There are four reasons why you can’t make good hand-brewed coffee

Many friends have asked why they still can’t make a good cup of hand-brewed coffee even though they have followed the steps. Now let’s reveal the common mistakes in hand-brewed coffee from the aspects of coffee beans and water quality!

Common mistakes when making hand-poured coffee

1. Coffee beans

Mistake 1: Grind Size

A good coffee grinder can ensure that the ground coffee powder is uniform in coarseness and fineness. If the coffee powder is uneven and there are too many fine powders, the coffee produced will not taste "pure" enough.

So what is the appropriate coarseness of coffee beans for hand-brewed coffee?

The answer is: medium grinding, like the size of sugar grains. If the coffee powder is too coarse, hot water will flow through too quickly, making it difficult to extract the aromatic substances of the coffee. If the coffee powder is too fine, the filter will easily clog, causing the water and powder to soak for too long, and the coffee will taste bitter and astringent.

Mistake 2: Freshness

Many people choose pre-ground coffee powder for convenience, or grind a lot at one time and put it in the refrigerator. In fact, "fresh grinding" is the first condition for good coffee, which guarantees the taste of coffee.

When coffee is ground into powder, the oxidation speed of the coffee powder will be accelerated, and the aroma will begin to dissipate in 40 seconds. If the aroma of the coffee powder is seriously lost, the flavor of the natural coffee will disappear.

Mistake 3: Cloth powder

After pouring the coffee powder into the drip cup, you need to shake it gently to make it flat. This is a step that is very easy to overlook, or shake it too hard or too much, which is not advisable. The flatness of the powder surface determines the uniformity of the steaming and extraction of the hand-brewed coffee, which directly affects the taste of the coffee.

2. Water

Mistake 1: Water quality

If you are particular about the taste, then don't ignore the water used to brew coffee. 98% of a cup of hand-brewed coffee is water, and the soluble matter (TDS) in the water should preferably be between 100-250ppm. It is not recommended to use purified water to make coffee. Coffee made with purified water often tastes dull and lacks layering. But don't use unknown mineral water or unknown bottled water. Once there is an odor in the water, it will be more obviously amplified in the coffee.

Mistake 2: Water Temperature

Water temperature is also an important indicator that affects the taste of coffee. If the water temperature is too high, the bitterness of the coffee will be stronger, while if the water temperature is too low, the sourness will be stronger. Suggestion: Dark roasted coffee beans are suitable for extraction at a temperature of 80-85 degrees, and medium and light roasted coffee beans are suitable for extraction at a water temperature of about 90 degrees.

Mistake 3: Water flow

The key to releasing the aroma and texture of coffee lies in water injection. Common mistakes include:

A. The water column is too large and the direction is too inclined, which will cause the water flow to punch a hole in the side of the powder layer and run directly out of the filter paper, resulting in insufficient coffee extraction.

B. If the water column is pulled too high, the water flow will damage the coffee powder, easily inject bubbles, and the coffee extraction will be uneven. It will also cause the water column to have too much contact with the air area, and the water temperature will be affected. Therefore, the water column must be as close to the coffee as possible.

C. The water flow is unstable. Sometimes it rushes violently, and sometimes it drips and stops. This causes different areas of the coffee powder to be soaked to different degrees, and the taste of the coffee will be affected.

Mistake 4: Water volume

Due to different tastes and different requirements for strength, the extraction concentration range is 1.15%-1.35%, and the water ratio is about 1:13 to 15. Some people use very little water simply to pursue a strong flavor, but it doesn't taste good. On the contrary, some people expect to use more water to extract more substances, but they don't know that the extraction becomes weaker and the final concentration is insufficient.

3. Steaming

Why doesn’t steamed coffee powder expand?

Sometimes it is a mysterious joy to watch the small "hamburger" expand during steaming, but not all beans will expand into a small "hamburger". Steaming is only to release the gas in the coffee particles, and at the same time to form a uniform gap so that water can quickly and evenly pass through, thereby fully extracting.

Factors affecting steam expansion

1. The freshness of the coffee beans. Steaming is for exhausting. If the coffee is stored for too long after roasting, the carbon dioxide in the cells inside the coffee beans will be naturally released, and the "hamburger" during steaming will not be too obvious or even nonexistent.

2. The degree of roasting of coffee beans. The degree of caramelization of lightly roasted beans is not as deep as that of darkly roasted coffee, and the metabolites produced by the reaction are relatively small, so the respiration is weak, so it is normal that the effect of steaming is not obvious or there is no "hamburger" effect.

3. The grinding degree of coffee powder. If the grinding is too coarse, the area of ​​water contacting the coffee powder will be small, and the exhaust effect will naturally be weak.

4. Water injection

How to determine the amount of water to pour when hand brewing coffee?

After steaming, water is poured in. Generally, beginners are recommended to use a narrow-mouthed hand-poured pot, so that the amount of water poured in is not too much and it is not easy to fail. At the beginning of water pouring, it is easy to extract coffee. If you use an ordinary hand-poured pot, do not use too much water at the beginning. Use a large amount of water when it is almost finished to avoid pouring out too many impurities. The ideal time for the whole water pouring is about 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. If you want the coffee to taste thicker, you can slow down the speed. "It should taste good, but not too much."

How to control the direction and speed of water injection?

The direction of water injection can be started from the center, and then go around the outside of the circle in a clockwise direction. Remember that the biggest impact is not to flush the filter paper.

In addition, there is a technique called water cutting when brewing coffee, which is to interrupt the water filling process. This action can prevent the taste of hand-brewed coffee from being too strong or too weak. For example, 360cc of water can be cut off when it is halfway to 180cc , and then continue to pour water when the water level on the coffee powder drops. This can adjust the flavor of the hand-brewed coffee and make it taste stronger. In addition, when the water column is too large, the water must be cut off to avoid making the taste too light. Therefore, by cutting off the water, the taste of the hand-brewed coffee can be changed and the extraction rhythm can be adjusted. It is recommended to do it once or twice.

It sounds easy and natural, but there are thousands of ways to do it. The gesture of pouring water in a circle can be divided into clockwise and counterclockwise, large and small circles, crosses, M-shaped, etc. In fact, whether it is drawing a symbol or a "snake", pouring water into the coffee powder cake is to wash out the flavor of each grain of powder. To make an analogy, the coffee powder in the funnel is like a tea bag in a bathtub. We use the hose to pour water, hoping that each tea bag will "flavor" evenly. To achieve this, first wet all the tea bags at the same time. This is the goal of the first pour of water (or "steaming" without being stuffy at all).

But if you look at the funnel with a microscope, you will find that the coffee powder is of different sizes. It is like a tea bag in a bathtub, some are as big as rice dumplings, and some are as thin as dumplings. Even if they start extraction from the same starting line, by the time the big one has enough flavor, the thin one has already been cooked (over-extracted). To avoid this phenomenon, in addition to a high-quality grinder, the only way is to use water flow to pull the larger coffee particles to taste as soon as possible before the fine powder is over-extracted.

So when the second water injection starts, the impact force is very important.

What is the state of the ground layer of hand-brewed coffee?

Is it better to have a concave or flat coffee bed after brewing? This is a common question among hand brew coffee fans.

In fact, we may more often encounter a concave powder bed when brewing only around the center of a coin, while a flat powder bed will appear when the entire coffee is fully extracted.

The powder bed I usually get after brewing light roast and light medium roast looks like this:

This is caused by the water injection method and range. I understand it this way: as long as you can extract a cup of delicious coffee, it doesn’t matter if the powder bed is convex! But the premise is that it must be uniform, which means the amount of water injected is uniform and the extraction is uniform. If the powder bed is high on one side and low on the other, or the powder surface is uneven, it means that the water flow impact force is uneven, resulting in uneven coffee extraction!

There is another question that has been frequently mentioned recently, which is why some people have no pits in the coffee bed after brewing? Why do the powders on the edge fall off?

The powder bed I usually finish making for dark roasting looks like this:

My personal opinion, whether to hang on the wall or not when pouring by hand:

For light-medium roasted beans, I personally prefer to have all the powder involved in the extraction (uniform extraction = soaking in water for the same time), so the ideal state for uniform extraction is horizontal without any wall hanging.

For medium roasts and medium to dark roasts, I would choose powder that has some sticking to the wall, which means it looks like there are small pits or a slight sag in the middle. At the beginning, I would use a steady and smooth stream of water to not damage the powder layer, reduce convection, and fully extract.

Have you found your own problems in these places? If you want to make a good cup of coffee, you must be very delicate in all aspects! Diligent practice is also essential. That’s all for today’s topic. I hope today’s sharing is useful to everyone!

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