Coffee Brewing Equipment
Home Coffee Brewing
We get asked about how we make our coffee often since offering a complimentary sample of hot coffee at our farmstand on the weekends. . What machine do we use, what grinder we are using….
Lately we've been asked for advice on equipment for brewing coffee at home. I'm a gadget person so this is a fun topic for me. With coffee, though, I nevertheless find that there is so much personal preference involved that what works for some does not work for all. What follows is a long list of what I like and why. But the short answer is: the best way to better coffee is to upgrade your coffee bean grinder.
We have a "daily driver" solution that brews nice enough coffee and is-- most importantly: simple. Honestly, at 5:30am, I am not usually in a mood to fuss around with scales, kettles, blooms, and cleanup. So, most weekday mornings, we use our $50 Cuisinart grinder and our $75 Cuisinart 14-cup automatic drip coffee maker. I like this grinder because it has a huge hopper-- I can load several days worth of beans Sunday night and just hit the button each morning as I get ready for work. The automatic drip coffee maker is not popular with coffee enthusiasts, saying "one can do better" and I don't argue the point. But on an early morning when I am headed in to work, it is the simplest way to get a decent cup (or three) of coffee. I keep the grinder set about halfway between "medium" and "coarse" for this combo, we use setting "12" on the timer which yields about 3.5oz (100g) of grinds, and in the coffee brewer I use Technivorm Moccamaster #4 paper filters. We have a reusable metal filter for it also, but again-- simplicity-- I don't enjoy cleaning it so we use paper and put it out with the compost after. When the coffee maker wants to be cleaned, I use Dezcal descaler instead of vinegar.
When I find the energy to upgrade my coffee experience, I switch to using our fancy grinder. Our Fellow Ode Gen 2 was expensive at $350, has a small hopper, and can be a little messy. But the quality of the grind is clearly much better than the daily-driver Cuisinart. Arguably, the most important part of brewing coffee is the quality of the grind. Because of this, anyone who is looking to upgrade their experience is probably going to find the most joy in having a nice grinder, and I've observed this myself. The way to know if you need a grinder upgrade is to look at your ground coffee-- the grinds should all the same size. If you can see powdered coffee in with your grinds, then your experience can be better. Our Cuisinart grinder creates powder which I try to avoid adding to the brewer. I keep the Ode on setting 7 for the automatic drip, and 3.5oz (100g) seems to be the best amount of coffee for a full 14-cup pot. A spritz of water on the beans in the hopper helps keep the mess down.
I don't enjoy using a french press. The coffee tastes great but the cleanup is miserable. I love when the restaurant offers table side french press coffee because it tastes great and I don't have to clean it.
I think the best way to enjoy single-cup immersion coffee is with either a $35 Aeropress or a $30 Hario Switch. Both of these let me soak the coffee grinds enough to get the extraction I want with an easy cleanup. I use 16g of coffee per 250ml water at 90 degrees C from my Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle. I set the Ode Gen 2 grind setting to 4 for these devices. By the way, I absolutely love my $30 Greater Goods Digital Coffee Scale.
I don’t know how to discuss pour-over coffee in just one paragraph— go check YouTube for great information on this. In terms of gear recommendations, I use the aforementioned Hario switch (with the switch left open), Hario paper filters, and the Stagg Kettle.
I have a friend that grinds our Tres Pinos Blend and loads it into a reusable K-Cup in his Keurig. He says he ends up with weak coffee and I think that's probably not a surprise. I wouldn't recommend using a Keurig to make specialty coffee like ours. I am all about convenience and do appreciate the simplicity of pre-packaged K-Cups or Nespresso pods; I've owned both machines in the past.
Making espresso at home is tricky. The entry-level solutions just aren't good enough and the great equipment is priced beyond what I want to invest. I think I am going to someday splurge on something like a Flair 58 manual espresso maker, but since this would require another grinder upgrade, we've put that off for now in favor of paying our mortgage.
If you are enjoying our occasional free hot brewed coffee at the farm stand, it is made with the Cuisinart grinder and the Cuisinart automatic drip brewer with the “daily driver” settings mentioned above.
If you want to learn about brewing coffee then pick up a copy of the book, "How to Make the Best Coffee at Home" by James Hoffmann. It's beautiful and so informative. Hoffmann also has countless hours of entertaining videos on YouTube.
It’s easy to fall off the deep end trying to create the ultimate cup of coffee or espresso. If you don’t believe me, search the internet for coffee water recipes. To go from a 98% perfect cup of coffee to 99%, you apparently need to adjust the hardness of your water just so using various minerals. I love this kind of geeky enthusiasm! Anyone up for a water tasting party?
