French-Press Brew Guide

Data


Equipment:
French-Press, Scale, Timer, Grinder, Pitcher

Brew Time:
4:00 min

Water (purified water at 93C/200F):
Small: 330g (11.50oz) 
Medium : 600g (21.10oz) 
Large : 960g (33.80oz)

Coffee:
Small: 24g (0.85oz) 
Medium: 36g (1.27oz) 
Large: 56g (2.0oz)

Method


1. Pre-heat you espro with hot water. Plunge a couple of times to extra clean the filter.

2. Grind your coffee to a slightly coarser than a aeropress setting.

3. Empty the Espro and add the coffee.

4. Tare your scale, start you time and the hot water to the coffee, place filter.

5. You should be at 30 seconds now, leave to extract for 3:30 min

6. At 4 min plunge filter slowly.

Immersion

Here, hot water and coffee sit together in a chamber for a certain period before being separated, possibly by a filter. Popular methods here are the French Press, Aeropress, and cupping. Here we would recommend a slightly higher starting ratio of approximately 75 g of dry coffee per litre of water. Here you are in control of both contact time and grind size, so either start with a finer grind and a shorter contact time of approximately 1 minute, popular with Aeropress, or a coarser grind and a longer contact time, around 4 minutes, popular with French Press and cupping. Either combination, and anything in between, can yield clean and balanced results, and can often show off slightly different facets of a coffee’s character, so experimenting is recommended.

Controlling Balance

To brew coffee well, extraction is an important concept to understand. If we were able to dry out coffee grounds after they have been brewed, they will have lost about 20% of their weight. This is the amount that we have dissolved into our cup during brewing, and the percentage is termed extraction. This is important, as flavour does not extract from coffee in a linear way, more is not necessarily more. When we begin to brew a coffee, the natural acids present in the coffee will extract most easily, followed by sugars, and then heavier bitter compounds towards the end of the brew. This means controlling how much we extract from a coffee will control the balance of flavour in your cup. Extract too little, and we have a sour coffee, too much acid from the beginning of the brew, and not enough sweetness to create balance. Extract too much, and we will extract too much bitterness from later in the brew, resulting in an overall bitter and drying cup.

There are two main ways we can control extraction, in ANY method of brewing coffee. Grind Size, and Contact Time. The table below shows a guide to controlling extraction when brewing.

Coffee Tastes Grind Size Contact Time
Too Bitter Coarsen Reduce
Too Sour Fine Increase

By tweaking these variables, and tasting every cup you brew with a critical pallet, you’re sure to be brewing transparent and delicious brews.