Brewing Guide & Ratios

First, A Note About Our Ratios

From our experience, a majority of home drip machines measure "cups" as 5oz of coffee. So, the "cup" lines on your brewer's water tank generally are in 5oz increments. This is likely different from what most of us expect when we think about cups of coffee, so our brewing guide is calibrated to account for that. Just fill the tank to the line we provide in the brewing guide, and you'll be all set without having to weigh out your water ahead of time.

Weigh and Grind Your Coffee

Once you've decided how much coffee you're brewing, weigh out the correct amount of beans based on the brewing guide, and grind them to a medium setting, similar to coarse sea salt.

Larger batches of coffee will need a slightly more coarse grind — though make sure to only make small adjustments, since it can be a subtle difference.

Add Filter and Rinse

Note: most home drip brewers have a removable filter basket, but if yours does not, you can ignore this section and still get great coffee.

Remove your brewer's filter basket, add your paper filter, and give it a quick rinse in the sink to saturate the filter.

Discard any water from the rinse, and put the filter basket back into the machine with the now pre-soaked filter installed.

This rinse cycle washes away any potential paper-y flavors that could find their way into the brew, as well as saturates the filter so it doesn't absorb as much of your brewing water.

Add Ground Coffee To Basket

Nothing too complicated here!

Add your ground coffee to the filter basket, and give it a gentle shake so the coffee grounds are laying level.

Start Brewing and Enjoy

Let your machine work it's magic!

Once the brewing is finished, taste your coffee to check how your grind size worked.

If the coffee is lacking clarity or tasting bitter and muddled, grind a notch or two more coarse next time.

If the coffee is tasting weak, grind a notch or two more fine next time.

Any Questions? Get In Touch!

Reach out any time if you have questions about this brew process, or anything else!

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Prep Your Coffee and Boil Water

Weigh out 11g of whole bean coffee, and grind the beans to a fairly fine grind size, similar to fine table salt. Not quite espresso, but more fine than a pour over.

Your water should be as close to boiling as possible before brewing. You'll get better extraction right off the boil.

Add Aeropress Filter and Rinse

Add a filter to the screen of your Aeropress, and rinse it under lukewarm water to saturate the filter.

This saturation eliminates any potential paper-y flavors that could make their way into the cup, and also ensure the filter is set into the screen.

Once finished, attach the filter and screen to the Aeropress, and set it on top of your mug or carafe on a scale.

Tare the scale.

Add Ground Coffee

Carefully pour your ground coffee into the Aeropress on your scale, and ensure you have 11g.

Tare the scale again after, and you're ready to brew.

Add Water and Brew

Start the brew timer, and begin to gently pour your water.

The water should be just off the boil, as close to 212°F as possible. Make sure you are evenly distributing the water and soaking all of the coffee grounds.

Add water until you reach 187g.

Once you hit 187g of water, stop pouring, and insert the plunger of the Aeropress into the top, give it a tiny push to ensure it's sealed, and let your coffee steep.

Press

Once your timer hits 2:30, carefully lift the Aeropress off the mug or carafe, and give it a gentle swirl.

Place the Aeropress back on your mug or carafe, and begin to gently press with even, consistent pressure. Take your time — slower is better. Continue to press until you hit the bottom and hear a hissing sound.

Discard Puck, Taste, and Enjoy

Once you're finished plunging, carefully remove the filter screen, and discard the grounds and filter by "popping" them out with the plunger. Give the whole thing a rinse, and leave to dry.

Enjoy your coffee!

If you're finding the brew tastes weak, grind a few notches more fine next time.

If you're finding the brew lacks clarity, or is muddled and bitter, grind a few notches more coarse next time.

Questions?

Feel free to reach out if you have questions about this brewing method or anything else!

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A Note On Different Devices

Before we start, it's important to know there are an incredible number of pour over devices on the market, in all different shapes and sizes. This recipe is our attempt at a "one size fits most" approach, but there may be certain pour over brewers that require a bit of a different technique. If you find this method isn't getting you all the way there, feel free to reach out, and we can help you navigate your specific brewer.

Weigh And Grind Your Coffee

Using the brew guide, weigh out the amount of coffee you need for the quantity of coffee you're brewing.

Grind your coffee to a medium-fine consistency, similar to coarse sea salt.

Note: larger batches of coffee may require a slightly more coarse grind.

Boil Your Water

Begin boiling your water. You'll want the water as close to the boil as possible for the best extraction.

Rinse Filter and Prepare For Brewing

Place your filter paper into your pour over device, and give it a quick rinse.

This pre-wetting of the filter washes away any potential paper-y flavors that could impact the cup, and also saturates the filter so it doesn't absorb as much of your brewing water.

Make sure you remember to discard the rinse water from your carafe before you brew!

Add Ground Coffee

Place your pour over device and carafe on your scale, and tare the scale again.

Add the ground coffee to your brewer, and ensure you have the correct dose. If there's too much, pinch a little out until you hit the right weight. If there's not enough, grind a bit more and add it in.

Tare the scale again before brewing.

Bloom

Start your brew timer.

Slowly begin adding water to the coffee bed in concentric circles, ensuring you wet all of the grinds. You'll want to pour until you've poured about double the amount of grams of your dose (so if your coffee dose was 22g, pour a 44g bloom).

Blooming or pre-wetting the coffee allows the grinds to release stored carbon dioxide (CO2), which is why it will bubble or "bloom" during this time. Freshly roasted coffee contains a lot of CO2, and the water interacting with it can inhibit extraction. So by pre-wetting the grinds, we're allowing this process to happen before we begin the brewing in earnest, resulting in a better overall extraction.

Allow the coffee to bloom until the timer hits 40 seconds.

Continue Brewing

Once your brew timer hits 40 seconds, begin your next pour.

Slowly add water in concentric circles from the inside of the coffee bed to the outside. Try and pour as gently as possible (a gooseneck kettle helps with this).

Stop pouring when the water level reaches the top of the pour over device, and then allow the coffee to draw down.

Start your next pour when you can just start to see the grounds again.

While our recipe isn't providing strict guidelines for times between pours, we find it's best to try and evenly divide up your total water weight.

So, for example, if you were brewing a single cup (375g of water), after the bloom, your first pour would last until the scale read 175g. Your second pour would go to 275g, and your third pour would go to 375g. So you'd always pour in 100g intervals. You don't have to do it this way, but we find this kind of distribution is helpful.

Finishing The Brew

Continue your pours until you reach your target weight.

Once you hit your target weight, gently lift the pour over brewer and give it a gentle swirl. This will help make the draw down more even and prevent channeling (when the water takes the path of least resistance).

Stop your brew timer when the coffee has finished drawing down.

Your total brew time can vary, especially between batch sizes, but here are some helpful references:

Single Cup: 2:30 - 3:30

Two Cups: 3:00 - 4:30

Three Cups: 4:00 - 5:30

These are ballpark times, but can be helpful references. And always remember that even if your brew time falls outside of these ranges, you can still end up with delicious coffee. Let the flavors guide you.

Taste, Assess, and Enjoy

Once the coffee is finished drawing down, toss the filter and grounds and rinse out your brewer.

Taste your coffee to see if your grind size may need adjustment.

If your coffee tastes weak, grind a bit more fine next time.

If your coffee tastes bitter or the flavors are muddled, grind a bit more coarse next time.

Enjoy the process!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this method, or about anything else at all, feel free to reach out.

Click here to get in touch →

About Our French Press Method

Counter to a more classic version of brewing with a French Press, because most of our coffees are lighter roasts, we use a method inspired by James Hoffman and his take on French Press brewing, which is more similar to how you would brew a coffee cupping.

In short, we recommend grinding more medium-fine than coarse (similar to how you'd grind for drip or pour over), and not pressing quite as much. Read below for the full instructions.

Weigh and Grind Your Coffee

Using the brew guide above, weigh out the appropriate dose of coffee based on how much you're brewing, and grind it.

Like we mentioned previously, you'll want to grind medium-fine, similar to coarse sea salt. It should not be so coarse that there are "boulders" in the grinds.

Meanwhile, begin to boil you water. You'll want your brew water as close to the boil as possible.

Add Coffee And Begin Brewing

Put your French Press on your scale, and tare it.

Add your ground coffee, and ensure you have the dose you need based on the brew guide.

Tare the scale after adding your coffee.

With the scaled tared, begin pouring your water. Pour in a controlled, even manner, and ensure you're wetting all of the coffee grounds.

Continue pouring until you reach your target water weight based on the brew guide.

Start your brew timer now.

Steep and Break Crust

Allow the coffee to steep for four minutes. You do not need the lid in place during steeping.

When your brew timer hits 4:00, use a spoon and gently break the crust that has formed on top by pressing the spoon through the crust a few times. These grounds will then fall to the bottom of the French Press, which halts the brewing process.

Attach Lid and Decant

Place the lid of the French Press on top, with the plunger as high up as it will go.

Your goal will be to pour the coffee out without pressing at all, simply using the plunger as a filter as you pour to catch any remaining grinds that may still be floating at the top. Because we broke the crust earlier, there's no need to plunge — those grounds will stay at the bottom.

Decant your coffee into your mug or carafe of choice.

Taste, Assess And Enjoy

Taste your coffee and assess the flavors to see if your grind size was correct.

If your coffee tastes weak, grind a bit more fine next time.

If your coffee tastes bitter or muddled, grind a bit more coarse next time.

Questions?

Any questions about brewing French Press or anything else? Feel free to reach out.

Click here to get in touch →

Weigh Your Coffee and Pre-Wet Your Filter

Weigh out 16g of whole bean coffee, and grind them to a medium-fine size, similar to a coarse sea salt.

Meanwhile, pre-wet your filter with the Switch over a carafe and open the Switch's valve to allow water to pour through.

This rinsing stage saturates the filter, warms up the Switch, and eliminates any potential paper flavors that might have otherwise found their way into the cup.

Add Your Ground Coffee To The Switch

Discard the rinse water from your carafe.

Put your Switch and carafe on your scale, tare it, and add your ground coffee. Double check that you have 16g, and then tare the scale again. You're ready to brew!

Start Pouring

Once your water has reached 212°F, ensure your Switch valve is closed so it will hold your brew water for steeping.

Start your brew timer, and begin pouring your water.

Pour slowly in concentric circles from the inside to the outside, ensuring you are saturating all of the coffee grounds. Continue until you've poured 270g of water.

Steep

Allow your coffee to steep and extract until your timer hits the 4:00 mark.

Release The Switch!

At 4:00, open the Switch's valve, and as the coffee begins to drain, give the entire cone a gentle swirl one or two times. This will help the coffee draw down more evenly (you'll know you did this right if the coffee bed is completely flat at the end).

Enjoy and Assess

Once all the coffee has drained, you're good to go!

If your coffee is tasting weak or lacking body, grind a notch or two more fine next time.

If your coffee is lacking clarity or is bitter and muddled, grind a notch or two more coarse.

It's all about experimentation and personal preference, so don't be afraid to explore the possibilities!

Any questions?

Free free to reach out any time if you have questions about this or any other brewing method.

Click here to get in touch →

A Quick Note On Home Espresso Machines

This is the recipe that we use for brewing espresso in our cafes. However, some espresso machines, especially home models, may have smaller basket sizes that can't hold the amount of coffee we're calling for here. If that's the case, you can use the same ratio of brewing for whatever your basket's maximum capacity is. If you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out. We're confident you can get great results no matter what machine you have.

Dose and Tamp Your Espresso

We recommend a dose between 17.5g and 18.5g. Pick whichever you like, or whichever is most similar to your regular recipe.

Grind coffee into your portafilter, and level / tamp as you normally would.

Rinse Group Head

Before inserting your portafilter, run your group head for a few seconds to get hot water flowing and rinse out any residue that may be in there.

Pull Your Shot

Before brewing your espresso, you'll want to have a scale handy to measure the final shot weight (unless you have a volumetric machine or a machine with a built in scale).

Tare your cup on the scale, and place it under the group head.

Insert the portafilter and gently twist until you feel some resistance. If the gaskets of your machine are in good condition, you should not need to forcefully turn or crank the portafilter into the group to prevent any leaks. If you do feel the need to do this, you should replace your gaskets as soon as you're able to.

We like to set our espresso machine water temperature to be right around 199°F.

If your machine has a pre-infusion setting, we like 6 or 7 seconds of pre-infusion.

Otherwise, start your brew timer, and begin pulling your shot.

Pull your shot until the scale reads ~38g, and then stop brewing. The final drips should bring your final shot weight around 40-42g. Stop the brew timer simultaneously and check your shot time.

How Did It Pull?

For proper extraction, you want your shot to hit that 40-42g weight in 24-30 seconds.

Any faster than 24 seconds, and things may be under extracted, resulting in sour, unpleasant flavors.

If it pulls longer than 30 seconds, things may start to get overly bitter and muddled.

As long as you're in the range of 24-30 seconds, you're likely getting a pretty good extraction. From there, you can make subtle changes to the shot time to get the exact flavors you want.

The way to adjust your shot time is to adjust your grind size.

If you want your shot to pull slower, make your grind finer.

If you want your shot to pull faster, make your grind more coarse.

Note: when changing grind size for espresso, always make very subtle adjustments. Espresso is a really sensitive brewing method, and even a very small change in grind size can make for big results. It's best to make small movements, and keep dialing things in as you go.

Trust The Process

Espresso, more than any other brewing method, really requires a lot of experimentation, and is super subjective. Don't be discouraged by shots that don't taste quite right, and keep experimenting with subtle tweaks to the grind size and shot time until you find a result you like.

If you feel like you've tried every shot time in the range and still aren't happy, try a new dose in the range we talked about above, and start over from there. Espresso can be a process! However, the results when you finally figure it out are really worth it.

Questions?

Any questions about pulling shots of espresso (or anything else?) Reach out below!

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