While the pot of water is getting hot, I usually wet the grounds at ~140F. Then I use 200F-205F (measured at the pot, not the wet grounds) with good results. This saves me time as well as gives me a good cup.

What method do you use?

I used the semi-warm water to wet the filter, leaving enough to brew the coffee. I use a standard taylor thermometer in a hario pot (with one of the holes widened to fit it) to brew and prewet at 205F. The temp after 30s off the boil is 211F NOT what people think it is (boo to whoever started saying that). You would have to wait ~4m to let the temp go down.

What do you soak the filter with, cold water?

bostonbuzz wrote:I use a standard taylor thermometer in a hario pot (with one of the holes widened to fit it) to brew and prewet at 205F. The temp after 30s off the boil is 211F NOT what people think it is (boo to whoever started saying that). You would have to wait ~4m to let the temp go down.

This is way off of 'popular belief'. I guess the temp drop would depend on many factors:
1. volume of water boiled (likely small as long as vessel somewhat full)
2. Vessel used for heating. Thick metal would hold more heat to slow temp drop. Electric kettle has element in bottom that is still hot and giving off heat that needs to cool.
3. Whether water is decanted into second vessel for pouring.
4. Is thermometer touching sides of the vessel? The thermometer must be suspended in only the liquid to obtain true temperature of the water and not the vessel itself.

These are a few that come to mind. Would be interested to test this 'common knowledge' of 30sec off-boil, as I've just followed it without putting much thought to it.

Here are some photos. Timer started when gas was turned off. I have a pretty standard kit. The thermometer is in the water, but it's lifted out of the pot to protect the electronics (I've ruined one) - around 3m it's all the way in the water (made no difference). 30s is way, way, way off. The question is, does it make a big difference? Moral of the story, get a thermometer and a drill.

That is- unless folks are talking about the temp IN the brew vessel being perfect. Still, this makes no sense because the temp only drops .5F MAX in 30s and there would be no reason to wait. ** Edit, 1m of searching reveals that people think 200F in-pot temps happen after 30s- they're only off by 8:00.

I'm not posting all the photos because I STILL don't know how to un-rotate iphone photos. My thermometer appears to be 1F high, so I'll take that into account.

212 - 0s
211- 1:00
209.5- 2:30
207.5- 4:00
205 - 6:00 (what I brew at to take into account a drop in the kettle - but I don't know what the drop is)
201 - 8:30
199 - 9:30

I've got a setup like boston buzz"s that I use with my V-60 & ccd. I bring the water to a boil in a tea pot and transfer it into the Brumo kettle. The temp drops to about 195f and I bring back up to about 200f and tune off the flame on the stove. The temp over shoots to about 203-204 at which time I start grinding the beans and dumping the water I used to preheat the cup back thru the filter and into the sink. Buy this time the kettle has cooled to my preinfusion temp about 201-197 depending on coffee being used.
Transferring the water from the kettle may sound time consuming, but it really saves time because the 5-6 degrees I have to reheat the water doesn't take long and I can control the temp overshoot to suit my time needs. This setup allows me to (once temp & preinfusion times are found) to easily repeat the same cup over and over.

I've never tried preinfusion at such a low temp. How would you say it effects the in the cup flavors???

I have had similar results with "off the boil" times. I would never brew with 30s off the boil! I don't know why so many instructions state this. Maybe common electric kettles don't go all the way to 212? I use a Bonavita electric and it goes all the way to 212, shuts off, and takes several minutes to drop to 205. A standard frothing thermometer fits perfectly in one of the lid holes. Once the kettle kicks off, I rinse the filter and heat the carafe with the boiling water, then I do all of the prep, very leisurely. Then, probably 5 minutes later, maybe more, the temp is about where I want it and I'll start the brewing.

I did see a USBC finalist use water that was about 30s off the boil and he stated that it was hotter than usual but he wanted a very active extraction. I have no idea what the other parameters going on were such as filter type, grind, dose, beans, etc.

On the other hand I also heard from another USBC finalist mentioning experimenting with much lower brew temps. He did not say much about the results except that he enjoys experimenting. I have no doubt that it works (original aeropress recipe is like 175 f, cold brew is room temp or lower, etc.), but the flavor profile definitely will be different , maybe not ideal, and other parameters must be adjusted like extraction time.

Using multiple temperatures during brewing, will probably have more subtle results than a significantly lower temp the whole time vs a normal temp the whole time. I will have to play with this idea.

I maybe wait 30 seconds after my Bonavita electric has reached temp and turned off. I'll be more scientific and actually take a temp-reading. Question I have is what is the temp of the water after it's left the kettle and come in contact with the coffee. Does it lose anything worth considering in the "journey". Certainly ain't what it was in the kettle.

after 30 seconds, if the kettle is at 211, there is no way the water drops at least 6 degrees just from the spout to the coffee. Once mixed with the coffee, it could possibly drop to that, but I don't know how much the coffee will actually heatsink after that initial soak if this water is used continuously for the rest of the brew. Where's our graphy guys and their thermocouples?

I posted times cool down times for my Non-PID Bonavita Electric Kettle on another forum a while back - these are the measurements I recorded:

Ambient temp 75 F, starting water temp 70 F, 16 fl oz.

First Sounds of heating occur at 27 seconds.

Time to boiling/kettle auto shut off: 3:28 and water temp measures 212 F.

Cool down times (starting 2 minutes after auto shut off):

2:00 209 F
2:20 208 F
2:40 207 F
3:00 206 F
3:15 205 F
3:40 204 F
4:05 203 F
4:28 202 F
4:50 201 F
5:14 200 F

It takes a while for the water to cool down in the kettle but the stream is exposed to air during the pour which will cool temps quickly. If you finish you pour over inside 3:30 seconds temps should remain in a good range to facilitate extraction.

I presoak the filter in tap water.

I use a thermocouple and an induction heater. I stop the pot when the water reaches 200-205F. The water reaching the Chemex is probably much colder as I do a slow pour. These are the temps that work for me best.

I think the "cold" soak of grounds brings out better flavor. But it may be in my mind.

Cheers