Coffee Emporium Guatemala of Cincinnati Ohio

[bvanevery54]

The 8 hour cold brew is still drinkable and doesn't taste woody. It's not as good as when the beans were fresher, but it is a viable method for using beans as they start to deteriorate. I just need this to take less time than 8 hours. I wonder what the maximum temperature is that doesn't extract the woody compounds?

 

[bvanevery54]

Today I did a lower temperature immersion brew. 3 tablespoons beans, 80 clicks grind. Mug is 12+ fl. oz. I put the grounds in there, filled it with 75*C water, and put a glass lid on it. I let it sit. Meanwhile I prepared a cheap filter, rinsing it with leftover filter water that was used to warm a Pyrex measuring cup. At 15 minutes I transferred the coffee and grounds to the Pyrex cup. Then rinsed my mug, put the filter and funnel on top of it, and finally poured the coffee and grounds into it.

This process is slightly messy and definitely futzy. The problem is I don't have a good glass lid for a Pyrex cup as there's a spout that lets heat escape. Whereas it's easy to seal the top of a mug with anything flat.

The grounds jammed the filter paper and a little bit of liquid at the bottom never drained. I just threw that little bit out. I did get a 12 fl. oz. yield from this.

The coffee is watery. That wasn't enough time. However I'm not tasting much of the woodiness, so perhaps I'm on the right track. Maybe 70*C and give it a half hour? The point is to beat the 8 hours it takes to do a cold brew.

 

[bvanevery54]

I did another immersion brew. 3 tblsp beans, 80 clicks grind. Used 2 mugs, a brewing mug and a filtering / drinking mug. Used a microwave to heat 16 fl. oz of water, as that's a lot less faffing around to reach a desired temperature. Put 10 fl. oz. of water in the brewing mug at 70*C. I didn't expect it to be that small an amount, but that's what the Pyrex cup said. I did not preheat the brewing mug, so some temperature loss from that. Both mugs sit on cork hot pads to keep the cold counter from sucking the heat out of 'em. 6 fl. oz. was put through the cheap unbleached filter funnel to rinse and shape it, and to warm the filtering / drinking mug.

I let all this sit for 30 minutes, then poured the coffee into the filter. Most of the grounds went with it, as they were floating and I didn't have much control. And then I realized, I never emptied my filter rinse water, thereby ruining the whole thing. Better luck next time.

 

[bvanevery54]

This time I put a small amount of water in the bottoms of the mugs and nuked them both in the microwave for 1 minute. I wanted to make sure the mugs were warm, so that I wouldn't be worrying about that and make another mistake. One of the mugs, only was warm. The other was hot and the handle burned my index finger slightly. That was probably my brewing mug from before. I decided to make the hotter mug my filter / drinking mug, to give it a chance to cool down.

I nuked 16 fl. oz. of cold filtered water in the microwave for 4 minutes. Meanwhile I ground 3 tblsp of beans at 80 clicks. I dried the bottom of the brewing mug so that the start of the brewing would be consistently timed. I put the grounds in there. Checking the water temperature, it was only 65*C, so I just used it. I poured 12 fl. oz. into the brewing mug, covered it with the glass lid, and set a timer for 30 minutes. I need to double check whether the mugs hold very different amounts. I poured 4 fl. oz. into the filter to rinse it, then immediately dumped the water, to prevent the previous mistake.

Most of the grounds dumped into the filter. It's not easy to pour from a mug, and one has to do it with a bit of authority.

The brewing worked, the result is recognizably coffee, but the taste is "eh". Kinda off, like old coffee. I drank half the cup and tossed the rest.

Could be the dying coffee beans. Could be standing around lukewarm for a half hour, does it decompose something? Could brewing in a ceramic mug have anythng to do with it? That's a variable I'd like to eliminate. Most likely it is what it is though, and there are no heroics that will save these beans. Short of 8 hour cold brewing them.

I'd say it's proof of concept. Would like to try with some "known good" beans.

Maybe 20 minutes is better than 30 minutes? But 15 minutes at slightly higher temperature, was quite watery.

 

[bvanevery54]

I've changed the brewing mug. I think its clay body is less porous and has a lower risk of imparting unwanted flavors. It has a much wider mouth, and a handle that's too close to it. However I found a small shallow ceramic bowl that makes a reasonable lid. I'm using it to cover the Pyrex cup in the microwave as well.

I nuked a small amount of water in the brewing mug to preheat it. I dumped that water into the filter funnel to shape it and warm the filtering / drinking mug. I dried out the brewing mug with a paper towel. I ground 3 tablespoons of beans, 80 clicks, and put them in the brewing mug. Then I dumped out the water in the drinking mug, so as not to make any future mistake! That's my drill: grounds done = time to dump the filter water.

I measured 12 fl. oz. filtered water in the Pyrex cup, that's my input. Nuked it for 3 minutes. In my microwave it came out 68*C, so that's what I used for brewing. I'm letting it sit for 20 minutes this time.

It's much better! I'd say choice of brewing vessel does matter. My Mom is a potter and I asked about the differences between the mugs. The one I'm using now is higher fired. The lower fired mug that I used before has sort of a red earthenware clay body and may be leaching. Best for drinking, not brewing.

High temperature glassware like the Pyrex cup would also be appropriate, but the spout makes it hard to seal. I've considered a Mason jar, but I would not use the gasketed lid with it. There's rubbery plasticky stuff in there; too much potential to impart unwanted flavors. Could be covered with the bowl or whatever though.

I think these beans are past ever being excellent, and I don't think it's as good as the cold brew of a few days ago. But this only takes 20+ minutes and eliminates most of the woody tastes. Maybe not all. It's passable coffee, but I don't want to sell it as anything other than a rescue technique.

I wonder if lower temperatures and longer steeping can eliminate the woodiness?

 

[bvanevery54]

Same brewing method, same inputs. Poured 56*C water, steeped for 30 minutes. The result was underdeveloped. Drank half of it, threw the rest away.

 

[bvanevery54]

Same immersion method. Same inputs. Temperature 75*C. Steeped longer than 30 minutes. A vacuum cleaner was running and I didn't hear my timer.

It tastes slightly sour and has some off flavors. Could be the woodiness coming through a bit.

 

[bvanevery54]

I'm finally at the end of the bag, so it gets 3.5 tblsp of beans. Otherwise same inputs. Temperature 69*C, steeped for 30 minutes.

I dislike pouring with this brewing cup. It's really easy to spill. I could try the fork handle trick I suppose. I don't need much pouring control, I just need the coffee to actually go into the funnel.

The coffee is too strong. I'm surprised that small addition of beans made that much of a difference. Maybe I was measuring a bit lightly before. Previously I was scooping from the bag, which got very awkward towards the bottom of the bag. This time I dumped all the beans in a bowl first, then measured them.

The taste is bleh. Kinda indistinctly bitter and old. I think I did better with 20 minutes.

Well it's a weak finish, but I got some basic data for future immersion brewing attempts. This coffee may be just fine when first opened, but I can't say much for its bag as a storage system. It went downhill pretty quickly. Need better storage, and a sooner roast date probably wouldn't have hurt either.