As I'm getting more and more into brew I'm starting to notice that some beans seem to shine using certain brew methods, while with others I struggle to get as good results.

Sometimes a V60 is the best for a certain bean, sometimes it's softbrew, other times Aeropress.

I've got a long list of different brewers:- V60, chemex, moka, softbrew, clever dripper, aeropress, sphypon.

other than picking whatever takes my fancy are there any tips on how to select the best brewer for a given bean - other than trial and effort that is!

e.g. if aeropress isn't great, what to try next moka or pour over?

I almost exclusively drink light roasts, are there any general brewers which work better for naturals v washed? anything that generally works better for african v south american? do you always try a certain brewer for certain varietals?

No

Since taste are subjective and everyone's recipes & parameters are different

its really hard to pick the "best brewers for this beans"

normally I start with cupping

and tweak my brew (recipe) with any devices from the cupping reference.

My go-to is a v60 because it's simple, and quick.
Occasionally I mix it up a little but I usually come back to the v60.
Because it's simple, and quick.

Everything else just seems like so much hassle by comparison. I've got a clever dripper, a French press, aeropress, flat bottom cone, etc. If I use something besides the v60 is usually a clever dripper. I'm not a fan of the murky unfocused taste that French press gives, and aeropress is nothing but something to fiddle with endlessly in hopes that it might make a good cup of coffee one day. Maybe that's not fair it has made decent cups of coffee but it's just such a hassle annd the cleanup sucks. For a v60 I just flip it upside down over the garbage can and let the filter and grounds fall out , run it under the faucet for a second , and put it back in the dish drainer on one side of the sink, where it basically lives

It's preference at the end of the day for me. Also a little bit of intuition - sometimes I just feel like a certain bay is gonna be a V60 bag, other times it's Aeropress.

This week I've been working through a bag of man vs machine beans, a lighter roast Ethiopian yirgacheffe - I tried both V60 and Aeropress and honestly preferred the Aeropress! It added some more body to the coffee that I enjoyed.

I go back and forth a bit but I tend to prefer a V60 to the Aeropress. The Aeropress I have doesn't make enough coffee in one brew to fill my cup so I lean toward a V60 for 300ml or so. I don't think I have much of a method based on specific coffees but of whatever mood I'm in at the time.

Milligan wrote:The Aeropress I have doesn't make enough coffee in one brew to fill my cup so I lean toward a V60 for 300ml or so.

You can just add water to your cup to get that 300ml, provided you start with enough grounds in the first place. It's easy to find award winning Aeropress recipes of all shapes and sizes. Or just invent your own. But of course it will taste different than a V60.

I generally approach brewing beans by what type of experience I'm looking for in a given day based on how different brew methods influence flavors.

Generally speaking some brew methods (immersion style: aeropress, french press, etc.) give a more "even" extraction referring to the idea that the organic acids, ketones, etc. that give coffee its flavor in an immersion brew are allowed to passively equilibrate with the water surrounding them resulting in a cup more representative of the flavor compounds within the bean. These brews tend to be more balanced, sweeter, and have a heavier mouthfeel due to the general lack of filters absorbing fat.

On the other hand pourover devices (chemex, v60, etc.) are constantly supplying new water into the coffee bed. This allows certain water soluble compounds such as acids to be over-represented in the cup due their rapid rate of diffusion into the water, while oils and other more hydrophobic compounds are less represented. Furthermore filters play a role in absorbing oils which further decrease their presence in the final cup. These methods tend to produce more delicate, fruit-forward brews.

So if I just picked up a washed ethiopian with fruit and floral-forward notes, I'll probably gravitate more towards a pourover device like a chemex kalita to further accentuate those flavors. Meanwhile if I'm more in the mood for a balanced, heavier, sweeter, more classic "coffee" flavor vs the super light, acidic flavor of some coffees, I might go for an immersion method for those beans. The same bean brewed in a v60 will taste very different than in a french press, but this generally is consistent and pourover will accentuate acidic and fruit flavors while immersion will accentuate balance/sweetness.