GoodShave's Coffee Journal

I watched these two videos and they gave me a lot to think about.

This video shows Lance Hedrick brewing six different coffees for the very first time and he gives tips on what to look for as you brew so you can turn it into a successful cup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoiXNMrTNgw


This video had some very useful information about different length blooms to help with off gassing, different types of pouring you can do as well as the benefits of single pours after a bloom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mrLiE4ilXw

I am learning that when I read your Journal, I can expect to have "homework!"    I need to learn about anaerobic processing now! And taking some inspiration from an earlier post of yours, I am now keeping a dedicated medium-sized spiral notebook with my coffee stuff to record what I did. 

The flavor notes on the Rwanda coffee sound very good. May you be successful with dialing it in!

Thanks Eric!

I appreciate it.

I ran across this video on slow feeding your grinder for more brew clarity and less fines in your ground coffee.
Lance shows you how to use  this method with both electric grinders and hand grinders.
I will try this out for a while and see what happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_U8nwO4cy0

I didn't have a good result trying to tweak the 4:6 brew parameters today. Two cups of coffee made from the same beans, different results. The first one was made with my usual middle ground parameters, the second was made with three pours on the 60% half. The first one came out at 19.6% extraction; really nice, but I wanted to see if I could bump it up without changing the grind. It didn't move the needle much; I think it actually went backwards, but I lost the measurement. It tasted like it though, sour. I am not sure what to make of this as I am pretty consistent with my pouring technique. I guess I will try again, in theory this should up the extraction due to the extra agitation.

I ran across the video below with a demonstration of 'turbulent pours' (at 11:32 in the video) and thought maybe you could use that kind of pour to bump up your extraction. (I tried to add a time stamped link into this post but could not make it work in the preview). 

In other videos, he said that if you can hear the stream splattering on the surface of the water, just lower your pour a little bit so you don't hear the noise. Don't lower too much or  you will switch from turbulent pour to laminar pour (which is described in the same video starting at 11:00). Laminar pours have their purpose as well in cases where you want some agitation but not too much (as in the case with dark roasts or if you have too fast a draw down, you can do a center laminar pour).

https://youtu.be/2mrLiE4ilXw

If you want a deep dive into other pouring methods, check the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxmrSgwW25g

Today's brew was with Happy Mug Coffee (Erie, PA) - Comforting Rwanda beans using my opaque plastic Hario V60-02 dripper with a white tabbed Hario filter from Japan. I used the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe.

This setup worked well today and yielded a pretty good cup for these beans.

I also used the auto timer feature on my current scale. This starts the timer once the scale detects the pour start. I have used this in the past with my previous scale but the recipes I was using at the time had you pick up the dripper to swirl and that weight difference was enough to cancel the timer (and ruin my brew). With my current scale and this recipe/dripper combination, I can swirl in place on top of my server and not disrupt the timer. This is a great help for me as my skin is very dry and my fingers have callouses which causes my current scale not to register my finger presses at times. (A work around for that issue is to moisten your finger with a drop of water before touching the scale, FYI).

I also used Lance Hedrick's suggestion of slow feeding my manual grinder.

I didn't have a good result trying to tweak the 4:6 brew parameters today. Two cups of coffee made from the same beans, different results. The first one was made with my usual middle ground parameters, the second was made with three pours on the 60% half. The first one came out at 19.6% extraction; really nice, but I wanted to see if I could bump it up without changing the grind. It didn't move the needle much; I think it actually went backwards, but I lost the measurement. It tasted like it though, sour. I am not sure what to make of this as I am pretty consistent with my pouring technique. I guess I will try again, in theory this should up the extraction due to the extra agitation.

I ran across the video below with a demonstration of 'turbulent pours' (at 11:32 in the video) and thought maybe you could use that kind of pour to bump up your extraction. (I tried to add a time stamped link into this post but could not make it work in the preview). 

In other videos, he said that if you can hear the stream splattering on the surface of the water, just lower your pour a little bit so you don't hear the noise. Don't lower too much or  you will switch from turbulent pour to laminar pour (which is described in the same video starting at 11:00). Laminar pours have their purpose as well in cases where you want some agitation but not too much (as in the case with dark roasts or if you have too fast a draw down, you can do a center laminar pour).

If you want a deep dive into other pouring methods, check the video below.

Thanks! I will have to take a look at those. I was going to return to report that my results were user error, but I am afraid that I have repeated them too many times. The best explanation that I have is that the grounds aren't getting as much contact time with the water with more pours, the water is draining down more fully than less pours. The width of the brewer might have an effect, you were asking about what size brewer above. It seems that the V60 01 is still not narrow enough to keep the water level up and the Kalita 155 size brewers are even wider. I probably should look at some videos and see how their method differs from mine.

I did end up grinding one click finer than previously and doing four pours and it came out great as usual, but even with the same grind the next cup with five pours ended up less extracted. The brew time is also considerably longer with more pours and it makes it harder to use time to gauge how good the coffee is going to be, you would think that would even out the contact time though. If I didn't have the refractometer, I would have just given up trying to figure this out. As it is, I am sticking with four pours or less.

Today's brew was Happy Mug Coffee (Erie, PA) - Comforting Rwanda beans using my opaque plastic Hario V60-01 with a Cafec Abaca filter using the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe.

I figured I needed to back off of caffeine a little so I went from a 15g dose to a 13g dose and switched from the 02 to the 01 size dripper. That worked pretty well. I may try the 13g dose in the 02 (or the glass cone from the Hario Switch which Vincent from Tales Coffee said was more like 01.5 instead of 02 size) to see if that will work in the larger size. That way, I can work through some of my 02 filters. Though I my try the 01 glass cone next to see if I hit slurry temperature issues. I plan to preheat the glass but wonder how much cool down will happen between heating the cone and get the filter and coffee set for the first pour.

The Hario Switch base (being silicone/rubbery) does not lend itself to swirling the dripper unless you pick up the dripper to swirl which would be awkward at best (and probably cancel the auto timer feature of my scale). I ordered an Origami wooden base to try with my glass cones. It was cheaper than ordering a new Hario V60 with the olive wood base (when all I want is the base). If I like the glass V60s and decide I want the olive wood base, then I will order the V60-02 version to have a full size 02 that I can also use with the Hario Switch base. My goal is for ease in swirling without having to lift the brewer.

I also ran across a post that pointed out that the plastic/resin Hario Mugen cone is 'heat resistant up to 90C' according to its user manual. I rarely use water that cold as I don't brew dark roasts. Dark roasts are popular in Japan, so many of the drippers are designed for dark roasts (like the Kalita Wave, for example). The Mugen seems to be in the same boat. The Mugen does come in porcelin. I am not sure if I like the Mugen enough to buy it in porcelain to get a higher temperature capability. The porcelain manual doesn't list heat resistance for the cone.

I didn't have a good result trying to tweak the 4:6 brew parameters today. Two cups of coffee made from the same beans, different results. The first one was made with my usual middle ground parameters, the second was made with three pours on the 60% half. The first one came out at 19.6% extraction; really nice, but I wanted to see if I could bump it up without changing the grind. It didn't move the needle much; I think it actually went backwards, but I lost the measurement. It tasted like it though, sour. I am not sure what to make of this as I am pretty consistent with my pouring technique. I guess I will try again, in theory this should up the extraction due to the extra agitation.

I ran across the video below with a demonstration of 'turbulent pours' (at 11:32 in the video) and thought maybe you could use that kind of pour to bump up your extraction. (I tried to add a time stamped link into this post but could not make it work in the preview). 

In other videos, he said that if you can hear the stream splattering on the surface of the water, just lower your pour a little bit so you don't hear the noise. Don't lower too much or  you will switch from turbulent pour to laminar pour (which is described in the same video starting at 11:00). Laminar pours have their purpose as well in cases where you want some agitation but not too much (as in the case with dark roasts or if you have too fast a draw down, you can do a center laminar pour).

If you want a deep dive into other pouring methods, check the video below.

Thanks! I will have to take a look at those. I was going to return to report that my results were user error, but I am afraid that I have repeated them too many times. The best explanation that I have is that the grounds aren't getting as much contact time with the water with more pours, the water is draining down more fully than less pours. The width of the brewer might have an effect, you were asking about what size brewer above. It seems that the V60 01 is still not narrow enough to keep the water level up and the Kalita 155 size brewers are even wider. I probably should look at some videos and see how their method differs from mine.

I did end up grinding one click finer than previously and doing four pours and it came out great as usual, but even with the same grind the next cup with five pours ended up less extracted. The brew time is also considerably longer with more pours and it makes it harder to use time to gauge how good the coffee is going to be, you would think that would even out the contact time though. If I didn't have the refractometer, I would have just given up trying to figure this out. As it is, I am sticking with four pours or less.

If you would like to keep the water levels up, fewer pours will be your friend. I am currently using Lance Hedrick's 2-Pour recipe and that is working well for my V60s. You might try a longer bloom to allow more of the CO2 to escape before your main pours which would allow for more extraction. I am playing with a 1 minute bloom right now (2 minutes if the slurry is really gassy). Changing your water temperature will also affect your draw down time and may be another option.

Kalita Waves are a different matter altogether as they have small holes and each material version has a different flow rate. See the middle of this page for a guide on flow rate by Kalita Wave size and material: https://coffeechronicler.com/kalita-wave...nt-review/

For the Kalita 155, I use a recipe from this page: https://projectbarista.com/kalita-wave-recipes/
Note that the Kalita 185 recipe on that page generates a lot of extraction, so I only use that recipe with light roasts.
For the Kalita 185, I scale the up the Kalita 155 recipe on that page.

Today was all about the glass Hario V60 cones.
The beans were Happy Mug Coffee (Erie, PA) - Comforting Rwanda (medium roast).
The recipe was the Lance Hedrick Two-Pour recipe.
The dose was 13g coffee to 195ml of water for a 1:15 ratio. I used 95C (203F) water and slow fed the beans in my 1zpresso K-Ultra grinder.

First brew was with the glass Hario V60-01. I went with a turbulent bloom pour and I think that was too much extraction. I may have over warmed the glass cone as well (but doubt it). The brew had a bitter taste to it.

I have seen where over heating a brewer caused too much extraction. Case in point, I tried heating my Stagg XF dripper by removing the lid of my kettle and placing the dripper on top of the kettle while it heated. This warmed the brewer too much and caused over extraction.

Second brew, I used the glass cone from my Hario Switch with the plastic holder from my glass Hario V60-01 (the rib on the bottom of the cones allow you to interchange bases even with the Switch base). I used a laminar pour instead of a turbulent pour for the bloom pour. That brew turned out well which also proved a 13g dose was not too small to used with the Switch cone. I may try it again with my opaque plastic V60-02 dripper to see if 13g works there as well.

I may do another brew tonight. If so I will try the glass V60-01 again and use a laminar pour instead of a turbulent pour for the bloom pour.

Hey Good Shaves! I worked the last couple of days and so used my Bonavita Enthusiast auto drip machine. It does a great job for making a up to 8 cups in under 10 minutes. I usually make 6 cups, which in my world translates to two travel mugs of coffee. (I believe Bonavita uses 5 oz as a cup, and my "cups" at home are 300 mL to 350 mL). I just now watched the Hendrick video as I wasn't sure what kind of pour I use. Turns out, I have only done the laminar pour, mostly in spirals. I will try out the turbulent tomorrow morning. I am enjoying trying the different 4:6 pours with my single roast and while I haven't had a bouquet of flavors explode on my tongue, I have enjoyed each cup and can distinguish nuances in mouth feel and brightness. Thanks for helping to "school" me!