Coffee 101 : Understand your Brew

Mariam Erin Pinza October 2024

Coffee 101 : Understand how to brew your own coffee at home

You might be feeling a bit lost in the process of starting to brew your own coffee at home, or perhaps you're wondering if you're doing it the right way. The key to start lies in understanding just one word: "Extraction."

You can start by grasping the basic brewing variables ,such as water, grind size, brew ratio, brew time, and agitation. No matter how many variables you change, it will always come down to one thing:

"Extraction," or the process of dissolving coffee solubles with water, deciding how much of those flavors end up in your cup.The rest is water. Keep it simple!

"The rule of thumb before you touch any of your coffee brewing equipment is to KNOW WHAT YOU'RE BREWING."

You can only highlight the flavors your coffee beans already possess. Different coffee origins and varieties offer different characteristics. For that reason, it’s very important to first know what you are working with:
Got a light or medium roast that's juicier (harder to extract) or a dark roast that's heavier and bitter (easier to extract)?
Is your coffee a sweeter, bolder Natural or a clean, bright washed coffee?
If you know the answers, you're ready to start tweaking the variables!

Water Quality

Water quality can make or break your coffee’s flavor extraction. The Specialty Coffee Association recommends brewing water
with a total hardness of 50 to 175 ppm and a carbonate hardness of 40 to 75 ppm. While we won’t dive into the
science, experimenting with different water types at home can lead to surprising results. Try using various bottled
waters, filtration methods, or even ask a local café for their filtered water.

Water Temperature

is another factor that affects the rate of your extraction. This means that the higher the temperature, the faster the extraction, and the lower the temperature, the slower the extraction.
However, this doesn't mean that one temperature fits all. Some coffee works well even above the standard 96°C with a shorter brew time, while others work well at 89°C with a longer brew time.

Grind Size

It's all about the surface area of the ground coffee for the extraction process. In pour-over, the larger the grind size, the faster the water will pass through, resulting in a quicker contact time, and the opposite is true when using a finer grind size. Almost every modern grinder allows you to adjust to multiple grind sizes.

Again, it comes back to how much you want to extract. For example, if you're brewing a light-roasted coffee that tends to be less soluble than dark-roasted coffee, it will extract more slowly, so I might set my grind size to medium-fine to significantly increase the time and extraction.

Brew Time And Ratio

Even though it sounds simple, it's a big deal in the world of brewing.
Longer brew time generally means higher extraction, but in pour-over methods, it’s also tied to grind size and pouring technique. It’s not just about brew time, but how you use that time. For example, if your light roast tastes bitter after 3 minutes, try a coarser grind or faster pour next time to reduce extraction and achieve a balanced cup.

There’s no standard time for your pour-over as long as it achieves the balanced cup you are aiming for. So don't be afraid to play with your brew time.

The amount of water versus coffee determines the balance and strength of your coffee, which is known as the brew ratio. For example, a 1:16 brew ratio means 1 part coffee to 16 parts water.

How concentrated you want your coffee to be depends on the ratio: less water means stronger coffee, and more water means weaker coffee. For example, if a 1:17 ratio makes your coffee taste weak and watery, you can adjust to a 1:15 or 1:16 ratio on your next brew to achieve a balanced cup.

Agitation

Agitation is the movement of liquid during extraction, like swirling, pouring, or stirring, that creates turbulence. As a brewer, I find this variable tricky to keep consistent, but it’s key for speeding up extraction. Think of it like dissolving sugar in water—stirring makes it sweeter.

For example, with dark-roasted coffee that extracts quickly, I minimize agitation to avoid over-extraction and bitterness. On the other hand, with light-roasted, washed coffee, which extracts more slowly, I add agitation to help the process along.

Summary:

Understanding coffee extraction process, lets you brew coffee just the way you like it. Learning can be a bit technical, but that’s okay—mastering these concepts ensures a delicious cup every time.

Water quality can make or break your coffee, no matter how good your coffee is.
The hotter the water, the faster the extraction; the cooler the water, the slower the extraction.
Agitation can help slow down or speed up your extraction.
Brew ratio defines the strength of your brew.
The longer the brew, the higher the extraction; yet time matters as much as what you’ve done during that time.
The finer the grind, the faster the extraction rate; the coarser the grind, the slower the extraction rate.

So, don’t be afraid to tweak one variable at a time. Have fun trying different water, temperatures, and brew recipes until you find the cup of coffee that you truly enjoy! Keep it simple.