Coffee Knowledge | Eight Common Problems with Hand-Poured Coffee

When you first start brewing coffee, you will always have a lot of questions in your mind. It is like opening Pandora's box, releasing many "difficulties" about brewing coffee.

"What is hand pouring and how to do it?"

"There is too much fine powder in hand-washing, how to solve it?"

What is under-extraction and over-extraction?

…

Wait for these questions, today I will share those things about hand punching~

1. What is hand-brewed coffee?

Hand brewing coffee seems to be very simple to operate, but in fact, you need to master some skills to make a delicious cup of coffee. The four major factors of hand brewing are water temperature, grinding degree, powder-water ratio, and technique.

The coffee brewed by hand will have a more distinct regional flavor, and you can feel the flavor characteristics of different beans.

It's just like making tea at home. It also needs suitable utensils. Then you just pour water in and circle it around, from the center to the outside, and then from the outside to the inside. When you extract the coffee liquid you want, stop pouring water.

2. What is the coarseness and fineness of the grinding for hand brewing?

The grinding degree of hand brewing refers to the particle size of the coffee powder. One of the most annoying problems for many friends who brew hand brewing is the grinding degree. The suitable grinding degree for hand brewing is roughly the size of fine salt and fine white sugar. You can use this as a reference for the particle size of the powder you grind.

3. What should I do if there is too much fine powder ground in hand brewing?

The fine powder ground comes from the size of the gaps between the grinder blades. The larger the gaps, the coarser the powder particles ground by the blades, and the smaller the gaps, the finer the powder particles ground by the blades.

The more fine powder there is, the more likely it is to produce a sensitive bitter taste during extraction. It will also cause a water flow rate and water accumulation in the filter cup, which means that the extraction time is up, but there is still a lot of water retained in your filter cup.

This problem can be solved by sifting the powder. Just buy a powder sifter, shake it, and the fine powder will be sifted out.

What should we do with the fine powder that is sieved out? If we don't want these fine powders, the powder-water ratio set at the beginning will be inaccurate, and it will be a pity to waste them. One suggestion is to add these fine powders at the end of brewing.

(If you have money, you can buy a new grinder~ But I’m poor, so I can only buy a sifter. I feel jealous just thinking about it…)

4. How long can hand-brewed ground coffee be kept?

Fresh grinding is the first condition for coffee quality, which directly affects the taste of coffee. When coffee powder is ground into powder, it will accelerate its oxidation rate and the natural aroma of coffee will disappear quickly.

If you are using hand-brewed extraction and have a coffee grinder at home, it is best to brew and grind the coffee on the spot. It is recommended to finish a bag of beans within one month. If the coffee is ground into powder, it is recommended to finish it within two weeks.

5. How to control water flow?

Before talking about how to control the water flow, let's take a look at several situations of water injection hand flow:

The water flow is unstable, sometimes large and sometimes small: this situation can easily lead to different degrees of soaking of coffee powder, affecting the taste of coffee.

The water column is tilted and the water flow is large: it will cause the powder bed to tilt seriously, directly washing the wall of the coffee powder, punching a hole on the side of the coffee powder, resulting in uneven extraction and affecting the taste of the coffee.

The water flow is too high: it is easy to damage the coffee bed, cause a lot of bubbles in the coffee, and affect the water temperature.

Practice the stability of the water flow, practice water injection at a fixed point, use the strength of your wrist and arm to keep the hand-brewed kettle and the water flow vertical, and then practice water injection. You can set a practice mode for yourself, such as how many grams of water to inject within a certain time, so that you can see your water flow injection situation more intuitively.

6. How to improve under-extraction and over-extraction?

Insufficient extraction is caused by the short contact time between coffee powder and water, which results in insufficient extraction of substances from coffee. The coffee tastes bland, sour, watery, with a short aftertaste and a single flavor. Influencing factors: low water temperature, too high coffee powder to water ratio, too coarse grinding and short extraction time.

On the contrary, it is over-extraction. Over-extraction is because the coffee powder is in contact with water for a long time. We don’t want too much extraction. The coffee tastes bitter, dry and woody. The influencing factors are: high water temperature, low powder-to-water ratio, too fine grinding and long extraction time.

Adjustments can be made based on these influencing factors. Of course, there are also influencing factors such as personal techniques.

7. How to adjust the powder-water ratio?

The powder-water ratio affects the strength of the coffee. Since everyone has different tastes, they have different requirements for the strength of coffee. According to the conditions of the golden cup extraction rate of coffee, the extraction rate is between 18%-22%, and the concentration is between 1.2%-1.45%. Therefore, the powder-water ratio of a cup of coffee is approximately 1:13-1:15 .

8. What is the appropriate water temperature for hand brewing?

Water temperature is also a variable that affects the taste of coffee. The higher the water temperature, the bitterer the coffee is, and the lower the water temperature, the sourer the coffee is.

It is recommended to extract medium-light roasted beans at around 90-88 degrees, and medium-dark roasted beans can be extracted at 85-88 degrees. Because each roaster has a different degree of roasting of the beans, the required brewing water temperature is also different. You can adjust the brewing according to the water temperature provided by the roaster you purchased the beans from.

at last!

What kind of coffee is the best?

Sorry, there is no answer to this.

If you think it tastes good, it’s a good cup of coffee!

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