- Beans: “Cold Brew Blend” medium roast (Guatemala/Colombia) from Local Coffee Roasting Co. in Roxana, DE
- 17g coffee / 250g water (1:14.7)
- JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
- Water at 95°C
- Recipe: A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique (see below)
- Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
- Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
- 0:00: Pour 55g of water to bloom, then return kettle to base
- 0:10 – 0:15: Gently Swirl
- 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 100g total (40% total weight)
- Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
- 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 150g total (60% total weight)
- 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 200g total (80% total weight)
- 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 250g total (100% total weight)
2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl- Drawdown finished around 2:45
This cup was just about perfect — full-flavored, well-balanced, and well-extracted. It’s the same recipe that I brewed a few days ago. I added a few extra details here to try to document what I did as closely as possible. I find that I really prefer holding the kettle over returning it to the base after each pour. It makes the whole process seem more smooth and fluid, and I doubt that it makes much difference with regards to the water temperature. It does make me wonder if the volume of water in the kettle has any effect on the resulting brew (the more water in the kettle, the greater its thermal mass, so the longer it will hold its temperature) but I think that’s getting to the point of splitting hairs.
I do wonder why all of my AeroPress brews lately have been weak. Everything I read says it’s because the coffee is ground too coarse, the water temperature is too low, the steep time is too short, etc., but I’ve tried adjusting all of those, and the brew is still weak. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I know it wouldn’t be weak if I brewed it at 1:10, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to — this evening’s pourover was fantastic at 1:15, and my French press cups are good at 1:13 to 1:14. To add to the confusion, it wasn’t too long ago that I was consistently brewing good cups in the AeroPress at 1:14, with different beans that are long gone now. I haven’t been able to replicate that success with any of my other beans. If I have to brew at 1:10, then I don’t see the point of using the AeroPress when I can get the same results with pourover using less coffee. I expect I’ll eventually sort this out, but in the meantime, it sure is vexing.