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Coffee Brewing Tips and Tricks

Pour Over Coffee Brewing Tips and Tricks

If you're new to a coffee maker that brews coffee with right temperature water and grounds saturation, you may need to adjust your coffee and water ratio to enjoy a good cup of coffee. 

Brewing coffee with Bonavita Exceptional Brew Coffee Makers – suggested recipes by Stefan Hersh, Buzz Killer Espresso, Chicago, IL.

As with most electric brewers we have encountered, we don’t necessarily think that the manufacturer's instructions optimize performance. Our recommended departure points for experimenting with the Bonavita Exceptional Brew coffee maker are:

 

pour over
→ 30grams (beans), medium grind setting, 14 ounces of water in to yield approximately 12 ounces of liquid
→ 40grams (beans), medium grind setting, 17 ounces of water in to yield approximately 15 ounces of liquid
→ 50grams (beans), medium grind setting, 23 ounces of water in to yield approximately 20 ounces of liquid
→ 55 grams (beans), medium grind setting, 25 ounces of water in to yield approximately 23 ounces of liquid.
 

For more body, adjust the recipe using more coffee, for more brightness and concentration adjust the grind finer. For a smoother, less bitter cup, adjust the grind courser, and to allow for more nuance in aromatics and fruit flavors adjust the recipe for less coffee. One thing to note is that the efficiency of the Bonavita can highlight some of the negative features inherent in inferior coffee. With some experimentation and adjustment of the basic parameters, flaws in the coffee can usually be masked at least as well with the Bonavita as with any other brewer, but of course, we would simply choose to use better coffee. Happy brewing!

Enjoy!

Stefan Hersh
Buzz Killer Espresso
Chicago, IL.

 

In case you’re new to manual pour over brewing, here is a way to get started. Brewing a single cup of coffee via the manual pour over technique allows the coffee flavor to fully come alive. We don’t think you’ll go back to your K world anytime soon after enjoying single cup coffee this way. Thanks to Jonathan for sharing his recipe with us.

Manual Brewing – Pour over recipe by Jonathan Jarrow of Harbinger, The Coffee Spot

pour over
→ Yield: Approximately 7.5 ounces
→ Brew ratio: 1:17, 14g coffee :238g water
→ Total contact time: 1:50–2:10 minutes
→ Grind size: Differs greatly depending on grinder, but slightly finer than drip coffee setting.
→ Water temperature: 202–205°F
→ Extraction: 19.45%
→ TDS: 1.28%
  • Start by weighing out 14 grams of ground coffee freshly ground. Use a scale accurate to within 10th of a gram scale if possible as accuracy is very helpful.
  • Pre-wet your pour over filter basket and paper filter to remove the excess paper particles and warm the brew platform.
  • Use good water.
  • Ensure that your water temperature is at least 202F in the pouring vessel. (Water loses 6-8 degrees F each time it is transferred)
  • Pour grounds into the filter and level them with a gentle shake.
  • Place pour over vessel and mug on scale. Tare/zero the scale setting.
  • Start stopwatch as you begin pouring (0.00). Pour 60g of water evenly across the entire bed of grounds.
  • Immediately use a spoon to gently agitate the grounds. This ensures that all the grounds are saturated and extracting evenly.
  • At 0:20, fill to120g, again pouring evenly to saturate and apply turbulence throughout the entire slurry.
  • At 0:40, fill to 180g, using the same technique.
  • At 1:00, fill to finish to weight of 238g.
  • Immediately stir slurry with spoon, 3-5 brisk stirs will do. This frees the coffee grounds from the side walls and allows it to stay in contact with the water for the entirety of the brew.
  • Adjust grind size to taste for future brewings. Total brew time should be around 2 minutes (+ - :10 seconds).

Enjoy!

Cheers from Colorado,
Jonathan S. Jarrow
Harbinger Coffee
Fort Collins, Colorado