RapidCoffee wrote:This statement only makes sense if you are actually using 10-12 grams of coffee per 6 oz (170 ml) water. That is the standard coffee:water ratio (1:17) agreed upon by most sources.

Oooops...yes...I meant 10-12 grams of coffee to 6 fluid oz or water!

RapidCoffee wrote: Aeropress recipes are notorious for recommending overdosed, underextracted brew parameters, with coffee:water ratios as high as 1:10 and extremely short extraction times (such as your 10-20 seconds).

What is your recommended recipe for using the Aeropress?

Since you asked: I prefer the inverted approach (to eliminate drip-through), coupled with a coarser grind and longer brew times (more like a minute). I do use a higher coffee:water ratio with the AP than other brew methods, but nothing like 1:10 (more like 1:15*).

However, I'm not a huge AP aficionado. Others can probably give you more reliable usage guidelines.

* after dilution

OK...thanks for this! Since the AP isn't your brewing method of choice, which is...and what is your recipe with your favorite method?

I'm going to recommend Scott Rao's new book, Everything But Espresso. The title is a bit misleading - e.g., it does not cover AP - but it has an excellent discussion of vac pot, filter/drip, and French press methodology.

RapidCoffee wrote:I'm going to recommend Scott Rao's new book, Everything But Espresso.

+1 Absolutely!
Can you imagine, that after reading it I'm now tempted to try manual drip? Yet honestly, I have a grinder that is another push in this direction.

another_jim wrote:"Branch water," i.e. a drop or two of rain, or otherwise distilled, water, opens up the taste of whiskeys and brandies, and has become traditional for tasting them. I'd love to hear how it works; guess it's in the chemistry of the fluid, not the taste/smell receptors.

Whiskeys and brandies have a lot of aromatic aldehydes, lactones and similar compounds. The addition of even a small amount of water causes a localized dilution and changes the solubility of various compounds, some of which evaporate, imparting an enhanced or at least concentrated aroma. The effectiveness of this method varies with the composition of different spirits. It is most evident with complex, densely flavoured spirits e.g. absinthe and cask whiskeys. And it's not always a good effect, sometimes showcasing undesirable aromatics.

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Thanks. It goes to show that tasting is a lot more complicated than people's usual concepts. I never imagined that a shot glass of bourbon could have micro-regions of varied aldehyde concentrations.

As I understood it - the addition of water to whiskey works because many aromatics are non polar and the addition of water means that it is more difficult for those non-polar aromatics to stay dissolved within ethanol micelles and so they are released.

(A similar, related effect is seen in the addition of water to Pernod or ouzo - where the compounds that were happily dissolved in alcohol are forced out by dilution and then create their own micelles which causes the drink to become cloudy).

If this makes no sense then I blame, er, alcohol.

You're quite right. Adding water increases the volatility of hydrophobic compounds such as long chain esters that were previously stabilized in ethanol micelles. What you're describing in the mechanism by which dilution causes more aromatics to be released. It would be easy to write five or ten thousand words about the chemistry here.. but I doubt that many people would read it. For those who might be interested, here is some "light" reading about "Scotch chemistry".

Whisky chemistry: A Whiskey tour (PDF)
Origin of flavour in Whiskeys (PDF)
The science of Scotch


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