How to Brew Kickass Coffee at Home
If you’re reading this, then you love coffee. Excellent.
The problem is that you do not really love your coffee, do you? Good home-brew is easy enough to make, but it can be challenging to get your morning coffee right consistently.
Here are some ideas that will immediately improve that cup of coffee (or 3) that you have each morning with any brewing equipment.
1. Always start with fresh whole bean or ground coffee.
You’ve already lost the battle to home brew kickass coffee if you’re purchasing bags or containers at the store which are pre-ground. That’s not to say pre-ground coffee is terrible. It just has more opportunities to be oxidized when it is sitting on a store shelf in a ground state. That’s why mass-produced coffee tastes flat.
If you want bold flavors and need a pre-ground coffee, we highly recommend Brewtal Awakening. It is well-balanced, strong, and ready to get your feet moving in the morning. It is available as a whole bean coffee as well.
>> 6 COFFEE BREWING METHODS: HOW TO BREW COFFEE RIGHT
2. Store your coffee properly.
If you store mason jars out in your garage, then clean them out. They are the perfect storage vessels for your coffee. You’ll be able to get a tight seal with your coffee stored in these jars, reducing the opportunities for your fresh coffee to turn stale in its container.
In a perfect world, you would downsize your mason jars as you use your coffee. That will prevent excessive air from being trapped with your whole beans or grounds, offering you that robust flavor you love in the morning with each cup you brew.
3. Grind your coffee just before you brew.
Here’s why purchasing whole bean coffee matters. If you brew your coffee within 30 minutes of grinding, then you’ll maximize the boldness of your home brewed coffee.
For those who want the convenience of pre-ground coffee, the quality of the grind also matters. Coarse coffee grounds create bland, weak coffee. If your coffee is ground too fine, then it will taste very bitter.
When grinding your beans at home, go for a medium grind (or medium-fine, depending on your personal preferences) for best results.
4. Measure your coffee better.
The ideal ratio for drip coffee is up to 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per 6 ounces of water. You can, of course, adjust this ratio to meet your tastes.
Don’t scoop your coffee into your equipment either. You want to pack those grounds into that tablespoon to make sure you’re receiving maximum value.
If you’re making espresso, make sure you use that tablespoon to pack your grounds in as tightly as possible for the best possible result. Loose coffee grounds are not your friends unless Turkish coffee is your thing.
5. Bloom your coffee before brewing.
This step is the one most people forget when making coffee at home. Blooming your coffee is an act of “pre-infusion.” The process prepares your coffee grounds by helping it to release any remaining carbon dioxide that came from the roasting process.
Skipping this step allows the remaining carbon dioxide to repel water, which means you get a weak cup of coffee.
To bloom your coffee, heat about 1/4-cup of water to a temperature that is just below boiling. Then slowly pour it over the coffee grounds, making sure that all of them become wet. Then wait 45-60 seconds before starting your coffee maker.
6. Make sure your coffee brews at the right temperature.
The best coffee is made at home when it brews at a temperature that is 7 to 20 degrees below boiling. Here’s the bad news: most of those cheap coffee makers out there don’t get your water hot enough.
You can test this at home. Without any coffee in your equipment, use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water. You’ll want to check the water that enters your hopper for best results.
It is possible to pre-boil your water to achieve a better temperature in a cheap coffee maker, but this can also lead to burning your coffee.
If your equipment doesn’t give you the option to change your water temperature, then it might be time to invest in an upgrade.
7. Use better water.
If you have dusty white stuff around your kitchen and bathroom faucets, then you’ve got hard water. The minerals in your water aren’t going to bond with your coffee particulates, which means a weaker cup of coffee is always in your future.
Hard water also creates deposits in your coffee maker, which you’ll need to clean out periodically.
Distilled water is just as bad. Instead of leaving deposits behind, it will leech nasty stuff from the metal components of your coffee maker and over-extract your coffee.
Your best option is filtered water, like what you’d get from a home filtration system, a refrigerator, or those pitchers you store in the fridge.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. You can brew kickass coffee at home with these tips. Just remember that the whole process starts with fresh, excellent coffee beans.
The best brewers in the world can’t save lousy coffee.
Leave a comment