Tag: aeropress

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (light roast)
  • Grind: Medium-coarse – 2.5 turns on the JX
  • 100°C water (full boil)
  • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
  • One new paper filter (dry)
  • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:35, stir 10x, flip at 1:35 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:35)

Another in my continuing efforts to see if I can use this recipe as my “daily driver”. Two modifications for these beans: boiling water (vs 90°C), and 5 seconds longer initial “bloom”. This produced a pleasant, nicely-balanced cup which I would definitely brew again. It was slightly cleaner and milder than the cup I brewed with the French press a few days ago, with more flavor than my earlier attempts with the AeroPress. While it’s just fine as-is, I might try a finer grind some time just to see how, if at all, it affects the flavor.

Quick Brew Notes

lpaulriddle

I brewed the exact same recipe as yesterday morning, except I used my Lost Dog “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark blend. The result was another pleasant, well-balanced cup. I’ve gotten mixed results with these beans using a couple of other recipes, with some success, but most of my more recent attempts have tasted kind of sour and under-extracted. That was not the case today. Whether it was the absolute best cup I’ve ever gotten from the beans is up for debate, but either way, this one gets the thumbs-up. I think I’ll try this recipe with another medium roast tomorrow.

On a totally unrelated note, we’ve had a bunch of red grapes sitting on the counter for a few days, and today, I tried tossing a few into one of my smoothies. I didn’t think it would be very good, but it actually wasn’t bad. I noticed a little bit of extra sweetness from the grapes, but not much of a grape flavor, I guess because the other ingredients kind of overpower it. That said, I didn’t add too many grapes, so I wonder how it would be with more of them in there.

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: German St Coffee and Candlery Private House Blend
  • Grind: Medium-coarse – 2.5 turns on the JX (the recipe specifically recommends this setting). This is coarser than what I’ve used in the past with the AeroPress, but finer than what I usually use in the French press.
  • 90°C water
  • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
  • One new paper filter (dry)
  • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:30, stir 10x, flip at 1:30 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:30)

This recipe indeed made me happy. I followed it exactly, except I stirred 10x at 0:30 (which the recipe recommends if you want more extraction). It produced a cup that was well-extracted, not too weak, and not too strong. It was by far the best cup I’ve gotten from these beans using the AeroPress. One thing I noted was that the 30g of bloom water didn’t seem like quite enough to fully wet all of the coffee. I guess the initial stirring is supposed to take care of that. A little bit of coffee did get stuck to the stirrer, but went back in when I stirred again with the full volume of water. Whatever the case, it’s the end result that matters, and I really liked the cup. The true test, of course, is whether it will be good the next time I brew it. 😀

Cold Brew

lpaulriddle

I started experimenting with making cold brew in the AeroPress last week at the beach. Here’s what I did today, and it turned out pretty good. I’ve been using the scoop and stirrer that came with the AeroPress.

  1. Set AeroPress up in inverted orientation with plunger inserted about 1cm.
  2. Add one heaping scoop of drip-grind coffee. AeroPress says this is about 15-16 grams, but I haven’t confirmed this. I have been using Wellsley Farms pre-ground medium roast breakfast blend, because I have a bag of it I’m trying to use up. Once it’s gone, I’ll switch to grinding whole beans by weight.
  3. Fill the AeroPress to within about 1cm of the top with room temperature, filtered water.
  4. Start timer and stir vigorously for 1 minute.
  5. Flip AeroPress and press gently into an 8-ounce tumbler. Add ice cubes to chill.

When I was doing this last week, I used less water to brew, and then topped the glass up with water or milk after pressing. Today, with more water in the chamber, it seemed like the coffee got mixed up a little better, and there was less coffee “sludge” on the stirrer when I removed it. The finished product seemed a little more flavorful, although it was subtle, and I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test. I didn’t really care for it with milk. The milk gave it kind of a watered-down taste, probably because I was expecting it to have a milk-like consistency, which it didn’t, because it’s mostly water. I wonder how it would turn out if I brewed it with all milk instead of water? Might be worth trying one of these days.

Today’s Second Cup

lpaulriddle

I opened another new bag of beans to brew a mid-afternoon cup. These beans are from Amity Coffee Roasters in Greenwood, DE.

  • Beans: “Angel Albino Corzo-Chiapa” medium roast (Mexico)
  • Grind: Fine – 1.5 turns on the JX minus 6 clicks, or 39 total clicks
  • 90°C water
  • 15 grams coffee / 200 grams water (1:13.3)
  • One new paper filter (dry)
  • James Hoffmann’s Ultimate Aeropress Recipe (20 second pour, 2 minute steep, swirl, wait 30 seconds, press 30 seconds)

This is a slightly finer grind than I’ve used with medium roasted beans in the past. Also different is that I only used one filter, and I did not wet it. This was probably the best cup of coffee I’ve brewed in a couple of weeks! Always great to hit on a good recipe. I may try these same tweaks with my “La Esparanza” beans, as the last cup I brewed with them seemed a little under-extracted for some reason.

Random notes

lpaulriddle

Still experimenting with the light roast coffee beans I picked up the other day in Bethany. This was an improvement over yesterday:

  • Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (Guatemala/Colombia)
  • 11 grams coffee, ground at 39 clicks on the JX (1.5 turns minus 6 clicks)
  • 200 grams water at full boil (1:18.1)
  • Two paper filters
  1. 20 second pour
  2. Steep 2 minutes
  3. Take off scale and swirl
  4. Wait 30 seconds
  5. Press 30 seconds

Compared to yesterday, this was ground slightly finer (39 vs 42 clicks) and poured right off the boil, instead of 99°C. Arguably not much of a difference there, but I suspect that due to heat loss, this gives an actual steeping temperature close to 99°, which is what the Hoffmann recipe calls for. The cup definitely had more flavor than yesterday’s. Just to make sure I’m extracting these beans as much as I can, I may try drawing the brew time out a little longer, and see if I can get it to the point where I start to taste some bitterness. At that point I’ll back off the brew time a little bit, and see if the cup is as strong as I would like. It’s worth noting that the instructions on the bag of beans specify a 1:17 ratio, which is slightly more coffee than I’m using here.

I got out at around 6:40 this morning and ran 5.3 miles. I felt a little better than I did Sunday. I woke up slightly sore after climbing yesterday evening and swimming yesterday afternoon, and wasn’t initially sure I wanted to go out, but once I get moving, I felt fine. Climbing went well last night. I climbed 4 routes on lead and 4 on top rope, at grades ranging from 5.8 to 5.10+. It was my first time leading in about a month. Lead climbing is one of those things you have to keep doing regularly to stay comfortable and confident on the wall.

This and that..

lpaulriddle

On July 6, I noted some recent issues with tightness in my right calf, which has been a recurring issue with me. I’ve suspected that poor kicking form while swimming freestyle and backstroke might contribute to this. I did not swim at all while we were on vacation last week, and had no tightness issues for the entire week. However, I’m noticing that a little bit of tightness is back today, also in the right calf, and I have not yet been in the pool. It just occurred to me that both days I’ve had the issues were right after I took long drives. On July 4, we took a 6-hour day trip to Pennsylvania, and yesterday was a 4-hour(!) drive home from Bethany. My right leg, of course, is the side I use for the accelerator pedal. Could there be a connection here?

While at the shore, I picked up a few half-pound bags of coffee beans, including some light roast (breakfast blend) from Local Coffee Roasting Co. in Roxana, DE. Today was my first foray into brewing anything lighter than medium roast in the AeroPress. I followed the James Hoffmann recipe pretty closely:

  • 11 grams coffee, ground at 42 clicks on the JX (1.5 turns minus 3 clicks)
  • 200 grams water at 99°C (1:18.1)
  • Two paper filters
  1. 20 second pour
  2. Steep 2 minutes
  3. Take off scale and swirl
  4. Wait 30 seconds
  5. Press 30 seconds

The end result was OK, but lacking in flavor, which tells me I’m probably not getting enough extraction from the beans. In his video, Hoffmann recommends adjusting either the grind size or the water temperature to address this, instead of upping the amount of coffee, which you might do with a darker roast. Next time, I may try going a little bit finer with the grind, and possibly heating the kettle water to a full boil and pouring directly off that.

Ride/Brew Notes

lpaulriddle

Today’s ride took me west from Bethany to Frankford (DE) and back, passing through the town of Omar along the way. On the whole, this is a more pleasant ride than south through Bayard, because there is less traffic, and the roads are wider and more bike-friendly. The town of Frankford itself is something of an exception, with more traffic and narrower roads that are not exceptionally well-maintained, but that’s a rather small portion of the ride. My total distance was just under 24 miles, which is about what I set out for today. From Frankford, the route can be extended by heading north to Dagsboro, South to Selbyville, or even east to Fenwick via DE-20 and DE-54.

I’ve been making a glass of cold brew every day this week, and I think I’ve gotten it nailed down to this recipe:

  1. Pre-moisten 2 new or used paper AeroPress filters
  2. Set AeroPress up in inverted orientation
  3. Add 1 heaping scoop (roughly 15 grams) Wellsley Farms Breakfast Blend pre-ground medium roast coffee
  4. Fill AeroPress a little over halfway with room temperature water
  5. Stir vigorously for 1 minute
  6. Press slowly into an 8-ounce glass
  7. Add ice and top with water

I had been brewing this in standard orientation previously, but a lot of water was dripping through while stirring, which the inverted orientation avoids. I think inverted produced a slightly superior result, but I’d have to do a blind taste test to say for sure. Next time, I think I’m going to try topping off with milk or cream, and see how that tastes.

I also found that using the drip coffee brewer makes a better hot cup with this coffee than the AeroPress method I was using earlier in the week. I’ve been using 4 level tablespoons coffee to 8 ounces (1 cup) water. I’m sure I could get better results from the AP with a little bit of tweaking, but haven’t really bothered fooling around with it.

Beach Brew

lpaulriddle

I brought my AeroPress on vacation with me, along with a big bag of Wellsley Farms Breakfast Blend pre-ground coffee, in hopes of using most of it up before its “best before” date in early August. After a few rather unsuccessful attempts to brew a good hot cup with the equipment available to me here, I decided to try the cold brew recipe from the AeroPress web site. I’ve tried making regular cold brew in a French press, which takes 24 hours and requires a coarse grind. I’ve also tried making pour-over iced coffee, also with the Wellsley Farms pre-ground beans. Both turned out pretty good, but I think the cold brew was slightly better. The AeroPress recipe produced a decent cup more quickly than the French Press and with less work than making pour-over iced coffee. I’ll probably experiment with this recipe a few more times this week. One thing that I noticed is that the long stir time allows more water than usual to drip through the filter before pressing. I might eventually try brewing this with the AP inverted (which would avoid the dripping) and see if it makes any noticeable difference.

Today’s Brew Recipe

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Lost Dog Coffee “Mocha Sidamo” Organic Dark Roast (Ethiopia)
  • 17 grams coffee, 200 grams brew water
  • 85°C water
  • JX 1 rotation plus 6 clicks, or 36 total clicks (fine)
  • 2 pre-moistened paper filters
  1. 20 second pour
  2. 1 minute steep (no bloom or agitation)
  3. 30 second press

This is basically a simplified version of V60 Style Aeropress (dark roast) that uses less water and eliminates the bypass. It brewed a better cup than the recipe I used yesterday, but still not the best cup I’ve gotten out of these beans. I’m still trying to figure out what I did that time and how to replicate it, but I guess I’m getting closer. Previously, I brewed the recipe at the same ratio, but used 160 grams of brew water and 40 grams of bypass. I’m curious if the bypass makes any real difference in the taste. Maybe I should brew two cups and do a blind taste test. Unfortunately, I’m starting to run low on these beans… 😀