Coffee

unpopular opinion. The beauty of the aeropress is it doesn't matter.

I was like you when I first got my press. All the recipes were overwhelming and I worried entirely too much about figuring out my favorite. This was a barrier to what, to me, is the true beauty of the brewer.

1. As an immersion brewer it is super forgiving. Give it anywhere from long enough way up to like 5-6min and it's pretty much the same.
2. Do you like flipping tubes of boiling water around? Then do inverted. Do you prefer to keep your skin? Do conventional and use the plunger to make a seal an hold the water in. They are the same.
3. Do you want to brew concentrate and cut it or pour all the water through. Again are they a touch different? probably. Will I notice if I am not blind tasting 2 side by side cups? No

If what you enjoy is something you can constantly fiddle with, the aero press is great because the recipes are endless. BUT if what you want is a good cup of coffee, accept that this brewer makes it easy, travels well, doesn't need a goose neck kettle or even a scale if you brew to the volume of a known mug.

15g, inverted, wet filter, hand grinder to between espresso and pour over grain size. No stir, water all at once, fast. Wait until grains start to fall +2mins, plunge.

Inverted brew method, very dark roast, fine grind, about 1.5 spoons (the one that came with the press), didn't measure the weight. Fill with boiling water to the highest fill line, stir, let it settle for a minute. Stir again, wait another minute, put the cap on, set a cup on top, rotate the whole thing, and then slowly but firmly push the plunger down.

I'm guessing by the time I start pushing we're at about the 2:10-2:15 mark. Press right through the hiss until completely dry (maybe 15 secs), open, knock the puck out, rinse the press under cold water.

By the time I'm done cleaning, the coffee temperature should have dropped a few degrees, so I can start sipping gently.

If you're into Aeropress and want to experiment, check out the Aeromatic app. It has dozens of recipes and uses a timer to step you through them. You'll need a scale. It also tries to account for the grind size you get from your particular model of grinder. I'm not sure how accurate its compensation is, but it should get you in the ballpark.

mine’s just about the same except i tend to push the grind size down as much as i can, up to the point it tips toward bitter. and that seems to depend significantly on the particular coffee itself, i expect both for flavor/roast reasons and for innate properties of the variety. i start around 20 on the encore and if thats tasting fine, go 2 clicks finer each time until it doesn’t, then back off by one. and it’s grind one or two clicks finer with an aged bag vs a fresh one.

I follow this guide:

https://youtu.be/4tQ7yUvbYxA?feature=shared

One aeropress scoup of mostly Lairds functional focus blend.

Similar process I leave the preground coffee as is. No probe, do fresh boiling water, plus added metal filter with the paper filter.

Wait 10-20 mins for language to make sense again

I don't know how many grams of coffee I use. I aim to make coffee concentrate equal to 4 shots of espresso roughly using the Reverse Hoffman Method.

Steep time depends on beans. Espresso roast 1.5 minutes, longer when it's a light roast. Not using a timer, mostly watching for the bloom and adding more water when it's done.

I extract right onto ice and add a moderate amount half and half to taste. I call it a slow release Americano.

I don't keep track of how much water or its temperature really. Just a cup microwaved until barely boiling and usually don't use it all. Similarly I don't spritz the beans with water, just haven't bothered yet.

When looking at the various recipes out there, I often wonder how much of this is just AeroPress superstition, and how much of it actually matters. For example, wetting the filter, pre-heating the gear and all the different stirring styles. Seems like those things could produce a different result, but I’m not experienced enough to taste the difference. Therefore, I just do what makes sense from the perspective of chemistry.

1. Finer particle size increases the surface area, which in turn, speeds up the extraction.
2. Higher temperature speeds just about everything in chemistry, so I guess it should apply to solid-liquid extraction too.
3. Relying on diffusion to take care of transportation is painfully slow. The concentration gradients take forever to spread even a few centimeters, so stirring speeds things up a lot. I mean, there’s a reason why most lab scale and industrial scale reactors come with a mixer.
4. Adjust the extraction time based on variables 1, 2 and 3.

As a side note, concentration difference matters too. Using previously made coffee to extract more soluble materials into it, is obviously going to be a lot slower than using clean water. This is why a pour over makes a lot of sense, as far as extraction yield is concerned. Incidentally, you can adapt the AP for that as well, but then you would need to balance between grind size clogging up the filter. Generally not worth it IMO, but it is an interesting experiment. It could be worth it if all you have is an AP, but you need to make coffee for a larger audience.