I'm a coffee roaster and I often get lazy with brewing coffee. However, I recently started caring about the brewing side of things and wanted to refresh my knowledge about coffee brewing.
An internet buddy I know, Degenerates Drinking Coffee (DDC), who's very much a coffee nerd... Coffee is definitely his flavor of tism. I reached out to ask some questions regarding fruit forward tasting coffee and he gave me a run down of some basics that can be assumed given you know your way around brewing good coffee.
You've got your grind in a happy spot; you're not over or under extracting your coffee.
You know what kind of coffee you're brewing and it's tasting notes.
The device you're brewing with and what it's best for.
There is a rabbit hole for each brewer that we could go down.
But for the sake of time, I'll just stick to the V60 for now until I get the time to dive into the other brewers out there like the Kalita Wave, Fellow Dripper, Aeropress, Chemex, and all the other niche brewers.
Before I dive into what I learned from DDC here is a great tool that you can use to get a starting point for your grinder and brewing device.
Being able to accurately describe grind size has always been something of a challenge as different grinders have different settings.
Our Mahlkonig EK43 that we use professionally is the creme de la creme of general purpose coffee grinders.
My Rancilio Rocky Espresso grinder at home is very much an entry level espresso grinder that can do pour overs pretty well for the price tag.
The settings are completely different. 7.8 I what I use for the V60 on the EK43 and a setting of 29 is what I use on the Rocky.
Coffee Grinding Tool and general guides:
Anyway, here is the tool I referenced. Click here to check it out.
There are a lot of grinder choices in their menu, both of ours are there, and I'm sure there is a likely good your grinder is there too.
It will give you a good starting point if you're unsure of where to begin when it comes to grinding your own coffee.
Some basic rules when it comes to grinding coffee.
Light roasts, because they're denser, will require a little finer grind than less dense dark roasts.
If you grind a dark roast at the same setting as a light.
The dark roast will be finer as it breaks apart far easier. As a result, it can have more fines in it that will impact brewing.
V60 Brewing Guide:
Alright, I won't keep you reading on too much longer to get to the recipe like all the cooking articles we all scroll fast AF to get to... Sorry if you already did that skipped over this.
For this example, I'm brewing a light roast coffee with fruit forward tasting notes.
To start simple, a 1/15 ratio is used.
20 grams of coffee to 300 grams of water.
20 x 15 = 300 if you didn't understand that right away.
I'm using 200f water temp
I'm also blooming the coffee with 3x water weight.
20 grams of coffee, pour until you reach 60 grams of water.
Let the coffee bloom and degas for 45 seconds until you pour again.
When you start to pour again do so with low circular pulses.
Doing this will add a certain amount of agitation to the coffee bed and increasing extraction.
I haven't kept track of how many pulses I do.
Typically pouring in 60 to 100 grams of water per pulse depending on the amount of coffee I'm brewing.
From what I was told and what I've noticed.
This variable of how you're pouring will impact the coffee drastically.
So play around with how many pours you do, how long each pulse is, are the circular, spiral, or in one spot.
If you do one consistent steady pour until you reach your desired weight you'll get a very simple cup of coffee that likely doesn't have any of the delicate flavors described of the coffee.
Once you get a pouring method down that you like, that's when you should start playing around with other variables such as grind size, temp, and ratio.
This brewing method for the V60 has made some great cups of coffee and really brought the fruitier notes forward in the cup. Definitely give this a try on the next coffee you make in your V60.
Water Temp for brewing coffee:
The ideal water temp ranges from 198 degrees to 205 degrees F.
5 years ago, I would have told you anywhere from 193 to 200 degrees for dark roasts. 200 to 208 degrees for light roasts.
Water temp will change from coffee to coffee. It's really a matter of trial and error and finding what works.
Water above 205 degrees can easily extract flavors from coffee. So if you're brewing with temps of 205 and up, you'll be over extracting the coffee, which will make the flavors punchier, hide the more delicate fruity and floral notes, and make chocolate notes punchier.
If you're brewing under 195 degrees, the water will have a hard time extracting the flavors from the coffee, leaving you with a sour and under extracted cup.
There are several ways to get around lower temps and brewing a good cup.
But that is for another time to get into understand agitation when it comes to brewing.