Posted Wed Aug 31, 2011, 6:52pm Subject: Bitter coffee
I am new to coffee but I am already an insufferable snob about the coffee I drink. I bought an aeropress, and have been having good results. Most of the time though, I use a ceramic drip cone (BonMac), with BonMac Kenaf fiber filters.
My results with the pour over method have been decent, but need some improvement. My biggest problem is that the coffee tastes bitter to me until in cools off a little. The bitterness doesn't disappear entirely, although that seems to depend on the coffee. For example; Sumatran seems to be a little better than Tanzanian Peabody.
I am using beans from a local roaster (Rockford, Bozeman MT), and am assuming I am getting them fairly soon after roasting. I grind the beans just before I brew the coffee, and am using a Hario manual burr grinder. I have been giving the beans a medium grind based on this chart (http://www.ineedcoffee.com/03/coffeegrind/), and although most information I have come across recommends a slightly finer grind, I have found that that made the coffee even more bitter.
I am using filtered water which I pour from a standard tea kettle just seconds after it boils, and I using a ratio of 1/4 cup un-ground beans to 8oz. of water (The ratio came from Blue Bottle's website), and I am pouring hot water through the filter and into the cup before I add the coffee and start my brew.
I think my pouring technique is fairly decent. I can usually smell the bitter quality while the coffee blooms, so that leads me to believe it has something to do with grind or water temperature.
I live in Bozeman Montana which sits at 4820 ft above sea level. Water boils at around 205 degrees here, and on my electric stove I can't get the temp much higher than 203 degrees. There's also a high mineral content in the water. I have tried bottled spring water with out much luck (but it does help a little). Unfortunately using spring water all the time is impractical.
The best coffee I have had yet came from the Stumptown in Redhook Brooklyn. It was an Ethiopian and there was no bitterness, just very full of flavor, and balanced. That's what I'm trying to achieve. I just can't do it yet.
Anyone see anything I'm doing wrong in how I make my preparation?
Mods may wish to move this to the Coffee Equipment and Brewing Methods forum since it's not espresso grinder related. It'll likely get a lot more useful responses there.
Mods may wish to move this to the Coffee Equipment and Brewing Methods forum since it's not espresso grinder related. It'll likely get a lot more useful responses there.
The opening post has all the symptoms of coffee which has been scalded with boiling or nearly boiling water: When brewing coffee we attempt to infuse it to bring out the flavour while avoiding over brewing it and bringing out the bitterness. Scalding the coffee over-brews it! Boil your water and wait for a minute or two for it to go off the boil and then wet the ground coffee in the filter with a very small amount of water and wait for another minute and then continue to drip your coffee as usual. I recommend a fine ground for filter drip but this may result in some coffee dust in the finished coffee depending on your filtering method.
Edit: As an extra thought, the type of filter used will affect the taste: For example a permanent filter of metal or nylon mesh will let more of the oils through and produce a more bitter taste whereas a paper filter will hold back more oils and make the coffee less bitter.
I am new to coffee but I am already an insufferable snob about the coffee I drink. I bought an aeropress, and have been having good results. Most of the time though, I use a ceramic drip cone (BonMac), with BonMac Kenaf fiber filters.
My results with the pour over method have been decent, but need some improvement. My biggest problem is that the coffee tastes bitter to me until in cools off a little. The bitterness doesn't disappear entirely, although that seems to depend on the coffee. For example; Sumatran seems to be a little better than Tanzanian Peabody.
I am using beans from a local roaster (Rockford, Bozeman MT), and am assuming I am getting them fairly soon after roasting. I grind the beans just before I brew the coffee, and am using a Hario manual burr grinder. I have been giving the beans a medium grind based on this chart (http://www.ineedcoffee.com/03/coffeegrind/), and although most information I have come across recommends a slightly finer grind, I have found that that made the coffee even more bitter.
I am using filtered water which I pour from a standard tea kettle just seconds after it boils, and I using a ratio of 1/4 cup un-ground beans to 8oz. of water (The ratio came from Blue Bottle's website), and I am pouring hot water through the filter and into the cup before I add the coffee and start my brew.
I think my pouring technique is fairly decent. I can usually smell the bitter quality while the coffee blooms, so that leads me to believe it has something to do with grind or water temperature.
I live in Bozeman Montana which sits at 4820 ft above sea level. Water boils at around 205 degrees here, and on my electric stove I can't get the temp much higher than 203 degrees. There's also a high mineral content in the water. I have tried bottled spring water with out much luck (but it does help a little). Unfortunately using spring water all the time is impractical.
The best coffee I have had yet came from the Stumptown in Redhook Brooklyn. It was an Ethiopian and there was no bitterness, just very full of flavor, and balanced. That's what I'm trying to achieve. I just can't do it yet.
Anyone see anything I'm doing wrong in how I make my preparation?
Use a bit more beans, a bit coarser grind, and let water sit off boil for about 15 seconds before pourover. That may do the trick.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
I'd say there's a very good chance that you've scalded the coffee. On the other hand, if you use the Aeropress and you use the same temperature of water, you'd scald that coffee too, so maybe not. Maybe you're grinding too fine? Scalding would still be my best guess, as my attempts with pour over (and CCD at that, where I can control the variables very well) tend to almost invariably produce a less bold cup than what I am used to; I'd blame the paper filter for that, but I also use the Aeropress and don't get the same problem with the same water:bean ratio.
More beans? I would have voted for fewer. Blue Bottle's formula seems off to me (1g coffee per 10ml water). I would try making coffee with around 1/8 cup of beans for 8 oz.
EDIT: Corrected ratio.
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" - T.S. Eliot
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