Pulse brewing- any advantage or just a cheap gimmick?

treston

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Jun 6, 2006
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I have seen some commercial machines promoting "pulse brewing" as though it is advantageous to the coffee. It seems to me to simply be a cheap alternative to proper flow control.

Some machines have their water gravity fed to a sprayhead (rather than pumped or flow controlled), these machines always have the same head of pressure so when fully open they allow out say 3 litres in 60 seconds. They usually operate on 30 second cycles. So if you want 4 litres over 4 minutes, it will open 10 seconds and close for 20 seconds, allowing out 500ml in that 30sec cycle, so allowing 1 litre per minute, and 4 litres over the 4 minutes.

Now is there any advantage to the coffee by having this pulsing, or would a lowered continuous flow rate (1 litre per minute) result in a better coffee?

i.e. it seems to me that flow control would be the better (more expensive) option, and this pulsing is just a cheap way of regulating flow rate.
 
To each thier own, See I roast in a manner that's particular to me...I advise based on my tryed experiance, and I distribute BUNN. that being said. I havn't tasted the difference in brewing methods. I have focused on amt of coffee and grind size; reguardless of the technology. The pulsed "resting extraction" ( my term) theroetically would have a better soaked extraction. The trick is to not over extract. And reall the flow isn't stopped in between pulses, it just isn't having extra water added. No let's talk about " bypass" hehe in coffeee making.....
 
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La Crema Coffee said:
The pulsed "resting extraction" ( my term) theroetically would have a better soaked extraction.
I would have thought a pulsed brew would give a (slightly) more uneven extraction, the grinds in the top of the basket would have less water contact than those in the bottom. They are being flooded with water for a few seconds, which quickly falls in level while the bottom grinds are submerged the entire time. If there was no pulsing and you could alter the flowrate so it was a steady trickle of water it should result in a more even soaking and therefore more even extraction of the grinds.

This probably makes little difference to most, but I have heard of some cheapskate coffeeshouses that use very little coffee and extract every drop they can from it!


La Crema Coffee said:
No let's talk about " bypass" hehe in coffeee making.
Do you find many customers use the bypass features?
 
well, actually let's imagine that the grounds are actully being " floated " while the water is suspending them. then the flow would " mix" then. With more than one " pulse" which is more like a short flow, there would adiquate random distribution. (IMHO) thus each cycle would be mixed and soaked more than enough for even extraction. And, even more impotant that this technical opionion discussion is: We should do what ever it takes to derive the best coffee possable with what ever ( drip) brewing method. Don't even say " perculate" .

Re: bypass. No not really and again if for some reason it is/was nessisary: I would do it. MOst of my customers don't have a clue about the technical aspects of thier coffee brewing. but they know if they like the coffee! I most important is making customers happy.
 
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