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I'm spending a lot of time at home due to WFH now, and I'm getting tired of my drip coffee maker. I was considering maybe getting a pour-over, or splurging a lot on a fully automatic machine (these things that cost a few hundred euros and grind beans themselves). I was wondering, can I simulate and/or practice the pour-over process with the parts from my drip machine? That is to say, put a filter in the cone of the machine, pour hot water over the coffee grounds to get a feel for how it'd work and taste? e: also, I don't have an air fryer or anything like that, it is possible to roast beans in a pan/wok? e2: also, if you don't roast your own beans, is there any advantage to grinding beans yourselves? I imagine the bags/tins of roasted beans you get in specialty shops already should have a lost a lot of flavor, shouldn't they? Lord Stimperor fucked around with this message at 12:01 on May 3, 2020 |
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May 3, 2020 10:27
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Experiment report: I just placed a funnel over a mug, and placed a drip coffee filter in the funnel. The drip coffee filter was cut to size because it was far too big otherwise. Filled it up with maybe a tablespoon of coffee grounds, and then carefully poured just-not-boiling water from a water cooker over it. What came out sort of was coffee, but it wasn't great 
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May 3, 2020 12:18
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Gotcha, will try that. e: Just ordered a selection of nice-looking Arabica beans from different origins and a Hario grinder. I figure that I can see where I go next from there. Thanks for the advice so far. Lord Stimperor fucked around with this message at 21:57 on May 3, 2020 |
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May 3, 2020 13:01
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Just wanna say I'm delighted at how much people  out about the specifics of the brewing process, down to each gram and second. I really hope I like the fresh beans that arrive tomorrow so I can justify getting down this rabbit hole!
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May 5, 2020 21:46
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I'm really tolerant to caffeine usually, but the first couple of self-ground coffee are really kicking me hard. I'm using 17-20g finely ground coffee per 300ml (so, 1:17.6 to 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio) of water in my drip machine, as I've seen that ratio on several web sites. But despite drinking far less volume then usually, I feel like I've never had as much coffee in my life. Is that normal?
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May 7, 2020 21:12
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I have another 'technical' question. It's about whether to count the water that you lose in the coffee filter when calculating the amount of caffeine you ingest. To clarify, I'm 'losing' a lot of water in the coffee filter. First, I ran 300ml through my machine, with no filter and no coffee in it. Almost all 300ml ended up in the caraf, so the process of heating & dripping loses almost no water. Next, I ground 20g on the finest setting and ran 300ml through the machine again. When the machine turned into heating mode after about 2:30 minutes, I turned it off. At that time, 190ml of coffee had collected in the caraf. So, the filter and the grounds therein soak up about 110ml of water. So here comes the question: my mixture contained 20g of coffee (~166mg caffeine). But only 190 of the intended 300ml ended up in my cup. How much caffeine did I actually get? e: by the way, further experimentation shows that the finest setting is not necessarily the best setting for drip coffee
Lord Stimperor fucked around with this message at 15:57 on May 9, 2020 |
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May 9, 2020 15:04
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hypnophant posted:If your doctor has prescribed you a precise dose of caffeine in mg, probably better to get that requirement by taking pills, which can be measured precisely I'm not sure if this response was sarcastic or not, but if it was, I concede that I'm probably overthinking this. The thing is, I'm trying to not greatly overdo on caffeine (try to keep it at 400mg). I had the impression that I was taking in far more than I wanted, so that's why I'm looking at this more closely.
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May 9, 2020 20:25
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So it's been a couple of weeks I'm grinding beans at home and I'm really liking it. I couldn't get nice coffee with my drip machine (even though it's okay), so I got the smallest French press IKEA had and it's working splendidly. I'm using that James Hoffman technique and it is pretty much foolproof. I've tried a bunch of different beans. So far I'm preferring Colombian and Indonesian beans, and I think I don't like the ones illy makes - too dark for my tastes. I've also found a 'social' roaster / coffee house just a few kilometers away. They're roasting weekly so I have a decent source to fall back on. I've observed the grinding discussion here a few pages back. I have one of those Hario Skertons. Even though I never had a grinder before, it's obvious that this thing has a couple of design flaws. The burrs are wobbly and could do with a stabilizer (for which there's an upgrade mod kit, I saw). It's also finicky to adjust given that there are no markings on the adjustment wheel. The silicone hopper lid gets dirty super quick, would have been nicer to just have used a sliding plastic cover. What bothers me most is that it's very unergonomical. You can't really hold it stable on a table surface unless you're using a lot of force and it's awkward to fixate due to its shape. I find that I'm usually holding it between my knees or feet while grinding. That all being said, I'm still happy with the Skerton - by the time I've ground the beans for 1 or 2 cups, the water isn't even close to boiling yet. And I'm not yet convinced that the consistency of the grind is too much of an issue. America's Test Kitchen ran a blind experiment with a bunch of testers in which they compared the taste of consistently or inconsistently ground beans. The testers didn't prefer either of the grounds, suggesting that in the end a good cup can be had with either. Unfortunately, I'm falling into somewhat of a rabbit hole right now. I'm bookmarking all kinds of specialty beans, finer kitchen scales that I don't need, electrical burr grinders that I also don't need, and coffee roasters that I probably shouldn't even use inside. If this doesn't start boring me soon, I'm afraid I'm going to spend a fortune on this.
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May 31, 2020 20:17
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Re: scales, I have a dumb kitchen scales that doesn't even show decimals. Typically I shoot for 14.5g beans per serving, so I fill it until the scale jumps back and forth between 14 and 15g. Worst case if the rounding goes wrong is that I'm off by about 5%, but that doesn't seem to have any noticeable effects on me. Help me choose: My beans are up so tomorrow I'll be opening a new bag. I've got two choices of arabica: a) Fair Trade Community Coffee 'Special Roast' b) Australian medium roast
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Jun 2, 2020 22:16
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So, bean questions. I opened a bag of Australian, medium slow-roasted beans. And I think it's really nice. I taste very little bitterness, it's very warm- and mouthy tasting. But one thing is odd: all the other beans that I opened had a very lightly colored foam, very close to the crema on an espresso. Further, the grounds would usually sink to the bottom of the French press when disturbed with a spoon. These Australian beans are very different: the foam is very dark and thin, and almost looks like what you get when you pour a Coke sometimes. When I stirr the 'crust' of floating coffee grounds that's floating in the press, it's not even really sinking. What's going on here? Are these groundds noticeable less dense than other beans and thus float, and release more gas? And if so, why would that be?
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Jun 5, 2020 22:17
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JohnCompany posted:Couple of hypotheses: Number 1 goes out indeed, it's 100% arabica. Number 2 is very interesting. I would have expected 'old' coffee to bit taste good but this one is really nice. Unless of course I have bad taste  . James Hoffmann had a vid about the effects of storing beans in humid conditions. He observed that the beans produced less foam (I think) and broke into bigger pieces when grinding. Wondering whether these beans might have been more exposes to humidity during harvest and washing. I wouldn't have thought to see different beans differ so drastically from one another, so this is really neat for me.
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Jun 6, 2020 23:04
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So I've been keeping track of the beans that I'm buying. After about a month, I've tried eight different products. I've compared prices (per kg) and it turns out that the beans that I like the most, are the least expensive ones (autralian medium roast). The ones I liked least, turned out to be by far the most expensive ones (illy brazilian). This is a satisfying result.
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Jun 14, 2020 16:55
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Funky bean report! I came through our town's hipster hood today and bought some micro roaster's beans. At 250g for EUR12.95, they're the most expensive beans I've had yet. These are Kenyan beans and their packaging speaks of berries and of a wet process. Indeed, they have an intensely floral/fruity smell. Judging by the color, they're a medium roast perhaps. But they're puffier than the other beans so far, with many beans having their insides popped out like popcorn. They're also heavier, as they don't even remotely fill the 250g container from the illy beans. When eaten, they're really nice: they taste a bit like berries or maybe raisins, especially when 'breathing' the aroma while eating.The taste isn't as ashy and bitter as other beans. They seem to grind more consistently than my other beans. Interestingly, they produce practically no foam when pouring water over them in the press. When stirred, the grounds sink to the bottom easily. After pressing down, very few fines and grit came through the filter. The taste is absolutely funky. I'm actually amazed at how different they taste to other beans I've tried. The coffee tastes just as sweet as their aroma suggests, and it's also very sour. Honestly, every time I take a sip I'm slightly confused. It tastes almost as though somehad had poured a fruit tea into my coffee. It's laughably intense. Sadly it turns out that I'm not the biggest fan of this taste in a coffee. But given the sweet- and sourness, I'm thinking that this will make an absolutely lovely chilled or iced coffee for hot summer days. If all fails, I'll coat them in chocolate and have an awesome power snack. Anyhow, that's the lesson I learned today.
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Jun 19, 2020 21:35
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BlackMK4 posted:Try grinding more finely on your next cup Gunder posted:As has been mentioned already, you should try grinding finer next time. The sour taste might just be due to under-extraction. A finer grind may lessen this aspect of the flavour dramatically, it may even eliminate it. I followed the advice, and it seems to work. I've turned my Hario one notch finer, and the sourness decreased noticeably. Maybe I'll try one more to get rid of the remaining sourness. It's much better, but I'm still not a big fan of the fruity flavors in there. Thanks for the help!
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Jun 20, 2020 14:47
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Thinking about the ROK coffee grinder a lot lately
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Jun 21, 2020 23:11
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I finished restoring and customizing my La Pavoni Europiccola a while back and am still learning to pull a good shot from it. I probably need to upgrade to some crazy 600 dollar grinder but I’m not going to do that anytime soon. Omfg this is beautiful. What's it's story?
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Jun 21, 2020 23:12
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Guyver posted:Well yeah you have to eat fruit and vegetables no one drinks ten cups of coffee a day right? Of course not 
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Jun 22, 2020 16:17
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30-45 grams in a cafetiere a day. A while ago I tried to do the math as to how much over the limit would bring me. I read that for drip coffee, the caffeine content of a brew is roughly 8%. But that probably varies wildly according to technique. At that percentage, 45 grams would yield about 360mg of caffeine, which is over the limit (320mg). 30g should yield some healthy 240mg. No idea how the formula changes with technique.
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Jun 22, 2020 18:22
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By the way I found a paper that shows how much mg of caffeine you get in different drinks. French press has just little but more than drip filter machine coffee. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00217-013-1917-x  Later they also list the cup-wise caffeine content, where a cup contains 120ml of coffee. That cup contains a bit more than 60mg of caffeine for French press, and a bit less than 60 mg for filter coffee. In other words, their French press coffee would have a bit more than 120mg of coffee in a more normal 250ml cup, and a drip coffee a bit less than that. Note that their brewing ratios might differ from what you are using. For instance they're using a coffee to water ratio of 1:18 for their French press as opposed to the 1:16.67 that Hoffmann recommends. So I'm guessing that for French press, you're more looking at 140mg caffeine per cup with the Hoffmann recipe, meaning that two cups should be about it per day.
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Jun 22, 2020 22:53
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Will buying this grant me eternal happiness?
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Jun 23, 2020 21:45
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I wanna try my hands on espresso at some point. But the main attraction is that it has a long lever, grinds fast and consistent, and I don't need to sit on the floor keeping it stable with my feet when grinding I considered electric grinders but reviews tell me that I'd need to spend a fortune getting similar quality. It would also look real nice on my counter.
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Jun 23, 2020 22:20
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Wow you can out a lot of beans in that one
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Jun 25, 2020 11:21
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Lord Stimperor posted:Will buying this grant me eternal happiness? I have ordered it. Will report what happens.
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Jun 27, 2020 16:51
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shlomo posted:That grinder looks neat. Gunder posted:I haven't looked into it very much, but I think it's meant to be a good manual grinder. KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:It's a grinder, but with the crank/handle perpendicular to the burrs rather than directly on top. I think the reasoning was it's easier to grind manually cos it's solid and you're cranking up and down rather than "pushing" against the grinder side to side as you would something like a hario mini mill other people posted:i give up. what does that thing do? Yeah exactly. It supposedly matches prosumer electric grinders in quality, versatility, and speed. And with the long lever it should be much easier to use and grind faster than hand-held mills. I have a Hario Skerton right now and while it's fine, it's very awkward to use for me - either I have to press it down on a table real hard, or I have to hold it tightly between my knees. Major annoyance.
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Jun 28, 2020 13:18
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Bean report! IKEA beans, dark roast I was at IKEA so I threw a pack of their beans in the bag. They're a dark roast. I grabbed the freshest bag they had, which was from March. Upon opening the bag, I was greeted with... almost nothing. Just the slightest whiff of coffee came from the bag. This didn't change after brewing: the cup had a very weak aroma. Wouldn't recommend, even though the beans are rather cheap. Starbucks Pike Place Roast Disappointed with my IKEA beans, I moved on. Since so many people are making GBS threads on Starbucks beans, I wanted to try them anyway, so I went ahead and bought a bag. These are a  'medium' roast, produced in May. I'm putting medium in air quotes because the beans are actually jet black. They're also very oily: they will stain paper and leave a faint film on your skin. On the other hand, grinding them goes super smoothly, and the ground beans have a nice fluff to them. How does it taste? Well, it kinda tastes like starbucks. It's a bit ashy, tiny bit chocolatey. I would say not great, but definitely not offensive either. I'll drink up the bag, but probably not buy them again.
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Jun 28, 2020 14:40
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mediaphage posted:That's how I tend to view most starbucks stuff. They're pretty mediocre - not the worst ever - because they're so over-roasted that they all taste the same (which is kind of the point imo). If you've got an actual starbucks near you, the Guatemala bag is not that bad, imo. None of their reserve beans are remotely worth what they charge considering what you can get from actual small batch single-origin roasters. Part of the attraction was that the Starbucks bag (and certainly the IKEA one) were very affordably priced, so I don't consider that money thrown away. Good thing: the cup tastes exactly like what they sell in their stores, so at least the experience is very authentic. Gunder posted:If you prefer dark roasts, I’m sure there’s much better out there than IKEA and Starbucks. Your grinder deserves better. I had actually specifically bought a medium roast hoping they weren't that dark. I'm kinda morbidly curious now how dark their actual roasts are. Thanks for the tip with the Urnex Grindz. I was looking for some cleanin pellets anyway. The Urnex ones seem a bit pricey in EU, but Google is suggesting plenty alternatives.
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Jun 28, 2020 16:08
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Sir Lemming posted:If you're looking for good coffee on the cheap, try ALDI if you have one nearby. Specifically this stuff: Due to my position as basically living in two countries, I'm in reach of three different ALDI corporate chains, their LIDL rivals, and all the local discounters here and over the border. I have a fighting chance of eventually finding Europe's best bang-for-bucks beans. Right now I'm not travelling much though and still content drinking myself through the coffee aisle of the supermarket that's 10 minutes walking. Kalsco posted:I personally keep a punishment bag. It is an assortment of leftovers from bags that has a few grams left from a nebulous point in time. It's generally pretty bad, but more importantly, is there. I use it mostly as a constant reminder to keep on top of getting the good stuff. Yeah I also have a satan bag like that. It keeps getting heavier, too, and eventually I'll need to face it.
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Jun 30, 2020 22:16
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Jestery posted:Hey guys I'm chasing a new hand grinder for espresso. I'm getting a new manual espresso machine (ROK) and I'm thinking my year old abused hario skerton isn't going to cut it for espresso My ROK grinder is on the way if you want me to try things out for you. Can't make espresso since I have no machine for that, but if you want specific things I can show them
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Jul 4, 2020 09:05
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Jestery posted:Ohh that would be fantastic, mostly I would like to see the footprint and exactly how the adjustment mechanism works Sure thing. It should arrive on Tuesday according to the carrier. I'll probably nerd out a bit about it in the evening. I can make some pictures of different grinds, dimensions, etc.
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Jul 4, 2020 11:40
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MonkeyLibFront posted:I've based my coffee making off of Mr Hoffman's techniques as a really good jumping off point. I feel that guy is educating an entire generation
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Jul 4, 2020 17:45
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My ROK coffee grinder seems to be delayed. It's in the country since the weekend, but according to the tracking code hasn't been handed over to the local mail service yet. No bragging rights and pictures yet 
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Jul 7, 2020 16:54
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Only a minority of the beans at my grocer have production dates, but all of them list best-before-dates. Is the time difference between production and best-before consistent enough that you can guesstimate the production date from just the expiration date?
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Jul 10, 2020 16:24
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mediaphage posted:My experience is unless a roaster is super serious about it most list a date about a year after roasting; some will do more evilolive posted:I've been buying my coffee at costco which frankly I really like. I'm not a huge snob but I do grind my coffee fresh everyday. The ones I've gotten so far are Thanks for the info. I wouldn't call myself a bean snob either at all, but when I can, I try to go for the freshest bag. But I can indeed do better on the storage; I'm using an old illy tin and a tupperware container. I wanted to get one of these semi-vacuum sealed containers in the long term. In good news: the ROK grinder has made it out of the airport and is now in the hands of the postal service. It's expected tomorrow. Unfortunately I have to run some errands, so I hope that when I'm gone, the neighbours will take it in.
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Jul 10, 2020 23:00
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Mu Zeta posted:According to James Hoffman those special coffee canisters have limited use. If you just leave your coffee in the bag out of sunlight it tastes pretty much the same weeks later if you had put it in the canisters. I'm just using a mason jar. Yeah that video is exactly why I wanted to look at the cheapest of the vacuum ones. The bags I have are usually not resealable and he said he did notice a difference between containers that are merely airtight and the ones that depressurize a little. I might reconsider once I see the prices though, haven't looked at them yet.
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Jul 11, 2020 00:03
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evilolive posted:Is using a glass container with a lid almost as good as vacuum sealing? The wisdom is to avoid transparent containers as light accelerates the staling of the beans. Better to put it into a tupper container instead.
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Jul 11, 2020 21:46
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I have considered getting an Aeropress for the office as well. Is it easy to clean, like knock out the basket over the trash can and let water run through the chamber? My office is fairly conservative and I don't really wanna stick out with a weird contraption. but there's at least one coworker who's also brewing really nice tea every day. Also, everyone constantly complains over the bad coffee. So I might as well cultivate some coffee cumture. I can't bring in a complex setup, but something where I can just add hot water and pre portioned coffee that can be cleaned quickly would work. I wanna know how Aeropress tastes and works, I'll probably get it anyway.
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Jul 11, 2020 23:50
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My ROK grinder is there, can't wait to do his up work 
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Jul 13, 2020 17:14
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So here are my first impressions of the ROK coffee grinder. I didn't have time to play with it much yet, but I'll be using it from tomorrow. First off, the thing is a bit smaller than it looks on the images. On the images it looks like a large mechanical contraption, whereas in reality it has about the dimensions of a 2l kettle. It's sturdily constructed. However, considering the price I had hoped that the metal would have a nicer finish. Oh well, maybe I'll polish it to a mirror-like finish at some point. Setup is straightforward. You screw in the handle, then you turn the adjustment wheel all the way clockwise (open the burrs), and then all the way counter-clockwise (close them to the finest setting). Done. One cautionary tale: the thing is a bit messy compared to grinders that have their own integrated bin. Please absolutely use a few drops to wet the beans as the manual states I didn't, and as a reslult the entire adjustment wheel and the bottom of the grinder where covered in espresso-fine grounds, which were annoying to clean. Second: especially if you're grinding fast, bean fragments will jump out of the hopper. Prevent that by either covering it with your hand (light pressure is enough to keep the grinder stable), or use a piece of paper as a make shift hopper lid. Third, use the little cup/bucket that comes with the grinder. If you grind on a little plate or shallow cuip, there'll be some spill. Anyway, on to the performance. It's very fast and easy to use. At grind settings somewhere between 30 and 35 (relatively coarse), it took me ~30 turns to get through 15g of beans. The grind time must have been between 20 and 25 seconds. If you really want to, you could to it faster. One thing that I didn't get right immediately is the adjustment ring. It moves very easily, and as you turn it, you'll feel indents at every step. At fine settings, these are very pronounced, at coarser settings, they are very subtle. Make sure to turn the adjustment wheel gently. If you use to much force, it seems to skip over the indent and you start unscrewing the wheel. Unfortunately, there's no numerical markings, so you'll have to count the clicks yourself. Here are some samples in an imgur album (also at the end of the post). I originally wanted to make a sample of every second setting, but that would have taken too much time. For every sample, I've put a bit of table salt next to it as a reference. Note that the very fine settings (1, 3) look coarser than they are. That's because I had to get close to actually see anything; note how chunky the salt is by comparison. It's very fine. I didn't go beyond 40, as I thought that'd be the coarsest thing I'd try in a French press. There is still range beyond that though. Let me know if the photos are unusable, I'll shoot some more - I would like to make some more meaningful comparison shots, but I haven't quite figured out how yet. Setting 1, closeness masks how fine the grounds are, note table salt for comparison  Setting 3  Setting 5, particles still finer than salt  Setting 7  Setting 20, now we're comparable to salt I think  Setting 25  Setting 30, this the finest end of French press I think?  Setting 35  Setting 40, I think we're into cold brew territory now 
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Jul 13, 2020 21:43
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Jestery posted:Well I got them Did yours come with the plastic film on the bottom? Mine just has the rubber or silicone feet and doesn't want to stick to anything.
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Jul 15, 2020 09:49
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Shooting Blanks posted:Why do I forget that the difference between 3 cups of coffee and 4 is the difference between "awake, alert, and productive" and "uncomfortably wired" ?? I'm an idiot. This week I've been basically working from the moment I open my eyes to when I fall into bed. Making a nice cup in between has kept me alive but I'm far too caffeinated
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Jul 16, 2020 16:05
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