Brewing Guide

Here’s a brewing guide some common coffee preparation methods to produce one cup of coffee.  As always, your mileage will vary based on the equipment you use, specifically your grinder.

For recipes that say water “just off boil”, here’s a little tip to make it consistent.  When your water boils, shut off the heat. Use the water right away to WARM your vessels…not brew.  Now, CALMLY (no need to rush) grind your beans, dump the warming water and fill your device with the ground coffee. Doing this will all become second nature quickly, and it will basically guarantee that you have let the water cool to the typical target temp of 205.

Aeropress

  • 13.5gr medium ground coffee
  • 260gr water just off boil.
  • Inverted method (the plunger should be “out” as far as possible to allow maximum volume in the tube.
  1. Start a timer
  2. Bloom the coffee for 30 sec. with about 50gr of water.
  3. Vigorously swirl the tube for 10 sec
  4. After the 30 sec bloom, slowly pour the rest of the water in.  This should fill the tube completely to the top.
  5. At the 3:00 mark, turn over and press.  This should take about 20-30 sec to press completely.  If you press to hard, you will “blow out” the filter and push grounds into your cup, and too slow, you will over extract the coffee.

Hario v60

  • 16gr medium fine ground coffee (Note:  There’s a post on this site about this subject where the pour over recipe says to use 13.5gr. I have since found that 16gr results in a much better cup.  Such is the journey of coffee.)
  • 260gr water just off boil
  1. Start a timer
  2. Bloom the coffee for 30 sec. with about 50gr of water.
  3. Stir the bloom for 10 sec to ensure all the grounds are wet
  4. At the :30 mark, start to slowly pour the rest of the water using the concentric circle method. Make sure you finish at the outside of the grounds bed to ensure that ALL the grounds are getting extracted. This should be done slowly taking at least 60sec.
  5. Once all the water is poured, lift the filter cone a few inches and drop it. This will shake the slurry down to the bottom and make sure that ALL the water passes through ALL the grounds.
  6. Once the grounds bed has drained all the water through, you are done.

Espresso

  • 18gr fine ground coffee
  • 40ml shot size
  • 28sec

When you dial in your shot, do NOT change the quantity of coffee.  The only thing you should change is your grind size.

Cold Brew

Cold brew is NOT simply brewed coffee poured over ice.  While that is a nice beverage, and can be made quickly, cold brew, as it’s name implies, is brewed without heat.  Because there is no heat, the process takes significantly longer.

  • 200gr coarse ground coffee (like breadcrumbs)
  • 5 cups cold water
  • Cheese cloth
  • Funnel
  • 12 hours

There are many cold brew devices you can buy, but large mason jars (7 cup) make great brewing vessel and you can find them on sale frequently.  You will need at least 2 jars…one to brew and one to filter and store.

  1. Mix the ground coffee and cold water together in one jar.  Give it a good shake/mix, and store it in the refrigerator or just on our counter for at least 12 hours (up to 16 is fine).
  2. After brewing is complete give it one last shake.
  3. Make a filter from several layers of cheese cloth and put it in the funnel.  Put the funnel in the second jar.
  4. Pour the coffee slurry through the cheese cloth.  The resulting coffee concentrate can be stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

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