Coffee machine

[splat]

2 hours ago, W@nted said:

Awaiting delivery of some Mikro breweries coffee beans to my village. Read some great reviews so far. Any hubbers have some feedback on them?

Do you mean these guys near Hermanus ?

https://mikrocoffeeco.co.za/

I have bought their coffee twice (and loved it) and visited them when in the area - lovely people. Very passionate about their product.

[porqui]

1 hour ago, Underachiever said:

Anyone using the Aeropress system?  Thoughts?

For years now.

But get a proper grinder.

You do need to experiment until you develop your own ritual though.

[W@nted]

45 minutes ago, splat said:

Do you mean these guys near Hermanus ?

https://mikrocoffeeco.co.za/

I have bought their coffee twice (and loved it) and visited them when in the area - lovely people. Very passionate about their product.

Yes, ordered from them. Great service, with a nice personal touch to the delivery. Busy dialing in the grind, but it seems promising so far! 

[Milosh]

1 hour ago, Underachiever said:

Anyone using the Aeropress system?  Thoughts?

They are great , here is an interesting video to fine tune your technique 

 

 

 

[Underachiever]

1 hour ago, Milosh said:

They are great , here is an interesting video to fine tune your technique 

 

 

Watched a number of JH's vids - very good!!!

Edited August 16, 2021 by Underachiever

[PhilipV]

I love my aeropress. 

When traveling the first things I pack is the Aeropress and my Porlex grinder. 

[Frosty]

4 hours ago, Underachiever said:

Anyone using the Aeropress system?  Thoughts?

Just make sure it's not the counterfeit ones (Aelopless).
I ordered one on Takealot, probably 5 years or so back, and if it wasn't for someone on BH, I wouldn't have known it was fake.

How to tell?
I'll see if a Google search can find the details, and will add it to this post.

Edit:
Read from this post onwards, as this is where @Grebelfound out the problem. 

http://www.aerobie.com/aeropress/aeropress-materials/

Edited August 16, 2021 by Frosty

[Mountain Bru]

I'm a big fan of the Areopress, but it is a little more admin than a Bialetti. With a Bialetti you can just throw water in, coffee in, put it on the stove, and in a few minutes you have coffee. Aeropress requires a tiny bit more effort with boiling water, stirring, plunging. 

My Aeropress method: 
1. I use the "inverted method" with the Aeropress upside down. (I really recommend this)
2. Put about 2 tablespoons of freshly ground coffee in (quite finely ground)
3. Add a bit of water (enough to cover the coffee), give it a little stir to bloom the coffee
4. Put a filter in the cap and wet it (wetting the filter makes plunging easier)
5. Add water up to around 90% or 95% full
6. Stir the brew for 60 seconds (Timing is super important, use a clock, watch, phone, or whatever)
7. Put the cap with the wet filter in it onto the Aeropress
8. Flip the Aeropress and plunge immediately into a cup

For camping/hiking/bikepacking, I find a Bialetti is sometimes a bit less effort in "non-kitchen" conditions. It also helps that with a Bialetti, you don't need to boil water in a pot/kettle, and then use the Aeropress, and can just just boil water in the bialetti, leaving your pot free for cooking (if you're hiking for example). 

[Underachiever]

27 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

I'm a big fan of the Areopress, but it is a little more admin than a Bialetti. With a Bialetti you can just throw water in, coffee in, put it on the stove, and in a few minutes you have coffee. Aeropress requires a tiny bit more effort with boiling water, stirring, plunging. 

My Aeropress method: 
1. I use the "inverted method" with the Aeropress upside down. (I really recommend this)
2. Put about 2 tablespoons of freshly ground coffee in (quite finely ground)
3. Add a bit of water (enough to cover the coffee), give it a little stir to bloom the coffee
4. Put a filter in the cap and wet it (wetting the filter makes plunging easier)
5. Add water up to around 90% or 95% full
6. Stir the brew for 60 seconds (Timing is super important, use a clock, watch, phone, or whatever)
7. Put the cap with the wet filter in it onto the Aeropress
8. Flip the Aeropress and plunge immediately into a cup

For camping/hiking/bikepacking, I find a Bialetti is sometimes a bit less effort in "non-kitchen" conditions. It also helps that with a Bialetti, you don't need to boil water in a pot/kettle, and then use the Aeropress, and can just just boil water in the bialetti, leaving your pot free for cooking (if you're hiking for example). 

I see some nice Stainless Steel filter systems for the AP, so no need for filter papers.  Good idea or gimmick?  I think the St St aperture size will certainly be larger than the paper, so a more turbid coffee result?

[Mountain Bru]

21 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

I see some nice Stainless Steel filter systems for the AP, so no need for filter papers.  Good idea or gimmick?  I think the St St aperture size will certainly be larger than the paper, so a more turbid coffee result?

I've thought about trying a stainless steel filter, but I figured that while I have loads of paper filters I'd use those til they're finished and that look at other option. 
I think you get different filter size stainless steel filters though, which will also influence things. 

In principle though, you should be able to get the same extraction with either filter without any change in turbidity (had to look that word up ????) by influencing how fine the grind is, and then adjusting the brew method to match (so with a coarser filter, probably a coarser grind and then a longer extraction time for example)

[Underachiever]

1 hour ago, Mountain Bru said:

I've thought about trying a stainless steel filter, but I figured that while I have loads of paper filters I'd use those til they're finished and that look at other option. 
I think you get different filter size stainless steel filters though, which will also influence things. 

In principle though, you should be able to get the same extraction with either filter without any change in turbidity (had to look that word up ????) by influencing how fine the grind is, and then adjusting the brew method to match (so with a coarser filter, probably a coarser grind and then a longer extraction time for example)

I thought changing grinding coarseness and extracting longer will be very much against the Coffee Illuminati's rules? 

[Alouette3]

Only used paper filters personally. Lots of people including myself rinse and reuse them a couple times.

[Mountain Bru]

36 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

I thought changing grinding coarseness and extracting longer will be very much against the Coffee Illuminati's rules? 

Quite the opposite... Not adjusting your grind and extraction time would be a big faux pas. Technically you should be doing this for every different bean you use, not just the brew method. 

To put some science to the snobbery, here's a graph.....

3 things are extracted from the beans when you make coffee - caffeine, oils, acids. 
Oils give the coffee flavour, acids make it bitter. Normally when people complain about bitter coffee, it's because it's over extracted and therefore there's too much acid. It's usually not the beans fault, provided that it's been freshly ground. If it's not freshly ground, it's probably already oxidized and thats gonna make the favour bad no matter what you do. 

So "the goal" of brewing coffee is to stop the extraction at the peak of the orange curve to maximize the flavour from the oils with as little acid as possible. The time scale is all relative though. The speed of extraction will be influenced by stuff like: water temp, fine/coarse grind, agitation (like stirring), purity of water etc. Each method should in theory be able to give a very similar result. So if you're using a coarser filter on your aeropress, and therefore need coarser ground coffee, then the extraction speed is gonna be slower, so you'll need to increase the brew times (like a french press). 

[Underachiever]

10 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

Quite the opposite... Not adjusting your grind and extraction time would be a big faux pas. Technically you should be doing this for every different bean you use, not just the brew method. 

To put some science to the snobbery, here's a graph.....

3 things are extracted from the beans when you make coffee - caffeine, oils, acids. 
Oils give the coffee flavour, acids make it bitter. Normally when people complain about bitter coffee, it's because it's over extracted and therefore there's too much acid. It's usually not the beans fault, provided that it's been freshly ground. If it's not freshly ground, it's probably already oxidized and thats gonna make the favour bad no matter what you do. 

So "the goal" of brewing coffee is to stop the extraction at the peak of the orange curve to maximize the flavour from the oils with as little acid as possible. The time scale is all relative though. The speed of extraction will be influenced by stuff like: water temp, fine/coarse grind, agitation (like stirring), purity of water etc. Each method should in theory be able to give a very similar result. So if you're using a coarser filter on your aeropress, and therefore need coarser ground coffee, then the extraction speed is gonna be slower, so you'll need to increase the brew times (like a french press). 

Ah ha.  Love graphs!!  Thx!!

[madbradd]

Deleted. Forgot to quote

Edited August 16, 2021 by madbradd
Deleted: Forgot to quote.

[madbradd]

5 hours ago, Underachiever said:

I see some nice Stainless Steel filter systems for the AP, so no need for filter papers.  Good idea or gimmick?  I think the St St aperture size will certainly be larger than the paper, so a more turbid coffee result?

SS filter is good. Great for travel as you don't need to worry about the paper filters getting damaged or wet as the SS disc stays in the "lid" when you store it. You do get a bit of fines though and more oils coming through. Certainly not as clean as the paper filters but still a great cup.