“GOOD COFFEE AT HOME”

Many people ask me all sorts of questions about coffee and my coffee making process. The bulk of the questions focus on what I use to make it. Below are the coffee products that I use to make my caffeine fix. I like good coffee at home but I haven’t gone full snob. As you can see, there is no home roaster listed… I haven’t gone that crazy… yet. BREWING METHODS DOWN BELOW!

PRODUCTS

Fellow Ode Brew Grinder

This is an upgrade path from the Encore if you’re interested. The Ode is faster, quieter, more consistent and has lower retention. It also matches your new kettle down below. This was the last addition to my dream home coffee setup.

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Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder

If you have a high-end espresso maker this won’t cut it. For everyone else this grinder is widely regarded as one of the best value/price combos. I have had no issues other than the fact it can be a little messy. If you are making lots of cold brew you don’t want to be grinding my hand. Trust me.

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Handground Precision Coffee Grinder

I had a tiny hand grinder before but it didn’t hold up. This one is much bigger but works really well so far. You can definitely go with a cheaper burr grinder to start off though.

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Chemex, Pour-Over, 6 cup

I was using the AeroPress exclusively (listed below) to make my coffee at home for a long time. After making pour-over coffee for a few months I found I like this method better. The ritual is nicer and a little more involved. Pick up some filters too.

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Fellow Stagg EKG, Electric Pour-over Kettle

To be clear, no one needs this. It’s an incredible kettle though. Electric kettles heat up so fast and it makes the process in the morning much easier. The fine temperature control is nice for tea drinkers too.

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AeroPress

This is where it all started for me. Light and compact, the AeroPress can be easily cleaned, stored and transported. It fits in your cabinets and doesn’t take up any counter space. At ~$30, it’s one of the best and cheapest ways to get into the coffee scene if you need to move it around while traveling or are tight on room. It ships with some paper filters but I like the stainless steel Able Brewing Disk.

COFFEE

Local

If I’m not trying out a new roaster then I usually get coffee from Wake in Ambler, PA (wakecoffee.com). Full disclosure - I occasionally do some freelance photography work for Wake, but I was drinking their coffee beforehand! Getting into photography gives you the chance to work with cool brands :)

Online

For online coffee, I sometimes subscribe to a blind sampler from Angels’ Cup. I get this coffee for my Chemex brewing as I like trying out lighter roasts. The Black Box includes four samples with enough coffee for a few cups of each. If you are interested in trying Angels’ Cup use referral code “CoffeeHunter4313” when you complete your first subscription for 25% off.

The Black Box from Angels’ Cup

The Black Box from Angels’ Cup

Brewing Methods

Chemex

  1. Freshly grind 26g of coffee (setting 21 on the Baratza Encore).

  2. Rinse filter in Chemex before adding any coffee with 75-100g of water. Once that filters through, discard that water. Make sure to align the 3-ply side of the filter with the channel in the Chemex.

  3. Add your freshly ground coffee into the rinsed filter cone. The tiny pour in the beginning that releases the gases and evenly wets the ground coffee is called the bloom. Use 75g of water (~3x your coffee weight) and pour in a circular motion out from the center.

  4. Also avoid pouring water too close to the filter’s edge but do your best to get as close as possible. Once you’ve poured the 75g of water, allow your coffee to stand for 45 seconds. If your coffee is fresh (within 21 days from roast date) you will see some bubbling here.

  5. After 45 seconds, complete your larger pour - use 300g for this one to achieve a ~15:1 water to coffee ratio (375g water total). Spiral in and out as you did for the bloom and avoid hitting the filter directly with the water. You want this pour and the subsequent filtering to last ~3-4 minutes total. Adjust grind setting and pour speed as necessary in the future.

  6. Toss the filter, swirl and enjoy!

AEROPRESS

  1. For the AeroPress, I like to use 19g of of coffee and will pour 225g of water. The best part about the Aeropress is that it’s quick and easy to experiment with what you like.

  2. Heat your water between 200 and 205 degrees. I shoot for the hotter end. No thermometer? Boil and then take off the heat for a few moments.

  3. Grind your coffee fresh! For AeroPress coffee I grind at 14 on the Barartza Encore and 3.0 on the Handground grinder.

  4. Connect your AeroPress leaving lots of room in the chamber and turn it upside down as shown. This is known as the “inverted” method.

  5. Carefully load ground coffee into the chamber without spilling any in the AeroPress threads (even a little misplaced coffee will make it difficult to screw on the cap later).

  6. Place the unit on your scale, tare, and saturate your grounds with ~40g of water, or double your coffee weight, and wait 30-45 seconds.

  7. Fill the chamber now with your remaining water and give a good stir.

  8. Screw your cap and filter on the top end and with a mug on top, after about a minute has elapsed since you topped off with the remaining water, execute the flip. This will take some practice… Press down and force the water through your coffee until you hear hissing at the end.

  9. Over the trash, unscrew the cap and pop out the grounds. If you use the included paper filters this is super easy and satisfying. If you use a metal brewing disk filter make sure not to throw it out accidentally. It will take some practice to slide that disk off of the top of the coffee cleanly.

  10. Enjoy! You will need to experiment with your specific coffees and tastes until you find a recipe that you love. Search for AeroPress recipes to try and dial in your preferences!

Cold Brew

  1. I like a ratio of ~1:8. For my batches that’s 150g of coffee to 1250g of water (a little over 5 cups). Most will brew a little stronger (as strong as 1:5) and cut their concentrate. For me, I can drink 1:8 without a needing to cut with water/milk/cream. I like how it’s still very strong but immediately drinkable.

  2. I gravitate toward medium roasts for most of my cold brew, beans that have stopped roasting before visible surface oils appear. I grind very coarse for cold brew, a 38 on the Baratza Encore Conical Burr Coffee Grinder.

  3. Using Ball Wide Mouth Half Gallon 64 Oz Jars, I add my bottled water (filtered is probably good enough if you have good water), add my ground coffee using a canning funnel, cap the jar and shake vigorously. I like the 64oz jars because I brew in the fridge and I have no problem fitting them on the door.

  4. I shoot to brew for 20 hours but don’t fuss if I get to filtering anywhere between 16 and 24. I’ve found the coffee tastes about that same anywhere in that range. Throughout that time I give the jars a good 5 second shake a handful of times. I take care to do the first shake about an hour after immersion to get the grounds to settle nicely. Once fully brewed it’s time to filter.

  5. Using a filter cone and a No. 6 filter I pour the mixture in two batches though the filter which I’ve set atop a new, clean jar. These cones are awesome because the coffee filters fast, 6-10 minutes total. AND they fit on top of either the 64oz or 32oz jars. The total yield for this recipe is ~32oz depending on how light or dark your roast is. 8oz is about all that I can handle so it’s 4 strong cups that you can keep refrigerated for a week.

  6. To clean up I toss the filter, shake the grounds that remain in the jar into the trash and wash the jar with a bottle brush. Enjoy!