Cold Drip Grind Holder Size
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- Posts: 2
- Joined: 9 years ago
Hi there,
I've been making cold drip during the Summers with the same basic rig as many others I've been reading about...
A Separatory Funnel and an Aeropress to hold the grinds
I recently swapped the aeropress for a vietnamese coffee press for the reduced height, but it's a bit wider in the middle, which got me wondering...
does the diameter of the grind holder make a difference. To take it to an extreme, I would think that if you had a vessel that was a foot long in diameter and a giant filter paper covering the whole thing, it would still be hard to have an even extraction across all the grinds with water dripping on one spot. I (and I assume many people) used an aeropress because I had one lying around, I had the paper filters which were the perfect size, and it matched the shape of the fancy setups that you could buy. But if I had a holder that was smaller in diameter, would that make a significant difference? Or as long as the grounds stay wet, am I getting a pretty even distribution?
I'm not willing to invest in a chromatography column to test this, but after looking at some internet videos about BHO extraction, I figured I could try with a turkey baster plugged with cotton. I'm about 2 days out from brewing my next batch, but until then, I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts about it. I tried searching, but couldn't find much discussion about this particular variable.
I've been making cold drip during the Summers with the same basic rig as many others I've been reading about...
A Separatory Funnel and an Aeropress to hold the grinds
I recently swapped the aeropress for a vietnamese coffee press for the reduced height, but it's a bit wider in the middle, which got me wondering...
does the diameter of the grind holder make a difference. To take it to an extreme, I would think that if you had a vessel that was a foot long in diameter and a giant filter paper covering the whole thing, it would still be hard to have an even extraction across all the grinds with water dripping on one spot. I (and I assume many people) used an aeropress because I had one lying around, I had the paper filters which were the perfect size, and it matched the shape of the fancy setups that you could buy. But if I had a holder that was smaller in diameter, would that make a significant difference? Or as long as the grounds stay wet, am I getting a pretty even distribution?
I'm not willing to invest in a chromatography column to test this, but after looking at some internet videos about BHO extraction, I figured I could try with a turkey baster plugged with cotton. I'm about 2 days out from brewing my next batch, but until then, I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts about it. I tried searching, but couldn't find much discussion about this particular variable.
- yakster
- Supporter ♡
- Posts: 7344
- Joined: 15 years ago
Interesting question, regarding the Aeropress size, the Bruer uses the same size and filter for their cold brewer. Putting a filter on top of the grounds helps distribute the water, I also do a hot bloom and stir before the cold drip.
In hot coffee brewing bed depth plays a big role and using the right filter holder size sets the bed depth.
In hot coffee brewing bed depth plays a big role and using the right filter holder size sets the bed depth.
-Chris
LMWDP # 272
LMWDP # 272
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- Posts: 2
- Joined: 9 years ago
So I tried setting up an Oxo turkey baster that has an inside diameter of just under an inch in my drip system. I could only fit 15g of medium ground beans in there. With that amount, the coffee grounds took up a column height of 9 inches, which was pretty close to the entire height of the baster. I plugged the bottom with cotton.
Anyway, I think I used too much cotton, and the eluting took too long. I couldn't get the drip to go slow enough to match the rate at which coffee was coming out. I could try again with less cotton, but that's too hard of a variable to control. When I have some time, I'll put a mesh on the tip, and try to control the rate of flow through the grind size.
Also, there's the obvious limitation of how much can be made at a time when you can only fit 15g in there.
Anyway, I think I used too much cotton, and the eluting took too long. I couldn't get the drip to go slow enough to match the rate at which coffee was coming out. I could try again with less cotton, but that's too hard of a variable to control. When I have some time, I'll put a mesh on the tip, and try to control the rate of flow through the grind size.
Also, there's the obvious limitation of how much can be made at a time when you can only fit 15g in there.