Home Brewing Guide for a Perfect French Press:

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Ok, I admit, I did not do this correctly and will humbly correct my coffee snoot.  I found this article on Stumptown’s website at www.stumptowncoffee.com.  I love their coffee beans (high quality).   I also salute their philosophy on the environment and the farming principles when working with locals.  Check out their website, but here’s an abbreviated Brewing Guide.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Using a press pot (aka French Press) is the easiest and best way to get truly excellent coffee at home. The keys to getting good results are: using high quality, fresh beans; grinding the coffee correctly; using clean equipment; timing the process.

You’ll need a Press Pot, coffee, a grinder, a spoon, a timer, and cups (and thermal carafe if preparing more than fits in the cups).

STEP 1:  GRIND FRESH COFFEE BEANS

It is important that the coffee be ground coarse and that it be ground with a quality burr (rather than blade) grinder. By grinding the coffee coarse, you’re allowing for a slower and more even extraction which results in a fuller bodied and more nuanced cup. Blade grinders chop the coffee rather than grinding it, resulting in uneven particle size and unpredictable particle size. This results in uneven extraction, which causes coffee that has increased bitterness and which is not true to the true flavor profile of the coffee. In addition, the lack of consistency in particle size results in inconsistent and unpredictable results from pot to pot.

STEP 2:  ADD COFFEE TO CLEAN POT

You’ll need one tablespoon of coffee for every 4oz of water. In other words, if you have a 16oz press pot, you’ll want to use 4 tablespoons of coffee. Feel free to adjust this amount based on your own personal tastes. Make sure the pot is clean and dry.

STEP 3:  ADD WATER

You should bring the water just to a boil (electric kettles are great at this) and then let it cool for about 45 seconds. Then pour it aggressively into the pot so that it saturates the grounds. The key is to saturate all the grounds evenly. You should move the stream around as you pour to facilitate this. Do not fill the pot entirely. With many fresh coffees you will see significant expansion of the coffee in a sort of “foam” at the top of the liquid once you add water. This is known as “bloom” and is the result of the off-gassing of CO2 from the coffee. Adding too much water can result in a very messy countertop.

Although Stumptown doesn’t mention this, I would add that the more purified the water, the better the result.  Tap water has chemicals that could change the flavor and quality of the coffee.  At minimum, use a home water filter.

STEP 4:  START TIMER

You’re going to want to have a timer that counts down from 4 minutes and has an alarm at 4 minutes. It’s very important that you use a timer to guarantee high quality coffee.  I did not know this  little secret initially, I had thought the longer you keep it brewed the better…..ugh, now I’m wiser.

STEP 5:  STIR POT

After 1 minute, you should stir the grounds in the pot. If you need to add water to top off the pot, make sure it is again right below boiling. Stirring the pot guarantees even and optimal extraction of all the coffee. In addition, it breaks down the “bloom” and allows you to combine the correct amount of water and coffee without spilling all over the place.

STEP 6: PUT PRESS/TOP ON POT

Make sure you line up the spout and the corresponding exit in the lid.

STEP 7:  PRESS THE POT

At exactly 4 minutes, you should push the press (slowly) into the pot to force all grounds to the bottom. You might have to press and then release and repeat to do this. Do not crush it with all your might – use some finesse.

STEP 8:  POUR THE COFFEE RIGHT AFTER

Another little secret I didn’t adhere to.

You need to do this as soon as you’ve pressed the pot. If you’re making more coffee than you can fit into a cup and want to hold some for later, pour the coffee into a thermal carafe. Do not simply leave the coffee in the press pot – it will get nasty quickly. If you want to avoid any stray grounds and sediment, you can pour the coffee through a mesh basket filter.

Ok, were there some information here you didn’t know?  Let me know what you think.

This entry was posted on November 21, 2009 at November 21, 2009 and is filed under Brewing Guides/Articles:. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.