When to adjust temperature for pour over coffee?

[Elemsee]

What are the signs that show it would be beneficial to adjust temperature in a pour over method?

I recently experienced a filter coffee I made that had elements of harshness/a bit of a sharp bite (is this due to temp?), as well as a grassy quality that I typically associate with needing to grind finer (but I am not an expert). The brew did have a great body, and some peach notes still shined through. It was definitely drinkable but I'd like to understand how to maximize this coffee.

Question: Would the adjustments to combat these results be a combination of dropping temperature to reduce the "sharp bite", and also grind a notch or two finer to fix the grassy quality?


Details:
- Coffee was Luna's Techno Peach offering - Ethiopia origin, 3 weeks off roast
- 21 clix on C40
- Temp 208 deg F
- Device was a Kalita Wave 155, Hasami sandstone (pretty fast)
- 13:200
--- 40 g Bloom
--- 80g pour (40 circular, 40 center), in about 10 sec
-- 80 g pour (40 circular, 40 center), in about 12-15 sec

[tennisman03110]

Personally, from experience only, temperature is the last item to adjust. Especially if it's a light roasted bean, just off boiling is probably going to be a good starting point.

If anything, I'd think you want a higher temperature. The sharp bite (sour?) is opposite bitterness.

You' might try grinder finer, increasing the ratio to 1:17. Extract more from the coffee. At some point you'll reach a bitter wall, but it sounds like you could push the extraction further, and hence get more flavor from the beans.

[MikeTheBlueCow]

Here, I'm brewing a coffee that I tried with 208+ F water and decided to lower my water temp, so here is what my process was for figuring that out. First brew was a bit bitter, so I ground coarser. The coarser again, and I noticed the bitterness wasn't going away and more problems (like astringency) were entering, likely from the increased flow rate and now the coffee was losing flavor because the brew time got too short.

So I decided to lower brew temp to 205 F and that was good. I started at a 5, went up to a 7, then came back down to a 6 on my grinder with that 205 F temp adjustment. Now as the coffee is aging, I'm still at a 6 but just keep lowering the temp - currently at 200 F. Flavor isn't *as* good as when it was fresh, might have to adjust ratio a bit stronger now too.

And that's normally my order of operations. I dial in grind first always, and if that's not doing it then either temp or ratio depending on what I'm getting/lacking from the coffee. This particular coffee actually did pretty well with a longer ratio so temp made more sense.

[DamianWarS]

What are the signs that show it would be beneficial to adjust temperature in a pour over method?

I recently experienced a filter coffee I made that had elements of harshness/a bit of a sharp bite (is this due to temp?), as well as a grassy quality that I typically associate with needing to grind finer (but I am not an expert). The brew did have a great body, and some peach notes still shined through. It was definitely drinkable but I'd like to understand how to maximize this coffee.

Question: Would the adjustments to combat these results be a combination of dropping temperature to reduce the "sharp bite", and also grind a notch or two finer to fix the grassy quality?


Details:
- Coffee was Luna's Techno Peach offering - Ethiopia origin, 3 weeks off roast
- 21 clix on C40
- Temp 208 deg F
- Device was a Kalita Wave 155, Hasami sandstone (pretty fast)
- 13:200
--- 40 g Bloom
--- 80g pour (40 circular, 40 center), in about 10 sec
-- 80 g pour (40 circular, 40 center), in about 12-15 sec

broadly speaking I will adjust temp when it's a darker roast but if it's a light roast it will be off the boil. however unpleasent harshness in a coffee can warrent dropping the temp. you can brew 3 back to back, one right from boiling and the each other with a step down from temp, maybe 203F (95C) and 194F (90C) and blind cup them together (brew the hottest first to avoid the others getting to cool). choose which of the 3 is best and if its a lower temp one you then obviously a lower temp may be needed. if it's indistinguishable then I wouldn't worry about temp and keep it to what you have been doing but focus on other factors. there are also options to bloom with hotter water and user a lower temp water for the main brew and this can prevent some of the harshness that can be a factor with longer exposure to hotter temps which you're reducing. Hoffmann introduced this concept to me first (via youtube) and although his use is for darker roasts (I'm not sure what roast level you're dealing with) you may find some useful information (the temp disscussion really starts at about 10min in)

[Riceman42]

Here are my thoughts:

It's common that higher elevation coffees will be denser than lower elevation, thus they can benefit from a relatively higher brew temp.

Kenyan coffees are also known to be denser, thus generally benefitting from higher temps as well.

Also, the roast profile can play role! The more a coffee is developed in roast, generally the lower you can go on brew temps. This is because the cell walls become more fragile as the coffee is roasted longer/more developed.

Hope this helps!!!