Following some basic rules when brewing your beans will help you get the best results, whatever method you choose to make your perfect brew:
Store your coffee well:
Cool…Dark…Airtight…
Beans freeze, but keep ground coffee out of the fridge as it’s hygroscopic, so absorbs moisture at the drop of a hat. As a bonus, it’s also brilliant for absorbing nasty smells – best keep those out of your daily cup!
Warm your brewer of choice and thoroughly warm your cups…
Why Bother? Helps to brew the coffee at the right temperature and you’ll be able to enjoy your brew for longer!
Invest in Digital Scales…bog standard ones will do!
Brew consistently so you taste the coffee, not today’s variation on how you made it. If you have a memory like a sieve you’ll never have to forget how many scoops you’ve put in while you were distracted…perfect!
Invest in a Grinder:
Any grinder is better than no grinder but burr grinders are best. Coffee keeps far better and longer as beans and nothing beats the smell of freshly ground coffee. Weigh the right amount of coffee for your brew into the machine and grind it all through – beans just go stale in the hopper otherwise.
Weigh in your Coffee and your Water
Why? – So you can get your recipe just right regardless of how much coffee you put in the jug…stick to the ratio’s and your home and dry. Assume 1 Gram water = 1 Milliliter
Brewing Temperature?
Water should be off the boil. Typically c.94C
Let the kettle boil, weigh in the coffee…by the time you’ve done that it’ll have cooled enough to use.
Brew…don’t Stew
Give it enough time to brew, not too much to go over. Most people understand this of brewing tea bags in a mug, just apply the same logic to your coffee!
Clean your Brewer:
A clean brewer is essential – nothing adds less to a brew than yesterdays user grounds that are trapped in the filters of a Cafetiere!
Cafetières:
Take the filters action apart, give it a quick clean and put back together. Simple if done daily, a chore if left longer as the build up of black coffee oils will take some removing…and remind you of why you should have cleaned it in the first place!
Filters and Chemex:
So simple, just throw the paper away and rinse the cone. If using a metal cone/permanent filter, rinse it upside down to get the grounds out then pop it in the dishwasher, unless it’s instructions tell you otherwise.
Aeropress:
Unscrew the bottom section that holds the filter paper, hold the tube and plunger over the bin then push the grounds and used filter straight into the bin. It should come out as a neat puck. Then just rinse and wash the unit in the sink.
You can reuse the papers two or three times, so give that a thorough rinse if you like. Very optional, but it’ll save yourself a few pennies and helps avoid a little more waste!
Moka Pots:
A rinse and a scrub is all these need – but never, ever, put your aluminium Moka in the dishwasher. It means instant death for the protective lacquer that not only keeps them looking smart but may well be helping to keep them safe to use.
Here’s a very useful tip. Try blowing the grounds in the filter out into the bin, turn it upside down and blow hard down the tube. It works a treat and avoids bending the top when you bash it against something to knock them out. Once the filter is out of true, the pots loses pressure so stops working properly, worth checking this if you’re having problems.
