How to make your hand-brewed coffee taste better? Keep these 4 factors in mind!

More and more people like hand brewed coffee. Sometimes people are confused as to why the same beans have different flavors when brewed by different people? The following four factors may be the key! Let's take a look.

①Amount of coffee powder

When you start brewing coffee, you should start by thinking about how much powder to use. This depends on how much coffee liquid you want to present. The powder layer composed of different powder amounts has different resistance to water flow. If the powder amount is too little, the powder layer is too thin and it is difficult to control the water flow. I personally recommend brewing with more than 15g of powder. For 1-2 servings, use 15-25g, and for 3-4 servings, use 25-40g. Of course, the more powder you use, the longer it takes for hot water to pass through the coffee powder layer when brewing coffee, which is what I will talk about in the fourth point, with a longer contact time.

Of course, after determining the amount of coffee powder, the next thing to determine is the amount of water used for brewing, which is what we often call the "powder-water ratio". If you prefer a strong flavor, you can use a high powder-water ratio, such as 1:12 (1g of powder is used for 12g of water. If you use 15g of powder, you need to add 180g of water); if you like a light taste, you can use 1:18; for regular brewing, you can use 1:15. Of course, different beans are suitable for different powder-water ratios. You can try different ratios to find your favorite one.

② Grinding coarseness

Friends who have taken the SCA Grinding and Extraction Course know that the coarseness of the grind is a very critical variable in brewing coffee. Using the wrong grind to brew coffee will make your coffee "bitter" or "bland". Different grinders have a grinding range suitable for hand-brewed coffee. When you get a bag of beans, first grind a little with the grinder's recommended grinding scale, and feel the coarseness of the grind with your hands. The medium fineness is suitable for hand-brewed coffee. You can also compare it with fine sugar, and then try brewing a handful. If the water is slow and the brewed coffee is bitter, you can adjust it to a coarser one. Vice versa. Remember this: the finer the grind, the more soluble substances will be extracted when hot water passes through the coffee powder. In fact, when brewing coffee, you only need to dissolve 18-22% of the soluble substances in the coffee beans. Dissolving too much will easily cause "over-extraction", which is easy to have a bitter and unpleasant texture.

③Brewing water temperature

Different water temperatures have different abilities and speeds to dissolve the substances in coffee powder. Too high a water temperature (such as 100 degrees boiling water) can easily make the brewed coffee bitter, while too low a water temperature (such as below 80) can easily make the coffee "bland as water". The appropriate water temperature for brewing coffee is between 85-95℃. It is recommended to use 92℃ water for a new bean, and then adjust it according to the flavor and taste of the brewed coffee. High-altitude extremely hard beans and lightly/medium roasted beans can be brewed with 95℃ water to bring out the good flavor of the extremely hard beans; and for low-altitude beans that are deeply roasted, it is easy to brew them rich and charming with 88℃.

④ Brewing time

The brewing time here refers to the time from the formal water injection (the formal contact between water and coffee powder) to the complete end of the brewing process (moving the filter cup from the sharing pot). Generally, it will go through the steaming and exhaust stage and the first water injection, the second water injection, the third water injection or the first water injection to the bottom, and the time ranges from 1 minute to 3 minutes. Of course, there are also fast-brewing schools, which can hand-brew a pot of coffee in about 30 seconds. By slowly injecting water and extending the contact time between water and coffee powder, it is also beneficial to improve the extraction rate of coffee.

To summarize, to develop a brewing plan for a bean, you only need to list the following values:

①Amount of coffee beans used

② Grinding scale (specific to which grinder)

③ The brewing water temperature used (you can also use one water temperature for the steaming stage and another water temperature for the formal water filling. Also, remember that the water temperature in the kettle will decrease during the formal water filling process)

④How many grams of water are used for brewing

⑤ How long does it take to brew?

Please develop the habit of recording frequently, taste the subtle differences of coffee by changing different parameters, and find the best brewing solution.

Of course, the above analysis is based on the assumption that you have a bag of freshly roasted premium beans and brew them with the right water. If you have a bag of commercial beans that have been roasted for more than half a year, then the above adjustments will be meaningless.