I've been reading through past threads regarding percolators and the majority opinion of these brewers is not positive. I've been asked to provide freshly roasted coffee for a wedding where the plan is to brew and serve using 100-cup percolators from the local rental company.

I would like your input on 1. the amount of coffee to use per pot 2. what grind size to use and 3. practical alternatives to serve coffee for 250 people

Thanks folks!

I provided coffee to a customer for a wedding reception. I was also a guest there. He used a percolator and it really made the coffee have a bad flavor, like it was burned a bit. I heard good comments about it from some of the other guests so maybe it was ok. I'll try to see how much he used.

He used 6 cups of grounds per pot. That will be a bit more than a lb I think.

Okay thank you. Any suggestions for a different brew method to serve 250 people?

Unless there was some reason to make good coffee I personally think you should keep it cheap. Instant coffee would be my choice, no need to even say anything to anyone.

Otherwise, yu could probably rent something like this http://www.webstaurantstore.com/suffixi ... gQodFxsIbw maybe even two if you thought everyone was going to want coffee, but that seems unlikely. Just google "large batch coffee Brewers"


If I was a professional roaster I might want a 64/oz French press at each table, have
The waiters do the fp and have a couple bunn Brewers in the back for second cups, special notes on the coffee used or something but that would require an obvious reason to make so much effort imo.

Geoff,

You can't make 'good' coffee in a perk, but you can certainly avoid the horrible brew that usually comes out of one. Here's what I suggest.

First, scrupulously clean the brewer, as those rented 100-cup perks usually look rather grotty. Fill it with water and add a small squirt of soap & 20 Tablespoons of baking soda. Then perk it for 10 minutes, drain, refill with hot water & perk 5 minutes more. Rinse well. I don't subscribe to the traditional, "let the grunge build up for best taste'.

Go to your local specialty coffee shop and ask them which is their smoothest, least acidic coffee. Get them to grind it for you really coarse. Don't just tell them to grind for a perk...nobody knows how to do this properly anymore. Tell them you want it coarser than for a French press...that ought to do it. A coffee perk first sends nearly boiling water through the grounds, then as the coffee brews, boiled coffee through the grounds. If you use any store-bought, ground coffee it will be over-extracted and bitter, first because it is crummy coffee and secondly because it will be MUCH too finely ground.

Don't be fooled by the cup numbers marked on the urn. There is no standard. Measure your water into the perk, about 7 ounces per standard cup you want to make. The only important line on the perk is the 'max fill' line. Use 2 standard teaspoons of coffee per cup or one heaping if you are in a hurry.

DO NOT use the automatic brew feature of the perk. Time the thing from when it starts to perk and manually move it to the warm setting at about three minutes.

That ought to do it.

I had read from several credible sources that percolator coffee can be quite good. So I purchased a small percolator to see for myself. After a number of tries I was unable to get good coffee out of mine. But it wasn't burned. My percolator had the opposite problem. The coffee was always weak, thin, mild and boring. When I measured extraction it was sub-par (17% or less). Mine had no adjustment knob and I suspect the fixed temperature cutoff was too low.

Out of curiosity I measured the temperature of the brew water, the grounds temperature (probe buried in the middle of the grounds) and the water/coffee in the base:



For what it's worth.

Nunas wrote:You can't make 'good' coffee in a perk, but you can certainly avoid the horrible brew that usually comes out of one. Here's what I suggest.

My goal!

First, scrupulously clean the brewer...I don't subscribe to the traditional, "let the grunge build up for best taste'.

I'm the same way. The groom (a good friend of mine) lets the grunge build up in his French press and it drives me NUTS.

Go to your local specialty coffee shop and ask them which is their smoothest, least acidic coffee.

I'm roasting all the coffee, using a Brazil/Sumatra blend for regular and a Guat/Ethiopia blend for decaf. I will grind it extra coarse!

Measure...about 7 ounces per standard cup you want to make. Use 2 standard teaspoons of coffee per cup or one heaping if you are in a hurry.

Okay lemme see if I'm interpreting this correctly:
You're saying to use 7oz per standard cup (8oz)
o 100-cup machine * 5oz cup size = 500oz capacity * 7/8 = 437.5oz or 3.4 gallons or 13.6 quarts of fresh water or 54.7 standard 8oz cups per machine
o 2tsp = 9.5g * 54.7 standard 8oz cups = 519.7g of coffee per machine
If you mean standard coffee cup (6oz)
o 500oz capacity * 7/6 = 583.3oz or 4.6 gallons or 18.2 quarts of fresh water or 72.8 standard 6oz coffee cups per machine
o 9.5g * 72.8 coffee cups = 691.6g of coffee per machine

DO NOT use the automatic brew feature of the perk. Time the thing from when it starts to perk and manually move it to the warm setting at about three minutes.

Why only 3 minutes? The "recommended" brew time is an hour.

You guys rock! Thanks so much...

I'm going to be in a similar situation this fall, supplying coffee for a friends wedding so this post caught my interest. One thought that popped in my head while reading was, would doing a cold brew concentrate ahead of time be feasible? Reconstitute at the event. I don't have any cold brew experience at this point but have wanted to give it a go.

Okay lemme see if I'm interpreting this correctly: You're saying to use 7oz per standard cup (8oz)

Sorry, I messed up in typing that bit. I meant not to to by the indication of number of cups (if embossed) on the perk. Instead, use 7 ounces of water per typical cup of coffee you want to make, to give room for milk and to not overfill the cups in a banquet setting to avoid spills. Of course, it depends on the cups/mugs you are using. bigger cups...8 oz would be fine. The 2 level tsp is per 7 oz cup. This should give you a somewhat stronger brew than the usual cafeteria style coffee. Another way to do it is to use a standard dry measure cup. Use from 6 to 8 for 100 7 ounce cups of coffee. Six will be typical weak American coffee and 8 should give you strong coffee. I've never done the math to see how this formula works compared to the teaspoon thing I use for smaller urns...I'll leave that to you

DO NOT use the automatic brew feature of the perk. Time the thing from when it starts to perk and manually move it to the warm setting at about three minutes.

Why only 3 minutes? The "recommended" brew time is an hour.

The one hour is likely the time needed to take the water from room temp to finished coffee. The three minutes is only to actually make the coffee from the time the perk starts percolating to the the time the coffee is ready. The problem with these machines is that they are notoriously variable in the amount of time they circulate the hot water through the grounds. Usually they do it too long, which is one of the reasons we get that 'church social' taste in the cup. By watching for the thing to start, then timing three minutes and then switching it over to its 'keep warm' setting, we avoid that over-extracted taste.

BTW, sorry for not commenting on the coffee to use...I did not realise you were one of 'us'...God's chosen few...home roasters . Your choice sounds good.