Brew with ORIGAMI by Mary Halbrooks of All Beans Considered Vol.2
On our last Barista Talk , Mary from All Beans Considered shared tips for brewing better coffee at home, which is helpful for the first brewers too. This time she shares more detailed manual brew recipe and some brewing tips!
Hi there coffee lovers! In my last post I talked about brewing better coffee at home. Paying attention to things like water temperature, using freshly ground coffee and buying coffee that was roasted within the past two weeks will really help you make better coffee at home. I also shared a short list of the basic brewing equipment needed to brew pour-over coffees. I really like using the beautiful Origami ceramic dripper with either a V60 cone-shape or Kalita fluted paper filter. Here’s an easy pour-over recipe that works for any filter dripper.
Brewing process for a manual pour-over
- Bring the water to optimal brewing temperature, 203 degrees F/95 degrees C
- Measure your coffee on a scale, use a 1:16 ratio of coffee to water
- Grind your coffee within 15 minutes before brewing
- Place the dripper on the carafe or mug, insert filter
- Wet the filter with hot water, rinsing the filter and warming the cup/carafe
- Allow filter to drain and dump the water
- Add coffee into the filter, tap dripper to settle the grounds evenly
- Tare the scale, start your timer
- At time 0, pour water to twice the gram weight of your coffee
- Gently stir the grounds or swirl the dripper. This first pour is called the “bloom” which is characterized by bubbles forming in the grounds as carbon dioxide gas is released.
- At 30 seconds, pour water to 100 grams
- Pour 60 grams of water every 30 seconds and swirl the dripper
- Time your brew to finish between 3:30 and 4 minutes
These tips will help you get the best results for your brew
- A 1:16 ratio means 1 part coffee to16 parts water, For example, use 21 grams coffee to 340 grams water. This will make approximately 10 ounces of brewed coffee.
- Swirling or gentle stirring of the wet grounds during the bloom enhances gas release.
- After 2 or 3 pours, gently swirl the coffee water mixture to reduce channeling and improve extraction.
- If the brew is too slow (finishes after 4:15 minutes) try a coarser grind
- If the brew finishes too quickly (less than 3:15 minutes) try a finer grind
- If the brew tastes watery or sour - try a finer grind
- If the brew tastes too strong or bitter - try a coarser grind
- Pour water in small circles keeping the water on the grounds and not on the walls of the filter
- Pour from a little above the height of the dripper – enough to create gentle turbulence in the grounds without forcing grounds up the sides of the filter
- Whole beans can be kept fresh for longer than 2 weeks if you vacuum seal and freeze the beans at 8-10 days from roast date
I hope this helps you brew better coffee every time. Next time I’ll tell you what I learned about how dripper shape affects the flavor profile of brewed coffee.
