depending on where you grew up you might call it filter coffee drip coffee or even just...coffee.
but in parts of the world where espresso coffee is what we grew up on, like here in australia,
often the only experience people have with this type of coffee is from an airline or
watching an american sitcom if that's you, your only experience of filter coffee is some
weird insipid black liquid then today we want to help you make something
that actually tastes really really good we'll do that with a device like this
a batch brewer i'll show you what you need and how to get the best out of it right after this
hey it's josh from the coffee science and education center today is all about how we get
tasty coffee out of this little fella the batch brewer we call it a batch brewer because it makes
multiple cups of coffee all at once in this case up to 2 liters the coffee it makes is similar to
what you can get from a single cup device like the v60 but while these single cup brewers are
great if you're drinking alone they are not super practical if you've got a caffeine deprived family
or you need to serve it up quick in a cafe setting of course if you need even bigger quantities there
are commercial brewers that can make enough coffee to wake up a whole village but for many people
a brewer this size is a good place to start so while we're talking about black coffee a question
that often comes up is why not drink espresso or it's watered down sibling the long black
aka the cafe americano they do really taste quite different espresso brewing uses a more coarse
metal filter which means more the fine particles come through into the cup
the end result is a thicker heavier coffee with less clarity than paper filtered coffee
now i'm not here to start any espresso or filter coffee fights i enjoy both they're just different
clearly you need a batch brewer but they're not all created equal you'll get the best results
if you find one that has a good temperature control can brew to gold cup standards we'll
get to that shortly and has a thermal decanter perhaps the best known brand in this category is
the moccamaster while it is a quality brewer and has a really cool 70s styling we're not going to
use that we're going to instead use the breville precision brewer we have compared five of these
brewers on our website i'll link to that in the description if you want to see the pros and cons
of each whichever brewer you choose the process i'll take you through is essentially the same
next you'll need a grinder sure pre-ground coffee works but you'll get a more vibrant flavour and
aroma if you grind fresh a grinder like the baratza forte or the breville smart grinder pro
are two really good options but in reality most electric burr grinders will do the job just fine
water quality often gets overlooked in coffee brewing however it does have a very big impact
on the finished product at the very least use water that's been filtered to remove
the obvious flavor tanks like chlorine or take it to that next level by taking
a look at our research on water chemistry link in the description finally the coffee
the type of coffee you choose will depend on personal preference however most coffees
designed for filter brewing tend to be a lighter roast than the average espresso blend
one of the keys to brewing great coffee is understanding your brew
ratio that is the ratio of coffee to the water that we put into the machine this is something
you can experiment with but i suggest starting with the gold cup ratio of 60 grams of coffee
per liter of water recommended by the specialty coffee association this is a very good starting
point and gives good results with most coffees this is a ratio so we can just adjust this up or
down as needed for example if i want half a batch i'll use 30 grams of coffee and 500 ml of water
if i want more i can double this up to 120 grams of coffee and use two liters of
water but for this example i'm going to use 60 grams of this single origin rwanda sovu coffee
it is juicy and sweet and i cannot wait to taste this coffee again we then need to grind the coffee
to what's often called a medium or filter grant it is coarser than espresso grind and finer than what
you would use for a french press or cold brew some people describe the consistency like table salt or
sand in truth i've never found these descriptions particularly helpful the fact is measuring grind
size by appearance is really difficult so instead we'll focus on dialing in the grind after we have
brewed our first batch of coffee i'll explain this in just a minute the breville precision brewer has
two filter options i'm using the cone shape filter which is suitable for batches up to 1.2 litres
there's also a flat bottom basket which can brew batches up to 1.8 liters
now to brew a batch i'm going to add ground coffee to a paper filter add one liter of filtered water
set the dial to gold cup and let's go oh and don't forget the carafe
so we have brewed our first batch and it's tasting okay but it's a little
thin with a slightly sour acidity and not the sweetness that i'm looking for that i'm used to
in this coffee now these are all symptoms of a very under extracted brew just like
with any brewing method the amount of soluble material that we can extract from the coffee
doesn't only affect the strength of the coffee it also affects the balance of sweetness
acidity and bitterness if we don't extract enough from the ground coffee it will not
only be thin and weak but also overly acidic and sour if we extract too much from the ground
coffee the strength will improve but the balance will become overly bitter and dry
so we're literally aiming for that sweet spot the spot in the middle where we have maximum sweetness
with a nice balance of acidity and bitterness a number of factors influence extraction but
in this case we're going to focus on the grind size as we grind finer this allows the water to
get in and extract more from the ground coffee so for my under extracted brew i'm going to
adjust the grinder a little finer and try brewing a fresh patch round two let's see how this tastes
now that is more like it is fuller with a nice juicy sweetness the one that i know and love
of course we don't have to stop there we can try going finer again the balance will change each
time that we do but at some point that bitterness will start to dominate the flavors and we'll know
that we've gone a touch too far but before we finish up there is one mistake that i often see
that all the time and this will ruin a batch of even the most expensive coffee dirty equipment if
you don't thoroughly clean out the thermal carafe and the filter basket the residue of rancid old
coffee is going to taint every batch you brew so get some good coffee cleaner fill the carafe
with hot water and give it a quick scrub for the basket remove it from the brewer and wash it out
that's our introduction to batch brewing hit us up with your questions below and tell us
what brewing method you want to learn about next until next time have a fantastic day see
ya