How to Brew The Best Coffee at Home
How To Brew Coffee At Home
Open your bag and take a slow, deep breath…
The aroma of fresh-roasted coffee at the peak of its freshness tingles your senses and warms your soul. What lays before you, is the opportunity to create the perfect cup of coffee.
But this isn’t just popping a cork and chugging down the contents. In between your delicious specialty coffee beans and your morning cup of coffee, is the brewing process. This brewing process will ultimately make or break your perfect cup. Get started with these coffee brewing essentials. You got this.
FRESH-ROASTED BEANS
Coffee is best enjoyed between 2 – 14 days after being roasted. Make sure you buy fresh specialty coffee with a roast date. Ditch your stale grocery store beans and make sure you get fresh-roasted beans from your local roaster.
STORAGE
Heat and moisture are enemies to the freshly roasted coffee bean so keep them at bay. In order to retain freshness keep your beans in a sealed bag or container in a dry and dark place like your kitchen cupboard. Do not freeze, put in the fridge or leave out in direct sunlight.
GRINDING COFFEE
Grind your beans just before brewing and use within 15 minutes. Grinding your beans accelerates the aging process and your beans will lose flavor quickly.
Burr grinders provide the most consistent grind, whereas blade grinders are notoriously inconsistent and can produce bitter tasting results.
Each brewing method requires a different size grind. Espresso requires a fine grind while a French Press requires a coarse one. Check out our grind size chart for further information.
WATER FOR COFFEE
Use fresh, filtered water when brewing coffee. The better your water, the better your cup of coffee will taste.
Your water temperature should be between 195 – 205F. If you don’t have a thermometer, we recommend brewing 30 – 45 seconds after the boil.
A gooseneck kettle will give you greater control over your water flow when brewing pour overs.
COFFEE:WATER RATIO
In order to produce a consistently delicious cup of coffee. we recommend using digital scales to weigh your coffee and water. It can be daunting to start, but once you’ve got stuck in, you’ll never go back to winging it with scoops.
We suggest starting at a 1:16 coffee to water ratio. This means using 1 gram of coffee for every 16 grams of water or 1 oz of coffee for every 16 oz of water (I gram = 1 ml). And yes, using the metric system does make life a little easier when brewing coffee!
Your coffee to water ratio may change depending on your brewer and the type of coffee beans you’re using. Brew, taste and tweak until you’ve found the right ratio. If it tastes too weak, you may need to use less water. If it tastes too strong, you may need to use more water.
We’ve compiled in depth brewing guides to help you brew on some our most popular brewing devices.
If you don’t have scales, try using 1 scoop of coffee for every 6 oz of water.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BREW COFFEE?
It’s a personal thing. Some swear by their Chemex, others will only use an Aeropress and for some, that auto-drip in the corner is the sturdy workhorse that's never let you down. Some of you may have a vast collection of vintage coffee brewers while others spend thousands of dollars on a Slayer Espresso Machine to impress their Sunday morning guests.
Manual Brewing
Our morning meditation routine. You'll need a lot of patience and experimenting to start with, thenit'll become a breeze. Experiment your heart away with a plethora of brewing devices out there. Try out different brewers to see which one you like the most.
These are some of our favorites…
– Chemex
– Kalita Wave
– Clever Dripper
– French Press
– AeroPress
– Hario V60
AUTO-DRIP MACHINES
Unfortunately, a lot of home drip coffee makers don’t brew water hot or consistently enough to produce a good cup of coffee. In general, coffee extracts perfectly between 195F – 205F. However, a typical home drip coffee maker only reaches temperatures between 170F – 190F. To get better results, we recommend pre-boiling your water in the kettle.
Check out this brew guide to help you get a better cup out of your drip brewer.
If you did want a look into getting a home coffee maker that can hit a consistent 200F, we’d recommend the highly-rated Bonavita. Check out this article for the SCAA recommended brewers.
COFFEE BREWING TIMES
Each brewing device will require water and coffee. Whatever you choose to brew your coffee with, if you don’t like the final product, consider these two things.
Over-extraction: Produces a strong and bitter taste, indicating the brew time is too long
Under-extraction: Produces a weak or sour taste, indicating the brew time is too short
Tweaking the brewing time could be one of the variables affecting your final cup. See our brew guides for easy to follow tutorials.
LOVE THY EQUIPMENT
Coffee has oils that can damage and make your coffee brewing equipment smell and taste foul.
Clean your brewing equipment with hot water and avoid using soap and the dishwasher.
For specialist equipment and especially for espresso machines, use specialist cleaners as advised by your manufacturer.
THE True Method to Knowledge is to Experiment
We couldn’t agree more.
Each coffee has its own unique flavor profile and tweaking your brew method can sometimes produce great results (and bad!). Play with your ratio, grind size and water temperature. Without experimenting, you’ll never know.
With a few basic brewing tools and a little knowledge, you’ll be brewing like a barista in no time!
If you really want to develop you palate and understand the tasting notes on coffee, take a look at the flavor wheel.
Have fun!