Coffee: crankin' it until I have a sloppy puck

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Coffee: crankin' it until I have a sloppy puck

Doh004: Apr 22, 2007; Mmmmm Donuts...

becoming posted:

Anyone else here back the Duo coffee steeper? I'm actually fairly excited to get this in a few months. At that price I could just buy a Kone to use with my Chemex - and I probably will anyway - but I saw this a few weeks ago and couldn't help myself. Any thoughts on it? Reasons why I'm crazy for spending money on it? (Note: not affiliated with them, don't get anything if you back, just think it looks cool and was curious what everyone else thought.)

Seems like a CCD with a built in carafe... it's cool but I'm not sure if I'd use it.

# ? Jan 29, 2014 23:36

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# ? May 14, 2024 06:19

becoming: Aug 25, 2004

Doh004 posted:

Seems like a CCD with a built in carafe... it's cool but I'm not sure if I'd use it.

CCD with a built-in carafe, a greater capacity, and allows the oils to pass through. Another way to look at it would be "french press without the silt". What sold me was, I love pressed coffee but the fines over-extract. It's not a problem if I drink it right away, but when when I put it in my thermos to take to work, it's definitely noticeable. I've stopped pressing coffee unless I'm drinking it immediately. My hope is that the Duo gives me a cup of coffee that tastes mostly like pressed coffee, but without the over-extraction that happens after-the-fact. I don't drink the last sip of pressed coffee so the sludge doesn't bother me, but the bitterness sure does.

# ? Jan 29, 2014 23:48

BlueInkAlchemist: Apr 17, 2012; "He's also known as 'BlueInkAlchemist'."
"Who calls him that?"
"Himself, mostly."

becoming posted:

On the Chemex front, I have the 10-cup with glass handle. I think the wood collar is sexier, but I wanted the easiest thing to clean. Several long-term reviews online have mentioned issues with the wood collar, specifically the need to take it off before cleaning (or the leather and wood gets dorked up). May be a concern for you, may not be. If you didn't know, now you do!

I really like my Chemex, and while I don't brew exclusively with it, it is firmly entrenched in my morning routine on work days - 50g beans + 850ml water yields a full 16oz Zojirushi insulated travel mug (to drink after I get to work) and about 12oz to drink on the way to work. If you have the space, I'd recommend you get the biggest size - you can always brew a smaller batch.

Do you have a gooseneck kettle at home? You can get by without one for Chemex, but I personally am much happier using a gooseneck with it.

Bonus option: Hario V60-01 (plastic) and filters will set you back about $15, but it absolutely requires a gooseneck.

Well, not only do I know this now, but I've added the travel mug to my wish list. I do want a variable-temperature gooseneck kettle in the future, but I don't want to go too hog-wild on upgrades all at once. Either way, this will definitely help me go through my Tonx beans a bit more quickly.

o muerte posted:

I'd watch the Baratza refub page for a week or two before pulling the trigger on an Infinity. The path the grinds travel from grinding chamber to catch tray includes a weird horizontal tube that tends to cause stale coffee to collect in the grinding chamber and tube. If you do get the infinity make sure to pick the whole thing up, rotate it forward ~45' and tap it hard on the counter a couple times to knock the rest of the coffee down into the catch tray. If you can find a refub Baratza for $99 it's well worth the extra $20 not to deal with some of the Infinity's quirks.

That said, the Infinity is a great upgrade from a blade grinder - I used the hell out of mine for 5-6 years before upgrading to a Baratza.

Yeah, I've been watching the refubs but so far I've only seen the two. It's been about a week. If I can get a few years of use out of an Infinity I'm all for it.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 00:20

becoming: Aug 25, 2004

BlueInkAlchemist posted:

Yeah, I've been watching the refubs but so far I've only seen the two. It's been about a week. If I can get a few years of use out of an Infinity I'm all for it.

I am sure you know this, but in case you don't: refurbs come up on Thursday. I have seen Encores a few times over the last month or so, but they always go pretty quickly. I'd check tomorrow morning.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 00:46

BlueInkAlchemist: Apr 17, 2012; "He's also known as 'BlueInkAlchemist'."
"Who calls him that?"
"Himself, mostly."

becoming posted:

I am sure you know this, but in case you don't: refurbs come up on Thursday. I have seen Encores a few times over the last month or so, but they always go pretty quickly. I'd check tomorrow morning.

Will do. Thanks for the reminder! Also, in your routine, do you end up with 16 oz for your mug AND 12 oz to drink at work? That's a lot of brew!

# ? Jan 30, 2014 00:58

Archer2338: Mar 15, 2008; 'Tis a screwed up world

So uh, what's worse in terms of coffee freshness? Leaving ground coffee in the machine for the night (ie measure & grind at night, automatically turn on in morning) or fully brewing something then leaving it in a thermos bottle?

I'm guessing the latter, but won't the aromatic compounds escape anyways?
I just need some good coffee in my busy morning routine (no, really. I can't measure/grind/brew anything in the morning. Even the CCD.) that would preferably be almost as good as a hario I brew in the afternoon.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 01:39

Dukket: Apr 28, 2007; So I says to her, I says “LADY, that ain't OIL, its DIRT!!”

I have some questions for folks with a Baratza Encore. What numbers do you like for Aeropress and French press? Baratza gives some conflicting info

Quick Start insert
Espresso Start at 8
Drip/Pourover/AeroPress start at 15
Press pot start at 25

The actual manual
1-14
16-28
29-40

I used 28 for french press and found it to be a bit weak (25g coffee, 400g water, six min brew)

Lets talk about other brew methods as well.

Dukket fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Jan 30, 2014

# ? Jan 30, 2014 02:13

becoming: Aug 25, 2004

BlueInkAlchemist posted:

Will do. Thanks for the reminder! Also, in your routine, do you end up with 16 oz for your mug AND 12 oz to drink at work? That's a lot of brew!

Well, about 12 to drink on the way to work and 16 to drink after I arrive, but yes. I have a 40 mile commute. I usually drink about 40 ounces of water on the drive in addition to the coffee. Always drinkin'.

Dukket posted:

I have some questions for folks with a Baratza Encore. What numbers do you like for Aeropress and French press? Baratza gives some conflicting info

Quick Start insert
Espresso Start at 8
Drip/Pourover/AeroPress start at 15
Press pot start at 25

The actual manual
1-14
16-28
29-40

I used 28 for french press and found it to be a bit weak (25g coffee, 400g water, six min brew)

Lets talk about other brew methods as well.

I have a Virtuoso; not the same, but probably pretty close. I grind at 40 for the press pot, 28 for Chemex, 18-20 for the Clever, 16 for V60 and AeroPress. I find it matters less for the CCD and AeroPress, as I can just adjust steep time to suit the grind. For press pot I go as coarse as possible to cut down on fines, but I'm still playing with grind size there.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 06:41

rockcity: Jan 16, 2004

Archer2338 posted:

So uh, what's worse in terms of coffee freshness? Leaving ground coffee in the machine for the night (ie measure & grind at night, automatically turn on in morning) or fully brewing something then leaving it in a thermos bottle?

I'm guessing the latter, but won't the aromatic compounds escape anyways?
I just need some good coffee in my busy morning routine (no, really. I can't measure/grind/brew anything in the morning. Even the CCD.) that would preferably be almost as good as a hario I brew in the afternoon.

I just don't understand why you'd want to grind at night. If you need to have coffee that fast after waking up, you have much bigger problems than how you make your coffee and you really need to reconsider your sleep habits. To me, my coffee ritual wakes me up just as much as the coffee itself and I wouldn't want to get rid of that.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 07:16

ded: Oct 27, 2005; Kooler than Jesus

Archer2338 posted:

So uh, what's worse in terms of coffee freshness? Leaving ground coffee in the machine for the night (ie measure & grind at night, automatically turn on in morning) or fully brewing something then leaving it in a thermos bottle?

I'm guessing the latter, but won't the aromatic compounds escape anyways?
I just need some good coffee in my busy morning routine (no, really. I can't measure/grind/brew anything in the morning. Even the CCD.) that would preferably be almost as good as a hario I brew in the afternoon.

You could try this one crazy idea a mom came up with.

wake up 5 minutes earlier

The better option would really be brewing and putting in a thermos bottle, not leaving ground grinds in the air overnight.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 08:14

Dukket: Apr 28, 2007; So I says to her, I says “LADY, that ain't OIL, its DIRT!!”

becoming posted:

I have a Virtuoso; not the same, but probably pretty close. I grind at 40 for the press pot, 28 for Chemex, 18-20 for the Clever, 16 for V60 and AeroPress. I find it matters less for the CCD and AeroPress, as I can just adjust steep time to suit the grind. For press pot I go as coarse as possible to cut down on fines, but I'm still playing with grind size there.

Thanks for the ideas

I bumped it down a few notches this morning so we'll see how it turns out. 40 is like gravel on mine, I can't even imagine how much coffee I'd need to make a cup.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 14:00

Keret: Aug 26, 2012; Soiled Meat

Picked up some schwag while I was in LA. I'll miss west coast coffee.

Keret fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Jan 30, 2014

# ? Jan 30, 2014 14:56

Hauki: May 11, 2010

Tannin posted:

Picked up some schwag while I was in LA. I'll miss west coast coffee.

Uh, the west coast of Lake Michigan?

# ? Jan 30, 2014 17:57

Doc Hawkins: Jun 15, 2010; Dashing? But I'm not even moving!

West side of the Hudson.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 18:09

Mandalay: Mar 16, 2007; WoW Forums Refugee

My intelli mug is useless since emptying a CCD (L) overflows it

# ? Jan 30, 2014 20:24

Steve Yun: Aug 7, 2003; I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.; Soiled Meat

That's why you get two

# ? Jan 30, 2014 21:05

withak: Jan 15, 2003; Fun Shoe

I'm pretty sure that you can put as little or as much water as you want into a CCD.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 22:01

Gumbel2Gumbel: Apr 28, 2010

withak posted:

I'm pretty sure that you can put as little or as much water as you want into a CCD.

No, idiot, he has to max out his CPS

# ? Jan 30, 2014 22:21

Mandalay: Mar 16, 2007; WoW Forums Refugee

I'm closing and I want my coffee dammit.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 22:37

Google Butt: Oct 4, 2005; Xenology is an unnatural mixture of science fiction and formal logic. At its core is a flawed assumption...

that an alien race would be psychologically human.

Anyone with a preciso and ccd? I need a starting point, don't want to waste more than I have to dialing it in.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 22:49

Alleric: Dec 10, 2002; Rambly Bastard...

Dukket posted:

Thanks for the ideas

I bumped it down a few notches this morning so we'll see how it turns out. 40 is like gravel on mine, I can't even imagine how much coffee I'd need to make a cup.

40 is gravel on mine as well, but that's what I use on press pot.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 23:01

Dukket: Apr 28, 2007; So I says to her, I says “LADY, that ain't OIL, its DIRT!!”

Alleric posted:

40 is gravel on mine as well, but that's what I use on press pot.

How much coffee, water and brew time?

# ? Jan 30, 2014 23:15

becoming: Aug 25, 2004

Dukket posted:

How much coffee, water and brew time?

I use a 1:17 ratio in grams, pour in 94�C water, and let it steep for four minutes. The last few times, I've skimmed the grounds from the top, then slowly pressed the plunger.

# ? Jan 30, 2014 23:21

Dukket: Apr 28, 2007; So I says to her, I says “LADY, that ain't OIL, its DIRT!!”

becoming posted:

I use a 1:17 ratio in grams, pour in 94ºC water, and let it steep for four minutes. The last few times, I've skimmed the grounds from the top, then slowly pressed the plunger.

You also use a very coarse grind?

Hmmm

So I'm using 1:16 ratio, a longer brew time and warmer water.

Dukket fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jan 30, 2014

# ? Jan 30, 2014 23:27

Scythe: Jan 26, 2004

Google Butt posted:

Anyone with a preciso and ccd? I need a starting point, don't want to waste more than I have to dialing it in.

I use 28 for this (for comparison: I use 36 for French press and 16 for moka pot).

# ? Jan 31, 2014 01:21

MasterControl: Jul 28, 2009; Lipstick Apathy

Dukket posted:

I have some questions for folks with a Baratza Encore. What numbers do you like for Aeropress and French press? Baratza gives some conflicting info

Quick Start insert
Espresso Start at 8
Drip/Pourover/AeroPress start at 15
Press pot start at 25

The actual manual
1-14
16-28
29-40

I used 28 for french press and found it to be a bit weak (25g coffee, 400g water, six min brew)

Lets talk about other brew methods as well.

We have one and use it frequently. For coarse I usually start at 32 but have gone to 34 or 36 and been ok. that's only for cold brews. With that said I've gone lower and it doesn't extract enough for me. For my aeropress it kind of depends on a roast, and I also do a small espresso brew with it, but I've been enjoying what I get at 8. I do 15g to 90ml and enjoyed that ratio. A local shop suggested that number to me.

For pour overs/ chemex we shift between 17 and 18. Sometimes I've done 16 on a a variety of Ethiopian yirgacheffes and really enjoyed it.

Ccd was always set in the high 20's and same with French presses. Trouble is I'm not much of a fan of those so my opinion is more than biased. Was in Austin and all they served were on CCDs. First world problems right there.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 01:48

withak: Jan 15, 2003; Fun Shoe

Tired of your coffee not being big, bold, and funky? Well Guy Fieri sure has some righteous brews for you!

http://www.cw-usa.com/coffee-guy-fieri.html

# ? Jan 31, 2014 03:43

Mu Zeta: Oct 17, 2002; Me crush ass to dust

I think they are k-cups too

# ? Jan 31, 2014 03:45

Alleric: Dec 10, 2002; Rambly Bastard...

Dukket posted:

How much coffee, water and brew time?

From several pages back (hit the little question mark under my name to sort thread by my rambly-assed posts):

Alleric posted:

If I'm not drinking espresso, my preference is press. I like my dirty, smelly oils and my sediment. Filters are for pansies (I kid, I kid... ).

Anyway, this is my general process for press pot.

Grind:

Think pop rocks. Big sand. On a Capresso Infinity it's the coarsest setting. It's going to look big. It's supposed to. I don't even do this on my Encore because I have it tuned to go small. It won't even come close to doing press pot grind anymore.

Water:

Just off the boil. Like just. Like the amount of time you pull the water from heat source to walk to pot to pour is how "just" I mean.

Time:

4 minutes total, but broken up. We'll get to that in a minute. Do not fix "strength" with time. Longer time on the soak just means you're changing the flavor of the brew, not strengthening it.

Process:

I tried this two-stage method for the first time with family in for Thanksgiving and have found it to be a killer way to resolve some common press pot problems.

1. Put your coffee grounds into the press pot (10 g of grounds per 6 ounces of water you plan on using).

2. Pour 2/3 of your just-off-the-boil (or ~200F) water over the grounds, wetting them all as much as you can. Keep the rest of the water hot.

3. Stir the water/grounds just enough to wet everything. Bloom (foam, crema, whatever you wish to call it) will begin (unless your beans are not-so-fresh, then nothing will happen).

4. Put a small plate on top of the pot, not the press lid. Wait 3 minutes.

5. Pour the remaining 1/3 of your water into the pot.

6. Put the actual press lid on top of the pot, but do not press. Wait 1 more minute.

7. Press gently, slowly, just enough weight on the plunger to get it to move.

Pour, enjoy.

Now, a couple of notes on tuning strength and flavor.

1. Strength... if you like what you're actually tasting from the pot, you just want everything turned up... bump up the amount of coffee grounds you use. Think of this as just more of what you like. Or less of what you like. Whatever.

2. Flavor... As the hot water spends time on the beans, the net flavor of the brew is changing. Press it way early and you'll have all nose, no body. It will be thin, barely any caffeine. As time goes on though, the water is soaking further into each ground and pulling more out of it. You'll pull more of the roasted pulp flavors, etc... And if you let it set too long you'll pull the final compound to show up to the party: bitter. So if strength is good, but flavor needs to move in some direction, fix that with time.

Of course this will all vary with the beans used. Some beans are more nosy, funky, some are more earthy and flat-out bitter on their own. Tune appropriately. I also find it good to use the old tea adage of "adding one for the pot" when I use my big (34 ounce) press pot, and throw in an extra 10g of coffee.

Oh, and one final thing. Only press what you're going to pour off and drink. Do not let the coffee you plan on drinking sit in the press (because of the flavor point above). Thermal presses are a total waste because of this. If you want to brew once and brew big, pour your immediate cup and then pour the remainder into some other thermal carafe, thermos, whatever.

And I mis-spoke about the Encore not able to grind coarse enough for press pot with the re-calibration. I must've had the hopper mis-seated or something dumb that day because it works just fine. Anyway, that's press pot for me.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 03:51

ded: Oct 27, 2005; Kooler than Jesus

withak posted:

Tired of your coffee not being big, bold, and funky? Well Guy Fieri sure has some righteous brews for you!

http://www.cw-usa.com/coffee-guy-fieri.html

Flavortown.

Good grief.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 05:56

Doh004: Apr 22, 2007; Mmmmm Donuts...

withak posted:

Tired of your coffee not being big, bold, and funky? Well Guy Fieri sure has some righteous brews for you!

http://www.cw-usa.com/coffee-guy-fieri.html

I wanna goto Flavortown.

Wonder if they have some Donkey Sauce there?

# ? Jan 31, 2014 06:00

Mr. Glass: May 1, 2009

withak posted:

Tired of your coffee not being big, bold, and funky? Well Guy Fieri sure has some righteous brews for you!

http://www.cw-usa.com/coffee-guy-fieri.html

you're gonna need a palate cleanser between the cuppings of chocolate mint and cinnamon roll

# ? Jan 31, 2014 06:09

OBAMNA PHONE: Aug 7, 2002

that needs to be looped so he never stops wiggling the tongue

# ? Jan 31, 2014 18:17

Mr. Glass: May 1, 2009

you asked for it

# ? Jan 31, 2014 19:08

Gumbel2Gumbel: Apr 28, 2010

Mr. Glass posted:

you asked for it

I feel like that gave me a serious medical condition.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 20:44

o muerte: Dec 13, 2008

Dukket posted:

I have some questions for folks with a Baratza Encore. What numbers do you like for Aeropress and French press? Baratza gives some conflicting info

Quick Start insert
Espresso Start at 8
Drip/Pourover/AeroPress start at 15
Press pot start at 25

The actual manual
1-14
16-28
29-40

I used 28 for french press and found it to be a bit weak (25g coffee, 400g water, six min brew)

Lets talk about other brew methods as well.

I use something like a 13 for pourover and aeropress, I found 15 too course to get a full extraction. I'm a bit weird with my ratios as well, I tend to use 25-30% more coffee than the recommended 17:1.

# ? Jan 31, 2014 23:58

Dukket: Apr 28, 2007; So I says to her, I says “LADY, that ain't OIL, its DIRT!!”

o muerte posted:

I use something like a 13 for pourover and aeropress, I found 15 too course to get a full extraction. I'm a bit weird with my ratios as well, I tend to use 25-30% more coffee than the recommended 17:1.

Interesting

I used my aeropress for the first time this morning. I randomly chose 8. My scale is on the fritz so I went with the suggestion of two scoops of beans and filled the chamber to the top with water (inverted method). I have to say that is some smooth coffee. I'm curious to try different settings and see what the effects are.

The brew time were something like 10 sec sit, 10 sec stir and plunge which probably took over 10 sec.

Dukket fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Feb 1, 2014

# ? Feb 1, 2014 00:14

Crystal Lake Witch: Apr 25, 2010

So I was given a melitta grinder for Christmas, and it seems to make a lot of static, so a decent amount of my ground coffee ends up coating the container when I'm done.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the static? Or is it just something I have to deal with?

# ? Feb 1, 2014 18:36

Google Butt: Oct 4, 2005; Xenology is an unnatural mixture of science fiction and formal logic. At its core is a flawed assumption...

that an alien race would be psychologically human.

ChiaPetOutletStore posted:

So I was given a melitta grinder for Christmas, and it seems to make a lot of static, so a decent amount of my ground coffee ends up coating the container when I'm done.

Is there anything I can do to reduce the static? Or is it just something I have to deal with?

I've never seen that grinder, but tilting it and smacking the poo poo out of it might do something.

# ? Feb 1, 2014 20:28

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# ? May 14, 2024 06:19

El Jebus: Jun 18, 2008; This avatar is paid for by "Avatars for improving Lowtax's spine by any means that doesn't result in him becoming brain dead by putting his brain into a cyborg body and/or putting him in a exosuit due to fears of the suit being hacked and crushing him during a cyberpunk future timeline" Foundation

Google Butt posted:

I've never seen that grinder, but tilting it and smacking the poo poo out of it might do something.

I've found this is possible cure for most ailing machines and is not limited to coffee brewing equipment.

# ? Feb 1, 2014 20:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Coffee: crankin' it until I have a sloppy puck

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