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December 11, 2018

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Coffee

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Improving the Bloom of your V60 Coffee

All the coffee stuff has moved to my new website www.coffeeadastra.com !

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← How to Brew Better Coffee with a V60

Water for Coffee Extraction →

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Pingback: How to Brew Better Coffee with a V60 | J. Gagne
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Scientific Material

The BASS Survey
The Ultracool RIZzo Spectral Library
The Montreal Spectral Library
List of All UltraCool Dwarfs
List of M6-M9 Dwarfs
BANYAN II Web Tool
Material from Papers

Contact Information

Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), Université de Montréal. 2900 Boulevard Édouard-Montpetit, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4 Email :
gagne (AT) astro.umontreal.ca

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Curriculum Vitae

Website Stats

17,253 hits

Twitter stream

Recent Posts: Coffee Ad Astra

Moving Away from Instagram

The Hardness of Green Coffee

What is Astringency ?

What Affects Brew Time

Extraction Uniformity and Channeling

Measuring Coffee Concentration with a 0.01% Precision

An Investigation of Kettle Temperature Stability

A Tool and Videos for Crafting Custom Brew Water

An In-Depth Analysis of Coffee Filters

How Coffee Varietals and Processing Affect Taste

Instagram

Alright, today I realized that all links in my bio mysteriously stopped working only when clicked from here right after I added a link to another social media site that competes with Mr. Robotface. And it mysteriously started working again once I removed it. As I am not exactly happy about this, I propose that we play a little game. The prize of this game will be more regular posts from me, because I will now randomly hold on from posting a fraction of my content here, and only post it on the destination this game will lead you to. To win this game, you just need to figure out this simple charade: My first half is the same as a small box with moving images in it. My second half is the same as the website you are currently on. If you go one alphabet letter further for each character in the complete answer, you get this word: Ufmfhsbn. PLEASE do not post the answer in the comments. It is a word that got other content creators’s IG posts hidden for a couple days. Once you solved it, just go to my blog and click on the answer in the website’s header menu. I will be waiting for you there. Let’s see if this gets past Mr. Robotface’s triggers :) #coffeeadastra

Heart, you’ve blown my mind once again. This Kenyan Spikes AB is so well roasted that the origin characteristics come out incredibly vibrant and juicy, in a balanced sweet and fruity cup. This coffee is almost creamy in texture and reminds me of very sweet raspberry candies. I never like to go as precise as “raspberry candy” in my description but this really lacks any hint of sourness or astringency that one would find even in a fresh raspberry. This is liquid gold. I brewed it with my usual V60 recipe (link in bio), 3:28 drawdown, 1:17 ratio, 321g beverage and 1.51% TDS for an average extraction yield of 22.0%. If Trump can only remove these stupid tariffs on roasted coffee (which Trudeau mirrored) you’ll find a very regular client in me. I know the photo background is depressing, but the weather is even more depressing today 😅 #coffeeadastra #coffee #pourover #coffeegeeks

I just publicly released my blog post about the hardness of green coffee (link in bio) ! This is a small experiment where I used a Shore D durometer to show that different varietals and origins of green coffees can be distinguished with a durometer much better than with the typical methods used to measure their mass density. A big thanks to Andy Kires at @canadianroastingsociety for providing the green coffee ! My next upcoming blog post is also already available on Patreon (link also in bio). In it, I detail my latest attempts to get a more steady kettle flow for pour overs using the Mandritech Hand Drip Valve and a custom flow restrictor from Asia. I ended up succeeding, but it was not without hurdles ! #coffeeadastra #coffee #pourover #coffeescience #coffeegeeks #coffeeroasting #greencoffee #greencoffeebean

The orbital shaker experiment has started ! 😁 It seems quite promising, I made one pretty good brew with it, and another one where I left the bed slanted. If I can get this right every time, then that’s one less source of noise that can affect my investigations of how various variables affect the quality of brewed coffee ! #coffeegeeks #coffeescience #coffeeadastra

I just publicly released my blog post about astringency (link in bio) ! It includes a description of what it feels like, the underlying chemistry and what can cause it when we brew coffee. I'm hoping that improving our understanding of astringency will help us avoid it. The next blog post is already available on Patreon (link in bio), where I show the results of a short experiment about the surface hardness of six different green coffees and how they differ more than their mass densities. Maybe the hardness of green coffee could help roasters predict how expensive batches of coffee will behave during roasting ! #coffee #coffeescience #coffeeadastra #coffeegeeks #coffeeroasting #greencoffee

First snow of the year with a delicious coffee by @gardellicoffees, the Alemu Bukato natural Ethiopian. It’s a truly delicious, sweet coffee with plenty of ripe fruit notes. As typical of many Ethiopians, it generates a lot of fines so it’s a bit harder to prevent clogging ! This is my first brew of it, so I prepared it with my usual recipe at 1:17, 22g dose in a plastic V60 and Hario tabless filters, Rao/Perger water at 212F, poured at 5 g/s from about 8-9 cm from the top of the V60-02 wall. My grind size was 7.0@700 RPM on the @weberworkshops EG-1, and I got a drawdown time of 3:40, a beverage weight of 314 grams and a concentration of 1.43% TDS, for an average extraction yield of 20.5%. Next brew I’ll try going a tad coarser because my brew started clogging near the end. #coffee #pourover #coffeegeeks #coffeeadastra #GardelliSC #GSC

Today I’m drinking @timwendelboe’s Fahem washed Ethiopian 74110 & 74148 varietal. It’s a really unique rich and complex coffee that I very much enjoy ! Tasting rhubarb in coffee is kind of weird, but I somehow love it. I also really like being able to see varietals on these Ethiopian coffees ! It’s also one of the most soluble coffees I have ever seen, even more than the Tatmara natural 74112 and 74110. I’m starting to suspect @timwendelboe is onto something maybe with good farming practices ! I brewed it at 1:17, with my usual recipe (see blog for details, link in bio) 22g coffee, 319g out, 1.58% TDS (!) for an average extraction yield of 22.9% and a brew time of 3:40. I used Rao/Perger water at 212F in a plastic V60, the Hario tabless filters, I poured at a fixed ~12 cm from the initial dry coffee bed with a kettle flow rate of 4-6 g/s. I had no signs of filter clogging or astringency even when it cooled, so I might try using more water next time to get a more reasonable concentration 😆 #coffee #coffeegeeks #coffeeadastra #pourover

Stop using oxygen absorber packs with coffee ! I previously recommended using oxy-sorbs to keep coffee fresh in addition to other methods like vacuum sealing and freezing, but I recently realized they can hurt coffee quite badly. It took me a while to realize it because it happens faster with some coffees and not others, and it takes a very long time for it to happen in the freezer (that’s not too surprising). For more than a month now I have had issues with my coffee tasting weirdly harsh after storage, and I was struggling to identify the issue until Matt Perger told me about a suspicion they have at Barista Hustle that oxy-sorbs may interact chemically with coffee aromas. You’ll see some more in-depth blog posts coming out about this soon, but I immediately wanted to stop recommending their use with coffee. I found that it can result in a harsh and metallic taste, less sweetness and less volatile aromas in the coffee. It also doesn’t seem to affect the acidity profile much. It’s a defect that is very distinct from roast, brew and green defects once you learn to identify it. Matt found that 100% of bags in which he used them ended up losing significant aromatics. In the first image above, I show the contents of a brand new oxy-sorb pack. In the second one, I show the contents of a similar pack after two weeks of being vacuum sealed with 80 grams of coffee at room temperature; there is no way enough oxygen was present to react almost the whole pack, as they are rated to absorb most oxygen from a liter of air. It’s pretty clear they react with CO2 (that’s a known fact) but I suspect they may also react with coffee volatiles, while also imparting a bad taste on the beans. Even worse, some packs include moisture to allow oxidation of the oxy-sorb iron and remove oxygen from the food, but moisture is extremely bad for enclosed coffee. I couldn’t find out whether oxy-sorbs have a moisturizer in them. #coffeegeeks #coffee #coffeescience #v60 #coffeeadastra

I’m excited to start reading this book ! Thanks @christopherferan or the suggestion ! #coffee #coffeegeeks #coffeescience #coffeeadastra

I just publicly released my blog post on all the variables that affect coffee brew time (link in bio) ! In it you will find an in-depth discussion of why brew time is such a poor tool to communicate recipes or grind size, and how it's only a useful diagnostic if you are extremely diligent in keeping all the variables fixed in your brewing. I also just made my next blog post available on Patreon (link also in bio): it's a discussion of the mechanisms that cause astringency in coffee, and what astringency feels like. I also discuss ideas for measuring astringency, and how we might want to learn a few tricks from the beer and wine sectors for reducing astringency in our brews.  #coffeescience #coffeegeeks #coffeebrewing #v60 #coffee #pourover #coffeeadastra

I just released my latest blog post (link in bio) in which I discuss flow uniformity in coffee brewing, based on computer simulations of percolation from the scientific literature ! It really helped me understand why small changes in grind size can sometimes result in more astringency even when no obvious or catastrophic channeling seemed to have happened. I suspect these simulations explain why; the percolation flow is naturally much less uniform in space at very small flow rates. I also think it's an important reason why all of my Buchner funnel brews to date have been quite astringent (my pump is very weak). Flow through the coffee bed is starting to look like a very important variable when we brew ! My following blog post is also available on Patreon (link in bio): in it, I discuss in great detail why I think total brew time is one of the least useful and communicable quantities for pour over ! And not only it’s already on Patreon, it’s also now available to @baristahustle Unlimited subscribers ! #coffegeeks #coffee #coffeescience #buchnerfunnel #v60 #coffeephysics

I just published a new method to make coffee concentration measurements precise to 0.01% TDS with a refractometer ! It features convenient steps to take so that you completely remove the issues of evaporation and temperature differences that could easily introduce errors of > 0.05% TDS in your measurements ! You can find out more about this protocol on my blog (link in bio). I also just made my next blog post immediately available to my Patreon followers (link is also in my bio): in that upcoming blog post, I talk about a scientific paper that carried computer simulations of percolation (last image) and I discuss the different variables that I now think affect extraction uniformity. It's not just about channels ! #coffeescience #coffeegeeks #coffeeadastra #coffee #refractometer #specialtycoffee #coffeeexperiment #coffeebrewing

This morning I’m treating myself with @gardellicoffees’ amazing Gesha Village Auction Lot 6. This natural Gesha is so floral it almost feels like drinking perfume (or at least what you’d think drinking perfume feels like haha). It has a nice and complex acidity that reminds me of pineapple and kiwi, but also of peach and lime. The taste ends with a nice, balanced sweetness that almost feels like bubble gum. I brewed this cup with my usual recipe (described on my blog; see link in bio) with Rao/Perger brew water, a 22g dose and 1:17 ratio, which got me a 323g beverage at 1.45% TDS for an avergae extraction yield of 21.3%. This is suprisingly high for a natural processed Gesha. I made some minor tweaks to my V60 recipe recently based on my turbidity measurements; I now pour a bit lower (14 cm above the slurry) with a 3-6 g/s kettle flow, and I prepare the nest shape with my finger rather than a chopstick (see photo). These modifications gave me a marginal ~0.3-0.4% increase in extraction yield but made my brews less astringent and cloudy. #coffeeadastra #coffeegeeks #coffee #pourover #GSC #GardelliSC

This morning I’m drinking a fantastic coffee roasted by @passengercoffee, the Alexis Gonzales washed Colombia varietal, from Colombia ! The tasting notes are incredibly accurate for me; it really has a bright black currant acidity with an intense and lingering sweetness that reminds me of pineapple and litchi. I brewed this one with my usual V60 recipe (see link in bio) with Rao/Perger water, a 22g dose, 1:17 ratio, 45 sec bloom with the EG-1 grinder at 7.0@700 RPM (burrs touch at 1.6) and obtained a 3:17 brew time, 1.46% TDS concentration and 320g beverage, corresponding to an average extraction yield or 21.3%. That photo is featuring @umeshiso_’s beautiful cupping spoon, thanks again ! I use it for stirring my coffee when I’m not cupping, just because it’s nice. #pourover #coffeeadastra #coffee #coffeegeeks #v60

For those of you who understand French, @cafe.normal just released their latest episode where I discuss various topics with Seb for more than an hour, including extraction dynamics, brew water, coffee grinders and more ! See the link in my bio for the episode. I really loved this discussion, and frankly all other episodes of the podcast too ! So much so that I binge-listened to the whole series in two days 😂 Thanks again to both Seb and Elise from @cafe.normal for the opportunity, I loved being a part of this awesome project. #coffeegeeks #podcast #coffeepodcast #coffeegrinder #coffeegrinds #coffeescience #waterforcoffee #coffeeextraction

I just released my latest blog post (link in bio) where I investigate how insulating my kettle affected its temperature stability ! I don't know if this will be as useful for every kettle out there, but the smaller 600 mL kettles like the @mybrewista artisan gooseneck seem to greatly benefit from additional insulation ! This has had a really positive impact on my latest brews' extraction yields and taste. In my next blog post (immediately available on Patreon; see link in bio), I outline a very detailed analysis of the hurdles that prevented me from getting TDS measurements with 0.01% accuracy until now. In it, I also share a detailed methodology for you to overcome these hurdles and easily obtain very accurate TDS measurements. It will become public in a few weeks from now. #coffeeadastra #coffeegeeks #pourover #v60 #refractometer #vst

Don't Bother Covering your V60 ! I recently noticed that some of my brews had channeled because I gently knocked the V60 when try to put on or take off a cork lid I made to maximize slurry insulation. Because it makes the V60 preparation more messy,, I decided to finally make sure that the lid was actually useful. In the graph above (third picture), I show two brews prepared identically, one with the lid and one without. The temperature a few millimeters above the coffee bed (see last two pictures for the temperature probe location) was only different when the slurry went below the temperature probe. So, the lid keeps the air above the slurry warmer, however air conductivity is very low especially in the absence of air movement, and therefore the air temperature doesn't have enough time to really affect the slurry temperature. Both brews had exactly the same average extraction yield: they both had 1.40% TDS with a 22g coffee dose and 325g beverage weight for a 20.7% average extraction yield. This is pretty much the average I get for that coffee (@gardellicoffees’ M'zungu Project), it extracts a bit lower than average. It tastes great at this extraction yield. There's another lesson I took from the two graphs above: I obtained an inconsistent bloom temperature in the two brews, and that has nothing to do with the lid: I was just too impatient and poured when the @mybrewista kettle base said it reached 212F in the "with lid" brew. You actually have to wait a good 20 seconds after that for the kettle to really reach 212F (my next blog post discusses this more). #coffeegeeks #coffeescience #coffeeadastra #pourover

OK, I don't often post twice in one day about the coffee I'm drinking, but apparently today is special. I just opened a bag of natural 74110 varietal Ethiopian roasted by @timwendelboe, and what a home run ! This is both an amazing green and amazing roast; I brewed it at 1:17 in a V60 with my usual recipe (available on my blog, see link in bio), and obtained the highest extraction yield I ever measured on any V60 brew so far: 1.60% TDS for a 320g beverage, for an average extraction yield of 23.3% ! But this is not just about numbers; it is the first coffee I would qualify as a "flower bomb". It is like the quintessence of Ethiopian floral aromas, backed by a very bright and juicy acidity that reminds me of ripe figs. What a great coffee ! #coffeegeeks #pourover #coffee #coffeeadastra

This morning I decided to finally try @father_coffee’s Jasper natural carbonic macerated SL28 & SL34 Kenyan that I won in their Instagram giveaway. It is a great coffee; it’s really fun to try such a special processing method from Kenya. It is roasted very well, maybe a tad more developed than I’m used to, but still well within my comfort zone. I get a very sweet and fruity cup, with notes of black cherries, blackberries, cranberries and tropical fruits. The winey taste is not as pronounced as in their Amber which was the same coffee but carbonic macerated and washed, but there’s a distinct taste I’m unable to describe that reminds me a lot of @gardellicoffee’s M’zungu project from 2018, which I really loved. I made it with my usual V60 recipe, with Rao/Perger water at 1:17, ground at 7.0@700 RPM on the EG-1 grinder (burrs touch at 1.6). I obtained a 324g beverage at 1.53% TDS, for an average extraction yield of 22.6%. I’m starting to think that the @brewcoat is getting me a ~0.03% TDS increase on all my brews because my @mybrewista artisan gooseneck kettle was not stable enough thermally ! Thanks @sasasestic for taking the efforts to help develop this special coffee too ! #coffeeadastra #pourover #coffeegeeks

Today I finally got to try @tunnelespresso and Vassily & Julien served me the best batch brew coffee I ever had, and honestly the first batch brew I ever truly enjoyed ! It was also a bean I know well, Andy’s @canadianroastingsociety Ethiopian Nano Challa, and it was prepared extremely well, I couldn’t notice any roast or brew issue even in diagnostics mode. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a ~21-22% extraction yield I was drinking. Finally, here’s a coffee shop I’m happy to recommend in Montreal :) Finding the shop is a challenge and you might get lost in Montreal’s underground mazes, but that’s part of the adventure. It will make it even more worth it when you finally find the blue neon glare of Tunnel. Make sure you check the store hours before you go if you’re a night owl like me, they’re mostly open early in the day. Also thanks to @magalie.steve for installing that beautiful new @waterforcoffee.ca RO system + Mg booster that probably helped a lot ! Pictures are by Andy and @magalie.steve #coffeegeeks #coffee #montrealcoffee

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