NobbyR Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2011 Posts: 1,604 Location: Germany Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Poccino Opus One, Ariete Grinder: Eureka Mignon Istantaneo,... Vac Pot: N/A Drip: Melitta Linea Unica de Luxe Roaster: N/A
Posted Sat Dec 17, 2011, 4:17am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
Welcome to CoffeeGeek!
Your question cannot be answered as a general rule, because the optimal brewing temperature differs depending on the way of preparation (drip coffee, espresso, mokka, French press), the degree of roasting (lighter or darker roast) or the kind of beans used. However, the water usually should not be boiling hot, because that might burn the ground coffee.
*** "This drink of the Satan is so delicious that it would be a shame to leave it to the infidels." (Pope Clement VIII on coffee)
Posted Mon Dec 19, 2011, 6:53am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
Generally, start at 200°F. Stay below 206°F and most of the time you want to start brewing above 194°F.
Your next question will be what happens if you brew outside those ranges, right?
:D
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
Posted Mon Dec 19, 2011, 7:24am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
Yes to the above, more or less - I rarely go as low as 195, but for certain coffees I do. I also rarely brew above 205 on purpose (ask me about my ever-surfing stovetop vac-pot).
This is generally what I do - for manual pour-over. With light-roasted coffee (south of Full City) I start at 205-ish, and generally find little need to brew cooler. If I get excessive bitterness, I'll back it off a couple degrees. With darker coffee (if I roast it, FC - FC+ is "dark" to me - I've had some that was clearly taken well into 2nd Crack) I'll start at 200 and work down if needed.
As for my vac-pot, I have a less-than-ideal setup. I have an electric stove and use a stove-top pot. What ends up happening is that I can have difficulty maintaining temperature because electric stoves are very slow to respond. I've worked it out so that I can surf as little as 5 degrees up in a 2 minute period, so I end up brewing from 195-200, or 200-205, or somewhere in between. Same basic principles apply - lower for darker, higher for lighter.
I think the general principle is that lighter-roasted coffees are a bit more difficult to fully extract, so the higher temps are required. I guess.
jpender Senior Member Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Posts: 394 Location: California Expertise: I like coffee
Grinder: Kyocera CM-50 Vac Pot: S/S Moka Pot Drip: Aeropress
Posted Mon Dec 19, 2011, 10:24am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
I don't think my Aeropress coffee ever brews as high as 195°F. When I've taken the trouble to stick a thermometer into the mixture it is always less than that, and dropping. I start with water straight off the boil. What do you guys do? Preheat everything?
Posted Thu Dec 29, 2011, 8:05pm Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
Your observation is spot on - the first 10 seconds the brew water drops approximately 10-15 degrees, which is not too bad for most brew methods that do not have added heat during the brew process. Press Pot will also drop similar - most anything in the 6-8% brew ratio will. If you try brewing with much higher brew ratio, the drop is even higher (ratio of ambient temp mass of coffee to mass of heated water) - this is par for the course.
Many of the brewing methods already have this taken into account, so that's why when we talk about brewing temperature, it's usually implied that it is the starting temperature.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
Posted Fri Dec 30, 2011, 7:10am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
Netphilosopher Said:
Many of the brewing methods already have this taken into account, so that's why when we talk about brewing temperature, it's usually implied that it is the starting temperature.
Bingo. Water temp before you begin applying it to the coffee is the easiest way to have a uniform starting point, but we all know (well, all of us who have checked) that as soon as you but that 200F water on 70F coffee, temp drops dramatically. Of course, that's not true of vac-pot or espresso...
Posted Fri Dec 30, 2011, 9:20pm Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
jpender Said:
I don't think my Aeropress coffee ever brews as high as 195°F. When I've taken the trouble to stick a thermometer into the mixture it is always less than that, and dropping. I start with water straight off the boil. What do you guys do? Preheat everything?
Hi jp... Aero-press don't need to be brewed as high, and 195°F is more than adequate. Despite Aero-press's personal claims that it can brew as low as 175°F that is too low for me, but it sure is not as picky/finicky/fickle as French Press.
We have an automatic hot-pot which holds up to 4L of water at a preset temp, and we set it to 195°F and it makes awesome coffee. My old kettle-till-she-boils didn't make it any better.
We also live at 6300 ft above sea level, and most days, water boils at 198-202°F here. So for us, this is a great solution...
Posted Tue Jan 3, 2012, 11:46am Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
JPDyson Said:
Bingo. Water temp before you begin applying it to the coffee is the easiest way to have a uniform starting point, but we all know (well, all of us who have checked) that as soon as you but that 200F water on 70F coffee, temp drops dramatically. Of course, that's not true of vac-pot or espresso...
Absolutely agree, but the OP asking implies they aren't starting with a vac-pot or pulling shots of espresso, so I left those brew methods out. LOL
Technically, many of the auto drip are also constant temperature, as is percolation, but you don't get to control the temperature of the water in those brew methods.
In fact, I've found that if I'm not careful, my Melitta/Gevalia Kaffe BCM-4 will overextract - the brew temperature is a constant 205°F and if I grind just a bit too fine, I'll find myself with the familiar smoke and bitterness of overextraction. The little top pourover lid really retains the heat in the basket/filter, and the carafe is heated from below with the heater element as well.
Although... now that I think of it, maybe I can encase the BCM-4 in a vacuum chamber and lower the pressure until it brews closer to 196°F.... ROFLOL
The extraction from an AeroPress depends on the brew temperature, grind, and contact time - just like any method. The quirks for the AP are a larger ratio of the brew equipment mass to the amount of coffee brewed (so this will lower the initial temperature of the brew slurry more than most methods), the normal brew ratio is usually more like 10% to 20% (also lowers the temperature of the brew slurry), and the thermal efficiency of the AP is less than most other methods (it loses heat quicker than other contact methods like a Press Pot). Therefore, it has a tendency to underextract and has an overall built-in resistance to overextraction.
------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------- Le café doit être noir comme le diable, chaud comme l'enfer, pur comme un ange, et doux comme l'amour.
"There is no right answer with coffee. There is only the elixir in your cup at the moment you partake."
"...I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;..." - Lord Kelvin RECIPES thread => http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/585708
jpender Senior Member Joined: 11 Jul 2011 Posts: 394 Location: California Expertise: I like coffee
Grinder: Kyocera CM-50 Vac Pot: S/S Moka Pot Drip: Aeropress
Posted Tue Mar 20, 2012, 4:14pm Subject: Re: What is the best temperature to brew coffee?
I went away on vacation last December before anyone responded and I forgot about this thread.
Recently I was trying to answer a question about the insulation on my Aeropress. Some time ago I'd made a neoprene "beer cozy" for my AP. This was partially to allow me to connect it directly to my hand grinder but also as a means of insulation. What I wanted to know was how effective the insulation actually was.
So I made a series of measurements with the AP: I preheated with boiling water, with hot tap water (50°C), and I didn't preheat. These all resulted in slightly shifted temperature profiles with the warm water preheat about 2°C above the no preheat case, and the boiling water preheat another 1.5°C or so above that (roughly speaking).
Then I slipped on the cozy and used hot tap water to preheat the AP and there was no difference over preheating without the cozy. Although it is not particularly thick I had assumed the neoprene would add some insulative value. But apparently it is worthless for that.
This once again got me wondering: If I were able to control the temperature, through preheating or some other magic, would it make sense to aim for a certain temperature range and adjust other brew variables (grind and time) appropriately?
Ignoring the inherent thermal limitations of the AP, is there an optimal coffee slurry temperature range?
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