I just cold brew my coffee. Amazon has a good reusable filter that drops in to a large mason jar. I make 3-4 jars a week (You literally just add ground coffee, water, and wait 24 hours). Even mediocre beans taste pretty good as cold brew.
Handbrewing Coffee
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Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#62It’s not that hard. Get a nice French press. At home we use one that that is large and steal. Get a good burr grinder. Get an electric kettle. Buy some decent whole beans where you know how long it has been since they where roasted. Boil the water, grind the coffee. Put coffee in press. Pour water over. Stir the mixture for ~20 seconds. Put the lid on the press but do not press it down. Wait 2-5 minutes (up to your t…
or spring for some good non-homogenized whole milk, way too pricy to drink instead of normal milk but super cheap when you just use it for coffee!
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really funny to me to just how much junk information there is in the coffee world and just how strongly people believe it. Even here on hackernews it seems. This is the exact sort of 'fact' that sounds good, and makes you feel like you know what you're talking about. I'm a roaster. All coffee is sorted by size, or at least all quality coffee. It's necessary, not only for an even roast, but it's also an inherent…
Hello! Coffee enthusiast here. I'd like to follow-up on this statement: > They roast it until the oils come out and then the oils go rancid because it has been sitting on the shelf for the last 6 months getting to you. Are you saying that it's bad if my coffee beans are glistening with oil? I usually took that to be an indicator of freshness. Or do you mean that if they're no longer glistening that the bag is probabl…
> Are you saying that it's bad if my coffee beans are glistening with oil?
It isn't inherently bad, but it's usually a sign of more mass produced coffee. It's easier to roast coffee like that because it all tastes pretty much the same which is good if you need to make the same coffee for thousands of different locations. And some people enjoy the carbonic taste of coffee like that.
More lightly roasted coffees will have big differences in flavour that's not really possible to control for on a mass scale I don't think. Especially between origins and varieties.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#64I just cold brew my coffee. Amazon has a good reusable filter that drops in to a large mason jar. I make 3-4 jars a week (You literally just add ground coffee, water, and wait 24 hours). Even mediocre beans taste pretty good as cold brew.
Also, from what I understand, and my experience, it’s a lot stronger than hot brewed coffee. Win-win.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chemex is just an expensive, proprietary coffee pot.
Yes, but it looks nice on a shelf in the background of an Instagram photo. Plain old conical drippers have exactly the same effect on the coffee, but they don't make it look like you're performing a science experiment.
What really makes a Chemex is its filters, which are way thicker than typical pourover filters. The paper is thicker and leads to a lighter-bodied brew.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#66> My standard recipe is 15 grams of coffee to 250 grams of water.
Hmm I use 18 g of coffee for 340 g of water. It's what my grinder dispenses, and I use 12 oz of water. 13% more water per gram. Is that wrong?
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#67> My standard recipe is 15 grams of coffee to 250 grams of water. Hmm I use 18 g of coffee for 340 g of water. It's what my grinder dispenses, and I use 12 oz of water. 13% more water per gram. Is that wrong?
Wrong? Not if you like the result.
Coffee is a combination of many factors: bean, roast, grind, freshness, water temperature, brewing time, brewing style, and amount of extraction. There’s some guidelines of course, but ultimately you’re trying to get a coffee that tastes good to you.
My uncle likes his coffee much more watery than I do, but I think he uses not enough coffee and over extracts it. So when I’m making the coffee I make it the strength I like, pour his cup about 2/3rd then top his up with hot water.
Edit to add: According to Harold McGee, balanced flavor is an extraction of around 20% of the coffee solids producing a cup that’s 1.3% - 5.5% bean solids by weight (so you can see already a big range, drip is at the low end, espresso at the high end). Ideal brewing temperature of 190-200°F (but this is higher than Aeropress recommends). Brewing time of 1-3 minutes for a fine grind and 6-8 minutes (!) for a coarse grind. For American coffee, he recommends a coffee:water ratio of 1:15 for American, 1:5 for espresso. Also, per my anecdote about my uncle: “It’s always better to use too much coffee rather than too little: a strong but balanced cup can be diluted with hot water and remain balanced, but a weak cup can’t be improved.” (My summary from “On Food and Cooking” which has about 5 pages on coffee alone.)
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#68Personally not a big fan of filter coffee. I have an Aeropress and know lots of people rave about it, but it isn't for me. I was hoping this article would be about a hand (or battery) pumped portable espresso device, e.g. Handpresso, which I don't have although have thought about (primarily as a way around the electrical safety compliance restrictions at my current workplace). BTW, I don't mind the awful free coffee…
Try using a fine mesh metal screen with the aeropress. I find it is better than a filter.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#69I like variety. My go to is an Aeropress. But maybe once a week or so I’ll make Turkish style coffee, or use a Chemex or drip cone. (I wouldn’t
buy a Chemex - it’s not really any different from a drip cone, uses special filters, and takes up more space than a cone, but it was a gift.) And in the summer I like to have cold brew around.
Re: Handbrewing Coffee
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like you lost a neutral or even positive while gaining a negative here: lost is the ability to drink a common beverage without feeling bad about being uncultured, gained is a dependency on commercial brands - Aeropress and Chemex - and related niche products - in this case African coffee - as well as a related ritual - 'hand-brewing coffee'. In both cases you satisfied your thirst for caffeine, the differen…
The case for bad coffee: https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/the-case-for-bad-coffee....
Thanks for posting that, I really enjoyed it