Brew Guide
Wanna Make Some Awesome Coffee
Here’s where the fun begins! Nailing some of these brew methods takes some practice, but so does anything else in life. Do you play guitar, basketball, chess, skateboard, fish, bike ride, or crochet? Well, you only enjoy them if you took the time to learn how to do them. No one’s too good for practice (unless you’re Allen Iverson).
Pick Your Brew Method
Why all the options?
Because coffee is fun to play with!
Here is some basic brew tips and typical stuff you’ll need.
Digital Scale
We measure everything else in life: cake mixes, clothing sizes, building materials. Why? So our stuff turns out right. Measuring with a digital scale will help your coffee to turn out right, too! We like using the Jennings CJ-4000, but a simple kitchen scale will do the trick just fine.
Brewer & Filters
Typically, a good water to coffee ratio is 16:1. That means, for every 16 grams of water, you use 1 gram of coffee. For example, if you brew a French press with 640 grams of water, you use 40 grams of coffee.
Putting hot water through your filter before use helps by rinsing out the paper flavor, plus it pre-warms your brewing device. Win win!
Burr Grinder
A quality grinder is important for 2 major reasons:
1) A grinder allows you to grind your own fresh coffee, & fresh coffee is super important.
2) Coffee with a consistent grind brews much more evenly & consistently. Burr grinders produce the most consistent grind.
You can purchase a burr grinder between $50-$150+, & they last a really long time. The Baratza Encore is great grinder to consider for home use.
Purified Water
Most of what’s in you cup is actually water, so your water is very important. Purified water works best, & this is easily done by using a simple Brita carbon filter. Distilled water is not good unless you add minerals to it (since it has no minerals, it does not extract your coffee very well), & it can be very hard on your brewing equipment.
Kettle
There are lots of kettle options. Metal, ceramic, stovetop, electric, programmable, gooseneck, etc. Which is right for you? Depends on what you’re trying to do. When using a pour over brew method, a gooseneck kettle is very helpful. If you want precise water temperature, you’ll want a programmable kettle.
Miscellaneous
- A standard cup of coffee is 5oz according to the measurements on most drip coffee pots
- A tablespoon is equal to 5g of coffee & a coffee scoop is equal to 2 tablespoons (10g coffee)
- Filling your cup/thermos/carafe with hot water a few minutes before filling with coffee will prewarm your vessel & keep your coffee hotter longer