brewing coffee

Thanks for the reminder Bonnie! I have two of them - one plastic and one aluminum. I'll have to dig them out and give 'em a try. For a quick coffa cuppee, they ain't so bad.

There are a few erroneous assumptions above. Here's what I do:

Boil water in the whistling kettle. Grind roasted beans (stored in the freezer), using a rotary mill, not whirling blades. The resulting grind is fine, but uniform. Brew with a cone filter. When my last Tricolator breaks, I'll have to switch to Mellita. There's an art to pouring, but that's another tale.

Jerry

Dunno what you use for drip machines, but I've owned several of different makes. They have all produced coffee that was *almost* boiling. Make excellent coffee, too. The only better coffee I've ever had was jug brewed by my dear departed father.

You

Depends what they are in in the freezer... Ours live in airtight tubs. Opening the freezer doesn't affect them at all.

Good so far..

This can be very bad for a host of reasons. Carefully packaged coffee can be frozen for long term storage in a deep freezer, but if you access the coffee often, or even open the freezer daily it is often worse for the beans than storing it at room temperature.

That's better!

That's fine, too. My assumption above was that when someone refers to a "coffee brewer", and then talks about "cup" marks, I assume they are talking about a typical automatic drip machine, not something like a Chemex.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©

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It's more than just a matter of taste. It depends also on the choice of beans.

I use an electronic scale that reads to 20ths of ounces of halves of grams, up to 5 pounds. I use it frequently when cooking.

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It doesn't have to be hand cranked. There are mill-wheel models around someone gave me a Braun, the model before the current CaféSelect KMM 30, to fix, and when I repaired it. to keep. I had to hold the hand-cranked one it replaced with one hand while I cranked it with the other. It was enough of a chore to make me think of screwing it to the counter top.

Coffee from a French press is much improved by being run through a paper filter. Try it and see how much muck stays on the paper.

I keep the kettle simmering on the burner.

Jerry

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Indeed! I get about 6 mugs of coffee out of a full ten-cup carafe.

Jerry

Airtight containers is not the only issue. Roasted Coffee is porous, and condensation can be a major issue. Opening the freezer causes condensation. And you can just imagine what happens when you open that frozen container even briefly in a warm room! You are soaking the beans, and then freezing and thawing them over and over again.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©

Unless you allow the sealed container to come to room temperature before opening. Remove enough beans to provide a week's ready supply before you need to reopen the sealed container.

There can be no condensation without access to moist air. Why is airtightness unimportant?

Jerry

There is already moisture present in the container and the beans. Redistributing moisture within the container does not help the beans. Additionally, when you open the container, it is not airtight, and more moisture enters.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©

A few days ago I wanted a cup of coffee ... pulled out the Folger's decaf that's been in the cupboard since last winter. Used double the amount since it was so old. Put it in a bleached paper filter in a plastic cone over a double-insulated plastic mug. Boiled the water and poured. It was awful.

More seriously, I read a couple of research articles a few years ago which demonstrated that coffee not filtered though paper could raise blood cholesterol levels. Not very much, maybe ten points (mg/dl???) for someone who drank five cups a day. Not significant unless you drink a lot of coffee AND have a cholesterol problem. The paper was the significant thing; apparently it absorbs some oil that can raise cholesterol level.

Edward

I read recently that decaf has that problem, but not regular.

Jerry

I filled a four-ounce measuring cup with coffee scooped from the can with a tablespoon measurer. Then I was able to compress the coffee about 15%. I dumped the cup and poured the grounds back into the cup with a funnel. They came to the same level that they had with the tablespoon measurer. It seems to me that volume measures of coffee grounds are consistent unless they are intentionally compressed.

IIRC, flour will compress a lot more than coffee, and no two methods of filling a cup yield the same density.

I heated two cups to a boil, stirred in case there were cold spots, and brought it to a boil again. I poured it into my French press, which is thin glass, from about four inches higher. In the stream, my probe read 206, which would be 201 F. Pouring took three or four seconds. Immediately, the water in the press read 197, which would be 192 F.

I would normally cover the press to conserve heat. I left it open this time, with no grounds. In approximately two minutes it was 172 F.

One of these days I'd like to keep a probe in the neighbors' drip brewer to see how hot the grounds get.

I figured the best way to keep brewing water near boiling was to boil it in a pan on medium heat, turn off the electric burner, stir in the grounds, and cover. I tried it this morning. I found the flavor similar to that from my aunt's stainless percolator.

Later I tried my usual method with pyrex, a plastic filter, and a ceramic cup. The coffee had the delicious nutty flavor I'm used to. Somewhere I've read that if you've been cutting onions, rubbing your hands on stainless steel will deodorize them because the nickel is a catalyst. I think contact with stainless steel makes coffee less tasty to me. That may include the screen in my French press.

Why the 5º discrepancy? Also, your elevation above sea level determines the boiling point. It's 212º at sea level, and becomes lower with elevation.

Percolated coffee ain't the best by any means.

I've never looked into that concerning coffee, but I do know plastic louses it up.

dang who would have thought I have seen how the army core of engineers stake elevations the stake literally is a giant nail with the elevation in feet stamped on top

I still think for a quick tidy good cup of joe, use an esspresso maker.

you get one cup at the time no coffee setting to become acidic you can easily regulate each cups strength. some days, I can't pack enough in the little metal cup other days I might go 2/3 rds.

the best thing about this is that, it is very hot. you have to let it set for a few minutes.

You're right, it should be 6 degrees. In boiling water, my thermocouple says 217 F. I'm at 600 feet, so, assuming normal barometric pressure, my boiling water was probably 211.

It was about as good as coffee made in a clean stainless pan.

My neighbor would agree with you about percolated coffee. If I make coffee for him, I must follow strict instrutions. It must be made with 3-1/3 tablespoons of coffee and 12 cups of water in a

His wife, who used to manage a restaurant, established the recipe. She hates coffee.

I'm sure I'm using coffee-grade plastic.

Man, y'all are HARD CORE on coffee!

I use a Bunn drip machine like you see in offices and diners, but mine is a home model. The water stays hot in the reservoir, and as you pour water IN, coffee comes OUT.

I suppose I could spend an hour or two on the ritual, but for crying out loud, ALL I WANT IS A CUP OF JOE!

If you DO enjoy a GOOD cuppa joe, spend a couple lazy rainy Saturday mornings learning how to make it the way YOU like it. Once you establish a routine it will become second nature and you'll enjoy good joe all of the time.