Coffee Bed Dynamics & Extraction Uniformity - Q&A | Coffee with April
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
- This week, we're revisiting our Q&A format to explore a contentious area of coffee brewing - extraction uniformity and coffee bed theories.
There are many different brew methods to choose from, but at April we tend to gravitate towards drippers or pour over methods thats allow us to use a flat coffee bed. This preference is driven by the cup quality we feel that this method can consistently provide, and in this weeks episode Patrik theorises just why he prefers to use this approach.
This episode was inspired by one of our viewers, so remember to write to us if you have any additional questions you would like us to address in future episodes.
We're always interested in hearing what topics you're most curious to hear us discuss, and social media is a great way of reaching out to us if you would like to make a request.
We welcome your thoughts and feelings on the topics raised in this weeks video, as well as other ideas you would like to see us discuss in the future. We really appreciate your feedback and support.
You can contact us using any of the channels below:
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Instagram: / aprilcoffeecph
Webshop: aprilcoffeeroasters.com/
TH-cam: / @coffeewithapril
Podcast: / coffee-with-april
Email: patrikrolf@aprilcoffeeroastery.com / josephfisher@aprilcoffeeroastery.com
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Produced by April Coffee - 2019
This video was extremely helpful to me! As someone who is relatively new to the world of pour over coffee I've spent a lot of time in recent months reading and watching videos in an attempt to learn how to extract the best flavor profile from the coffees I've been purchasing. Nothing else I've come across has been as useful to me. Thanks so much. Cheers.
I enjoyed your honest & fresh take on brewing as a lot of people only repeat what other "coffee experts" say. These same people make coffee brewing seem a lot more complicated than it is and also make it sound like first you need a perfectly aligned, overpriced grinder and then you need to just stir and swirl "the right amount". In the end you are pouring water over some grounds and adjusting grind size and flow rate by taste. It's really not that complicated, and a lot of the things that are repeated as being so important are often wildly exaggerated. I've used a refractometer on hundreds of brews and found no correlation between higher or lower values and my taste preference, but as a tool it's still sometimes useful for diagnosing some malfunction in brewer or method used.
Well, brewing at home for a non pro SHOULD,as a base level, be simple.
IMO all if the variables that "improve" a pour over from that base( that includes all of the perspectives from coffee industry media ) are things I expect from a coffee shop. That is why I pay extra for it.
At home I don't care about these details. I don't even worry about scales, water temp etc.
I was so proud of my flat coffee beds .... 😂😂😂 but what you said make sens 👍🏻
Great info here. Thank you for addressing the common wisdom of having a flat bed at the end of the brew, that never made any sense for me. Your approach to coffee seems evidence based and reasonable, it's refreshing to hear from people who are following their taste buds.
One tip I can give for people who don't like smaller brews is to get a smaller cup, that way you don't feel like you're brewing half a cup. Buy better coffee and drink less!
This was, perhaps, one of the best and most informative pieces about coffee brewing that I’ve encountered. Thank you! Also, I’ve just received your April brewer and filter paper. Excited to get brewing! Cheers!
This video should have way more views. Thanks for the insights!
Totally agree with how the roasting dictates how much you can extract
Love this. Trust your taste.
Great insights, quality content. Not sure why you guys only have a few subscribers
I'm not really that skilled with coffee brewing yet, but I was playing around with my brewing a few days ago. I noticed that the volume of my first two pours had the greatest effect on final flavor. Small volume would make the coffee more acidic, and larger volume would make it less acidic (possibly more sweet). After watching this video and the bloom video, I realized that what I observed seems to be correct.
I'm still not certain what to do with the second half of the coffee though. I don't know if I should pour multiple pours or few pours. It could be an issue with the light roast not having much thickness to the body but even if I did 6 pulse pours, there wasn't much body.
After a few months of doing a swirl at the end, I had a hinch that maybe this wasn't doing that much as it makes sense that most of the extraction happens in the first minute-minute/half.
So what I do now is I swirl at the bloom, and at the second pour. And then sometimes at the final draw-down.
In my opinion, it intensifies a bit of the sweetness, along with the bitterness but not to the point that it's too "bitter" (I'm weak to bittee stuff).
Very informative video! Thank you for sharing this! ☕️✨
cool stuff
Look at that HUGE grinder back there!
Thanks again! This is really interesting and informative.
Another reason I think why light roasts tend to have a slower drawdown is because of the fines migration. They tend to produce more fines in grinding and can clog the brew sometimes randomly.
When you smash/crack a more brittle particle it will produce more dust/fines. A more roasted bean is more brittle. If you freeze the beans and grind them they will produce more fines. If you heat the beans before grinding they will produce less, so you grind finer. A light roast will produce less fines compared to an espresso/medium roast.
Hi Patrik, I highly appreciate your videos which seek to bring truth to the world of coffee. I have long been skeptical of standard filter brewing methods for a long time, but don't really have the experience or resources to figure and test everything out, so thank you! Recently I read on a Scott Rao blog post that the solubles on the surface of a coffee particle get extracted in seconds, while the solubles inside the particle take minutes. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but aromatic, sweet, and acidic compounds extract easier than bitter/astringent compounds. However, since the "tasty" compounds extract more readily, can we expect that the "tasty" compounds inside the grounds also extract pretty readily, and that the inner "bitter" compounds do not? If so, this implies that the amount of "tasty" compounds you extract is relatively constant across grind sizes, and that changing grind size really just modulates the level of bitter compounds. Is this correct?
Thank you for watching
Old video, kinda binge watching your channel at the moment and enjoying it thoroughly. I was curious though, you said light roast coffee has “more in it”, which makes it brew slower. But aren’t we talking about the same weight in coffee? I would think it’s because the lighter roasts take longer to degas and thus provide more flow resistance over the course of the brew.
No, it's because it actually has more in it (chemical compounds). When you roast coffee as soon as you reach first crack the content of the coffee starts to deteriorate. The longer time and higher temperature the less you have left in the coffee.
@@coffeewithapril Gotcha! Thank you for the response.
I'm beginning to use the April brewers in the cafe where I'm a trainer. I'm getting 2:00 brew times with 20g/300g using the ZP6. I understand your typical brew times are a bit longer.
I tried Third Wave Water Espresso and Light Roast water packets and also some bottled water brands but am still getting similar brew times.
I want to stick to 2 and 3 pour structures for speed/efficiency/simplicity, and I also do like the 10s pours as it allows you to brew 3 simultaneously (15s pour you could only make 2 at a time properly). I'm using the April filters but am also experimenting with others.
Now I'm thinking the brew time discrepancy could be because you're using lighter Nordic style roasts. I've brewed a lot with flat bottom drippers in the past and usually hover in the 2:30-2:45 range for brews, so the 2 min brew feels a bit strange to me. To get a 2:30 brew time I need to grind excessively fine (3.5 on the ZP6) and the bed looks muddy, which I tend to use as an indicator that I'm too fine.
Thanks for sharing all this! Lot of incredible insights and lot to think about. If I want a lot of coffee its going to be difficult to brew smaller doses, but I think we can enjoy smaller brews more. I have to process all this and apply to my brewing. Thanks again!
Why does my Kalita filter seem to clog up easily? I like these coarser grind with faster pours options, and it doesn't seem to matter much if the brew is done in 2:45 or 4:15, but I'm guessing your expert in flatbed filters (and probably developing a better one); and, I'm hoping you can speak to the Kalita waves clog-ability and maybe some strategies to prevent it within your pouring paradigm. Cheers.
There are obviously different factors that can make the filter clog... Assuming that your grind consistency is good, maybe you should change something in your pouring technique. When you pour very fast, the chance of clog your brew is bigger, because the coffee bed actually compacts and that makes difficult to the water to pass through the coffee, so a good option can be pouring slower and less agressive to avoid compactation, that also implicate to grind coarser to avoid over extraction.
Also, if you are using the stainless steel Kalita wave, is better to brew with the glass or the ceramic version which doesn't has the slow draining problem that the metal version has.
good vid from back in the day although interesting to compare with your latest recipes. You tend to see things completely opposite/orthogoal to conventional standard advice (you grind very coarse, grind coarser for lighter roast, use lower temp, etc). but in general ive gravitated away from traditional methods to this coarser grinds, lower agitation method with pulse pour and fast pouring (even with kono dripper and not flat bottom). i'm pretty novice and i suspect theres less margin for error with very coarse grind and minimal agitation giving me more consistent good taste
In your aeropress recipe you recommend water temperature of 82 degress, here in comments you recommend more. My question is: in what terms should you think about temperature concerning your brew? Higher temperature speeds up extraction right? Can it also extract different falvours than lower? Does it depend on device? What's your experience in this?
Thanks! What about melodrip? Wouldn’t it be interesting to use a flat bed with an option to close the water outlet and let it sit for blooming and then open it? Thanks
We don't have enough experience with your referenced brewer. But wish you all the best in testing.
So the difference between 12g to 15g dose with the same ratio is only how uniform and consistent our brews will be? Is there any adjustments we should do when reducing our dose such as agitation, grind size, temperature in general? What is your perspective on the change in flavour between 12g vs. 15g dose? Thanks!!
Thank you for watching. To some degree yes. However, the difference in dose is very little, it would be clearer if it was 12g or 20g for example. Our grind size would always be very consistent, the main change would be in the agitation of the initial pour and the amount of water.
@@coffeewithapril I see. So lower dose = less agitation to have more contact time with the coffee is that what you meant? is agitation really that necessary to increase extraction because the trade off would be the contact time of water with coffee. Thanks for helping! :)
Hi! Great video, it was very informative! Do you have a target brew time for the 12g coffee - 200g water recipe with just two pours? I'm asking because I don't have a Comandante, but I'd love to follow the recipe with the correct grind size, and having a correct brew time should tell me that I have the correct grind size, right?
Thanks in advance!
what about the quality of water? I think no matter what we do, if we don't have the right mineralised water in home conditions we shouldn't have the tastes and aromas that the coffee in the cup promises...
Water is important but unless you live in a city with incredibly bad water you should be able to make a decent cup of coffee. Otherwise, use bottled water or Third Wave Water.
@@coffeewithapril thank you! Living in Istanbul, Turkey and ıt's not easy to get the right water here... well, maybe I should try with your filter roasted beans for the next time! :)
100% extraction uniformity probably wouldn't even taste as good. It would probably be less complex and interesting of a brew. Kind of like Cometeer Coffee's proprietary extraction process, which makes most of their coffees taste very similar.