Pour-over profiles
To brew coffee well, extraction is an important concept to understand. If we were able to dry out coffee grounds after they have been brewed, they will have lost about 20% of their weight. This is the amount that we have dissolved into our cup during brewing, and the percentage is termed extraction.
This is important, as flavour does not extract from coffee in a linear way, more is not necessarily more. When we begin to brew a coffee, the natural acids present in the coffee will extract most easily, followed by sugars, and then heavier bitter compounds towards the end of the brew. This means controlling how much we extract from a coffee will control the balance of flavour in your cup. Extract too little, and we have a sour coffee, too much acid from the beginning of the brew, and not enough sweetness to create balance. Extract too much, and we will extract too much bitterness from later in the brew, resulting in an overall bitter and drying cup.
Baseline
This straightforward V60 recipe suits all our coffees. We recommend using a recipe with 15 grams of coffee, ground finer than a typical V60 brew, to 250 grams of water with a TDS of 30-50ppm at 96°C. Put the paper in your V60 and give it a good rinse with hot water. It removes all paper taste and preheat the equipment. Remove rinsing water
0:00 pour to 60g
0:45 pour to 155g
1:30 pour to 250g
Bright and crisp
To achieve more acidic and bright notes in the cup, we recommend using a recipe with 4 pours after the bloom. Use a coarse grind to boost acidity, but a very different pouring structure to increase extraction. If the baseline recipe was used but with this coarser grind size, the cup would lack character and have a very watery body. Adding the extra pours extends the contact time between water and coffee, increasing the extraction of the coarser grind.
0:00 pour to 60g
Pour straight in the centre for 30g, before spiralling outwards to wet all of the grounds. Don’t swirl or stir the bloom
0:40 pour to 110g
Poured in slow spirals for remaining steps
1:20 pour to 160g
2:00 pour to 210g
2:40 pour to 250g
Sweet and balanced
For sweeter and more balanced notes, we would recommend using a recipe with one long, slow pour after the bloom. The goal here is to keep the water level as low as possible above the coffee bed, ensuring that almost no water bypasses the coffee, running directly out of the sides of the paper filter. Grind slightly finer than the baseline, and make sure to have an even coffee bed before pouring.
0:00 pour to 60g
Pour straight in the centre for 30g, before spiralling outwards to wet all of the grounds. Don’t swirl or stir the bloom
0:45 pour to 250g
Pour 40g in spirals (until the scale shows 100g) then pour straight in the centre until the scale shows 250g, pouring very slowly
2:00 stop pouring
The aim is to time the pour rate to have all 250g around 2 minutes. This can be tricky, adjust as you go along, but try to have a steady slow pour, while keeping an eye on the water not rising far above the coffee bed
Pouring Technique
When brewing these recipes we like to lower manual agitation as much as possible, so we don't stir or swirl during the recipes. We find the coffees to express less clear acidity and aromas when agitated too much. Further more we like to use the Fellow Stagg EKG kettle due to its slow flow spout, not agitating the coffee too much.
Espresso profiles
We have two standard recipes that can highlight different attributes of our coffees on espresso, whilst still being transparent in flavour profile.
Bright and Soft
When brewing a coffee with a brighter character, often with high density, we aim for a brighter expression in the cup and more separation between flavours, while sacrificing intensity and body. We do this by using a longer ratio and higher brew temperature, but a faster brew time.
Ratio (ground coffee weight:final espresso weight out): 1:3
Brew time: 19-21 seconds
Brew temperature: 96°C
Water: 50ppm
Pressure: 6 Bar
Rich and Sweet
When brewing coffees with a richer and sweeter profile, we aim to highlight this in the cup, with greater intensity of texture and flavour. This recipe is especially effective when combined with milk, where we often prefer naturally processed coffees such as our range from Brazil.
Ratio (ground coffee weight:final espresso weight out): 1:2.5
Brew time: 29-32 seconds
Brew temperature: 92-94°C
Water: 50ppm
Pressure: 6 Bar
Combining with milk
In order to create a balanced milk beverage, you can vary the size of your espresso while maintaining the same ratio. For an example, for our standard cup sizes, we would suggest the following coffee doses and final espresso weights, if using the ‘rich and sweet’ recipe.
120ml: 13g Dose
180ml: 15g Dose
220ml: 18g Dose
Being sure about your recipe
We taste our coffees a lot, mainly through a brew method called cupping which is used specifically for sourcing coffees at origin. It is a full immersion brew method, similar to a french press, where coffee and water is poured into a cup and stirred after 4 minutes. Then tasted with a spoon to asses for various off-flavours in the coffee before buying. But we also like to use it as a guideline for brewing the coffee, tasting and assessing the balance between acidity and aromas in the coffee so we know where to aim with our grindsize when brewing.
The recipe for a cupping is as follows:
14g Coffee
210g Water 50ppm 96C
Pour all water, steep and stir after 4 minutes
Skim the top with two spoons and wait til the coffee cools this is usually after 10 minutes total.
From here whether you are doing espresso or filter, you get a clear idea of the coffees innate balance.
Troubleshooting
If you are having problems with the dial in try to follow these steps:
1. Try to cup it
Try and see if the coffee has the same off flavours as when you brew it on espresso or filter. If it has the off flavours in the cupping bowl, try to rest it for one more week and see if the flavours have receded through de-gassing.
2. Checking your water TDS and temperature
You should brew at around 92-96 celsius. If the coffee is very fermented in its process, a lower temperature is usually best, avoiding the extraction of too many fermented flavors and giving the cup more fruit character. The water TDS should be between 30-60 TDS, for more info read the water for coffee section. If the coffee has a salty taste or smells fishy you should change your water filters.
3. Read the information about the coffee
The process can have a big impact on what you should do with the coffee, if the coffee is less dense, due to quality or being a natural process you should grind finer when brewing or lower the ratio when making espresso. Furthermore a coffee might just not fit your palate, so reading the information about the coffee before brewing can help you narrow down what you might not like and by other coffee origins or varietals in the future.
