Banish Unruly extraction! - Weiss Distribution Technique

Howdy,

Uniform extractions provide a strong foundation for excellence in the cup. The bottomless or "naked" portafilter is an invaluable tool for evaluating your extractions, because it mercilessly exposes any flaws in your technique and the resulting pour. With the bottomless portafilter, you can observe an ideal extraction that begins with a uniform pattern of beads on the bottom of the filter basket. Droplets momentarily arise from multiple extraction points, then rapidly fuse into a single stream. A beautiful pattern of tiger striping will be clearly evident. As the pour progresses, the stream gradually lightens in color, again in a uniform fashion. The perfect pour will show no evidence of early blonding, channeling, spritzes, or other woes that often befall the novice bottomless portafilter user.

Uneven espresso extractions are a clear indication that some portions of the coffee are underextracted and others are overextracted. Does the pour begin around the rim of the filter basket? Is it unbalanced, favoring one side of the basket? Do you suspect channeling, as evidenced by greater flow and early blonding in parts of the basket? Any of these extraction flaws leads to unbalanced and undesirable flavors in the cup

Checkout these pour extrations.



About a year ago, in an ongoing effort to improve my barista skills, I began experimenting with a bottomless portafilter. Like most novice users, my early efforts were less than ideal. My extractions saw all of the flaws noted above, often in the same pour. I tried a variety of different coffees, grinds, and tamping styles, but was unable to achieve consistently good results. Then I read these profound words in Chris (malachi) Tacy's blog:

"Distribution is the most misunderstood, neglected and really critical variable within your control. For good espresso, a requirement and the goal is to create an even density of coffee within the basket. For most baristas (professional or passionate enthusiast) this is where technique fails most noticeably... Keep in mind all the time what the goal is—to create an even bed (an even density of coffee within the basket). If you get this right, then your odds of correct extraction are going to go way way up.

To be honest, everything else is less important when it comes to a constant evaluation. Tamp (for example) is not nearly as important as everyone seems to think. The goal with your tamping is to preserve the distribution and to create a firm enough surface."

Epiphany! Grind, dose and distribution are critical to fine espresso. But unfortunately for home baristas, most high-end espresso grinders are designed for the fast-paced production of a commercial environment. Smaller capacity grinders found in even the best equipped home espresso environment may suffer from clumping, static, and uneven distribution. The home barista must overcome these hurdles to achieve an extraordinary espresso pour. Although the rhythmic thwack-thwack-thwack of the doser vanes help reduce clumping, they inevitably pitch the grounds off to one side, leading to an uneven distribution of grinds in the filter basket. Worse yet, removing the doser may create a "clump monster", pictured below.



We can hope that these design flaws will eventually be addressed in home grinders. But until then, there is a simple, inexpensive solution to grinder problems: the Weiss Distribution Technique, or WDT.

The WDT involves stirring the grounds with a thin object (such as a dissecting needle) to break up clumps and even the distribution. Stirring creates a uniform distribution of grounds throughout the filter basket, which is impossible to achieve by pushing the grounds around the surface of the puck. You need to get all the way down to the bottom of the basket, and the needle permits this.

To reduce mess, one other piece of equipment is required: a yogurt container with the bottom cut off. This serves as a funnel that sits in the filter basket and keeps grounds from flying out as you stir. Dose into this contraption and you can stir as vigorously as you wish. The WDT requires no major changes to your espresso brewing regimen. After stirring to declump and distribute the grounds, remove the funnel, and use your favorite method to dose, level, tamp, and pull the shot.

Here is a brief "how-to" demo of the WDT
Equipment:

Empty yogurt container, with bottom cut out to make a funnel that wedges securely into the top of your filter basket.
A pointy implement; I use an inexpensive dissecting needle (yes, it has only been used for this purpose!).

Steps:

Wedge the yogurt funnel into filter basket.
Grind and dose directly into yogurt funnel/filter basket, until you have a mound of coffee grounds that heaps slightly over the rim of the filter basket.
Stir grounds vigorously with needle.
Remove yogurt funnel and level grounds to the top of the filter basket.
Tamp.
Pull shot.






Wedge yogurt container funnel
into filter basket for
grinding, dosing, and distribution.














Grind beans directly into
filter basket, if possible.









Notice the clumpy grounds from
my converted doserless grinder.









Stirring the grounds with a needle.














Leveling the grounds.













Leveled surface, ready for tamping















Level tamping











Now tamped and leveled, and ready for the pull! Let us see how she runs!










Lookin' good!
Uniform start promises
an even extraction.



















Perfect pour!



Well There you have it folks!

Check out these great sites for more info!

http://coffeegeek.com/forums

http://coffeed.com/

The oldest form of coffee

Hi all,

The oldest method of brewing coffee (1600's!) is a method that goes by the name of "Turkish Coffee", as i'm sure you can imagine, it was invented in Turkey.

The toughest thing you will need is a grinder than can grind coffee extremely finely; fret not as you can pick up a Turkish mill from nearly any Greek or Turkish food store.


Besides the grinder, you need good quality water, good quality, fresh roasted coffee, a stirring spoon made of metal, and a device called an ibrik also called a cezve. This is the brewer. It is usually made of copper, with a long wooden handle, though sometimes it is made out of steel or other metals. The pot has a wide base and a narrow top, with a spout on one or two sides for pouring. Ibriks can be found in a variety of sizes from 2 cup on up to 6 or 8 cups. Note, a "cup" is the size of a large espresso cup - about 3ounces, or 90mls per serving, or less.

It's important to note the "cup size" of the pot is not matched to how much is brewed if full - in fact, there needs to be a good amount of airspace in the pot while brewing, but not too much. The process involves foaming up the liquid in stages, and if you use a pot that's too big, too much of the foam sticks to the sides and can contribute to many bitters in the cup.

For a heat source you can use anything from a camp stove (picture below) to a gas or electric range.

When done right, (and it's not hard to do right), the coffee is very intense, but very pleasing to the tongue. It also breaks one of the cardinal rules we usually have for coffee - don't boil (and reboil) the brew. But as you'll see, it's all good!

This is extremely important advice: never take your eye off the process when brewing turkish coffee. Things can happen in a blink of the eye - and you'll create a big mess on your stove if you lose your concentration. But it is very easy to do.

If you really want to go authentic, or want to tone down the strength and intensity of the brew, adding spices such as cardamom, anise, or a sweetener such as an easily dissolvable sugar can be added. In fact, sugar is almost considered part of the process. The famous old proverb, "Coffee should be as black as hell, as strong as death, and as sweet as love" refers to turkish coffee, and you'll note the sweet part ;)

Okay lets start!





You don't need much to brew Turkish coffee - a turkish mill, the ibrik, some demitasse cups, and if desired, sugar or spices. If using cardamom (very authentic!) try getting whole seeds and crush them extra fine, and use sparingly.



Specialized brass mills are found almost anywhere (try Greek or Turkish food stores, or look for the Zassenhaus mill), and while very slow to grind, do an exceptionally fine grind.






Turkish coffee requires an extremely fine grind - finer than espresso - or almost as fine as baby powder. The finer the better.








Normally one would add cold, fresh water first - use your demitasse cups to measure in your amounts (we didn't in this pic). Then add one heaping teaspoon of coffee per demitasse of water. Adjust to your own taste after brewing a few times.








Sugar is a frequent additive to turkish coffee. Adjust to taste, but typically I add 1 teaspoon for every two teaspoons of coffee. Also very crucial - stir the slurry of cold water, coffee and sugar before you start brewing, until the sugar is disolved.







Once your sugar is completely disolved, start brewing over a medium-low heat. Too high a heat will damage the coffee. Do nothing at this point (no more stirring) but watch carefully.






As soon as the mixture starts to boil, it will froth up, and froth up FAST. Before the froth flows over the top, remove the ibrik from the heat and let the froth settle down.







Let the froth build up again (remember, it will build fast once it starts), and remove from the heat again, to let it settle down.







Optionally, on the third boil, you can stop the brewing at this point and serve (do not stir). In this variation though, we stirred the slurry after removing the pot from the stove on the third boil. This settles down the grinds in the foam.







This one is totally optional - in fact, three boil ups are best. But for a cleaner cup, let it boil and froth up one more time, and remove from heat (in this case, we weren't stirring again, but left the stirrer in the pot).





Alternate pouring bits into each cup - 15ml here, 15ml there, then back to the first cup for another 15ml. If we hadn't stirred, the coffee would have had lots of froth pouring out as well. In this case, very little sediment is pouring out.





After the coffee is served, the majority of the grounds are left in the ibrik (it's wide bottom design aids in this). The stirred method provides a fairly clean cup - not as clean as a press, but very nice. Enjoy!

Jah might want to get a little more information, click these links!

http://turkeytravelplanner.com/details/Food/TurkishCoffee.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coffee

Coffee 50's style, and by 50's style, I mean 1850's style.

Welcome to 'Fooling around with coffee'

I am a barista at a small private coffee shop that goes by the name of "The Grackle Coffee Company" (Pictured left), most folks call it the Grackle for short.

It's a very fun occupation, I am lucky enough to get to try coffee's from all over the world, of which is the highest quality, and extremely fresh. When I unpack the coffee the roasting date is stamped onto the bag, although the stamp always reads the date of the day before (yes yes we wait a couple of days to allow the gases to settle).

So for my first post I have decided to create a tutorial on how to make great coffee at home, without expensive equipment.

The French Press, also known as a Cafetière à Piston, Press Pot, Coffee Plunger, whatever the name a French Press is a fantastic device that everyone can own without breaking the bank.

So you'll need only a few items:

Chopsticks.

A French Press (go figure?).

A Kettle.

Last and not least. the best coarsely ground coffee you can get your hands on, I myself have taken some Brazilian beans roasted within the week, so the conditions are near perfect.

So first take off the top of your chosen French Press and drop into the bottom, one heaped spoon of grounds, per cup* (about 4.oz)

Of course you can add more or less grounds according to how strong you would like the coffee to be, personally I like to add about one and a half spoonfuls or sometimes even two.

Next step is to boil water, allow for the water to boil for a minute or two, just don't take the kettle off soon as it begins to boil, it actually has to boil fully. * If you have a grinder at home you should grind just before you add the water, this means you have to boil the water before you grind.

The next step is to combine the two as shown here to the left. As usual be careful when pouring the water, try you're best not to 'slop' the water into the grounds, they weigh next to nothing and will fly out.

Once you have poured the water you should get something that resembles the picture below, as you can see there is a foamy substance mixed in with the brewing grounds, this we call the blossom. As a general rule of thumb it shows the freshness of the coffee you're using.


So here is when the chopsticks come in, hold them slightly apart, I have used disposable ones merely because they were there, any will do. Hold the sticks apart in the same fashion as I, and stir the grounds and water.







You should end up with the below, the blossom is in full bloom so to speak. Now Take the lid and place it on top of the French Press, don't plunge yet but let it sit and brew for two to three minutes, for a larger French Press wait four to five minutes.




What I have done here is lifted the lid so people can see what is going on inside, I replaced it after the picture. So now you have your lid on you need to 'take the plunge'. Grip the top of the plunger and apply even pressure, move at a uniform speed and keep it straight as possible, if you don't keep it straight some grinds may escape.

















The end result, mmm tasty.















There are many variations of the French Press, both in size and form, from potable to large they are a great tool for making great coffee.

For more information about coffee visit the following links or search the web yourself.

http://www.home-barista.com/

http://www.coffeegeek.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_press