press is that it’s quick and easy to make coffee for multiple people. But remember, there is still sediment in your brew, and the bulk of it has sunk to the bottom. If you serve multiple people by filling each cup one at a time, the first cup will contain very little sediment, and the last cup will contain a lot—and it won’t necessarily taste that good. To avoid this, pour each cup in waves to distribute the sediment evenly.
The Five-Minute French Press Method
In our home experiments, Andreas and I found that limiting the brewing time for this method to four minutes or less made it too difficult to achieve a balanced cup. It’s often not enough time for the water to fully penetrate coarse grounds and extract delicious flavors. If you tighten the grind, it’s too easy for the water to penetrate, which leads to a bitter, filmy brew (no matter what anyone else says, you do not need to resign yourself to bitter, filmy coffee when using a French press!). We settled on five minutes.
Aside from the time involved, the main difference between the eight-minute method and this shorter method is that it requires a different kind of agitation to extract properly. Also, due to the shorter brewing time, you do not need as coarse of a grind as in the eight-minute method.
BASE SPECS
Grind: coarse (34 on Baratza Virtuoso)
Brew ratio: 1:16
Water temp: off boil
Total brewing time: 5 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Makes 400 grams (13.5 fluid ounces)
25 grams (¼ cup + ½ teaspoon) fresh whole coffee
400 grams (13.5 fluid ounces) water, plus more as needed
METHOD
1.Pour the water into a kettle and set it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil.
2.While the water heats, set a timer for 5 minutes but don’t start it yet. Grind the coffee to a coarse size, transfer it to the brewing chamber of a French press, and gently shake the chamber to level the grounds. Set it on a kitchen scale and zero the scale.
3.When the water just starts to boil, remove the kettle from the heat. Start the timer and quickly but carefully pour the water into the French press until the scale reads 400 grams.
4.After 1 minute has elapsed on the timer, gently stir the water in a circle with a spoon, about 10 times. Place the plunger over the vessel, but do not depress it.
5.When the timer sounds, slowly and gently depress the plunger. It’s important to do this carefully. Forcefully depressing the plunger will result in an unwanted amount of agitation, and you’ll risk ruining your balanced cup by unleashing the bitter, astringent flavors that are still in the bean.
6.Serve immediately or transfer to a separate carafe. Use any extra hot water to rinse the device. Enjoy!
BREWING TIPS
If you’d like to see how different brewing methods can change the taste of the same coffee beans, compare your French press coffee with a cup of the same coffee brewed with any pour-over method.
Even once you depress the plunger of a French press, the grounds at the bottom of the container will continue to extract, so make sure to remove the coffee from the device as soon as it’s done brewing.
The French Press Cold Brew Method
Cold brewing is one of the easiest ways to make a great cup of coffee. This method is a combination of a traditional method and a special French press technique Andreas and I picked up from James Hoffmann, author of The World Atlas of Coffee and the 2007 World Barista Champion (although he used it for a hot brew, not a cold brew). If you don’t have a French press, this method can also be done in any old jar with a lid. Instead of pouring the concentrate through the French press screen, gently and carefully pour it through a paper or cloth filter. A batch of cold-brew concentrate can make upward of five cups after dilution. Depending on the size of your vessel, you can make even more with the ratios listed below.
BASE SPECS
Grind: medium coarse (25 on Baratza Virtuoso)
Brew ratio: ~1:6
Water temp: cold (from fridge or from tap)
Total brewing time: 12 hours
INGREDIENTS
Makes 600 grams (20.3 fluid ounces) of concentrate
96 grams (1 cup) fresh whole coffee
600 grams (20.3 fluid ounces) cold water
METHOD
1.Grind the coffee to a medium-coarse size, add it to the brewing chamber of a French press, and gently it shake to level the grounds. Add the water. Insert the plunger, but do not depress it all the way. The mesh filter should just rest on the grounds, keeping them submerged. Transfer the French press to the refrigerator and let the coffee brew for 12 hours.
2.Remove the French press from the refrigerator and remove the lid. Stir 3 times, just until the crust starts to sink. Set it aside for 5 to 10 minutes to allow most of the tiny coffee particles to sink to the bottom of the vessel. Then insert the plunger, but do not depress it all the way. Plunge it just enough so the mesh filter rests gently on top of the coffee. It’s untraditional, but depressing the plunger will agitate your perfect cold brew and stir up all the tiny particles that you waited so patiently to sink to the bottom. The goal is to keep them out of the filtered cold brew so they do not continue to extract!
3.Gently pour the cold brew concentrate into a separate container. To enjoy, dilute with fresh, cold water using a 1:1 ratio, or to taste. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 1 to 2 weeks.
THE AEROPRESS
Classic AeroPress Method
This method is adapted from the manufacturer’s original instructions. Many professionals tend to dislike this method, as water will start to leak from the device into your cup before you depress the plunger. The method calls for a fairly low water temperature—without an electric kettle with temperature settings, I’ve found it can take a good while off boil for the water to reach that temperature. If you’re using medium- to dark-roast beans, you may need to go as low as 175°F to achieve a pleasing extraction. Of course, you can always measure the temperature of the water as it heats, but that can be tricky without a clip-on thermometer!
For a bounty of other recipes, check out the World AeroPress Championship website, which features winning recipes from the past several years.
BASE SPECS
Grind: fine (6 on the Baratza Virtuoso)
Brew ratio: 1:12
Water temp: 185°F
Total brewing time: 50 to 90 seconds
INGREDIENTS
Makes 138 grams (4.7 fluid ounces)
11.5 grams (2 tablespoons) fresh whole coffee, or 1 AeroPress scoop ground coffee (see Tip)
138 grams (4.7 fluid ounces) water, plus more as needed
METHOD
1.Pour the water into a kettle and set it over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then remove the kettle from the heat and set aside to cool.
2.While the water cools, place a filter in the cap and twist the cap onto the brewing chamber to attach it. Place the brewing chamber on top of a mug. Thoroughly wet the filter (50 to 60 grams of water) with the hot water and discard the
rinse water. Set the whole rig on a kitchen scale, if using. Grind the coffee to a fine size. Using the AeroPress funnel, carefully add the grounds to the device and gently shake to level the bed. Remove the funnel and zero the scale.
3.When the water reaches the right temperature, start a stopwatch and quickly add water to the AeroPress until the scale reads 138 grams, or until the water level reaches the middle of the number 2 on the brewing chamber. This should take about 20 seconds—it’s important to move fast because water will start dripping through the grounds and into your mug, which will mess up your measuring. Using the AeroPress paddle, stir in a circular motion for 10 seconds, making sure all the grounds are saturated. By this point, the stopwatch should read 0:30.
4.Remove the rig from the scale, insert the plunger, and with one hand placed where the mug and device meet and the other hand on the plunger, gently depress it for 20 to 60 seconds. Be sure to keep one hand on the mug to prevent sliding. When the plunger is fully engaged (you’ll hear hissing), the stopwatch should read between 0:50 and 1:30.
Craft Coffee Page 20