Today’s Coffee: 14th April 2024

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Comments:

  • I haven’t had a lot to say about my coffee recently
  • Over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself compressing the intervals between pours, rushing through the process to taste the results of my efforts only to find myself frustrated at the outcome
  • I stopped making tasting notes because I started to believe that all mugs from a given bag were tasting the same
  • My process has become less about the exciting discovery of new flavours, and more about the grind (ho ho) which led to irritation and not feeling like I’m getting better at this
  • So let’s reset, try something new
  • Today, I’m back to the more savoury Scenery Mario Hervas beans
  • Savoury beans, I find, are best balanced by pulling out as much sweetness as possible
  • In my (still somewhat limited) experience, savoury aromas and flavours tend to have a multiplying effect on the undesirable bitter flavours
  • Pulling out the sweetness helps to keep ‘em separated, allowing the savoury flavours to shine while mollifying the Darkness at the end, like the raisins and apples in a Turkish curry
  • In order to maximise this effect, and to shake things up a bit, I’m going to have extended intervals between pours
  • The idea is to let as much of the sweet water drain out as possible, so that I’m not piling water on top of water and keeping the grounds at maximum saturation, strangling the sweetness
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Today’s Coffee: 28th March 2024

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Comments:

  • New beans!
  • A notch darker than the São Pedro, so got to bear that in mind
  • However, I am discovering that with savoury and to some extent boozy beans, it’s more about balancing the bitterness than eliminating it
  • Today I’m going for 50% of the water in to two flavour pours, with a 2:3 ratio on those
  • If anything, that ratio should probably be more like 1:2 or even 1:3 because I suspect I’ll need to maximise the sweetness to balance the cup
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Today’s Coffee: 18th March 2024

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Beans

  • ​Roastery​: Round Hill
  • ​Beans​: San Pedro #1
  • ​Roast​: Medium Light (3/7)
  • ​primary aroma​: fermented

Adjustments

  • Grind Type: Slow Feed
  • Water to bean Ratio: 16.0:1 (256g)
  • Sweet to Acidity Ratio: 3:2

Comments:

  • So after the realisation that putting too much in the first pour is likely to lead to over-extraction, I’ve gone strong in the other direction now leaving everything to the last pour
  • Going to carry on with the excavation after the second pour because I think that helps maintain a Darkness-free body.
  • Going 3:2 on the first two pours to pull out the acid and hopefully get that strong booziness as well as some additional sweetness.
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Today’s Coffee: 17th March 2024

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Beans: Round Hill San Pedro #1

Adjustments

  • Grind Type: Slow Feed
  • Water to bean Ratio: 16.0:1 (256g)
  • Bloom Stage Weighting: 50%
  • Bloom Pours: 3

Comments:

  • Today I’m doing some body building
  • First, I’ll increase the total amount of water so each ground will have more water passing through it which will increase extraction
  • Second, adding a mega excavation after the second Flavour pour to make sure grounds at the bottom aren’t getting over saturated
  • Finally, Body pour delayed by an additional 10s on yesterday’s brew, so each ground will be wetter for longer, also increasing extraction
  • Going for a 3-2-1 on the Flavour pours to try to maximise the whiskey tones
  • Third small flavour pour is to reset the bed after the excavation, and to just pull out any sweetness from the grounds that maybe haven’t been as saturated
  • Also hoping that because of the turnover of the grounds, the Body pour will also be able to pull out sweetness as well as adding body
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Today’s Coffee: 16th March 2024

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Beans: Round Hill San Pedro #1

Adjustments

  • Grind size: 1Zpresso QS @ 80 (888.89μm, Burr Distance: 60.0mm)
  • Grind Type: Slow Feed
  • Water to bean Ratio: 15.0:1 (240g)
  • Flavour Pour %: 45
  • Flavour Pours Ratio: 1:1

Comments:

  • This week I have been humbled by the bean. Thought I was getting a handle on it, then had disaster after disaster.
  • Yesterday, though, I got some new beans
  • These are delicious beans
  • I think the moral of the story is ‘When things are going wrong, buy stuff’
  • At the risk of under-extraction, I went with a super light touch in order to see what flavours exist without them being overpowered by bitterness.
  • The grind size is at the upper limit of what should be considered for a pour over, and well over that of a V60.
  • The pours are spaced close together.
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Today’s Coffee: 15th March 2024

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Beans: Round Hill San Pedro #1

Adjustments

  • Grind size: 1Zpresso QS @ 70 (777.78μm, Burr Distance: 52.5mm)
  • Grind type: Slow Feed
  • Water to bean Ratio: 15.0:1 (240g)
  • Sweet to Acidity Ratio: 1:2

Comments:

  • No longer worrying about water temperature thanks to this paper in Nature
  • New beans!
  • Darker roast, so lowering water ratio as likely to reach maximum extraction quicker and more water will mean more bitternes
  • Strong boozy smell so doing 1:2 ratio on the bloom pours to bring out the honey sweetness to balance
  • Followed quickly by the a single body pour as dark roast means bitterness likely to enter the picture sooner rather than later
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Today’s Coffee: 12th March 2024

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Beans: Redemption Rubén Ortega

Adjustments

  • Coffee weight: 15g
  • Grind Type: Pre-ground
  • Water to bean Ratio: 16.0:1 (240g)
  • Bloom Stage Weighting: 50%
  • Bloom Pours: 3

Comments:

  • Attempting to get the best out of the pre-ground beans which I ground 2 weeks ago
  • Wanted to put a lot of water in up front to extract as much of the sweetness flavours as possible even at the risk of some sourness
  • Then get through the rest of it as quickly as possible so I didn’t bury it in Darkness
  • But then I screwed up the pour, didn’t I?
  • Ended up putting in a smaller amount up front and waiting too long before the fourth and fifth pour
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Today’s Coffee: 11th March 2024

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Beans: Redemption Rubén Ortega

Adjustments

  • Grind size: 1Zpresso QS @ 57 (42.75mm)
  • Water to bean Ratio: 16.0:1 (272g)
  • Bloom Stage Weighting: 45%
  • Bloom Pours: 3

Comments:

  • New coffee brewing week oh boy oh boy oh boy
  • Beans are light, but marginally darker than the Campbell & Syme. No trace of any oil.
  • They smell like jelly beans with almost a hint of mint. Something floral and tangy in there for sure.
  • So I’m going for pulsed bloom pours to capture a little of that tang but weighting more towards the sweetness as we progress.
  • The fourth adds the body while hopefully being early enough to still pull out the sweetness and the fifth, much smaller pour, is to add just a hint of the bitterness back in at the end
  • God damn I just read this back I am at the deep end watch as I dive in
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