Aeropress small volumes of coffee

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
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cadm8
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#1: Post by cadm8 »

I'm thinking of using the aeropress to extract small volumes of concentrated coffee, somewhere in the range of 70-90ml, aiming for a thick espresso - like body. My question is, can you actually get a good concentration or you'll get half extracted coffee grounds? I mean, it's there a way to understand if the coffee puck has had a decent extraction percent?

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baldheadracing
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#2: Post by baldheadracing »

Um, my apologies for missing something, but why not weigh the coffee before extration, and then weigh again after the coffee grounds have dried out?
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

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cadm8 (original poster)
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#3: Post by cadm8 (original poster) »

Technically I understand what you're saying, though I don't understand the reason to do that :shock: My question is more coffee&less water = great concentration? or maybe the same extraction with less volume in the end?

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SpromoSapiens
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#4: Post by SpromoSapiens »

There are other variables that contribute to effectiveness of extraction. Grind, water temp (and quality), and brew time, specifically. I think that in general, more coffee + less water will = more concentrated cup, but the quality of the extraction is still heavily dependent on grind, steep, and temp.

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cadm8 (original poster)
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#5: Post by cadm8 (original poster) »

Gave it a try with a fresh ethiopian yirgacheffe; Medium grind, 198F water and 70ml of water, 30sec steep, no bloom. Seems to bring out the cupping profile of the coffee, without anything nasty tasting :roll: I will try more, with more "espresso oriented" beans too

jpender
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#6: Post by jpender »

I've made Aeropress coffee at about 5% strength with a normal (20%) extraction. It didn't require anything more complicated than an appropriate brew ratio. I've never tried to push it any further but I don't see why it wouldn't work, at least up to a point. But it's a very inefficient way to make coffee. If you make 2% coffee in an Aeropress about 10% of it remains trapped in the grounds. You can't really press any more of that out; the small loss is just part of the cost of brewing that way. If you make 5% strength coffee about one fourth it remains absorbed in the grounds. And at 10% strength you lose half of the coffee. So in order to get that 70ml you desire you would need to keep increasing the amount of both coffee and water in order to increase the strength. At some point the Aeropress capacity will be the limiting factor, if your willingness to waste coffee so frivolously doesn't peter out first.

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cadm8 (original poster)
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#7: Post by cadm8 (original poster) »

I really like the versatility of the aeropress in terms that it is possible to brew with small and big amounts of coffee! I really plan to discover the limitsof producing small volume 'shots '!