I recently bought one of these to pair with my travel scale and Porlex handgrinder for trips. It has been an interesting ride dialing it in. To add to the challenge, I am working with a new coffee on my trip from Portolo Coffee Lab (Kabingara - Kirinyaga, Kenya) roasted on 10-1.

Out of the combinations I have tried, the best seems to be the following:
18.5g at 9 clicks on the Porlex (medium coarse)
4 minute brew
Paper filter insert

It seems a bit on the weaker side. Up dosing (20g) definitely stronger, but towards bitter. Pondering trying 19g and splitting the difference or trying 3:45 for time.

Anyone come up with good recipes and techniques for a good balanced cup with this unit?

I don't know what the volume is on the Espro travel press, so I'm not sure what your brew ratio is. However, the one suggestion I'd make concerns the grind. The porlex is not going to make a consistent grind at coarser settings. You might try tightening up the grind a bit (which should, in theory, should make it slightly more consistent) and reducing your steep time to 3.5 minutes and see how that goes.

Lowering the temperature a few degrees can help with bitterness as well, if you've been brewing at the high end of the temperature range.

Thanks Leon. I'll measure the water ratio next time I brew and go with 1:16. Unfortunately I'm in the stone ages as far as kettles go and I am waiting 3 minutes off boil on a stovetop kettle. Not the scientific methods I have at home and work with a bonavita kettle. I'll try another click on the grinder once I've tried the shorter brew time.

I understand what you mean about rustic conditions, I've been there before. Just as a reference point, my stovetop kettle with about 900ml of water in it will drop about 7-8F in around 2-3 minutes off boil. Don't know if that will be helpful in your situation.

My preferred brew ratio for immersion brews is 1:15, but that's definitely a personal taste thing.

Typo on my part - 1:15 is my usual ratio. I'll report back after morning brewing. Fun unit overall and great to travel with.

19g at 3.5 minutes was the ticket with a medium coarse grind. The coffee really came alive. I'm still undecided on whether I like the paper filter or not, but leaning towards the paper to get a slightly cleaner finish to the coffee.

I have had good results steeping up to 5 mins, plunging, and letting it settle down for another minute before pouring. Also at 9 clicks.

richorr wrote:Thanks Leon. I'll measure the water ratio next time I brew and go with 1:16. Unfortunately I'm in the stone ages as far as kettles go and I am waiting 3 minutes off boil on a stovetop kettle. Not the scientific methods I have at home and work with a bonavita kettle. I'll try another click on the grinder once I've tried the shorter brew time.

Try adding a fixed volume of room temperature water to a fixed volume of boiling water.

For example, fill up your kettle with a litre (1 kg) of water, and add 0.05kg of room-temperature (293K) water when it boils (373K). If you neglect the thermal capacity of the kettle as the heat capacity of water is much higher, you'll end up with around 96 degrees Celsius.

This is your formula:
end Celsius +273 = [(boiling temperature at your altitude in C+273)*(boiling water mass)+(room temperature in C +273)*roomtemp water mass]/[total mass]

If your room temp water is a bit off in temperature it doesn't matter. 5 degrees off in room temp gives a 0.2 degrees water temperature change in the given example.

Now, this won't be completely correct due to the thermal capacity of your kettle, but it will be quite close, and certainly consistent.
In any case, if you want colder, just add a bit more water. If you want hotter, just add a bit less water.

dilin wrote:I have had good results steeping up to 5 mins, plunging, and letting it settle down for another minute before pouring. Also at 9 clicks.

I'll give your recipe a try. Are you using paper filters or not?

Definitely into fine tuning now. Great product to travel with.

By travel Espro Press, I'm guessing you're using the small one. I do not paper filter mine, as I find the dual stage stainless filter is more than adequate at reducing fines. Of course, I use a Lido (verison 1), not a Porlex, and that may have a lot to do with that.

I'd suggest getting a thermometer, then you can bring your "stone age" water method into the 21st century.

I brew at 200F in my Espro press
300ml water
22g in (depending on the beans I'm using)
20 second bloom
then pour the rest of the water
at 1 min 30 sec, I do a gentle stir to make sure all the grounds are well wetted, then place the filter/lid assembly on top, very gently, just until the silicon seals catch
at 3 min, I plunge gently (over about 10 seconds top to bottom), then pour off my brew
at the end of the pour, i use the double pump method described by Randy Glass (in his review on http://www.espressomyespresso.com) to get the rest of the brew out
Adjust grind as fine as possible without getting an unacceptable level of fines in your cup