How To Brew Good Coffee At Home
If you've read some of my other blogs you can see how much time and technology goes into the brewing process at our cafe. Without commercial brewing and grinding equipment it can be hard to brew a really good cup of coffee at home, but it's not impossible.
The first thing you want to do is take that cheap plastic electric drip-brewer and throw it in the trash. Brewing your coffee in these things is an incredibly easy way to ruin your coffee beans and get a nasty, bitter cup of coffee. Their major problem is that they do not brew at the optimal temperature for coffee and people tend not to clean them. The one exception I know of is the Dutch-built Technivorm Moccamaster which costs about $300 and is officially certified by the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
There are several methods better than that old auto-drip for brewing your coffee if you can't afford a Technivorm, ranging from inexpensive pour-over's like those made by Melitta, to the more expensive French Press or Chemex. There are also, of course, many other brewing methods, but I've found these to be the easiest. Water is an incredibly important part of brewing coffee. I highly recommend using a water filter on your faucet or one of those filter containers that you can stick in your refrigerator. Quality water makes quality coffee. The water temperature should be between 195-202 degrees but 198-200 degrees is optimal.
If you want to get technical you could grab a thermometer and check the temperature of your water but when I'm at home I usually just let the water boil and then let it sit for a minute to come back down to the correct temperature range. Alternatively you can pour it from your hot water kettle into another vessel to drop the temperature sufficiently. Just make sure not to use boiling water when making your coffee.
Next you want to make sure you are using the correct amount of coffee beans to brew your coffee. If you are measuring your water before brewing and start with 8fl oz, then you want to use 13.9g of ground coffee. If you are pouring your water in until you get 8fl oz of brewed coffee, then you want to use 15.8g of ground coffee. Burr grinders are more expensive but better than blade grinders because you have more control over the fineness or coarseness of the grind. We have quality burr and blade grinders for sale in our cafe. You can also get your coffee ground at our cafe if you don't have a grinder at home.
If you follow the brewing instructions for brew time and keep the ground coffee to water ratio the same, the only thing you should need to adjust is the grind setting. If your coffee tastes too bitter and over extracted, make the grind a little coarser. If your coffee tastes weak and watery, make your grind a little bit finer.
For more info about brewing coffee at home visit our official blog at http://mocha-joes.blogspot.com/
- By Benjamin Zeman