I made a post around a week ago that really took off, and figured we are probably going to see a small spike in activity due to the reddit migration, so I thought we could give it another go!
There are always tons of posts about what beans you are brewing, but my question is HOW are you brewing those beans this week? Sticking to the tried and true v60? Pick up a new Orea and still figuring out the best recipe for it? Pulling some particularly sweet shots on your latest beans haul? Let us know below! What’s your brew method of the day/week?
I brew coffee in AeroPress using James Hoffman’s recipe. It’s simple and produces tasty results.
Sometimes the simplest is the most delicious.
The AeroPress is my daily driver, simple and delicious.
I brew in a Chemex!
I like how I can brew for like 3 people at a time or just myself. Now that it’s summer, I’ve been brewing Mexican Chiapas over ice nearly every morning.
Chemex is still one of my favorites. You first enjoy a meal or drink with your eyes, and the Chemex is easily my most beautiful piece of coffee hardware. I just love the classic look of it.
I’ve got a chemex and love iced coffee… Talk to me about this “brewing over ice” method?
Basically you just take some portion of the water in your recipe (I usually do 40%, personally) and replace it with ice. So, you’re effectively brewing a very short ratio, but diluting it to be the same as your normal concentration. Since your extraction will drop, you may need to grind a little finer or do a little more agitation to compensate.
I’ve really been enjoying my Bialetti brikka pot. It turns out that the trick with that pot is that you shouldn’t fill up the water reservoir all the way up to the valve, because then it overheats easily.
The Brikka really is tricky. My method involves using room temperature water (instead of pre-heated like the moka express), setting the heat high-ish and adding a splash of water to the upper reservoir, but mine is the model with the weight-based valve so ymmv. When it works, it makes a great cup, though!
How do you know it’s overheating? My Bialetti Kitty has no problems with filling it to the valve but once brewing is done, there’s always leftover in the reservoir, something I’ve never had with my cheapo 10$ moka pots.
The brikka is just a very specific pot which has a rubber pressure valve in the stem to somewhat approach espresso-like brewing. I just noticed that when I don’t fill it up all the way the coffee tasted better and less burnt.
The coffee shop I go to had these beans that were soaked in cherries before they were roasted or something? I need to read the label again but I’ve been liking them.
Edit: the label says “the seed is left in cherry, sealed in a bin, CO2 buildup creates pressure, this imparts fruity flavors to the seed. The seed is them removed and processed where it dries in cherry”
The coffee cherry is the fleshy fruit portion of coffee that surrounds the bean. Usually removed pretty soon after harvest from my understanding. Sounds like they are using something similar to carbonic maceration, which I usually associate with wine. Sounds yummy!
Sounds like anaerobic fermentation! I have had some seriously funky and delicious beans that went through that process. I even saw one that did the same, but introduced peaches into the fermentation to attempt to impart some of that flavor as well.
https://sprudge.com/what-does-anaerobic-fermentation-mean-for-coffee-192474.html
Black and White’s Elkin Guzman Strawberry Catiope was delicious, and made for really wild espresso milk drinks in particular. The process is wild:
After this initial bout of fermentation, a mother culture of microorganisms is added to the tanks. These microorganisms have been fed molasses and strawberries for four days prior to encountering the coffee cherries, which gives them energy for fermentation and contributes flavor to the lot. The coffee is then left to ferment with this strawberry-infused culture for an astonishing 270 hours before being dried on raised beds until it reaches 10.5-11% humidity.
Currently enjoying the comfort and familiarity of where my coffee journey really started: Ethiopian natural ground in 1zpresso K-Max and brewed with Hoffman’s Ultimate v60 Technique in a clear plastic v60.
I have the same grinder! :)
I’m using clever dripper for my manual brew, enjoying coffee bean from West Java, Indonesia. Still pulling a double shot once awhile, just when I need a (stronger) quick fix.
Either the Clever or the Hario Switch will likely be my next purchase. It just seems like a fun new way to make coffee, and the cleanup also seems particularly easy.
I’ve tried both. The Switch made of glass, quite heavy, and you can lost heat during the immersion phase. However, it uses the V60 paper filter, hence will “forces” the water to flow through all of the coffee ground. Cleaning the Switch also a little bit tricky, there are more “hidden” spaces near it’s bottom in the silicon base, so you need to remove, occasionally, the glass cone and give a thorough rinse.
The Clever, on the other hand, made of non-bpa plastic. It light, and heat loss will be less. I bought the 2-cups version, not the large, older model. It uses flat-bottom filter paper, so the coffee bed will be evenly spread. Cleaning also easy, just rinse using warm water.
If you a V60 die hard, use the Switch. Otherwise, I recommend the Clever.
I appreciate the feedback. I do absolutely love my v60, but also always looking for new and interesting ways to make coffee. You have definitely given me more to consider. Thank you!
Espresso
Eureka Specialita Mignon
18.3G of whatever bean I want that day
Lelit Elizabeth
So damn good every morning
I love the precision down to that 0.3 lol
Absolutely wonderful setup you have there. What scale do you use when pulling your shot, and what is your final output?
Thank you! I use an Acaia Lunar.
My output usually falls around 36g (±1). I’ll usually drink it straight or make a long black.
Definitely a bit jealous.
I haven’t quite gotten into espresso, but when I do I think I will go entirely manual to start. I already have a JX Pro, which should be serviceable to grind espresso. Then I’m thinking of getting the Flair. I need a smaller scale to fit the flair, so I was considering the Lunar, but it sure is pricey.
To be honest, the Lunar is pricey and I don’t think worth it. I think you would be better served with a cheaper scale, I don’t think it was worth it for me lol
Yeah, I watched this video recently and it has me leaning towards the Varia Aku.
My cat had recently knocked my clear v60 off the counter, and so I had switched to either my chemex or Stagg XF. But when I was at my local favorite roaster, they had just gotten in a shipment of red V60s, so I snagged one, as well as two different bags of Ethiopian beans.
Feels good to be back to my favorite conical brewer!
So I have been grinding in my Fellow Ode at 4.1, with SSP burrs. Getting the water up to 98C, and following Hoffmann’s v60 recipe for some particularly tasty brews.
I’ve been on a Turkish coffee kick last week after an ethno trip to central Bulgaria. 2 tbsp of extra fine ground coffee (Mehmet Efendi works great, also my local roastery made me a floral/chocolatey, blend if you’re into specialty) in a cezve (about 150ml).
Stir before putting on the stove on medium-high heat. Do NOT stir after this point. Just before the water starts boiling, it will foam a little, remove the foam with the cezve off the stove, with a teaspoon and move it to your cup. When it boils for good slowly pour half of it in the cup and put it back on the stove for another 15 seconds. Pour slowly again. Wait for 3-4 minutes to cool and settle and enjoy. Do mind the coffee grounds at the bottom. Drink as is or with lokum, or a biscuit to the side.
If you want to sweeten the coffee, do so as you add the coffee powder, NOT afterwards.
Americano の bialetti I am drunk now though
I’ve been replying on my v60 daily now, never fails to make a good cup! Maybe I’ll make an aeropress once every so often each month for a change.
Recently started making Japanese style iced coffee and that’s been fantastic for the warm weather!
I have also been experimenting with a Flair Neo, but I’ve yet to make something I’m entirely satisfied with.
So as a foreigner who has lived in Japan for 15 years, what is Japanese iced coffee, specifically? Really weak instant coffee with coffee cubes mixed in? I’m not trying to be rude I honestly don’t know
I’m using James Hoffman’s recipe as found here. I can’t say that weak instant coffee with coffee cubes sounds particularly enjoyable!
@nikmis But Japan so polite, so clean! Iced Coffee is water and americano type coffee, sometimes espress mixed with water. If you want the good stuff go for the latte one liter cartons with sugar and milk in em. That’s what Richard Sensei drinks (apparently).
it’s hot-brewed strong directly over ice
I’ve recently been using a Timemore B75 dripper with Kalita 185 filters. I use Lance Hedrick’s Ultimate Pourover Recipe with good results so far on a 21:350 brew ratio. As for beans, I have a Guatemalan open right now that I’m grinding at around a 3.0 on a Fellow Ode with 2.0 burrs.
With the B75, I’m able to grind a bit finer than the recipe suggests and still get a fast drawdown.
Have you tried larger batches? I’m a big fan of Hedrick’s recipe but found it tricky especially on the Orea when doing 500mL
I tried a 30:500 batch this morning, and it actually turned out surprisingly well first try. I definitely had to be a lot more aware of my pouring rate, and should probably go a click courser. I think the grind size is probably the biggest factor for a brew this big.
Nice, thanks!
I haven’t tried anything larger yet, but I can definitely see how a 500ml batch would be pretty tight in a brewer this size. I even had a little trouble with the stock papers at 350ml, but that’s because they sit slightly below the rim of the brewer, where the 185s don’t. I’ll have to try a 500ml brew and see how it goes.
As already mentioned, James Hoffmann is a treasure.
I own a french press, but I have been using it only for a tea. On weekdays I make my morning coffee with an AeroPress. For the weekends I have a Chemex after I got after I realised even my unrefined hand brew is better than any automatic coffee maker can do. Actually this is my second Chemex, because a huge chunk splitted somehow from the first after a year amfya half of use. If it happens again, I will get V60 or something else more durable. I also have a 2 cup Bialetti moka pot for making milk drinks.
There is a semi-automatic espresso machine at my work place but that has only convinced me it’s not worth the hassle and dialing in a good cup is really difficult.
I stopped using milk with filter coffee at home when I switched to bying whole beans and found out coffee can be actually good as is when you don’t buy the bulk pre-ground stuff. And in last few years there have been a lot of local roasteries popping up and I found out I really like the juicy and maybe slightly sour natural processed ones. But I’m too stingy to be always bying the best stuff, also you need to have a baseline to compare the good stuff :þ
My current grinder is a Fellow Ode. A bit more pricier than I thought I would get, but it was the only reasonable upgrade immediately available when my Wilfa Svart broke.
I’m really keen to buy a proper machine in the next year or two. Thinking something like the Quick Mill Pippa.
I was doing V60 for a while but Aeropress is my go-to now, even for an instant “coldbrew” in a pinch.
Bodybrew Bod for cold brew. Love it, so easy to use, so easy to clean.
Normally I use a Bialetti 1 cup, but lately I’ve been using a second-hand Irmel moka pot I found. Had to buy a new gasket for it.That’s a beautiful looking machine, I can see why you’d want to get that! I still don’t know which machine I’m going to get, thought I think I want to start with something like the flair 58 and maybe a nanofoamer.
Very much considering going manual for the cost, but also I love the look of the manual espresso machines.
I bought a Bellman that can steam because I didn’t like the foam I got with a nanofoamer. But to be honest it’s a lot of effort for steamed milk and the way it brews coffee is very hit or miss too. Bit of a learning curve.
Using an Aeropress and James Hoffmann’s recipe - 12g coffee, 200g water, brew for 2:00, swirl then :30 more.
