As many of you know we are big fans of the Beehouse single cup brewers here at Cafe Indigo. I have been known to go on for days about their benefits : a fresh cup every time, non-porous high fired glazed surface and of course the control of brew variables. All for under $20.
Many customers seem perplexed by the idea of using these fanciful brewers. I think many people feel as if they are an inconvenience to use, but in reality they are almost as easy to use as a auto-drip coffee maker and produce a better cup of coffee than almost any auto drip coffee maker.
Brewing with a pour over can be broken down into a 5 easy steps-
1. Scale
2.Preheat/rinse
3. Grind
4. Brew
5. Enjoy
Step one- Scale-
When brewing a 12 0z cup at the store we use 1 oz of beans, which in volumetric terms is about a 1/4 cup ( that is tested using a Vienna roast coffee, it should be more or less accurate for any medium-ish roast). Lighter roasted beans are denser, so you may not need quite that much. Darker roasted beans have expanded more and lost more of their mass, so you may need a bit more than 1/4 cup for those super smokey and oily dark roast coffees. You of course can adjust the ratio for your personal preference.
Step Tw0- Preheat/ Rinse-
This is one step that some people prefer to cut out, but I feel is very important. I place the filter in the cone, place the cone on the mug and then pour a couple cups of hot water through the empty filter and cone. This will rinse out any loose impurities from the filter, which may impart a “papery” taste. The hot water will also warm up the filter cone and mug. Using a cold filter cone can lower the brew temperature which will affect the final flavor of the cup. Just make sure to dump the excess water out of the mug before you begin to brew ( it happens).
Step Three: the grind.
As in any brew method, the grind is an extremely important step. Always grind immediately before you are ready to brew, I would say within a minute of brew time. For a cone filter use a medium-fine grind, so this means somewhere between the size of Kosher salt and iodized table salt. If your total brew time is slow (more than 5 minutes) grind a little coarser. If your brew time is too fast, guess what. . .grind finer. Shoot for 3-4 minutes total brew time.
Step Four: BREW!
So now we are into the good stuff, this is what is all about. Bring your water (filtered) to a boil and let sit for a few seconds, just until it mellows out. Your brew temperature should be somewhere between 190-200 degrees. With a steady flow or water– not trickling but not gushing–saturate all of the grounds in the filter cone. Fill the cone to the top, but be careful not to overfill as grounds will run over into your mug.
Step Five: Enjoy.
You don’t really need me to explain this to you, it is by far the easiest step of the process.
As you become well acquainted with your pour over brewer you may choose to make adjustments to your brewing technique. For instance you may try a pre-infusion of the grounds where you just slightly dampen them with the hot water, let them sit and then complete the brewing cycle as usual. This may help with the extraction of oils and goodness, but it could also over-extract the coffee creating a bitterness in the cup. There is also the never ending question: to stir or not to stir during the brew. . .?
-Ross
Tasting 3/16: We decided to experiment with temperature today – thanks to Kyle Glanville’s article in Fresh Cup. Dallas started us off by pulling a couple shots at our control temp of 200.7 degF. This week’s blend of brazil, sulawesi and yirgacheffe has been all over the map. Thursday was the 4th day after roast – it came out tasting like peanut butter and battery acid, or at least this was my perception. Later that day, the shot I had was reminiscent of sulfur and chlorine! As the days went by it mellowed out a bit and the fruit notes were starting to come out this morning. So that brings us back to the tasting. Our control espressos were fruity but with lingering chemical astringency. (if that makes sense?) The next thing we did was pull a double shot into 2 demis, one hot and the other cold. The shot pulled into the cold cup was sweeter but kinda boring. Finally, I adjusted the temp on the GB5 to 200degF and then we waited for about 7 minutes. Perfect! it was sweet and nutty with a touch of spice. yum! what will it taste like tomorrow?
Cuppings!
