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How Do You Brew Your Drip Coffee at Home?


Nextmanup

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6 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

Does anyone here take their home brewed coffee seriously enough to have invested in any sort of special coffee machine for the purpose?

 

I mean something beyond your standard drip brewer coffee machine.

 

Anyone go the vacuum siphon route?  French press?  Pour-over drippers?

 

I'm talking traditional American drip coffee here, not espresso machines.

 

Chemex 8 cup coffee maker - have had since 1982.  Still sold as "classic".

Titanium-coated gold stainless steel filter. Metal allows more flavoring oils through than paper, but I think plain stainless steel would be fine.  The gold was a gift.

 

For camping and travel, I use an Aeropress.  Best $29.95 I've ever spent.  Use paper filters there because the name of the game is quick clean-up.

 

The key parameters to a good cuppa aren't what gizmo you use to actually brew the coffee, it's:

1) The quality of the beans/roast - have to be decent beans and not too dark roast.  ground fresh, like just before you make it fresh.  I like Ethiopian or Kenyan beans best, but truth is 80% of the time I buy Columbian medium roast from Costco, it's "good enough"

2) the evenness of the grind - good quality burr grinder essential for even grind, but these don't have to be expensive.  I have a Capresso that holds its own in blind taste tests against everybody's Espresso cult favorite and by "holds its own" I mean none of the collected coffee snobs could tell

3) the temperature of the water - 185-195 degrees, boiling is too hot.  Start hot, cooling a bit during the pour is fine.  Use a kettle with a thermometer read out or temperature control and verify its accuracy.  I used to use gooseneck that heats on the stove with a thermometer in the lid, just switched to electric kettle.

4) the ratio of beans to water.  60 grams per liter, please.  Use a scale at first.  That's one reason the K-pods are so popular, gets the ratio right.

 

Get those 4 things right and you can make pretty good coffee in just about any setup.  I've used French presses of several styles, Melitta, various drip brewers.

 

Don't pay attention to those 4 things and you can buy the priciest vacuum siphon latest and greatest and it won't give you best results

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Buffalo_Gal said:


We have a Technivorm.   For the price, you cannot be it.  We also have a decent grinder which I think helps. That, and good coffee beans, and I would say we do take our coffee brewing fairly seriously here.

 

I was wondering if anyone would mention of those.

 

They look super interesting to me.  

 

I think the grinder is more important than the coffee machine.

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, OZBILLS said:

Off the drip topic, and although they have one, my parents just spend $850 on a professional espresso machine

 

Something like this

 

 s-l640.jpg

 

Clearly take their coffee way too seriously.

How in the world did they get that for $850?  Must be old and from a restaurant going out of business or something!


That's like a $5,000  + machine!  

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

I was wondering if anyone would mention of those.

 

They look super interesting to me.  

 

I think the grinder is more important than the coffee machine.

 

 

 

How in the world did they get that for $850?  Must be old and from a restaurant going out of business or something!


That's like a $5,000  + machine!  

 

 

 

Well the people were starting a cafe and their business partner left them at the last minute so they needed to recoup some cash from the startup.

 

It is an oldish unit but has been refurbed. In Australia, there is a large second hand market for these because there are so many cafes and people just try to get a quick recoup of some money.

 

It needs to be plumbed into the backyard so I am curious as to how it all turns out!

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33 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Chemex 8 cup coffee maker - have had since 1982.  Still sold as "classic".

Titanium-coated gold stainless steel filter. Metal allows more flavoring oils through than paper, but I think plain stainless steel would be fine.  The gold was a gift.

 

For camping and travel, I use an Aeropress.  Best $29.95 I've ever spent.  Use paper filters there because the name of the game is quick clean-up.

 

The key parameters to a good cuppa aren't what gizmo you use to actually brew the coffee, it's:

1) The quality of the beans/roast - have to be decent beans and not too dark roast.  ground fresh, like just before you make it fresh.  I like Ethiopian or Kenyan beans best, but truth is 80% of the time I buy Columbian medium roast from Costco, it's "good enough"

2) the evenness of the grind - good quality burr grinder essential for even grind, but these don't have to be expensive.  I have a Capresso that holds its own in blind taste tests against everybody's Espresso cult favorite and by "holds its own" I mean none of the collected coffee snobs could tell

3) the temperature of the water - 185-195 degrees, boiling is too hot.  Start hot, cooling a bit during the pour is fine.  Use a kettle with a thermometer read out or temperature control and verify its accuracy.  I used to use gooseneck that heats on the stove with a thermometer in the lid, just switched to electric kettle.

4) the ratio of beans to water.  60 grams per liter, please.  Use a scale at first.  That's one reason the K-pods are so popular, gets the ratio right.

 

Get those 4 things right and you can make pretty good coffee in just about any setup.  I've used French presses of several styles, Melitta, various drip brewers.

 

Don't pay attention to those 4 things and you can buy the priciest vacuum siphon latest and greatest and it won't give you best results

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Chemex is probably as pure of a way to brew coffee as there is, but that is way too labor intensive for me!  Especially firs thing in the morning...before I've had my coffee!  LOL

 

I do like the idea of turning a special cup of coffee into a brewing ritual of sorts, at least when in the mood to do something like that.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

The Chemex is probably as pure of a way to brew coffee as there is, but that is way too labor intensive for me!  Especially firs thing in the morning...before I've had my coffee!  LOL

 

I do like the idea of turning a special cup of coffee into a brewing ritual of sorts, at least when in the mood to do something like that.

 

The thing that was most work for me was heating the water on the stove to the right temp.  So I automated that with an electric kettle that has temperature controls.

 

Other than that, I'd be grinding the coffee fresh and putting in an accurate portion of ground beans however I brew, so it comes down to me pouring the water over the grounds while I putter about getting the rest of breakfast, feeding the critters etc vs. having an electric machine do it.

 

I guess I'm just used to it by now.

 

We've had various other methods (french press, drip machine, etc) but keep coming back to the chemex.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Nextmanup said:

I was wondering if anyone would mention of those.

 

They look super interesting to me.  

 

I think the grinder is more important than the coffee machine.

 

 

 

How in the world did they get that for $850?  Must be old and from a restaurant going out of business or something!


That's like a $5,000  + machine!  

 

 


Some people exaggerate all the time, it means a lot to them to tell people how little they paid, they drop the price at least 60 percent

 

And the story gets better every time, soon they’ll be getting paid $1,000 to take the machine home


they will also ask you rudely what you paid for anything and then snottily  tell you how you got ripped off every time....

 

Edited by row_33
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4 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

This is always what I thought, but some folks have said here they just dump their French press down the drain as that is the easy way to clean up.  Maybe it's just not enough material if you are only making like 1 or 2 cups in a French Press?

 

EDIT:  Found a couple plumbing websites that said never, ever put coffee grounds down the drain.

 

One said the 2 worst things you can put in your drain, and which cause the most trouble, are GREASE and COFFEE GROUNDS.

 

Problem is they don't break down.

 

PS:  They DO seem to be recognized as a good fertilizer for plants as well.

 

 

I cook bacon every weekend day. Always goes into the trash vs the drain.

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On 11/16/2019 at 5:49 PM, Buffalo_Gal said:


We have a Technivorm.   For the price, you cannot beat it.  We also have a decent grinder which I think helps. That, and good coffee beans, and I would say we do take our coffee brewing fairly seriously here.

 


We also have a Technivorm MoccaMaster.  A guy that owns a coffee shop recommended it as it hits the temperature sweet spot. Also have a burr grinder to grind beans immediately before brewing.  Found a local roaster and can get beans that were roasted a day or less before. Had been drinking Starbucks Sumatra but this guy’s locally roasted beans make delicious coffee. What a difference!

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Has anyone had experience with a Moccamaster coffee maker?

 

I've tried all the store coffee makers and I've used a Keurig coffee maker for the last five years.  They all make an "ok" cup of coffee IMO but I was looking at these Moccamasters in my quest for a better, richer tasting cup of coffee.  

 

I'm on well water (and it's softened and filtered) and I prefer to ground the beans before I use them.  

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1 hour ago, dpberr said:

Has anyone had experience with a Moccamaster coffee maker?

 

I've tried all the store coffee makers and I've used a Keurig coffee maker for the last five years.  They all make an "ok" cup of coffee IMO but I was looking at these Moccamasters in my quest for a better, richer tasting cup of coffee.  

 

I'm on well water (and it's softened and filtered) and I prefer to ground the beans before I use them.  

I (and a few others as) brought this up and I believe one poster DOES use this and loves it.  That's up-thread.  Read through and you'll find it.

 

The Technivorm stuff looks quite interesting to me and comes very highly rated.

 

 

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On 11/17/2019 at 9:03 PM, WotAGuy said:


We also have a Technivorm MoccaMaster.  A guy that owns a coffee shop recommended it as it hits the temperature sweet spot. Also have a burr grinder to grind beans immediately before brewing.  Found a local roaster and can get beans that were roasted a day or less before. Had been drinking Starbucks Sumatra but this guy’s locally roasted beans make delicious coffee. What a difference!

 

How long have you been brewing coffee with it?  

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