Tag: french press

Zeke’s Charm City Blend

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Charm City Blend” from Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
    • Roast level: Dark (6/8)
    • Origin: Colombia (Sierra Nevada)
    • Roast date: 8/19/24
    • Purchase date: 8/20/24 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
  • AeroPress:
    • 20g coffee / 250g water
    • JX: 30 (90 clicks)
    • Water at 90°C
    • Prismo with metal + paper filter
    • Pour all 250g; stir front to back (carefully) until all grounds are wet; steep until 2:45; stir 6x; press slowly

The local grocery store has always carried these, but this is the first time I have tried them. From the description, it’s a blend of dark (Italian-roast) beans with a bunch of random lighter-roasted beans. No origin listed, as I guess it varies from bag to bag. It looks and tastes like a dark roast, so that’s how I’ve been brewing it. Grind settings 20 and 25 were too bitter, but 30 produced a fairly smooth AeroPress cup. French press with the same grind setting tasted similar. 20g coffee and 250g water just barely fits in the AeroPress cylinder in standard orientation. I probably could not brew this amount without the Prismo attachment.

8/28: AeroPress cups have been pretty consistent and smooth, with only an occasional, slight note of bitterness, but not unpleasant and not more than you’d expect from dark-roasted beans. The taste is a tiny bit reminiscent of Verona St Julien’s Breakfast Blend, which is probably my favorite among the darker roasts I’ve brewed to date. Unfortunately, though, my last two French press cups at the office have not been good. I have been using 24g coffee to 300g water (same 1:12.5 ratio as AeroPress) with the James Hoffmann French press method and grind setting 30 (again, same as AeroPress) and the cups have been unpleasantly bitter with kind of a strange aftertaste. Obviously, something needs tweaking, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to experiment much more, as it’s likely I’ll be running low on beans by the next time I come to the office. Assuming I have any left by then, I may just end up bringing the AeroPress to the office, so I can brew it the same way I do at home.

8/31: As an experiment, I brewed my past 3 cups without a paper AeroPress filter, using only the metal filter that came with the Prismo (no paper filter), and I think I prefer it this way — the cups seem to have a sweeter flavor with a richer texture/mouthfeel, at the expense of a little bit of sediment in the cup. This could be subjective, as I haven’t done a blind taste test (and don’t have enough beans left to do one now) so I’ll have to experiment a little bit more and see what types of roasts taste better without the paper filter. I suspect it may work better with darker roasts than lighter roasts, but as always, I could be wrong.

Rise Up Guatemala Single Origin (bag #2)

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Guatemala (Single Origin)” from Rise Up Coffee Roasters (Easton, MD)
    • Roast level: Medium
    • Origin: Guatemala (Asociación Chajulense, Quiché)
    • Roast date: 7/1/24
    • Purchase date: 7/30/24 at Green Valley Marketplace in Elkridge, MD
  • French press (good but sludgy):
    • 22g coffee / 300g water
    • JX: 25 (75 clicks)
    • Water about 20-30 seconds off boil
    • Pour about 60g bloom water and stir; steep until 0:30; top up to 300g; stir several times; steep until 6:00 to 7:00; press slowly and pour immediately
  • French press #2 (James Hoffmann method) (very good):
    • 22g coffee / 300g water
    • JX: 30 (90 clicks)
    • Water right off boil
    • Ceramic French press (preheating might be prudent in the winter, but I didn’t bother during this god-awful hot summer)
    • Pour all 300g at once, being careful to wet all of the grounds; steep until 5:00; stir a couple times; spoon foam and clumpy grounds off top; insert plunger until it rests on top of the coffee; steep 5 more minutes; pour slowly
  • V60 (not good):
    • 21g to 22g coffee / 300g water
    • JX: 15 (45 clicks)
    • Water at 95°C
    • Recipe: Single Cup V60 Pourover with size 1 dripper, preheated with insta-hot tap
  • AeroPress (OK cup):
    • 18g coffee / 250g water
    • JX: 25 (75 clicks)
    • Water at 90C
    • Prismo with metal + paper filter
    • Pour all 250g at once / stir 6x / steep until around 3:00 / stir 6x again / press slowly

I last bought these beans in April, and my notes from then suggest that I was getting inconsistent results with the V60. Today, I pre-ground 22g to take to work, with the intention of using my V60 there, but then I realized I had ground the beans coarser than I wanted (setting 25 vs 20). So, I decided to dust off the cheap plastic French press at the office. I’m not sure the bloom step was really necessary, as there was no visible bubbling or out-gassing from the grounds. The end result was a cup that was pretty good, with decent flavor and a hint of acidity, but a lot of sludge in the bottom of the mug. I’ve previously used grind setting 30 for all of my French press brews, so it may be that 25 is a little too fine. All the same, I suspect this was a better cup than I would have gotten with the same grind setting with the V60.

8/1: This morning, I brewed a cup with the ceramic size 1 V60 at grind setting 19. It drained through ridiculously fast, and the resulting cup had no body whatsoever. This afternoon, I tried setting 15, and it was much better, although it still drained relatively quickly — it was finished by 2:30. Interestingly, in my notes from April, I see that I tried setting 15 once, and it turned out bitter. This afternoon’s cup had no hint of bitterness at all. The main difference was that in April, I used a plastic size 2 V60. While my sample size is admittedly small, I’ve noticed that with everything else equal, the size 1 ceramic consistently drains faster than the size 2 plastic. Could be that these beans just need a fine grind and a fast drain-down. Of course, my next cup could prove me wrong and turn out unbearably bitter. It’s all part of the fun.

8/3: I’ve brewed several more V60 cups since 8/1, each with various tweaks to grind size and water temperature, none of them all that good. Giving up on V60 for now and sticking with immersion. Today, I decided to try James Hoffmann’s French press method, the basic steps of which I’ve listed above. The linked article has more detail. This definitely takes some time to brew, but it turned out really good, and as advertised, there was very little sludge in the cup. The opaque ceramic French press is not ideal for this method, as I couldn’t see exactly where the plunger was resting, and I also ended up with a little bit of liquid left over in the press after I thought I had poured all of it out. However, it worked well enough that I’m not going to run right out and buy a transparent French press. I think this will be a great alternative to the AeroPress on days when I have more time to brew coffee, and the French press also has a lot more brewing capacity than the AeroPress.

8/7: I have come to the conclusion that this is French press coffee, full stop. Everything I have brewed with either V60 or AeroPress has been mediocre (alternately bitter or vague/sour), and without exception, all of my French press cups have been excellent. The James Hoffmann method has been a winner with both the plastic and the ceramic French presses, and cups have been good at any ratio from 1:13.6 to 1:15 (20g to 22g grounds to 300g water).

8/8: I managed to brew a decent AeroPress cup this morning. Tried grind setting 30 with 85C water yesterday, and it tasted sour. Today, setting 25 with 90C water was better. It was not quite as good as it turns out in the French press, but a perfectly reasonable cup of coffee — not sour or bitter, and fairly balanced, if a tiny bit lacking in “personality”, for want of a better word.

Two Cup French Press

lpaulriddle

I have brewed mostly single cups of coffee in the French press, which, while it works, is better suited for something like the AeroPress. Today, I brewed a larger batch, which turned out pretty good:

  • Beans: “Harvest Moon” medium roast (Indonesia/South Asia)
    • Roaster: Zeke’s Coffee (Baltimore, MD)
    • Roast date: 10/30/2023
  • 40 grams coffee, 520 grams water (1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 95°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting 30, or 3 rotations)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. Pour 100 grams or so of water and return kettle to base
  6. Swirl to get all the grounds wet, and bloom until 1:00
  7. Top up to 520 grams of water and stir slowly a few times
  8. Steep for 6 more minutes, plunge, and pour

This recipe is kind of a testament to the fact that it’s hard to screw things up with a French press. I bet it would taste good with or without a separate bloom, with or without stirring/swirling, and regardless of total steep time (within reason). 6 minutes seems to be long enough to get good extraction without letting the coffee cool down too much.

11/21: This recipe tasted a little bitter this morning. Maybe try dropping the water temperature to 90°.

Vitality Brazil French Press

lpaulriddle

This afternoon’s cup:

  • Beans: “Brazil Yellow Bourbon” medium roast
    • Roaster: Vitality Roasting (Minneapolis, MN)
    • Roast date: 9/20/2023
  • 20 grams coffee, 280 260 grams water (1:14 1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 99°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting 30, or 3 rotations)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes, plunge, and pour

This was a much better cup than yesterday’s. I kept everything the same, except I started with hotter water, and I remembered to preheat the French press. The result was a more robust, better extracted brew. I feel like it could have been a little bit stronger, so maybe 1:13 will be the sweet spot. The pourovers I’ve been making with these beans have been a little bit lackluster recently, so I may stick with the French press until I use them up.

In totally unrelated news, I was amazed with how quickly I bounced back from the COVID booster I got yesterday afternoon. The only symptoms I had were minor body aches last night and this morning, which disappeared after I took some Ibuprofen. This is in contrast to all of my previous shots, after which I had 24 to 36 hours of flu-like symptoms (aches, chills, shakes, fatigue, slightly elevated temperature). None of that this time around. The big difference: my past shots were all Moderna, and yesterday’s was Pfizer. I guess I must tolerate the Pfizer vaccine better.

10/5: Brewed again. Kept everything the same, except I reduced the water to 260g for a 1:13 ratio. This seemed like a good strength. I have enough beans left to brew about 3 more cups, and may just do all of them like this.

10/9: Used the beans up this afternoon. I had 26g left, so I used 338g of water (1:13). I believe this was the best cup I’ve gotten with them using this method. I didn’t do anything differently, so I wonder if it had something to do with the larger volume of water. I’m also wondering if the speed and/or length of time of stirring makes any difference in the finished product.

Morning Brew

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Angel Albino Corzo-Chiapa” medium roast (Mexico) from Amity Coffee Roasters in Greenwood, DE
  • 20 grams coffee, 280 grams water (1:14 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 95°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

This is my standard French press recipe, with slightly more water to get a 1:14 ratio vs 1:13. Just wanted to try it with these beans. The cup turned out fine, with more earthy and roasty notes than the pourover recipe I’ve been using. Overall, I think I prefer the pourover, but would be fine drinking this every day. Where the pourover (and AeroPress) win is convenience: both methods are faster and less messy than the French press.

Brew Notes (again)

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Lost Dog “Mocha Sidamo” (dark roast)
  • 20 grams coffee, 260 grams water (1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 85°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

I never thought I’d get to a point where I drink more than one cup of coffee a day, but lately I’ve been drinking two (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) mainly because I’m experimenting with so many different beans and recipes to find out what I like. I have had these beans for a couple of months, and I think I tried them in the French press soon after I bought the bag, but I didn’t take any notes here about how it turned out. This is my “standard” French press recipe, with the temperature knocked down to 85 for dark roast.

Two observations: #1, this was not nearly as strong-tasting a cup as the light roast that I brewed in the French press yesterday with the same parameters. It was good, but I bet it would be better at 1:11 or even 1:10. Next time, I’ll try using less water for a smaller but stronger cup. #2: With the lower initial water temperature and the long steep time, it wasn’t a very hot cup. It will lose even more heat if I brew with less water. I read somewhere where there’s less to extract out of dark roasted beans, so it may be that 6 minutes is longer than it needs to steep. I may try cutting back to 5 or even 4 minutes, to see if it has any noticeable effect on the finished product. I could also try a slightly higher initial water temperature (say 90°).

I think I am running up against one of the drawbacks to the French press — it’s not ideally suited to brewing single cups, because the long steep time leads to a lot of heat loss. This is not a huge deal if you start with boiling water, but starts to become an issue with lower initial brewing temperatures. So, I might want to stick with light to medium roasts with the French press. All the same, I think I’m going to eventually try these beans with 200 to 220 grams of 90° water and 4 to 5 minutes steep time, just to see how it turns out.

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (light roast)
  • 20 grams coffee, 260 grams water (1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to boil
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

I’ve been getting a little bit frustrated with my AeroPress lately. I just seem to be unable to get consistently good results with it. One day I’ll brew something that is really good, and the next day I’ll brew the exact same beans with the exact same recipe, and it will be lackluster. I wish I could figure out what I’m doing when I get a good cup from it, and repeat it somehow.

On the flip side, we have the French press. It takes longer than the AeroPress, but I don’t think I’ve ever brewed a bad cup with it. For this one, I used the light roast beans I picked up last week in Bethany. I’ve used this exact French press recipe with lots of different beans. The only difference today was that because it’s a light roast, I used boiling water instead of 85-95°C water. The result was a rich, full-bodied, generally excellent cup. The only problem was that it was maybe a little too strong. I am feeling the caffeine more than I would like. The 1:13 ratio is stronger than the 1:18 I’ve been using with the AeroPress, but it may just be because it’s a 30% larger cup than what I usually make with the AP (260 vs 200 grams). I can see if I like it at 1:14 or 1:15, or just cut the volume down to 200 grams, which would call for about 15 grams of coffee to get a 1:13 ratio.

I may try out an AeroPress recipe like this one that uses a coarser grind which more closely mimics what I’ve been using with the French press, just to see what kind of results I get.

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: German Street Coffee & Candlery Private House Blend
  • 20 grams coffee, 260 grams water (1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 95°C
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

Prior to today, I had been pre-weighing my hot water by pouring it into a glass measuring cup, and then adding it to the French press all at once. Today, I just put the press on the scale and poured directly from the gooseneck kettle, which took 20-30 seconds, and then I let it steep/bloom until the timer hit 1 minute. Probably not much difference between the two methods, but I suspect there is less initial loss of water temperature with today’s method. The previous method allows for slightly more precise weighing, but all in all, I think today’s method is a little bit better, just because of the temperature thing. To be honest, a regular kettle without the gooseneck might be a better choice for the French press, especially if I’m brewing more than one cup. All that said, this produced a really tasty cup of coffee, which makes me happy, as I have had no luck at all with these beans with the Aeropress.

Today’s (cold) brew notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: German St Coffee & Candlery Private House Blend
  • Coarse grind (JX: 3 rotations + 4 clicks / 94 total clicks)
  • Recipe: https://www.acouplecooks.com/french-press-cold-brew
  • 140 grams coffee (roughly 2 cups ground), 840 grams water

With summer upon us, I decided to try making some cold brew. The hardest part of this was grinding 140 grams of coffee with the JX. This job would be better suited to a higher capacity electric grinder. Other than that, there’s not much to it: just add the ingredients to the french press, stir, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 24 hours, and strain into a glass jar or pitcher. The resulting brew is concentrated, and the recipe recommends diluting 50/50 with either water or milk. I tried it with milk, and it was pretty good. Now, I need to work on trying to get a good cup of regular hot brew with these beans, but that’s for another day…

On an unrelated note, I just moved the back end database for this blog to a AWS RDS MariaDB instance. It had previously been running in a MariaDB Docker container on my old EC2 instance. This is the first step to getting my stuff off the EC2 instance and into (probably) EKS with Fargate. If you’re reading this, it means that it worked. 😀

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Lost Dog Coffee (Shepherdstown, WV) “La Esparanza” Organic Medium/Medium Dark (Nicaragua)
  • 0.75 oz coffee, 9.5 oz water (1:13 ratio)
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to 200°F
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 full rotations + 4 more clicks)
  4. Add all of the water at once, then start timer
  5. 30 second bloom
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

I was having a hard time getting a good cup of coffee with these beans with the Aeropress, so I decided to try the French press and this turned out pretty good. Started timer after fairly slow pour from gooseneck kettle. Made a pretty strong cup. Might cut back to an 8 oz cup or possibly try at 1:14 next time.