rasqual Senior Member Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 970 Location: Chicago area Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: *$ Barista, non-pressurized Grinder: SMP, KAP Vac Pot: Aeropress Drip: Porcelain Melitta 103 Roaster: "ring roaster", mod popper
Posted Thu Feb 16, 2006, 4:46pm Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress
Whitey Said:
Not long ago I was on some strong antibiotics after surgery which definitely changed my taste buds for a period of time. Some days I think that they are still effected when it comes to coffee and chocolate!
rasqual Senior Member Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 970 Location: Chicago area Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: *$ Barista, non-pressurized Grinder: SMP, KAP Vac Pot: Aeropress Drip: Porcelain Melitta 103 Roaster: "ring roaster", mod popper
Posted Thu Feb 16, 2006, 4:50pm Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress
I had occasion to use the Aero with a whirly grind today, and was surprised to find that it works much better than I thought it would. I had expected easier clogs, and while that could be true in some instances it didn't trouble me in that way. I did a darned fine grind, and pressed a double with no clogging.
Oh well, this repudiation of my intuition only proves the necessity of experimentation!
LukeSeubert Senior Member Joined: 5 Feb 2006 Posts: 9 Location: Maryland, USA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Thu Feb 16, 2006, 9:32pm Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress - Smooth Americano
While I am very much a coffee newbie, I have developed a routine for making a smooth, consistent Americano coffee that might be helpful to some folks struggling with time, temperature, preheating, and other issues.
To begin, I set my electric kettle on with some fresh, filtered water. While the kettle is warming up, I place a filter in the Aeropress cap, screw it onto the chamber, and place the funnel into the chamber. I get out my thermometer, 12 ounce coffee mug, stirring paddle, and the plunger which is set on a firm, clean surface. I load my Zassenhaus coffee mill with two full scoops of recently roasted beans.
By the time this prepping is complete, the water is boiling. I fill the mug about 2/3rds full with boiling water, and pour water into the plunger up to the top of the #2 oval. I place the chamber with cap and filter on top of the coffee mug, and the thermometer and stirring paddle go into the plunger. I set the mug and plunger aside, and start cranking on the Zassenhaus, which usually takes about two minutes to grind two scoops of coffee beans.
During this time, the mug is thoroughly preheated to a nice hot temperature, and the water in the plunger cools. When I am done grinding the coffee, the fresh grounds are dumped into the chamber still resting on top of the mug. I then check the temperature of the water in the plunger with the thermometer. If more cooling is required, I stir it with the paddle until I get the temp I am looking for, which is usually 170 to 175 degrees Farenheit, depending on the bean variety and the grind.
Once I have reached optimum temperature, I pour the water into the chamber and stir for a long ten count, carefully following the instructions that come with the Aeropress. Stir, almost no steep, and then plunge - which usually takes me about 25 to 40 seconds. The Aeropressed coffee is extracted into nice, hot water in the preheated mug. Once I am done plunging, I dispose of the coffee puck and maybe add a little hot water from the kettle to top things off. Usually the coffee requires some additional stirring with a spoon to bring it into a good temperature range for the best flavor.
The result, assuming somewhat freshly roasted beans, is a very smooth, flavorful cup of coffee. No bitterness or sour or stale flavors. It makes a nicer brew than my three tasse French press, and it is quicker as well. Beans more than ten days old after roast date lose a lot of their flavor and become dull and stale in the cup.
This process is efficient, quick, tidy, and very consistent in its results. One need only experiment a bit with temperature, stir time, steep time, and preferred mug size to find the ideal recipe. Also, thanks to the preheating, this routine does away with any concerns about hot Aeropressed coffee extracted into a cold mug.
rasqual Senior Member Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 970 Location: Chicago area Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: *$ Barista, non-pressurized Grinder: SMP, KAP Vac Pot: Aeropress Drip: Porcelain Melitta 103 Roaster: "ring roaster", mod popper
Posted Fri Feb 17, 2006, 12:09am Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress - Smooth Americano
LukeSeubert Said:
... I fill the mug about 2/3rds full with boiling water, and pour water into the plunger up to the top of the #2 oval. I place the chamber with cap and filter on top of the coffee mug, .... During this time, the mug is thoroughly preheated to a nice hot temperature, and the water in the plunger cools. ... The Aeropressed coffee is extracted into nice, hot water in the preheated mug.
I don't have a quiet enough routine to implement things that way yet, but this is pretty much what I'd imagined. The boil is used to heat the cup and leave hot enough water there to average with the cooler extraction to a higher temperature. It's an ergonomically elegant technique. This is how bloomin' restaurants should serve coffee!
I'd been taking my cordless boiler in to work, but I discovered that the spigot on our Bunn puts out 180 degree water. Nice. I can leave the water pot at home -- but I'll still carry the IR gun to shoot temps. Dang my colleagues think I'm a geek.
Graydon Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2006 Posts: 27 Location: Fenton, MI Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Astra Pro Grinder: Isomac Gran Macinino Drip: Capresso CoffeeTeam Luxe Roaster: Freshroast
Posted Sat Feb 18, 2006, 10:09am Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress
OK, I said I'd tell another story so here goes...
I had some flavoured coffee beans in the cupboard so I ground them in my Gran Macinino to roughly the same fineness as I do the unflavoured beans (flavourless beans? :-) ) and put two scoops into the aeropress. I poured in a few dribbles of water to whet down the grinds and then filled it to the top of the second oval. After stirring, and brewing for a few moments, I began to press the plunger down. Well, I pressed harder and harder and it moved very little. Finally, I set the mug and the aeropress on the floor and pushed harder. It still wasn't moving, so rather than give up and take it apart to clean it out, I pushed with all of my weight on the plunger (~150 pounds) and it started to move a little. However, it then suddenly gave out. I think that the interface between the cap, the filter and the main body lost its seal and allowed water and grinds to leak through into the mug. The problem was that this happened so fast and violently, that it was more like a coffee explosion that splattered flavoured coffee grinds and water all over the kitchen! My wife's fancy rug in front of the sink was splattered with coffee grounds and had to be cleaned. Other than that rug, I got the mess cleaned up in time that she didn't see just how bad it was. :-)
So, don't put more pressure on the Aeropress than you can push with it sitting on the counter.
I just measured it and calculated that the pressure in the chamber was ~37psi which is equal to ~ 2.5 bars. Hmmm, if we could add two more of me plus a few more pounds, we could meet the requirements for real espresso!
So, Alan, you probably already know this but the functional limit for the Aeropress is roughly 2.5 bars and now you know how I know!
rasqual Senior Member Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 970 Location: Chicago area Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: *$ Barista, non-pressurized Grinder: SMP, KAP Vac Pot: Aeropress Drip: Porcelain Melitta 103 Roaster: "ring roaster", mod popper
Posted Sat Feb 18, 2006, 10:40am Subject: Flavored coffee
LOL!
Dude. Seriously, that's very, very funny. It'd be humorous, but what gets me laughing is the image in my mind of you trying like heck to get the press going, only to fall into fate's cruel hands so catastrophically.
There, see? I was SAYING that flavored coffee is dangerous. ;-)
On a serious note, though, let me be a bit polemical for a moment and assert that there's no good reason to flavor beans when extracts can be added to good coffee. In all seriousness, one reason I now have for not appreciating the flavored coffee market is that the suppliers can pretty much use any bloomin' bean they want. IMO, they don't need to worry about nuances in the cupping, they don't need to think about quality control in the coop that sources the stuff, and they might not even need to worry about freshness of roast quite as much. Because the added flavors are so salient, they can compromise on the bean. "Richer flavors than our competitors" means more two-bit aromatics added, allowing 'em to save money by buying cheaper beans.
Can anyone even tell me if flavored coffees come from the specialty market? I mean "specialty" in the technical sense, of course.
That said -- in fact, for that very reason -- I can respect extracts. I'm likely to rarely use them myself, but I've purchased them as gifts. The use of extracts allows people to enjoy the flavor BUT gauge the quality of the beans they're using, as well.
OK, that's Mr. Opine. Again, I'm a "reformed flavored coffee drinker" and as a rule, converts are the most strident in rejecting their old ways.
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2006, 6:31pm Subject: Re: Aerobie Aeropress - The Art of Pressing
Hi All,
Here's a piece I wrote a few days ago. We'll soon post on our website, but you can say you saw it first on the coffeegeek AeroPress forum.
Best regards,
Alan
The Art of Pressing
The art of pressing is to push with about fifteen pounds of force and maintain that force until the liquid runs through and the plunger sinks down to the puck. For a double with fine drip grind, this takes about twenty to thirty seconds.
With fifteen pounds of force, the plunger will initially sink only about a half-inch which is sufficient to compress the air in the chamber. Then, that air pressure does the work. But if you press too hard, the bed of grind will compact and impede the flow. This is also true with a French press.
The optimum grind presses in twenty to thirty seconds and yields a rich brew. A coarser grind will run through quicker and the brew will be weaker. It's analogous to using too coarse a grind in an espresso machine.
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