Clever brew

LMSC

We have been brewing Goat’s Ethiopian Sidemo medium-dark roasts for the last two days.

20g power : 225g of water : ~170g - 172g into the cup. We use the paper filter and swiss gold, which ensure a clean cup every time. The grind size was at the lower-end of the espresso range. We drink this as a black coffee.

This morning, we brewed a couple of times.

For the first cup, we poured 75% water in first, added the coffee, did a quick stir, added the remaining 25% water in a quick circle, covered and brewed for 30 mins.

There was no change in the second cup except that we added all the water in first.

Both cups were light and sweet marked with fruity citrus-cum-lemon grass for us. We can’t pick both of them apart except the first cup had a tiny bitter taste; despite the tiny bitter notes, the first cup was also excellent.

One thing, which I had learnt from Mark @MWJB was the brews can’t possibly give an over-extracted coffee. Therefore, the tad bitter note might have been the result of adding a quarter of the water after sinking the crust.

In short, we definitely prefer the second cup.

Flat_Eric

LMSC On a side note, I’ve just received an email from Clumsy Goat asking about my experience with these beans, just wondered if you had too. I told them I enjoyed the beans but was a little disappointed that the “roasted on” date was hidden in the batch number and that they were over a month old when I received them. There are plenty of roasters out there who do better so I would have to think twice before placing another order with them!

dfk41

I keep on playing with brewed, but feel I never really get the most from it somehow. I have a Clever, a cafetière, a Moka pot, a Trinity One although mine was the original Kickstarter one which was in walnut and a lot more expensive! At some point, I must get to grips with this system!

LMSC

PortafilterProcrastinator You are correct; we should not stir. Thx. My bad. I should have been careful with my choice of words. Stirring is not a correct expression; I meant, just sinking / wetting the coffee. I do not bother dissolving clumps. It’s a long brew anyway.

Flat_Eric No. we have not received any emails. They might not as we have had a few email exchanges. We thanked their frankness / openness re-the roast date and also shown a deep appreciation of their willingness to refund or send replacements. We firmly rejected their generosity as it’s not fair and appropriate to take advantage of their kindness. We didn’t like the Peru for reasons set out earlier and the Ethiopian is very good. We will move on once the current bag is exhausted.

dfk41 I find clever brewing is easier than any other brews - Aero Press, French Press and Indian filter,… With a SwissGold on top of the paper filter, we can do as fine as possible until we get silts into the cup. 😊

PortafilterProcrastinator

Don’t stir - this can cause bitterness without causing over extraction. (Guess where/ who I learned that from!)

For my CCD I pour most of the water in first, then add the coffee (32 on Niche), then wet all the coffee with the remaining water. I then cover and leave for 30mins - 1hr 30mins (longest I can get away with depending on size of brew and it be a decent temp to drink in a pre-heated cup.)

dfk41

LMSC I put the paper filter inside the Swiss Gold! Please explain

LMSC

dfk41 I put the paper filter in the Clever first, the SwissGold on top, fill with water right off the boil and drain it just before I am ready to brew.

LMSC

dfk41

The SwissGold on top lets the liquid run off and around the coffee bed, the paper catches the finer particles, which will give us a cleaner cup. The SwissGold alone will result in a cup of mud :-)

I learnt these from Mark.

dfk41

LMSC Well, thats what I will try, next time I dust it off! Compared to an espresso shot, what grind lever would you aim for matey?

LMSC

dfk41 Earlier, I had started at the upper end of the espresso grind; I then realised we can grind really finer and go towards the lower end. The JX pro espresso range is 1.2-1.6.

On my JX pro, my current brew setting is at 1.3 rotations within my preferred 1.3-1.4 range for the brews. The silts start kicking-in mostly below 1.3 for me.

My espresso typical start point for a new bag of beans is at 1.4; I settle a few clicks plus or minus with a few shots.

The clever, using a combo of paper filter and SwissGold, really surprised me how fine we can go.

One tip, while brewing, I wrap the clever with something like the image below. It keeps the brew warmer at around ~56C.

PortafilterProcrastinator

@LMSC - Your CCD wrapping is funkier than mine! I also put a cork trivet top and bottom. I do think the one on top helps a little bit. I also made a template for a proper wrap, but then life happened.

If I am doing a long steep I am at 32 on the Niche, which is a long way north of espresso. I find people’s different grind settings fascinating. Would like to do a side-by-side one day, taste the difference.

I find the CCD the simplest in a comparison between aeropress and french press, although I don’t have an insulated press.

Do you find the swiss gold makes a marked difference over just a paper filter? I have not got one yet, but if there are gains to be had in the cup, I’ll put it on the list!

LMSC

PortafilterProcrastinator Brewing for 30 mins makes it too lukewarm to drink. This wrapping helps, although I still prefer 30s microwave!

SwissGold - yes. I’m not sure, if there a bigger size.

I never tried without the SwissGold, when used with the paper filter, I always get a clean cup.

hornbyben

I’ll caveat this with I don’t have a clever brewer, but I recently started a barista hustle membership and am working my way through the courses. The immersion course included steep and release brewers, so I thought I’d share what they found in case it’s of interest to you.

Their baseline recipe was 18g coffee to 250g water at 93°C. Coffee first, add all the water in a single pour. Break the crust after 1:30. Allow grinds to settle for 30s, draw down (I.e. at 2 mins total time).

The sooner you break the crust the quicker the draw down (they compared 1:30, 3 min and 5 min). This did reduce extraction , but only by 4%., a major efficiency saving.

A 30s bloom increased the TDS.

Adding the water before the coffee gave much faster draw downs (coffee first was 39% slower), although it did reduce extraction yield (by about 10%). They were able to compensate for this by grinding finer (between espresso and pour over) and found that this was less bitter than coffee first. This gave them their favourite tasting brew.

Any way, I thought you might find these experiments interesting and give some ideas for your own brews.

LMSC

hornbyben The stats make the post an interesting read. I can liken the short brews to my AeroPress, which is gathering dust now, after we got the Evo Leva for espressos.

We brew mostly once a day; most of them are Clever, which never disappoints us. It’s a standard 20g:225g: 30 mins steep for a single cup ; some time, we use the Indian immersion filter for a milk-based coffee for two dosing 24g:192g.

Please do post your brew experiments and findings; the members may not only learn but may also want try on their own.

Thx

PortafilterProcrastinator

hornbyben Very interesting. Did the article say anything about grind size in relation to a grinder? Or where they first started? Grind size advice and references continue to put my head in to a spin.

Waitforme

Is a V60 just another brand name for a clever dripper ?

hornbyben

@Waitforme, no the Hario V60 is a percolation brewer, aka pour over. Water flows through the coffee and out the bottom the whole time. The clever looks similar, but has a valve at the bottom. This means that the water stays in contact with the coffee, until you open the valve and then it drains.

Waitforme

Ah !
Thank you.

hornbyben

PortafilterProcrastinator They did an experiment using a sieve to remove particles outside the 500-900 micron range, and saw a boost in extraction. They put this down to the lack of boulders (which under extract) being more impactful than the lack of fines. Draw down was a lot longer though and they said it tasted over extracted.

For the water first experiments they used a commandante grinder (10–15 clicks for espresso, 22–32 clicks for a pour-over filter coffee; and 25–30 clicks for cupping and French press). They started at 31 and went all the way down to 19. There favourite brew was at 22.

I hope that helps

LMSC

My brew taste buds are more inclined towards light, medium light and medium (at the extreme); I do not like brewing medium dark, let alone dark roasts. These two roasts are not suitable for long brews on the clever (at least for me).

My favourite is light / medium light.

PortafilterProcrastinator

hornbyben Yes, thank you.

I find grind size discussions very confusing, along with grind size descriptions on grinders and then on kit (like a v60 or CCD when they try to explain what grind size to use). I never seem to end up anywhere close to what the descriptions seem to suggest.