Aeropress - what's your preferred regimen? - Page 2

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
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Chert
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#11: Post by Chert »

After stirring to wet the grinds and reduce the bloom, about 225g water fits in the inverted AP, so 15g coffee is the maximum practical dose (unless you prefer to dilute after brewing).
With the inverted method that I stick with, this is true.

Do some of the recipes address the issue of bloom and expansion?

I can't get 240 g through for a 17 -19 grams dose because of the expansion of gases from a freshly roasted dose of coffee. The upright method would allow a bit more water through despite the bloom as it drains into the vessel whenever the piston is not in place. I will try some more upright extractions along the way.
LMWDP #198

Sam21
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#12: Post by Sam21 »

I originally used an inverted method with 18g/240ml but have recently been using Heart's method. The results have been great and I doubt I will be switching back to inverted any time soon.

17g/275ml, pour 275ml, stir, steep 1 min, stir, plunge. I aim to finish my plunge between 1:30-1:45. I've had excellent results with all filter types and a grind just a tad finer than a fine drip.

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Stereo Heathen
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#13: Post by Stereo Heathen »

18g / 200ml, ground with a Hario Skerton 5 notches from zero, 94C water as measured in the kettle.

Inverted method, pour water, stir for 5-10 seconds, press between :30 and :40 for 15-20 seconds, with a total time between :50 and 1:00.

This doesn't necessarily produce the best cup with every coffee, but I've found it works as a decent baseline to fine-tune from.

Sam21
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#14: Post by Sam21 »

Stereo Heathen wrote: This doesn't necessarily produce the best cup with every coffee, but I've found it works as a decent baseline to fine-tune from.
That's definitely the goal of every brewing method. I've found the same results as you with regards to some coffees needing tweaking in a method to work well. This is especially true when I brew with the V60!

pjackman
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#15: Post by pjackman »

Can anyone offer an Aeropress recipe to yield roughly one ounce of brew? It would be great if the grind could be translated to Vario settings. To this concentrate I will add 3-4 oz of milk into my 5 oz cup for an Aeroccino.

coffeedom
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#16: Post by coffeedom »

Hi Patrick,

There are a lot of ways to get a good concentrate out of the Aeropress. To get something that stands up well to milk, you can try something like this:

- about 17-18 g of coffee, which is about 1.5 Aeropress scoops or a little less than 3 tablespoons if you don't have a scale. If the coffee is old or very lightly roasted or both, you may need a higher dose.

- 35-40 ml [edit: make that 45-50 ml] of water, around 200F or 93.5C. This temp is attained a few minutes off the boil, not the 30s that is often stated. Using hotter water is probably not a big deal though. You can pour a thin stream and the air will cool the water reasonably well. You can try slightly cooler water for dark roasts as well.

This coffee to water ratio should give a decent concentrate along the lines of espresso but without the emulsion of suspended coffee oils that can really only come from an extraction at higher pressure. But still, an Areopress concentrate can be really tasty and work great with milk.

- on a Vario, a good starting grind will be something closer to an espresso grind. That is about when the burrs start to touch. You can hear the burrs start to rub and the motor begin to labor just a bit. This is a good zero point, which will probably be found with Macro set to 1 and Micro somewhere in the middle. You can calibrate your Vario to this point easily, which will allow you to get a good espresso range if you leave the Macro set to 1 and then just play with the Micro setting.

Brewing is fairly straightforward. You can use an inverted method but there is no need with such a fine grind. Normal method will do. Slowly add the 45-50 ml of water to the coffee, allowing it to wet and bloom slowly. Once you've poured in all the water, give the coffee a quick stir, no more than a couple seconds, and then press the water through quickly. Some suggest stopping before the hiss but I haven't noticed any difference. I like the hiss!

This should yeild about 30 ml of concentrate. If the coffee is too hard to press, adjust the grind a bit coarser. If the coffee is too bitter for your taste, lower the dose a bit until you find what you like and maybe try cooler water.

pjackman
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#17: Post by pjackman »

Thanks very much for your recommendation Dom. This will be something new.

We have a scale and a kettle with a 200C temperature option. It's coffee time here now so I'll give it a try.

pjackman
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#18: Post by pjackman »

For anyone following along, it appears that I need around 50 ml of water at that grind to yield 30 ml of concentrate. The grounds are holding back around 20 ml.

coffeedom
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#19: Post by coffeedom »

Yes, if the grind is fine, you are right, 45-50 ml is needed rather than the 35-40 I first wrote. Mental glitch. Thanks, I'll edit my post. How was the coffee BTW?

Sam21
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#20: Post by Sam21 »

For the S-filter, I've had great success with the following inverted method. I stick with a 2min total time, as the grind is roughly the same as my regular method.

1. 15-17g/250-255ml. 195-198*F water.
2. Coffee into press, start time, and pour in 200ml.
3. Stir for 5 seconds (not exact).
4. Pour remaining 50ml in SLOWLY.
5. Let it sit until 1:20.
6. Stir very carefully at this point until 1:30.
7. Cap, flip, and press until 2min.

You can shorten the steep time as much as you want, but I find this framework to work very well. Add water, stir, steep, stir, plunge. It helps, when brewing inverted, to press the air out of the press, before inverting. This helps submerge all of the grounds in water so that none stick to the plunger.

I have also found that the lower brew temp and no pre-heat work wonders for some coffees. I took Terroir's Mamuto and made it as I usually do with a pre-heat and water around 203*F. It was bright, sweet, and all around a great cup of coffee. I then dropped the temp down, a rec from someone else, and found that the cup was A LOT sweeter. It remained bright, but it was far sweeter and juicy. The edges were completely rounded out. A finer grind works when dropping the temp as well.

All in all, I am constantly finding new ways to make an even better cup. I've even experimented with a 180-200ml inverted cup. Again, low water temps, a very fine grind and the same overall method. I want to see if I can perfect a method that uses a very short steep time with a structure like, 1. Pour 2. Stir 3. Plunge. Maybe 45 seconds to a minute total contact time.