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Handbrewing Coffee

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Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#141

Post by oftenwrong »

Scown wrote: post #89
oftenwrong wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a big fan of the steel "drip-o-lator"-style coffee brewers. They are a predecessor of electric coffee makers. It is similar to a pour-over, but you can just dump the hot water in and walk away. Unfortunately, they are no longer in production, but I have purchased several from eBay. One day I would like to design and build my own version with vacuum-insulated walls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg4ncWWqjno The…

Big fan too! They're still around, really popular in Europe at least (Bialetti is probably the best-known brand). Quite hard not to over-extract the coffee, but still my go to when I need an industrial-scale caffeine hit...

The Bialetti moka pots are different, although they look similar. They are heated on the stove-top, and water moves from the bottom chamber, through the grounds, to the top chamber under pressure.

The drip-o-lator style pots are NOT heated on the stove-top (a separate kettle is used), and the water moves from the top chamber, through the grounds, to the bottom chamber via gravity.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#142

Post by bpyne »

turtlecloud wrote: post #92
bpyne wrote: 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.

I had the same concern. My understanding is that finished aluminum doesn't give off the aluminum powder that causes brain damage. The Bialetti's aluminum parts are supposed to be finished.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#143

Post by weeksie »

Tarks wrote: post #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 le…

I have the Breville Barista Express and it takes like a minute to warm up and has a fantastic grinder built in, as well as a steamer for those who are into that sort of thing. And that's at a lot lower price point than £600, I think I paid ~$600USD for the whole getup.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#144

Post by darkstar999 »

ubermonkey wrote: post #29
nukeop wrote: 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.

The filters are expensive.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#145

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

kawfey wrote: post #25
Yetanfou wrote: 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…

This feels true to me. I was making coffee with an aeropress in my office, right next to the 3-carafe Bunn automatic coffeemaker. Someone poured a cup of office coffee, while I was pressing my aeropress. They asked about it - how does it work, why do I do it? I said that I can use my own coffee, it makes the coffee taste better and I can modify the strength and flavor depending on my grind size, brewing times, pressu…

If you want to win that argument next time, just say "I'm not a snob, this cup has 2-3 times more caffeine."

It doesn't need to be true to make sense. Everybody understands trying to get more caffeine without drinking the whole pot of coffee.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#146

Post by jrace »

mattferderer wrote: post #136
Tarks wrote: post #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 le…

I'm just a rookie at making espresso but I would argue my I can't stomach drip coffee but have really enjoyed a nice espresso with steam/foamed milk. The biggest lessons I've learned are don't over pack it, don't under pack it, stop when it turns blond, give it time to warm up & let it run for a bit to get the old water out. - Edit - I would love to hear tips on what else I can do to up my espresso game though for a…

Your grinder will make the most impact.

get freshly roasted beans (within 2wks) grind with a high quality burr grinder before each run.

That will get you the best quality shot with your machine.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#147

Post by jrace »

icebraining wrote: post #140
mattferderer wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just a rookie at making espresso but I would argue my I can't stomach drip coffee but have really enjoyed a nice espresso with steam/foamed milk. The biggest lessons I've learned are don't over pack it, don't under pack it, stop when it turns blond, give it time to warm up & let it run for a bit to get the old water out. - Edit - I would love to hear tips on what else I can do to up my espresso game though for a…

Same here; I bought a used DeLonghi (10€!) and it's on par with a random espresso from a coffeeshop. It also doesn't take anything close to 20m to warm up, though I suppose that may be easier in Europe vs the US.

Machines will take a short time to get to proper brew temp, but the rest of the machine takes longer (the group head is most important)

Ideally you want everything the coffee touches to be at the proper temp - included th portafilter and cups.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#148

Post by jrace »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #138
netule wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to buy my own beans, grind them, and brew my coffee in a French press. However, my SO doesn't want to wait 30 minutes for a fresh cup of coffee, so we switched back to grounds this year and the difference is really not all that noticeable.

I prefer ground, but grocery store bought beans is fine. But that difference from pre-ground is very noticeable, to me. I also don't care if my MP3's are 128kbit vs 320kbit.

And if you enjoy it (coffee and the mp3's) Excellent!!

Just don't try telling me _I_ don't taste or hear a difference. :)

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#149

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

lostlogin wrote: post #117
ip26 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 difference…

Mostly true, but unlike high end audio, the best coffee can be bought by most people. The best I’ve ever had was $2US.

High end audio isn't expensive, the bullshit is.

You can grab some nice drivers, unreasonably high-quality crossover components, and couple sheets of MDF to make yourself some floor-standers for a few hundred. Using any number of popular DIY speaker designs, you'll have something that would easily stand up to anything of a similar format in a blind A/B test.

Amplification is dirt cheap now; class-D amps are superlatively good even in the <$100 category. You can even add in DSP for a very reasonable price if you want to jerk off to glass-flat charts.

Re: Handbrewing Coffee

#150

Post by [deleted] »

drsim wrote: post #71

The Moccamaster is ubiquitous in Denmark. When I moved here from the UK (where the average household gets their coffee from a jar of Nescafe) it was a curious sight. We picked up our Moccamaster second hand for 300 DKK (about 45 USD). This thing is absolutely solid and to my palette makes great daily coffee non-stop without complaint.

[deleted]
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