Coffee Strength

[Cam Miller]

I have been roasting my own coffee for several years. I grind quite finely 15 - 17 grams (4 Tbsp) of roasted beans and put them into my brewer (insulated jar) and add 150 ml (ample 5 oz) of water just off the boil. I brew it for 2 - 3 minutes, depending upon origin of beans.

This is at least twice the strength recommended by most authorities. Am I out of line, or are there others out there who make coffee of about the same strength?

[BenG]

no such thing as out of line IMO. you do it how you like it.

just curious, how do you brew in your jar?

[martin]

This led to some interesting finds after the question prompted a quick google search. First, a claim that you can't make it too strong, which I can't really take too seriously as he seems to consider about 25% over normal [drip] as being effectively saturated, while we routinely talk about brewing up to about twice normal strength for iced coffee or concentrate. I suspect his brew method places some limits on the extraction that he hasn't considered.

Then from the Wikipedia article on coffee extraction, links to three extraction charts:

http://www.mountaincity.com/brewing-1.html
http://www.mountaincity.com/brewing-2.html
http://www.mountaincity.com/brewing-3.html

Turns out my customary coffee:water ratio is somewhere between the centers of the "European" and "Norwegian" notions of perfection, depending on whether I assume they're measuring the water at brewing temperature or 20°C. Boy, I wish it weren't too late for a cup of coffee to be a good idea right now. :-)

[bigbells]

I never realized it until recently, but I apparently like my coffee weak. I only use a gram of coffee per ounce of water. When I make it stronger I don't like it as much. Not only that, I add about 6 ounces of water from the tap to cool off the 40 oz pot that I pour into my mug. I used more coffee when I was buying it at the store but now that I'm roasting my own I weigh the beans I'm going to grind. 1g per 1oz is my happy zone. I've started making 40 oz pots instead of the 60 oz that my brewer can handle, in order to prepare myself for a Behmor Brazen brewer when they're available.

[martin]

I've noticed that electric drip brewers in the 8 to 10 "cup" range seem to make a nice coffee with a ratio in the same ballpark as your preference, Dave. I rarely touch those things, but I've had some pots brewed of my good fresh homeroast more or less following the e-drip owners' dosing, and if I use much more than that they tend to slosh a little water into the cup (I didn't think that pot was very strong, but that was the Moka Kadir, so maybe it wasn't TDS-type strength at work there). I find these "underdosed" cups quite drinkable, at least in the after-dinner food-infused atmosphere that all this occurs in (after all that turkey and stuff, would I notice if it were strong or weak?).

De gustibus...

[arjaybee]

I'm with you Dave, I use about 12g of coffee in my Aeropress to make a 12 oz mug. That's about half their recommended strength. I do like it equally well when I brew it stronger, but I try to limit my caffeine intake and I'd rather have two cups this way than one strong one.

It doesn't sound like that's a problem for you though. Did you say somewhere you drink 3 pots a day? I don't think I every drank quite that much, although I used to drink a lot more than I do now.

[bigbells]

Yeah, Bob, coffee is my juice, my refreshment, my hydration, my before, during and after meal drink, all day every day.

[TheBigDripper]

50 revolutions (two scoops) in my Zassnehaus with the water level just on top of the "2" in my Braun.

Seems like that is the only way I can brew nowadays. Anything over one 10-ounce cup, and I'm lost. (Needless to say, I'm the only coffee drinker in my household.)

[swimjay]

One variable not often considered when discussing brew strength has to do with ones grinder-- the more fines the grinder is producing, the more quickly during the pour-over one will get flavors associated with over-extraction, and the sooner one will want to stop. I had a grinder which I didn't realize had a problem, and it always seemed to me that, for sixteen grams of coffee, the best strategy was to use 32 grams of water to wet the grounds, wait 25 to 45 seconds for bloom (longer for fresher, shorter for older), and then slowly add 150 grams, for a total of 180 gms of H20--much less than usually recommended. Sampling the coffee as it was dripping from a Hario V60, after 150 grams, all I was getting was woody bitterness.

At the end of the pour, a kind of silt had usually settled over the top of the grounds, from the fines.

With a recent spec Baratza Preciso, I can use much more water. For a given setting, the grind is more uniform, with fewer fines. At 200 grams of H2O (plus the 32 for bloom--total 232), flavors are still pleasant and making a positive contribution to the cup. I'll be trying even more H2O in the next several days, and feel like I've finally understood the appeal of pour-over; before I was always trying to persuade myself to like it, but actually much preferred espresso.

Now, when the pour is complete, there isn't the layer of silt over the grounds

[Corn_Squeezer]

I use 2 Aero supplied scoopfuls for one 8 ounce cup. I can't stand weak coffee.

I go through phases and went through another espresso phase. I've had an espresso machine for years but my Aero usually keeps me going.
After several weeks of an afternoon espresso I quit adding extra water to my morning Aeropress cup. I love the full taste. When I sip I swish it around my mouth and let it linger before swallowing. And I take small sips.

My Aero recipe is 2 heaping scoops of beans and 8 ounces of my Tennessee limestone spring water (same stuff Jack Daniels preferred).

I never ever weighed my beans. IMHO that is a bit obsessive! When I cook I don't measure ingredients either.
But the size of the Aero means my recipe will always be begging for more room!