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Monday, 11 July 2005 |
BASIC BREWING - Courtesy of Gimme! Coffee, Ithaca NY
www.gimmecoffee.com
To make excellent coffee using the drip process, one must be methodical
about the process and mindful of the variables: fresh beans, correct
grind, proper coffee to water ratio, optimum water temperature and brew
time. And of course, cleanliness is imperative. Perform routine
maintenance to keep the chakras aligned in your equipment.
FRESH BEANS
For the best results, schedule your coffee orders so that you use it
all within 7 to 10 days.
We roast the best possible beans the day
before the order ships, but coffee only remains truly fresh for 7-10
days after the roast date. It does not “go bad,” but it will lose much
of the fl avor that allows you to distinguish one varietal from
another. If you cannot use the beans within that time, put the beans in
the freezer. This is the best way to keep coffee fresh longest. We
recommend that you freeze only the coffee that you want to store for
more than one week. When you are ready to use the frozen beans, remove
them from the freezer, and don’t put them back. Rotating beans from
freezing to room temperature and back will cause water to condense on
the surface of the beans, affecting everything from the grind to the fl
avor.
CORRECT GRIND One of the most important variables in brewing
coffee is grinding: coffee should be freshly ground, and at the proper
setting, minutes, if not seconds, before brewing. As we said before,
coffee begins to go stale as soon as it has been roasted. Imagine how
much air is reaching the expanded surface area of ground coffee, as
compared to the whole bean! The grind setting for your brew will vary
with the type of grinder you have, and the kind of brewing equipment
that you use. Commercial grinders are generally designed so that the
drip brew setting is somewhere in the middle of the range. However, a
short brew cycle will require a fi ner grind, and a long brew cycle
will require a coarser grind. The grind should be much coarser than
sand, and fi ner than large chunks. We can’t stress enough how
important grinding beans yourself is to brewing great coffee. You will
get the best results if you keep it in whole bean form until you are
about to brew.
COFFEE to WATER RATIO The proper ratio of coffee to
water is 7.25 grams per 5 ounces of water or about one heaping
tablespoon per 5 ounces. Before you can determine how much coffee to
use, you have to know how much water your brewer uses each cycle. Run a
brew cycle without coffee in the filter, and measure the resulting hot
water. Once you know how much water your brewer uses, you can calculate
the amount of coffee needed to get theright ratio. We use a digital
scale in our café to weigh the ground coffee before brewing each pot.
In a retail environment, with many different people taking turns
brewing the coffee, controlling the coffee to water ratio is diffi
cult. If you don’t use a digital scale to measure the coffee each time,
make sure that your staff always use the same container that holds
exactly the right amount of coffee for your brewer.
WATER TEMPERATURE
Coffee should be brewed at between 195 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit. This
is controlled by a thermostat inside your brewer. This is hard to
measure accurately, so it may be easier to go by taste. If brewed too
hot, it will lose any varietal characteristics and taste somewhat
bitter. If brewed too cool, it will taste slightly sour. If you have a
technician who works on your coffee equipment, he or she should be able
to make any adjustments to temperature. BREWING TIME The optimum
brewing time is about four minutes. This is generally set inside the
brewer by an automatic timer which only your technician will be able to
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