Poring over pour overs

Wow! Two updates in two weeks?! I know what you're asking yourself right now: "John Jon, what could possibly merit such prolific writing on your part? I mean, I'm obviously of lesser character, having written very little this week, and I need to know the secret to your sudden burst of motivation!" The answer to this question is that I think I've found some topics recently that I feel are really worth writing about. I don't wish to downplay my earlier posts; I find them very interesting and hope that they have helped you to deepen your appreciation of coffee, but I really want to provide practical advice that allows the caffeine swilling masses to enjoy better coffee right here and right now.

Therefore, I'm going to continue my discussion of brewing methods by providing you all with a primer on making amazing pour-over drip coffee. This week, Let's talk about my good friend the Chemex and its ilk. Apart from being on permanent exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, the Chemex Coffee Brewer has been a fixture for those devoted to quality coffee for nearly 70 years. With the recent resurgence in the popularity of manual pour-over brewing methods over the profoundly inferior electric auto-drip machines that we all associate with coffee, we as a people have started to discover a world of sublime flavor and aroma that simply was not there before.
In my last post, I told you I was going to explain why the coffee from your auto-drip machine is so god-awful, so here goes. The auto-drip machine, or dripolator (not a super villain) as those marketing geniuses at Mr. Coffee called it, hails from 1972, when people were apparently tired of the eternity of back-breaking work that making good coffee requires. That additional four minutes was just far too much, so like many 'innovations' of that era, the dripolator's purpose was to sacrifice quality for ease (and potentially to destroy Superman and take over Metropolis). I can assure you that however much you might admire the look of the coffee maker sitting in your kitchen right now, it hates you. It hates you with a cold hatred that draws water at a mere 185 degrees Fahrenheit through its dark, plastic, mineral-encrusted veins, and vomits this tepid water on your coffee, not caring once about your enjoyment. It also stole that $10 you had in your wallet last week, and it's plotting insurrection with your toaster. The coffee you get at your local roaster/coffee house is brewed at a temperature of 196-204 (yes, even at S***bucks), and brewing anywhere below this temperature results in under-extracted, bland, and often bitter coffee (Don't point out that crazy process of cold-brewing from Japan; it's just weird). In addition, the coffee on your counter, unless it brews into a thermal carafe, is being actively heated while resting, a process which ruins the flavor of the drink. It's much better to drink lukewarm cup of good coffee than a hot cup of disgust.
So what options do you have? Well, if you're loaded, you could buy yourself a Technivorm coffee brewer. At a mere $245, it's the only auto-drip coffee maker endorsed by the Specialty Coffee Association of America. However, assuming you're living on something similar to my wages, you can forego the auto-drip entirely and enjoy the quality of a cup of coffee you brew yourself.
Now that we're all ready to set fire to our old Mr. Coffee, let's learn how to brew with a Chemex like a pro. A lot of this is actually going to sound similar to last week. Exempli gratia: Boil water. Again, we're shooting for 196-204, but this time, we're taking it right up to 204. You're going to need to surf this temperature range while you brew, so you might as well start at the top. Again, you can use your fancy electric kettle with temperature control for this, but a kettle on the stove can work in a pinch.
While your water is boiling, let's get the Chemex ready to rock. The major benefit of the Chemex is its filter. This filter is much thicker than a standard coffee filter, so it produces a very clean cup of coffee that sits well and both tastes and smells f'awesome. I recommend it very highly for Central American and Ethiopian coffees especially, but even Sumatra works wonderfully. Unfortunately, It has been noted that this filter has a 'papery' taste, but you can take steps to eliminate this. Start by folding your filter according to the standard directions and putting your filter in the Chemex. Then pour some cold water over the top and pour out. When the water is ready, repeat this with the hot water to further cleanse the filter paper and bring the Chemex itself up to temperature.
When your water is nearly done, grind your coffee. You want to use the same equation I stated last week, about 2 tablespoons per 6 oz. water (again, 2/3 cup for an 8 cup Chemex. Woe be unto those who question this amount). Unlike last week, you have one main factor to consider when you grind for the Chemex: the amount of time it takes to drip. You'll find the water will rush through if the grind is too coarse, and it will stall out if the grind is too fine. Try to experiment with a fine grind that will still give you a reasonable brew time (about 3-4 minutes for an 8 cup Chemex). Also, darker roasts tend to drip faster so you should grind them slightly finer. I haven't come up with a theory concerning this phenomenon, but I can make up some BS to explain it if you want.
Now that you have ground coffee and a heated, rinsed filter, add the coffee grounds. Now it's time to bloom the coffee. Much like I said last time, you want to pour in enough water to fully saturate the grounds, but not so much that they are floating (NOTE: This is tricky. Pour slowly. You'll probably get it wrong a lot). Let the coffee bloom for thirty seconds and then start pouring in water slowly and steadily in a circular motion to sink the coffee grounds below the foam (which there should be plenty of, and also let's stop beating around the bush. It's called crema, the same as on your espresso). Make sure not to fill the filter with water over the rim of the coffee brewer itself. Refill the filter in the same manner as needed, making sure that you don't let the water completely drain out of the filter until the end. A good test at this point is that your coffee grounds should have a layer of brown to caramel colored crema on top once they've drained. If they don't, it's not a horrible thing, but it means that your water temperature was slightly off or the process took too long. If the crema looks blonde, it probably means your ending water temperature was too low. Remember, all of this is not major; you're most likely going to have a damn fine cup of coffee no matter what, but you can try to optimize this to get the best damn cup of coffee in existence. damn.
Now, since I'm covering pour-over devices, I figure I'll say a little bit about the Chemex's friends, the Beehouse, the Melitta, and the Hario V60. All of these are trusted pour-over devices used by fine coffee shops across the nation. The Melitta is going to be your easiest to find, as it is located in most grocery stores. It uses the standard truncated cone filters that many auto-drip machines use. To properly use this type of filter, add the step of folding back the crimped edges of the filter. This allows the filter to sit properly in the Melitta. The Beehouse is basically the same thing as the Melitta in ceramic as opposed to food grade plastic, and requires basically the same procedure, with the exception that you don't really need to bring the Melitta up to temperature with a second rinse. Finally, the Hario V60 is an excellent manual drip device that's really becoming popular in the world of pretentious coffee assholes. Merely mentioning its name at your local coffeehouse may be enough to land you a free drink, a job there, and maybe even co-ownership of the business. The Hario sits solidly between the Chemex and the Melitta in terms of design, with a full cone shape and open bottom, and for something that costs ~$8, it's a pretty good deal. It is also available in ceramic for a little over twice that price, and I recommend that for anyone interested in quality or afraid that evil plastic demons will leach out of their coffee dripper and start screwing with their DNA. Ceramic also has a relatively high heat capacity, while the heat capacity of plastics tends to be low, so brewing with ceramic will help to keep the brew temperature high as well. Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Clever Coffee Dripper. So there, I mentioned it. Enjoy your weekend, and next week, I'm going to be telling you things to look for when evaluating a coffee shop.