Sharing of hand-washing skills | When does hand-washing water injection need to be divided into sections? How to divide it into sections?

Many friends who make hand-brewed coffee will encounter a problem: when should it be segmented and when not? If it is necessary to segment, when should the water be stopped?

Today we are going to talk about this topic - how to decide whether to segment or not based on the extraction status

In our content yesterday, Yemeni Mocha Matali Coffee Hand Brewing Techniques | How to Make Mocha Coffee Japanese Volcano Brewing, we mentioned that the more segments are used during extraction and the less water is injected in each segment, the higher the coffee extraction rate will be. Conversely, the extraction rate of one-stage extraction will be relatively low.

In addition to the above situations, we also need to determine whether to segment based on the roasting degree of the coffee we use, the rising state of the liquid level during extraction, and the exhaust state of the coffee.

Generally speaking, when brewing light-roasted to medium-roasted coffee, we prefer segmented extraction. Since the exhaust of these coffees is relatively weak, when the water level in the filter cup rises to a certain level, the coffee powder will sink and accumulate at the bottom of the filter cup without the support of gas. At this time, the flushing force of the water column will be dispersed by the overflowing water, and the coffee powder will not roll well, resulting in insufficient extraction. Therefore, when the water level reaches the powder layer and begins to overflow the coffee powder, we will stop after adding water for a few more circles, let the water level drop, and then refill water to facilitate more friction between the coffee powder particles and between the coffee and water, thereby improving the extraction effect.

Dark roasted coffee has enough exhaust to support the powder particles, so a large part of the coffee will be suspended in the upper layer. When brewing, it can rise with the water level. The water injection can make the coffee roll up and down all the time, so there is no need for segmented extraction to achieve a relatively high extraction rate.

There is another way to judge the state of stopping water injection. When you find that the bubbles rolling up from the brewing suddenly "turn white" or "become thicker", you can stop injecting water, wait for the water level to drop, and then re-inject water to complete the extraction. This principle is equivalent to the white liquid column when making Italian coffee, which is a sign of complete extraction. However, since there is no pressurization in hand-brewed extraction, the white foam that comes up indicates that this part of the coffee has been extracted to the latter stage. In this case, stop injecting water, and then re-inject it to pour the rest of the coffee in the filter cup into your water injection range to achieve the purpose of uniform extraction. Doing so will also make the coffee more layered!

Finally, there is another situation, that is, when you add more water at the beginning and find that the water level rises too quickly, you can take the approach of brewing in sections, lengthen the brewing time, let the water level drop, and then continue brewing, which can avoid insufficient extraction caused by too fast water flow. Because in brewing, time is also a factor that affects extraction!

Practical session

This time, I used [Yirgacheffe Fivoka Wash] and [Jamaica Blue Mountain NO.1]

Woka: Powder dosage is 16g, powder-water ratio is close to 1:16, and water temperature is 90℃.

Add 30g of water and steam for 30s. Add water to 160g in the first stage and add water to 260g in the second stage. The brewing time is 2'10".

Pay attention to the following animation and you can see that white foam and thick bubbles will suddenly appear before the water injection stops.

Flavor: Jasmine, citrus, bergamot, lemon, cedar, clean taste.

Blue Mountain: Powder dosage is 17g, water-powder ratio is close to 1:15, and water temperature is 87℃.

Add 30g of water and steam for 25s, then add water to 260g at a time. The brewing time is 1'45".

Flavor: Creamy, chocolate, caramel, floral, balanced, full-bodied.