Brewing Guides

Best brew practices for your drip machine, Chemex or french press
Specialty Coffee Association’s Golden Cup Standard Coffee to Water Ratio

 

The recommended coffee to water ratio is 55 grams of coffee per 1 liter (34oz) of water, plus or minus 10% depending on your taste preference.  So for most brewing equipment you would use .055g per 1 mL of water.

 

Drip Machine

 

  1. Weigh whole beans - .055g x 1 mL water
      1. Example - 66g of coffee for 1200mL of water (40oz of water) 
      2. We like to brew 58g of coffee for 1200mL because we prefer it to not be as strong.
  2. Grind beans to a medium grind similar to the texture of kosher salt.
  3. Measure water to your preferred serving based on your coffee to water ratio.
  4. Dump ground coffee into unbleached filter
  5. Brew!

 

Chemex

 

  1. Boil your water
  2. Weigh whole beans - .055g x 1mL water (size of Chemex)
      1. Example - For our 8 cup Chemex we use 55g of coffee for 1000mL of water. 
  1. Grind beans medium coarse, less chunky, the texture of sea salt.
  2. Prepare your Chemex with proper Chemex filter
      1. Keep the filter folded, then open up one corner of the square so you’ll have one layer on one side and three layers on the other. The side with three layers is what you’ll put against the pour spout on the Chemex.
  3. After water is finished boiling, pour a small amount of water into your Chemex to rinse out the paper taste of your filter. Pour that water out. 
  4. Dump coffee grounds into the filter.
  5. Place the Chemex on your kitchen scale and tare the weight to zero.
  6. With your Chemex still on the scale, start a stopwatch timer and begin to saturate the grounds with about 50g of water, making sure to get them all wet then let grounds “bloom” for about 30-40 seconds.  
  7. After the 30-40 second wait time, pour more water into your Chemex, but don’t overfill it. Continue through this pouring process until you have reached the weight you are looking for. 
      1. Example - For our 8 cup Chemex we use 55g of coffee for 1000mL of water. This should take about 6-6.5 minutes to brew. If it takes less time your grind is too coarse and more time your grind is too fine. 
  8. Once your coffee is finished brewing, discard filter and serve.

 

French Press

 

  1. Boil your water
  2. Weigh whole beans - .055g x 1mL water (size of french press)
    1. Example - 8 Cup press 50-56g coffee / 850g water 
  1. Grind beans on a coarse grind, more chunky
  2. Remove lid of french press and dump in grounds.
  3. Once water is ready pour into press saturating your coffee, leave an inch of room on the top. 
  4. Give your coffee a stir.
  5. Set lid on top of press, but don’t push down yet. 
  6. Set timer for 4 minutes. 
  7. Once brew time is up, it’s time to press your grounds to the bottom of your pot. 
    1. Make sure the opening on your lid is lined up with the spout so the steam can escape and make pressing easier. 
  1. It’s ready to serve! 

 

Things to Remember:

 

  1. One cup of coffee in most drip machines is usually considered 6 ounces.
  2. you can use 1.5 tablespoons per cup if you prefer to use a scoop.  There are special coffee scoops available. 
  3. High quality water is very important and affects the flavor of your brew. Water should be clean, fresh, odorless, free of chlorine, but also retain the presence of certain minerals and compounds to properly bring out the natural flavors of the coffee.