There are many important parameters in coffee brewing. If you want to drink a delicious cup of coffee, you need to accurately master the brewing parameters and brew according to them as much as possible, so that you can have a high probability of ensuring a delicious cup of coffee. Among them, brewing time is crucial for pour-over coffee. When the coffee dose, coffee-to-water ratio, grind size, pouring speed, and so on are all ensured, brewing time can also help you judge whether the other parameters are correct, then calibrate them, and accumulate experience for brewing the next delicious cup of coffee.
When should timing start?
A digital scale is one of the essential brewing tools for pour-over coffee. A digital scale has the functions of weighing and timing. The weighing function provides accurate data for the coffee dose and coffee-to-water ratio. The timing function is to support how well this cup of coffee is brewed.
Although we all know the importance of timing, there is disagreement on when to start the timer. Some people like to start timing at the moment of the first pour, while others prefer to press the timer button only after the first pour is finished.
Front Street believes that extraction begins as soon as the water first comes into contact with the coffee grounds. If you pour the water first and then start timing, that is actually selectively ignoring the extraction effect during pouring. If everyone has no objection to a 30-second bloom time, then when there is a difference in timing, the latter's actual bloom time is directly greater than 30 seconds.
Therefore, Front Street suggests that when timing, everyone should still start from the point when water first contacts the coffee grounds, that is, timing should begin as soon as pouring starts.
What effect does the length of time have on coffee?
For immersion-type coffee brewing, if the time is short, it will be weak and the flavors will not come out; if the time is long, it will be astringent, strong, and bitter. Of course, this time needs to differ by more than 30 seconds to form such a strong contrast.
But the form of pour-over coffee is a process in which you pour water into the coffee grounds, and the water drips through the coffee bed into the server by itself. In other words, you can directly control the time used for pouring very well, but you cannot precisely control the time it takes for the water to completely finish dripping. An error within 5 seconds is normal.
The time required for water in the dripper to flow into the server is related to the coffee grind size, pouring method, and dripper structure. Coffee grounds are the key factor blocking the water flow rate. The finer the grounds, the stronger the resistance, so the slower the flow rate, and of course it will move in the direction of stronger and more bitter. The coarser the grounds, the lower the resistance and the faster the flow rate. Before the water has fully extracted the coffee substances, it flows away, and it will move in the direction of weaker and more sour.
The pouring method is relatively easier to control. The more pour stages there are, the longer the brewing time. With Front Street Coffee's three-stage brewing method, the brewing is completed in about 2 minutes.
Choosing drippers with different structures will also lead to different times. For example, the V60 dripper commonly used by Front Street has spiral-shaped diversion ribs that allow water to flow in the same direction, achieving even extraction and flow guidance, making the coffee richer in layering. Another Kono dripper used by Front Street has a short-rib design that can effectively extend the extraction time without clogging, making the coffee fuller-bodied. Therefore, using a suitable dripper to brew coffee also has a great impact on coffee flavor.
So how long is appropriate to brew a cup of coffee?
In normal brewing methods (extra-fine grinding brews and the drip method are not discussed here), with 15g of coffee, if it is less than 1 minute 30 seconds, the coffee flavors have not been fully extracted and it will appear relatively weak and watery. If it exceeds 2 minutes 30 seconds, bitter and astringent flavors are easily brewed out. Based on Front Street's output, the extraction time for the vast majority of coffee beans is between 1 minute 50 seconds and 2 minutes 10 seconds, and the flavor performance is most suitable for tasting.
If for students who want to improve their pour-over coffee skills,1minute50second-2minute10second is a relatively high fault-tolerant inspection standard. If the time is not within this range and the coffee taste does not meet your expectations, you might as well try adjusting the grind or pouring method so that the extraction time reaches this interval.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
