3mo ago

Fewer beans = great coffee if you get the pour height right

arstechnica.com

9 comments

Well, not necessarily great coffee. Just more extraction. Which does mean more efficient use of your coffee beans, but not necessarily better taste.
- Its going to have a tendency towards bitterness.
- Bed depth plays a huge part in this equation as well. I can make some small v01 cups and they taste great but spread the same amount of grinds out flat and soak them then drain and it's gonna be meh lol
Also shouldn’t you pour in spirals rather than straight into the center (as their lab test depict)?
- The most common technique for a Hario v60 in the past was the Rao. It's swirling the bed to make sure bed agitation is consistent but not washing fines down into the bed. The v60 is designed for the finished brew to pass through the sides of the filter and down.
  A chemex however I'll send a solid steam right into the center of the bed and then stir gently to keep it agitated.
  
  I have a Blue Bottle. What do you recommend for this one?
  https://bluebottlecoffee.com/us/eng/product/blue-bottle-coffee-dripper
Seems like a cool lab to work in! I love the switch, but a little surprised to see that used scientifically for this as the space below the filter where the ball is can create some different dynamics and bypass than a standard v60. I would think a 50cm pour height would be high risk for channeling if you held it in one place for even a little too long. That's high enough that I almost wonder if you have to compensate with a little higher temp water too. My unsolicited advice would be to hold off on incorporating this technique into your v60 trials if you haven't already perfected a technique you like. Out of all the variables I play with when messing with new recipes, the ratio is the last thing that I would adjust. Typically if you aren't getting the cup you want and everyone is raving about, it's not usually the fault of the ratio.
the main thing i generally shoot for pouring-wise is avoiding churning up the coffee bed by over-aggressively pouring. i feel it causes migration of the fines, which is usually detrimental.

9 comments