Author: Julie Terebkov
Welcome back coffee tribe, and get ready to have your coffee socks blown off. There's nothing worst than bad home brewed coffee on a day you don't have time to stop by. Or worst, when you're out of town or when it's Sunday and Fourscore Coffee is closed. We get the struggle, none of us were born coffee masters, and I know I've made some sad excuses for home brews before. Let's just say, I've ruined quite a few Bialetti's and French presses. Let's fix this problem, once and for all and start brewing good coffee at home.
This is what home brewing 101 is all about, making coffee at home or really anywhere you can take these things. Why did my mind just think of terrible places to make coffee like, in an IKEA display kitchen or in a gas station? I mean, where there's a need for coffee, make it! I'd love to know the weirdest place you've tried to make coffee, comment below and let us know.
This first post will be about my personal favorite way to brew coffee, the pour over method. Using a pour over is fairly simple and almost all coffees taste great as pour overs. We offer a large variety of coffees on pour over at Fourscore Coffee. Pour overs are a fairly easy and accessible choice as far as home brews go. I have a Hario V60 which is my favorite but, that is not the only type of single cup brewer. There are plenty of different types and they taste fairly similar and have almost identical instructions.
Equipment
V60 or other single cup brewer
Filter (either paper or metal)
Hot water
A kettle or some other way to pour the water (I use a "gooseneck kettle" I found on amazon)
Electronic scale (the scale I linked to has a timer built in)
Timer (a phone timer will work just fine)
Spoon (any smaller teaspoon works)
Coffee (ground fairly fine for a V60; courser for brewers that have smaller openings for coffee to drip through - like a Melitta brewer) **Grind on a paper filter (fine-medium) setting for a V60 and use the setting for drip coffee brewers for the Melitta brewers**
How To:
So you want to start by pre-wetting your filter and rinsing your favorite cup with some hot water. Then get 30 grams of your ground coffee in the filter and make sure its evenly distributed. The pour over method uses a total of 3 pours, starting with the first pour which is called the "bloom." For the bloom, you'll want to add 60 grams of hot water (slowly and evenly, in a circular motion) over all the ground coffee. Try to get all the grounds covered in hot water. Let your coffee bloom (it should look like it's expanding or rising) for 45 seconds. During this time you can "agitate" the grounds with the spoon (which just means to stir the grounds to get them all covered in water).
After the 45 seconds are up, your second pour will be 140 grams of hot water poured slowly, in a circular motion. Once there is enough room for the third pour go ahead and add the last 200 grams. This last pour should be more aggressive as to agitate the coffee once more. So, pour in the circular motion but, you'll want to add this water faster, which will create a whirlpool in your coffee.
All the pours should add up to about 3:45-4:15 minutes. If it's taking longer or shorter, the grind may be off and should be changed accordingly. The pour over should yield 400 grams of freshly brewed coffee. We use a 1:13 ratio of water to coffee but, there are tons of other ratios that can be used.
Iced Pour Over
For starters you'll want to fill your cup full of ice (we use mason jars that fit 20 oz). Everything is the same until you get to the second and third pours. After the bloom, you'll add about 100 grams of hot water instead of 140. For your last pour, it'll be 115 grams of hot water for a final yield of 275 grams. Enjoy!
You'll notice that the more you practice, the better your coffee becomes. Practice really helps, especially when first starting out in coffee. Don't be discouraged if your first cup ends up with a few grounds of coffee or doesn't taste quite right. My first pour over ended up with a ton of grounds because, I accidentally tore the filter at some point in my set up. A few other helpful tips are to watch videos of pour overs being done, use fresh coffee (within a few weeks of the roast date), and always ask questions - we are here to answer them and help you have the best cup of coffee to start the day.
I'm excited to start our journey into home brewing 101, with all the messes to be created, the mad scientist laugh you will develop, and the great coffee to be had. Check out our last post on who we are, what we do and the "why" behind Fourscore Coffee. You can find that HERE.
Stay classy coffee tribe.