Water

water is as important as the coffee beans. To extract and highlight the coffee you will have to use suitable water. What does this mean? It means you have to know if your water is too hard or too soft. In general, with specialty coffee, most people use water with a total hardness between 2-6 dH. The mineral content as well as the ratio of minerals in the water are important components: some minerals will extract and highlight body and sweetness, while others will accentuate acidity. It is up to you to decide what you like, so feel free to experiment with your water in order to achieve the best experience.

 

 

For brewing and cupping I am lucky enough to be able to use tap water without any treatment or added minerals.

 

The content of my water is: 

 

 

Of course, there are other minerals in my tap water, but in small quantities. The ones highlighted above are the most used and discussed while preparing custom water.

Measuring my water with a TDS meter shows variations between 45 and 58 ppm total, depending on the weather/temp.

Measuring my GH with an aquarium droplet kit resulted in an approx. 4 dH.

 

 

Cupping protocol

 

 

I cup using 10g of beans, fine to medium grinds size (burr distance for 65mm unimodal burrs- 350 microns, for Kinu simplicity- 2+4, for Comandante- 18 clicks, for Ek43 ~ 5.5, Mazzer ZM ~450 microns, Bentwood 400 microns)

 

 

Use this link to have a starting point on how to equivalate grinds size on different grinders:

 

https://theweldercatherine.ru/blog/articles/oborudovanie/svyashchennyy-pomol-chast-3/

 

The ratio I use is 1:16.5 and the water is off the boil. At the 4-minute mark I break the crust using a spoon, going all the way down into the slurry and mixing with a gentle forward-backward motion 3 times, while I smell the liquid. Because of the coffee roasting style there won’t be a lot of extraction going on in the first 10 minutes - only after 15 minutes the flavors in the cup will shine and I suggest tasting it every 5 minutes, up to room temp (30-minute mark). You should taste the coffee with a spoon and from the cup too, the taste will be slightly different, tasting from the cup will give you a closer image on how your drip coffee will taste.

 

 

 

 

Brewing:

 

I use various brewers (v60-02, Kinto 01 slow dripper, Fellow duo steeper, Aeropress, Clever)

 

A simple recipe for the v60-01 or Kinto 01 (Lance Hedrick Recipe see youtube):

 

12g of beans, finer grind (a tiny bit coarser than my cupping grind size- 18 clicks on C40/2+6 turns on Kinu), 200ml of water 

1st pour:

- bloom with 40g of water off the boil (100°C) 

- take a spoon or stick and make sure you poke the center of the cone brewer all the way to the bottom, the tip of the brewer will get the least water saturation and there will be a big delay in how fast you saturate the grinds (top to bottom)

2nd pour:

- pour the rest of 160g of water at the 2-minute mark (the water in the kettle should be ~ 96°C by now, after 2 mins of waiting) I normally pour from a higher height, generating some agitation. You will have to adjust based on your paper filter and coffee (depending on if it clogs or not)

- do a small swirl after you finished the pour and let it drain

 

The brewing is finished anywhere between 3- and 4-minute mark, let the liquid cool down min 2 minutes before you start tasting it. 

For this recipe we are using a finer grind, a lower ppm water (60-80ppm), and a much longer contact time, so make sure you use a softer water if you want to keep the result clean.

 

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Another great recipe is the one with a coarser grind conical hand grinder on a v60-01 or a kinto dripper 01:

 

coarse brew v60

 

12.5g of beans grind ultra coarse (above: 3+5 on Kinu/30 clicks on C40), 200ml of water at 90-93C

 

 

-4 equals 50ml pours spaced at 30 sec

- focus on pouring more in the center

- drain time between 2:15-2:45

-for big beans grind finer for small beans (ethiopia) grind coarser

-for big beans swirld and do a tap after last pour

 

 

this type of brew is focusing on complexity, layering and while the intensity is not as strong as a ssp brew, it changes a lot and highlights more gentle flavors from the coffee beans

 

Of course this yields a much lower TDS, but it's up to you what you prefer

 

Clever dripper recipe:

 

-20g of coffee grind coarser (26 clicks C40/3+2 turns kinu)

-rinse the paper filter and put the coffee inside on the scale

-pour 1:16 ratio water hot (95 to 100C) make sure you pour and agitate the coffee

-place the clever lid on top to insulate and trap the heat and the volatiles

-after 6 mins take the lid off and take a sniff

-open the dripper and it should drain in aprox 2 minutes

 

-the result is  a sweet beverage, clean well extracted with low acidity

 

Enjoy