French Press vs Pour-Over
I bought a S.O. Kona medium roast coffee last week that was extremely bright, almost sour, when brewed through my Chemex. I tried different grind settings that had little effect. So, I tried a FP this morning with a very course grind. I brewed for 1 minute and gave it a good stir, then let it sit for an additional 4.5 min. I did not plunge - just poured through the screen into a pre-heated cup.
The result: Brightness was at a pleasant level and some chocolaty flavors came out that were not present, or perhaps overshadowed before. It does not even taste like the same coffee. A successful experiment.
The result: Brightness was at a pleasant level and some chocolaty flavors came out that were not present, or perhaps overshadowed before. It does not even taste like the same coffee. A successful experiment.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keaton Ritchie on
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Though the sediment in the cup from a french press will play some role in taste and mouthfeel, the radical difference suggests that you were underextracting the Chemex cup (which is pretty easy to do, and encouraged by the methods in a lot of how-to guides out there). Where you using the same coffee:water ratio for both brewing methods?
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Permalink Reply by Adam Wilson on
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One thing you need to watch for using a Chemex is water temperature. All that slow, careful pouring means your water is cooling off, and too-cool water can give you some REALLY bright coffee.
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Permalink Reply by Dennis McQuoid on
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Keaton: I use the Chemex daily and brew Hawaiian coffees exclusively. This is a particularly bright coffee. My ratio is 1 gram coffee per 16 grams water as a standard. I vary a little depending on the particular coffee I'm brewing. The brew time for the Chemex is 4 minutes. I could grind much finer and shoot for a longer extraction, in fact I'll try that shortly.
Adam: To help control temperature, I take water in small quantities from my boiler at about 75 grams at a time, rather than filling the kettle all at once. I place the Chemex on a scale so I know exactly how much water I've used.
I think the key difference is that the FP leaves a lot of oils in the coffee (less present after the paper filters it out) that soften the blow of the acids. Most likely, the sediment plays a roles as well.
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Yep. I just brewed 32 grams of coffee for 520 grams of water at 208F out of the boiler, and used a very fine grind. The extraction took 4.5 minutes. Compared to the FP: still very bright though now quite as bad, lost some of the chocolate flavor and body, but higher floral tones.
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