When I bought the april brewer I started following their recipe and was very confused because the coffee ran too fast with the recommended comandante clicks. But I soon realised that this is actually a feature, not a bug and the resulting cups are very clear in flavour. So definitely grinding coarser is something to try out. Also, my anaerobic fermented coffees tended to taste a bit like soy sauce with too fine grind size. Coarsening up quite a bit and going with multiple pours has helped a lot!
Experimentation is the key to getting the coffee YOU like, as there are so many variables in coffee, I find that the coffee elite community are all concentrating on very light roasts and high acidity which I do not prefer, so I take the information and use it to go in a direction that suits me and get the cup I enjoy.
so true. could you please share some of your recipes i would like to try as well, since i dont fancy too much acidity but floral sweetness is important
@@damadorian A Japanese world brewing champion I saw does a bloom phase with 95c water and valve open for 30 seconds then cools the next water to 80c and does the steep phase for 1 min 30 seconds then open valve to complete a 1 minute final extraction, I find this gives a sweet and balanced cup
@@damadorian I tend to use 20g of coffee and 300g of water to keep the math simple. 50g of water across 25 seconds with the valve (switch or ball bearing) open on the bloom phase. Then just pour the rest of the water, pour rate irrelevant, in for the steep phase with valve/switch closed, but hey do your own method and find your "perfect" cup taste!
That third tip is very educational and something other channels touch on but it's spread out in their videos and stretch too thin, while alluding to achieving the "best" result while you are encouraging experimentation through concise and to the point educational lesson. It finally clicked for me and I will be venturing out rather than in if that makes sense. Thank you.
Actually starting from tomorrow I'll try the water tip! The bottled water I usually buy is really soft, might just try to increase the hardness. Btw I visited Copenhagen in 2019 and fell in love with the coffee scene, very different from the Italian bar. Much love from Italy ❤
Hey Asser, I´ve been using 250 to max. 600 micron grind size with any coffees I had at home (typically natural, or fermentated coffes), I use the OREA V4, or Big Boy which both can take the fine grind size with ease. The only limitation is the Kalita paper which tends to glogg easier when using 300 micron or finer.
It's a good reason to grind fine to counteract sourness and increase sweetness by boosting extraction. But it might not even be necessary. So even if it tastes good it's worth experimenting.
This video has been super helpful! I was leaning into a recipe for natural coffees and to another for washed ones. Now I have better understanding of the reasons, as they had different ratios and quite different grind sizes. How do those rules appy for washed Geshas? I was understanding Geshas require less extraction to not mask flavours. Thanks!
I,m using your Kalita /Gabi pour over light roasts (and it's been great ! ) I am also using a ZP6 grind size between 3-4 . Is that a good size ? also I just started using closer to 1:17 from 1:15-16 . and it seems to taste much better . Oh I also added a Siberist Booster 45 under the filter and it seems to draw down much faster and more evenly have you tried the Booster 45 ?
Then you're lucky and should just brew with that. You could of course ho the opposite way and mix it with mineral water and give it a hardness boost, which can suit certain coffees.
I do need to check out what you say about the grind size of conventional washed vs modern coffees going from fine to coarse. I did not think about it somehow. Thanks for the tip.
What grind size range do you consider optimal for V60? Could you please add some specific numbers? E.g. 500-900 microns? Another question is about particle distribution. Even the best grinder produces fines and boulders. If you have a Kruve sifter, it would be great if you could share the particle distribution for your best-tasting V60 profile!
it seems like that based on what James has suggested about how a cup tastes has less to do with the actual grind size, and more to do with the uniformity of the grind size, which I think 3rd wave coffee requires more uniformity to achieve the levels a cup can be
Lige som jeg er ved at kigge efter en pour over til samlingen af kaffeudstuy, så laver du selvfølgelig en video om det! Det må være et tegn. Endnu en fed video fra dig. TAK!
In my early pourover days I was only following the James Hoffman advice of "grind finer until you reach a wall of bitterness, then back off," but I've naturally gone coarser over time. Lately I've been getting over extracted flavors from all of my usual reliable beans, so I'll play around with dose strength as well. I've never played with my water's mineral content. I use a zero filter because of pfas, chloroform, and radium content in my drinking water, and the tds of the filtered water is close to zero. I do wonder how much of a negative effect that would have on my pourovers
Zero TDS can taste good, but I would recommend just little bit of bicarbonate. It goes a far way to add structure to the cup. The over extracted flavors you mention, could be due to that.
Yeees I agree on everything, now I'm starting to appreciate the Japanese osmotic flow a lot. I gradually going coarser, darker roast, lower temp water.
That's for a separate video because water can be incredibly complex. Especially when you start to change the natural composition. Typical tap water, has a bunch of calcium and bicarbonate, but they exist in some sort of equilibrium, so if there's a lot of one thing then the other will usually be equally present. So when you're bypassing tap water or mineral water, you both add some acidity control (bicarbonate) and creamy texture (calcium). Both can be necessary and good. This is kind of the "80/20 rule" of water. When you introduce mineral mixes and these sorts of things, the taste and complexity usually will be worse for a long time before it gets better :)
My big question for you is : what is your standard brewing method for v60 ? How many pours do you use ? I’ve seen your video about osmotic flow, but I can’t see what is your regular v60 method…
@@coffeechroniclerThanks for your answer :) I already love your Hario Switch method, so I’m really curious about how you dial a regular v60. I’m a big fan of your content, I’ve learned a lot thanks to you 👍
Hi Asser! Can you explain a bit more about the honey processed coffee? My coffee is tasting a bit too acidic and vinegary. People told me it might be due to under-extraction and I should switch to a finer grind size. But you seem to be suggesting going for a coarser grind. Are you suggesting that the vinegar taste is because it’s being over-extracted?
Overextraction and vinegar is often connected with especially anaerobic and sometimes naturals. Honeys are usually not too fermented, so they tick a bit differently. I don't necessarily think it's either under or overextraction, it could also be that your water doesn't have enough buffer to tame a light roast.
Maybe im wrong or maybe i miss understood but washed need to be coarse grind right? Because they are lore dense than naturals and fermented coffess Talking about light / medium roast
Usually more dense means harder to extract. So you need to throw some tricks at them like grind finer, hotter water, more agitation. So this applies more to high altitude washed.
Tip #1 I couldn't agree more especially for anaerobics. Am eager to try out more with brew ratio from now on. Maybe this was why I had better results with iced anaerobics. Thanks a lot for sharing your tips.
💧 *Discover the alchemy of coffee water:* coffeechronicler.gumroad.com/l/h20/
When I bought the april brewer I started following their recipe and was very confused because the coffee ran too fast with the recommended comandante clicks. But I soon realised that this is actually a feature, not a bug and the resulting cups are very clear in flavour. So definitely grinding coarser is something to try out. Also, my anaerobic fermented coffees tended to taste a bit like soy sauce with too fine grind size. Coarsening up quite a bit and going with multiple pours has helped a lot!
100% agreed.
Experimentation is the key to getting the coffee YOU like, as there are so many variables in coffee, I find that the coffee elite community are all concentrating on very light roasts and high acidity which I do not prefer, so I take the information and use it to go in a direction that suits me and get the cup I enjoy.
so true. could you please share some of your recipes i would like to try as well, since i dont fancy too much acidity but floral sweetness is important
@@damadorian A Japanese world brewing champion I saw does a bloom phase with 95c water and valve open for 30 seconds then cools the next water to 80c and does the steep phase for 1 min 30 seconds then open valve to complete a 1 minute final extraction, I find this gives a sweet and balanced cup
@@Thetache thx a lot. definitely worth trying
@ could you please give some info about the ratio and poruing style? And what do you mean with valve open:)
@@damadorian I tend to use 20g of coffee and 300g of water to keep the math simple. 50g of water across 25 seconds with the valve (switch or ball bearing) open on the bloom phase. Then just pour the rest of the water, pour rate irrelevant, in for the steep phase with valve/switch closed, but hey do your own method and find your "perfect" cup taste!
That third tip is very educational and something other channels touch on but it's spread out in their videos and stretch too thin, while alluding to achieving the "best" result while you are encouraging experimentation through concise and to the point educational lesson. It finally clicked for me and I will be venturing out rather than in if that makes sense. Thank you.
As a medium/dark person I love brewing at 1:14-1:15 ! I love the strength and body
This channel has improved my coffee more than all others combined
Thanks, that's fantastic to hear!
That 3rd tip was a game changer. I'm definitely going to try and experiment more with ratios. Tak !
Thanks for the tips! I've been enjoying your Switch recipe. I'll play around with "uncomfortably coarse" this week.
Actually starting from tomorrow I'll try the water tip! The bottled water I usually buy is really soft, might just try to increase the hardness.
Btw I visited Copenhagen in 2019 and fell in love with the coffee scene, very different from the Italian bar.
Much love from Italy ❤
Can someone explain the chart at 4:35? I have no clue what I'm looking at
That is the new and updated brew control chart. My video about the Gold Cup standard, which I share at the end of this one, goes more into it :)
Hey Asser, I´ve been using 250 to max. 600 micron grind size with any coffees I had at home (typically natural, or fermentated coffes), I use the OREA V4, or Big Boy which both can take the fine grind size with ease. The only limitation is the Kalita paper which tends to glogg easier when using 300 micron or finer.
It's a good reason to grind fine to counteract sourness and increase sweetness by boosting extraction. But it might not even be necessary. So even if it tastes good it's worth experimenting.
This video has been super helpful! I was leaning into a recipe for natural coffees and to another for washed ones. Now I have better understanding of the reasons, as they had different ratios and quite different grind sizes.
How do those rules appy for washed Geshas? I was understanding Geshas require less extraction to not mask flavours.
Thanks!
tremendous explanation, keep doing videos like this! saludos desde argentina!
I,m using your Kalita /Gabi pour over light roasts (and it's been great ! ) I am also using a ZP6 grind size between 3-4 . Is that a good size ? also I just started using closer to 1:17 from 1:15-16 . and it seems to taste much better . Oh I also added a Siberist Booster 45 under the filter and it seems to draw down much faster and more evenly have you tried the Booster 45 ?
What do you mean by adding tap water to your soft water in order to harden it? What if your tap water is very soft?
Then you're lucky and should just brew with that. You could of course ho the opposite way and mix it with mineral water and give it a hardness boost, which can suit certain coffees.
Nice video. Love the extraction graph. Where can one find a copy of that to download?
Wondering this as well
It's from this paper ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1750-3841.16531
@@coffeechronicler awesome! Thanks for what you do. Really enjoy your content.
I do need to check out what you say about the grind size of conventional washed vs modern coffees going from fine to coarse. I did not think about it somehow. Thanks for the tip.
What grind size range do you consider optimal for V60? Could you please add some specific numbers? E.g. 500-900 microns?
Another question is about particle distribution. Even the best grinder produces fines and boulders. If you have a Kruve sifter, it would be great if you could share the particle distribution for your best-tasting V60 profile!
it seems like that based on what James has suggested about how a cup tastes has less to do with the actual grind size, and more to do with the uniformity of the grind size, which I think 3rd wave coffee requires more uniformity to achieve the levels a cup can be
Lige som jeg er ved at kigge efter en pour over til samlingen af kaffeudstuy, så laver du selvfølgelig en video om det! Det må være et tegn.
Endnu en fed video fra dig. TAK!
In my early pourover days I was only following the James Hoffman advice of "grind finer until you reach a wall of bitterness, then back off," but I've naturally gone coarser over time. Lately I've been getting over extracted flavors from all of my usual reliable beans, so I'll play around with dose strength as well. I've never played with my water's mineral content. I use a zero filter because of pfas, chloroform, and radium content in my drinking water, and the tds of the filtered water is close to zero. I do wonder how much of a negative effect that would have on my pourovers
Zero TDS can taste good, but I would recommend just little bit of bicarbonate. It goes a far way to add structure to the cup. The over extracted flavors you mention, could be due to that.
Yeees I agree on everything, now I'm starting to appreciate the Japanese osmotic flow a lot. I gradually going coarser, darker roast, lower temp water.
When you talk about water and TDS - could you clarify what the amounts of Mg & Ca and Bicarbonate are? Thanks!
That's for a separate video because water can be incredibly complex. Especially when you start to change the natural composition.
Typical tap water, has a bunch of calcium and bicarbonate, but they exist in some sort of equilibrium, so if there's a lot of one thing then the other will usually be equally present. So when you're bypassing tap water or mineral water, you both add some acidity control (bicarbonate) and creamy texture (calcium). Both can be necessary and good. This is kind of the "80/20 rule" of water. When you introduce mineral mixes and these sorts of things, the taste and complexity usually will be worse for a long time before it gets better :)
@@coffeechroniclerLooking forward to that video. Cheers!
Coarse grind size for naturals from the first tip - how many Comandante clicks is it?
It's been a while since I used it, but a guess would be 26 for naturals and 30+ for anaerobic fermentation
Very interesting, thank you
My big question for you is : what is your standard brewing method for v60 ? How many pours do you use ? I’ve seen your video about osmotic flow, but I can’t see what is your regular v60 method…
Hm, maybe it's time for a video about that :) I generally use two-three pours and gentle percolation after, similar to my Kalita method
@@coffeechroniclerThanks for your answer :) I already love your Hario Switch method, so I’m really curious about how you dial a regular v60. I’m a big fan of your content, I’ve learned a lot thanks to you 👍
How do you achieve the berries area? I feel that is where my ethiopian want to go but high Tds and low extraction? Can you help me please?
Hi Asser! Can you explain a bit more about the honey processed coffee? My coffee is tasting a bit too acidic and vinegary. People told me it might be due to under-extraction and I should switch to a finer grind size. But you seem to be suggesting going for a coarser grind. Are you suggesting that the vinegar taste is because it’s being over-extracted?
Overextraction and vinegar is often connected with especially anaerobic and sometimes naturals. Honeys are usually not too fermented, so they tick a bit differently. I don't necessarily think it's either under or overextraction, it could also be that your water doesn't have enough buffer to tame a light roast.
@@coffeechronicler thank you so much! I will try to find a water that has higher bicarbonate concentration
Excellent video, thanks for sharing!
How are you enjoying the Origami Sense cup? I’m really keen on getting one, but they’ve been sold out on their site for a while now
It's really nice to drink from, go for it!
Maybe im wrong or maybe i miss understood but washed need to be coarse grind right? Because they are lore dense than naturals and fermented coffess
Talking about light / medium roast
Usually more dense means harder to extract. So you need to throw some tricks at them like grind finer, hotter water, more agitation. So this applies more to high altitude washed.
Great video, as always. Thank you!
love the pour over content! i feel like everything has been espresso focused on my feed recently
Where is the water hardness measure device you use in the video from?
I would love to buy a device for measuring that.
It's this one here, but many similar models can do the same: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DCScOLR
@@coffeechronicler Thx for the quick respond! Love your content!
I roll with 1:20 to save money 😅 but it's still good!
Tip #1 I couldn't agree more especially for anaerobics. Am eager to try out more with brew ratio from now on. Maybe this was why I had better results with iced anaerobics. Thanks a lot for sharing your tips.
I can’t ever get my coffee to not have a bitter after taste
amazing
🔥🔥🔥
Pour over is so simple. We seem to be overthinking it and making it a bit more than it really needs to be.
My God, I am so out of my depth here.
Your way to fast !
I guess you refer to the presentation? You can check out the links in the description if you want more in-depth about the various points :)