Not sure, if we have a thread for this. I couldn’t find. This is one of my favourite brews. It’s faster, easier and always give a lovely cup - be it @"MWJB"#139’s or Hoffman’s method. Mostly, I use Mark’s as I find the cup is a little cleaner than Hoffman’s. Yesterday, I opened the [Ethiopian Haru Washed](https://www.thomsonscoffee.com/products/ethiopia-haru?_pos=2&_sid=4420db8ae&_ss=r&variant=39311835398231). Pulled a few shots and brewed on Clever. The cups were ok. I wasn’t impressed, given the cup score of 87.25. I bought this as a light roast. It’s a medium light for me. I am drinking a cup from V60 now after brewing this. The dosage details are: 3.9 Jx Pro rotations, 16.3g powder, 272g water and got 237g liquid. I used Mark’s method, 30g every 30s pouring in circles. The each pour lasted 8-11s. The last pour was at the centre. The total time was 5:01 mins. The cup was very clean, light, very smooth, full of citrus flavours and sweet citrus notes, which are Bergamot orange. As a result, there is a little bit of fruity bitterness, which also creeps in disturbing what is otherwise a good bag. I am therefore not a great fan of this bag. If one is brewing this exclusively or drinking it as a long black, it is good as long as one is aware of the tiny fruity bitter aftertaste. It won’t cut with milk! We buy beans, which can be a very good milk-based coffee and also pull a nice brew. I don’t think I will buy this bag again. It is not for us. It was good buy considering I paid about £23 for a KG vs the full price of £33 and has a cup score of 87.25. If you want to buy, please try a smaller bag and see if this is for you.

I do enjoy a V60 from time to time as well.

@"DavecUK"#p15221 How clean, easy and very good the cup has become, thanks to a lot of hard work and contributions by @"MWJB"#139 and Hoffman. I don’t even have to wonder what my grind size is. Just start with the same settings and a few clicks change are all required.

Blackcat El Salvador Los Luchadores with a cup score of 86.5 Mark’s method. 16.4g, 275g water, 4:44 mins, 242g liquid. Cranberry and chocolate after taste for me. Very nice black coffee.

@"MWJB"#139 Thanks to all your research work on various brew types and Hoffman’s on V60, the pour overs have become easier. It’s very difficult to get the brews wrong. Many thanks mate!

Thanks & you're most welcome :-) It warms my heart to see folk getting pleasing brews. When I first started making brewed coffee, pour over seemed seemed unfathomable, driven by luck/beneficial spirits and I, like many others, sought 'safety' in immersion brews, where you could at least dictate brew time & not be reliant on things outside of your control like flow rate. But, as I built a better understanding, I realised that pour over is certainly as predictable & repeatable as any brew method, reasonably quick too. Of course, I still enjoy immersions, but 95% (just a guess) of my brews are pour overs. Sure, I come a little unstuck every now & then, but usually due to trying a new regime/brew weight/grinder or setting.

Can imagine how hard the journey to where you are now would have been. May have taken you months, if not years, of dedicated research and hard work to achieve the expected outcome. Minions like us can now use your template and make a damn good coffee. The beauty is I haven’t seen the need to change my grind settings for different beans. 😊 It hardly requires any major adjustments except a click or two on either side. > @"MWJB"#p16943 Of course, I still enjoy immersions, but 95% (just a guess) of my brews are pour overs. Sure, I come a little unstuck every now & then, but usually due to trying a new regime/brew weight/grinder or setting. We hardly take out our Indian (immersion filter), unless some one gifts a bag of ground coffee. 😂 Many thanks and best of luck for keep pushing the boundaries. Please do post regularly so that we get to read and learn from your brewings. I also think you may want to consider sharing your journey so far on this forum. 😊 Cheers mate!

Blackcat’s Ethiopian medium 20.1g, 335g water, Mark’s method, 284g liquid and 6:02 mins in total. Another balanced, fruity and sweet cup; had a tiny lingering orange bitterness after taste, which I think is the impact of the orange peel. I am grinding coarser than I normally would. I brewed this coffee for the first time. Perhaps, I will grind a tad coarser next time. Clever would be interesting, although I doubt it would make a difference to the cup. https://i.imgur.com/aCaNR9W.jpg Edit : Please ignore the espresso shot.

**Django Santa Ana** Brewed 16g on 270g of boiling water using Marks method. Got 231.3g liquid. The blueberry, mild sweet blackberry and vanilla taste come out clearly. Considering I ground this at the lower end of the pour over range at 3.6 turns on my grinder, it did produce a slight raw fruit bitter after taste; the cup was very good though. There were no silts, although the mild bitterness call for a coarse grind; I wondered if the water was too hot >100C that resulted in bitterness. Perhaps, I will grind at the normal setting of 3.8-3.9 and see. https://imgur.com/a/c4uOhlz

@"MWJB"#139 Given the tasting notes (blueberry, blackberry, vanilla), I thought the bitterness seeps through the grind size. Considering the other person also got it but only at the first sip, could you explain how does it creep in? I can understand notes like Rhubarb, fruit peel, dark chocolate, etc., producing the (sweet) bitterness. I wonder if Anaerobic natural process is contributing to the tiny bitterness. It is tiny sweet bitter. I felt it in the espresso as well. IMO, it doesn’t alter the taste profile, although does brighten up the coffee a bit. Thx mate!

If it's around the first 2 sips and a generic bitterness, it's likely fine particles suspended at the surface of the brew. Sometimes this just comes with the territory and I don't worry too much if the rest of the cup tastes OK. If it isdtracting from your enjoyment & happening all the time, grind a tad coarser and/or tray and agitate less. To me sweet & bitter tend to be poles apart, I understand a mix, but I'm not sure I grasp sweet bitterness?

V60

CoyoteOldMan

LMSC As always… but I don’t think this is it!!! 😉

MWJB

I wouldn’t use a 400um/0,4mm traditional/ASTM/ISO sieve. Use 0.6mm/600um.

LMSC

MWJB

LMSC Surprisingly to me, I did simultaneous brews and found a preheated brewer had a more intense flavour than a cold brewer (same EY)…though both still need a grind change, coarser than I currently am for ball park results (it frustrates me that James won’t make objective grind recommendations).

I will be trying further brews of 5×40g & the timings in the video, with more coffees in the coming weeks.

LMSC

MWJB Surprisingly to me, I did simultaneous brews and found a preheated brewer had a more intense flavour than a cold brewer

Don’t you always put the filter paper on V60 and wash them with hot water? I have always done that unless preheating the brewer is soaking it in hot water.

His new brew regime is interesting as I had immediately thought of your 30/33g every 30s or 40g every 40s!

MWJB will be trying further brews of 5×40g & the timings in the video, with more coffees in the coming weeks.

Please do come back and post your findings. It will be good to hear the flavour and the extraction differences between your current regime and JH’s!

Thx!

PortafilterProcrastinator

MWJB Completely agree about the grind size refs - especially when he says at the end it is easy to get good results as long as x,y,z - one of which being the right grind size.

Him pushing some grinds around in his hand isn’t helpful.

MWJB

LMSC Stopped washing filter papers years ago, never got any paper taste, mostly used plastic V60s/steel Kalita Waves.

LMSC

Brewed Django Colombian Angucho after lunch; 16.1g powder, 245g water, JH’s new method, total drain time 3:15 mins.

As far as the cup was concerned, very ordinary coffee like espresso - meh! No point trying to describe the taste.

MWJB

Crankhouse Juan Jiminez Pena Finca El Porvenir, washed pink Bourbon

13.8g coffee at 92 on Niche (9% 400 Kruve), 210g water poured 30g every 30s, each pour taking 15s each, first 3 in centre, last 3 in the ring.

Very tasty, on the delicate side, not so much of the blackberry in this particular brew, but watermelon & white wine are very apt. Very tiny hint of roast, but not enough to be off-putting. 8/9

LMSC

Smith Street Tanzania Majinja : Washed

17.8g, 270g water, 40g poured every 30s. It had the orange peel and dark chocolate flavours. Disappointed with this coffee; very ordinary; and, perhaps would score between 2 and 3.

MWJB

LMSC Seems a bit harsh if 5 is neither like dislike (neutral)?

LMSC

MWJB Yes, it is!

It didn’t really work out for me. I was just going through the motion than enjoying my afternoon coffee! Normally the fruit acidity, considering it is an apple flavour, comes out well on my brews. It had a mild orange peel and a dark chocolate at the finish; perhaps, that’s what did this in.

I did deliberate where I should be placing my score on your scale. Anything like even 4 means there is something likeable in the cup. Hence, the score!

I think I am probably over-dozed on Smith Street! :-)

LMSC

I have loosened the grind by a fair bit for the same Dora Mendez. Brewed 15.6g and 240g water and did not measure the liquid.

Got a little bit of clarity to get caramalised sugar armoa and flavour; but, the cup on the whole was still far from developing a liking. I would have to be a little more generous to give 6 out of 9. I will brew the clever at the same grind size and ratio as in the case of cupping. As far as the V60 is concerned, I am going to have to drop it to 60g/l and see if it helps. I can grind a lot coarser. The v60 grind size is already at the size that I have been considering it as a good spot across bags.

MWJB

LMSC What would you have scored the cupping?

Dropping ratio won’t have as marked an effect on extraction as grinding coarser.

Your cupping was a low extraction, maybe abnormally so, to get a similar strength/intensity at 60g/L drip will mean a higher extraction than the cupping, maybe higher than you have now.

If your V60 taste scores accross other coffees are consistently higher, I’m not sure I’d have the patience to explore the rabbit hole of ‘slightly better’ cups for one specific coffee, by changing every parameter. But that’s just me.

LMSC

MWJB What would you have scored the cupping?

6.5. It was very light and weak, although had a lot of clarity. I like the strengths my current V60 and Clever produces.

MWJB

Crankhouse, Martin Urena la Chumeca 777, anaerobic natural Catuai

Notes are kiwi, stewed apple & brandy and I’d say they’re on target. Fair caramel like sweetness, I gave it 8/9.

V60 02 with drip assist - 13.8g coffee at 92 on Niche (9% 400 Kruve), 210g water poured 30g every 30s, each pour taking 15s each, first 3 in centre, last 3 in the ring.

Systemic

Finished a box of white Hario V60 papers and moved on to new ones which are unbleached and seem thinner. Coffee seems stronger so dug out the refractometer - Extraction Yield was 22.8% and this was after backing off the grind on the EKs one stop. Tasting notes clouded by more mouthfeel so will resort to backing off the grind even more.

LMSC

Systemic

Thanks for pointing out. I got a set of Hario V60 02 from Amazon in September. I thought the paper was thinner before. I assume it is unbleached.

I wonder if this might have contributed to a less than a par performance of some of my brews, when brewed at the same grind setting which I have been happy before. Although I won’t know for sure (as I can’t test), the underwhelming performance was consistent across the brews (espresso, clever and V60) in the case of those few bags.

Dark Arts Weird Science : Ethiopia - Carbonic Maceration

Good coffee; the molasses come out clearly, providing a gentle sweet and a mild bitterness. The acidity is higher than medium as in mango and red fruits; the cup was not underwhelming but still not feeling the wow as in the case of the recent Blackcat bag! Do get hints of strawberry at the finish. A sweet taste does linger long after the cup was finished. Perhaps, a score of 7 would make sense.

I did grind this coarser than the normal grind setting. A bit of harshness prevails in the cup. I am thinking if I should grind finer.

14g, 216.3g water and 4:10 mins.

MWJB

LMSC An unbleached paper would be off-white/pale beige.

I’m wondering if grinding finer would be the best call, I haven’t had a V60 of that size go to 4:00 this year. (though Ethiopians can have longer than typical brew times). How would you describe the harshness.

LMSC

MWJB How would you describe the harshness.

Acidic on the right side of the scale perhaps! I would also say characteristics of more solubles (ie signs of over extracted notes / flavour). Won’t say bitter as it is expected on the milder side, given the molasses.

MWJB grinding finer would be the best call

I know! With my above interpretation, should I be going coarser or dilute the ratio? Thx

MWJB

LMSC Diluting the ratio doesn’t affect the extraction as much as grind changes, so I’d change grind to steer that. Change the ratio only if you want to change the intensity. There’s a fair bit of overlap between 60 & 65g/L so I’d only expect a relatively small change in this alone, but that’s no reason not to try it.

« Previous Page Next Page »