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Handbrewing Coffee

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91–100 of 217 posts

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#91
I still find using my Keurrig time consuming. Pouring the milk, putting in the sweetener, waiting for it to heat up.

I do use a manual coffee maker a few times a year. So much "extra" goes into making coffee that I find the time savings of a Keurrig over pouring water into a funnel isn't very much.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#92
post #53

I tried different drip coffee makers, French press, and percolator over the course of years. The Bialetti Moka Express is perfect for me. However, everything depends on the grind, roast, and quality of the beans. After using medium and light roast coffee beans for five years, I am back with dark roast. I prefer Indonesian beans and a grind slightly coarser than espresso.

My concern with the bialetti was the aluminum material and possible side effects. I do like the iconic design, but went with a more modern Moka pot made of stainless steel.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#93
post #3

I understand this guy. Five years ago, I calmly could drink americano in a terrible coffee shop. Now I can not imagine my day without aeropress or chemex. My favorite grains are from Kenya and Congo, because sourness is felt in them. If you really love coffee, then you will like the hand-brew.

Chemex is just an expensive, proprietary coffee pot.

What does "proprietary" refer to with regards to a pour over coffee maker?

Do you think you can only use chemex filters with the chemex carafe? This isn't true. You can also use the chemex filters with other pour over makers.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#94

I got ruined for regular coffee when I found a local shop that roasts its beans sorted by size . So it doesn't taste scorched. Apparently most commercial coffee makers roast them in arbitrary batches, which means by the time the big ones are roasted the small ones are burned. I know there's a lot more that can be done with roasting. But that one small change means you can have strong coffee without having burned coff…

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…

It's not even like sorting by size would be difficult. All you need is a sieve-like machine with different size holes & hoppers for each. Or a sluice-box, or one of many other ways to accomplish this. If it made a huge difference in quality, and it was not hard to do- everyone would be doing it. And indeed, they are.

WRT junk info, coffee is not that different from audiophiles or wine. Luxury product, real differences exist, but they are subtle & hard to measure. Most of the experience is subjective.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#95
For anyone interested I did a fair bit of research into how I could step into the passable home espresso / coffee game as I WFH a lot.

Given that :

- I make at most 3 coffees a day, usually 1.

- I prefer espresso

I found the traditional options lacking. I'd need:

- a machine costing about £600

- a solid quality grinder.

- machine needs 20 minutes warmup minimum before you can pour a consistent shot (or you need to leave it on).

Instead I thought I'd go a different way and build an all manual espresso setup, using getting past the largest price tag using one of these :

https://www.flairespresso.com/. Takes some getting used to but I've been very satisfied with the quality. You NEED to pair it with a high quality grinder to get solid results (I'm using https://coffeehit.co.uk/products/lido-e-travel-hand-grinder).

Downside is I can't steam milk unless I break out my stovetop milk steamer thing ( https://prima-coffee.com/equipment/bellman/50ss ) but that's fine as I prefer black coffee, the steamer gets more use by partner for her hot chocolates.

My setup : https://i.imgur.com/6M9AT4O.jpg

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#96
post #83

Has anyone here managed to quit coffee completely after being really into it? I have 1-2 a day, can't imagine starting starting a day without it, but despite really loving the taste I would rather not feel the need to have it.

I quit twice. Both times it took me about two weeks. Splitting headaches and very foggy brain the first week, and less pronounced symptoms afterwards. The coolest part about weaning myself off caffeine was waking up feeling genuinely rested. But both times social pressure drove me back to the nasty habit...

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#97
post #83

Has anyone here managed to quit coffee completely after being really into it? I have 1-2 a day, can't imagine starting starting a day without it, but despite really loving the taste I would rather not feel the need to have it.

Switch to decaf. Then you'll know you're doing it because you like to, not because you have to.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#98
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chemex is just an expensive, proprietary coffee pot.

Chemex pots are NOT expensive. I don't know where you got that idea. The classic (which is to say, fancier, with the wooden collar) 8-cup model is $37 on Amazon right now. At our house, going to Chemex meant shifting from genuinely expensive drip machines that were hard or impossible to properly clean, and which therefore got replaced every few years. It's a drastically LESS expensive method than most.

At my house everyone always drank coffee that wasn't going through any machine whatsoever. You just put a teaspoon of ground coffee in a cup and poured water over it, drinking it after the grounds settled down.

I don't know, I feel like $37 for a glass container that still needs filters is asking for quite a lot. A nice french press is like $10.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#99

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.

Also, from what I understand, and my experience, it’s a lot stronger than hot brewed coffee. Win-win.

this. straight cold-brew coffee is very 'strong'. As arya169 mentioned, at least a 1:1 coffee to water ratio.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#100
post #37
post #9

Earlier 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....

> It was one of those moments when I could actually imagine my cranky diner-coffee-swilling Irish grandfather rising from the grave and saying, "You know what, kid? You're an idiot.

What a great article. The takeaway sentiment is that the experiences and interactions that surround coffee-drinking are way more important than the quality of the coffee.

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