Re-Evaluating The Aeropress




  • Since writing my post about re-evaluating my brewing methods, I have since been trying to figure out where to start in this adventure. I first starting re-experimenting with the Aeropress after a morning accident. You know how those accidents go… You aren’t quite awake yet and you either forget to turn the scale on, grind the beans to the wrong grind size, or worse. My accident was overshooting the water by 25 grams. Doesn’t sound to harmful, right? Well …

    My normal Aeropress recipe is as follows:

    17 grams of beans / 220 grams of water
    - Grind beans at #24 on Preciso or slightly coarser than medium
    - Pour in grinds
    - Pour in 220 grams of water just off boil
    - Steep for 1 minute
    - Screw on cap, flip, and press finishing within 45 seconds

    Instead, my accidental press turned out like this:

    17 grams of beans / 245 grams of water
    - Grind beans at #24 on Preciso or slightly coarser than medium
    - Pour in grinds
    - Pour in 245 grams of water just off boil
    - Steep for 1 minute
    - Screw on cap, flip, and press finishing within 45 seconds.

    * Note: Both recipes were done using the new DiskFine from Able Brewing.

    I was close to throwing it out, but I needed coffee so bad that I had no will to make a new cup just yet. I sat down with it expecting bad, but what surprised me was that it was actually better than any of the brews I had made in the previous weeks. An extra 25 grams of water to your normal brewing ratio can make a huge difference.

    This accident is only a scratch on the surface. I decided to start with the Aeropress and dig deeper and really experiment with it. Eventually I will move to other brewing methods, but for now I want to take it slow with one method at a time. Now, the only thing stopping me is where to start…

    Do I work with a baseline bean/water ratio and adjust there, do I start with playing around with various grind sizes? This is the part of coffee brewing that tends to scare me.

    Normally I just take methods I have found online or ones that have been shared and test those out, and sometimes those methods end up with accidents like this weeks which lead me to something new, and possibly something better.

    I’m looking to you coffee folks right now reading this and asking if anyone has any advice on where to begin. Is there a baseline ratio that can be used not just for the Aeropress, but all methods in general that I can use as my starting point? Should I focus on one particular variable when experimenting?

    Any helpful advice, tips, anything would be much appreciated!



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    May 29th, 2012 | Jamie | 7 Comments | Tags: , ,

About The Author

Jamie Ferguson

From sunny Sarasota Florida, Jamie Ferguson has been drinking coffee since a very young age. Jamie is just your average jane who has a serious addiction to coffee, but more so has a bigger love for the heart, and the dedication that is put into growing, processing and roasting coffee. Come and join the adventures...

  • Faberlicious

    60g per Litre is a pretty common ratio for brewed coffee, although I often see people brew aeropress with really high ratios. Seems wasteful to me.
    Recently I’ve had a liking of around 65g/L. For some reason the latest Handsome wager coffee, Gakenke I believe, wasn’t really hitting me where I wanted it. So I brought it down to 60g/L and now it’s really opened up.

    • http://thecoffeeadventures.com Jamie Ferguson

      Ha! Totally forgot about the 60g per Litre ratio. I used to brew kind of high with my Aeropress not realizing it, but now I’ve tightened that down and have gotten some really good recipes… Now I am just trying to find the best approach to experimenting more.

      That new Handsome wager is really good. What’s your best method/ratio for it?

  • http://twitter.com/timwillems tim willems

    baseline ratio on where to start is 60gr of coffee to 1 liter of water, from there on you can start experimenting, change one variable at a time for controlled changes; I’m collecting recipes here
    http://pinterest.com/timwillems/coffee-recipes/

    • http://thecoffeeadventures.com Jamie Ferguson

      Thanks for the link and tips, Tim! I’ll be keeping on eye on your page to see what new recipes you link up.

  • stavros

    That’s very similar to how I use mine, albeit with paper filters. The big difference is the temperature of the water. I tend to use water between 80-85C, and it really accentuates the delicate flavours of the coffee.

  • http://twitter.com/JamesMandy JamesMandy

    I bought an aeropress yesterday (finally) and for my first brew I tried inverted 14gm, 190ml, 95C. Stir, rest lid on to retain some heat, steep for 120sec. stir, attach filter, flip, press for 25 sec. Total time from wet grinds to cup is 145sec. Took this recipe from http://filtercoffee.me/ and it was really nice to drink.

    • http://thecoffeeadventures.com Jamie Ferguson

      Thanks for sharing this recipe, and congrats on buying an Aeropress! That is one fun brewing method. Once I get some fresh coffee in my kitchen I will be sure to try this recipe out and report back.