V60 heat loss - Page 3

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
Mbb
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#21: Post by Mbb »

DamianWarS wrote:Ill go right off the boil next time to see how it changes. Maybe I'll do 2 back to back and sample them both. I tried a plastic brewer and it was the sae results 94 in, 10 loss in the slurry and another 10 loss in the cup, final temp in cup was about 75. I'm not so interested in the temp of the cup, but I'll try at direct off the boil approach, if I lose 10 I should still be in the 90 range still. Makes me wonder if I should just do cowboy coffee then run it through a v60 after the brew.

Just myo, when you start checking all those temps, you are overthinking it.
All that is taken into account....using 200-205F water. Relax....just try a couple temps find what you like.

another curveball, if you don't have enough, is that often by the end of the pour the water in your kettle is considerably cooler than it was at the start. 5F +. I use a big kettle that holds its temperature better for this reason. What's in your cup, is an average of all this stuff.

When it gets down to it, all you can do is keep everything as consistent as possible, and vary the water temperature to give you the results you want.

Or maybe the grind
Or maybe the degree of agitation
Or maybe the roast characteristics

DamianWarS (original poster)
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#22: Post by DamianWarS (original poster) »

Mbb wrote: Just myo, when you start checking all those temps, you are overthinking it.
All that is taken into account....using 200-205F water. Relax....just try a couple temps find what you like.

another curveball, if you don't have enough, is that often by the end of the pour the water in your kettle is considerably cooler than it was at the start. 5F +. I use a big kettle that holds its temperature better for this reason. What's in your cup, is an average of all this stuff.

When it gets down to it, all you can do is keep everything as consistent as possible, and vary the water temperature to give you the results you want.

Or maybe the grind
Or maybe the degree of agitation
Or maybe the roast characteristics
I think overdoing it is too much but in troubleshooting or developing methods I see checking the temp as useful, but you're right there are so many factors that a change in one is going to affect the whole thing so we need to be balanced. This thread simply is about temperature management and is not about the others so it may seem biased or out of balance but that's just because it's only addressing one aspect.

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Mbb
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#23: Post by Mbb replying to DamianWarS »

What I see, is that if process of making coffee is too complicated, it becomes counterproductive.

That applies to lots of possibilities, like screening grinds, using special water, making 32 timed pours, etc.
If its not something you want to do every time you make coffee, then its not really important.

DamianWarS (original poster)
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#24: Post by DamianWarS (original poster) replying to Mbb »

agreed it makes it too complicated for a daily routine and negatively impacts the enjoyment of that routine too, but I think it's valuable to gauge and understand the process. For example, I see you mentioned screening grinds, well, I have the kurve coffee sieve kit that does just that, and I have the complete 12 sieves. I certainly do not sieve my coffee for every brew, that would be a huge waste not to mention extra time. But I use it to calibrate my grind or determine what is happening in a grind that I may not see, feel or fully understand. When I remove all the fines and taste the impact of the coffee I know and understand what "fines" taste like something I may have not have known with certainly had I not been able to contrast it. So when I troubleshoot coffee I know what the impact fines may have and I can identify it in the cup, be it negative or positive. This is the same with temp, I want to understand the impact good and bad temp control has in the cup so I may understand in a coffee just handed to me what may be going on.

It is a diagnostic tool not well suited for a daily routine but the more you understand what is happening the better you can troubleshoot the coffee when troubleshooting is needed. I do the same with water, I brew coffee with hard/soft/RO water and check the TDS of the water to see what sort of impact it has on the coffee not because I want to daily add some sort of recipe of bicarb and salts to deionized water to get it at optimum level for extraction but because I want to understand the effect it has on the cup.

I'm involved in these sorts of things beyond a personal level so maybe my interests are more piqued or motivated because sometimes things come down to my experience (which is grossly lacking) so I want to be well informed.

Mbb
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#25: Post by Mbb replying to DamianWarS »


I fully agree, nothing wrong with defining the boundaries of your performance envelope,

All I'm saying is at the end of the day it's something that we make and we drink . most people don't have 30 minutes to make a cup of coffee before heading out the door in the morning..... Even devoting 10-15 min for pour over is not always easy. It's why much of the world loves their keurigs....

culturesub
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#26: Post by culturesub »

Mbb wrote: I fully agree, nothing wrong with defining the boundaries of your performance envelope,

All I'm saying is at the end of the day it's something that we make and we drink . most people don't have 30 minutes to make a cup of coffee before heading out the door in the morning..... Even devoting 10-15 min for pour over is not always easy. It's why much of the world loves their keurigs....

Its simple- brew as hot as possible, esp for lighter roasts. Doesn't add a lick of time and makes much better coffee.

alarsen77
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#27: Post by alarsen77 »

I see many people here saying the ceramic holds too much heat and takes away from the heat of your brew and that the plastic is better. I have a ceramic V60 and I think it is fine but I preheat it with boiling water so it is already very hot and therefore wont draw much more heat out of the brew.

But that brings me to my next question what do you guys think of the very expensive Copper version of the V60 would that work better if preheated as copper conducts heat even better and if preheated would hold that heat longer and not take it away from the brew? Not sure if anyone has tried one of the copper V60's here?

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vit
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#28: Post by vit »

Yes, copper conducts the heat better and transfers it faster from the coffee to surrounding air than plastic or ceramic ...

cgibsong002
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#29: Post by cgibsong002 »

If I'm not mistaken, copper is used in cookware because of its excellent thermal conductivity. So it heats up super quick and distributes the heat very evenly. That's great.

But exactly as said above, that's exactly why it's bad for v60. You DON'T want heat conductivity. That means it takes your heat and exchanges it with outside ambient air. It will speed up the process of equalizing the water and air.

Just think of a thermos. Do we want our thermos to insulate? of course.Reallyy tend to make things more complicated than necessary...

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baldheadracing
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#30: Post by baldheadracing »

The Copper V60 has relatively low mass so it works just fine - although I would tell someone to get one for aesthetic reasons, not performance ones. The Nickel plating eventually wears off (like all Nickel- or Tin-plated Copper cookware). After a few years of daily use, mine is waiting for me to replate it.

Myself, I am not capable of tasting a difference between my Copper, glass, ceramic, or plastic V60 cones in the cup (given some pre-heating of all of the cones).

I would suggest that controlling brew (pouring) water temperature throughout the pour - either mechanically or electrically - has a higher impact on a slurry temperature curve than the impact of V60 material choice.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada