Understanding the Role of Time in a Brew Recipe - Chasing Perfect Coffee Extractions
Summary
TLDRIn this informative coffee tutorial, Luke from Artisti Coffee demystifies the timing of coffee extractions and its role in brewing recipes. He explains the importance of measuring time from the moment water is activated, emphasizing the 30-32 second extraction window for a 22.5g coffee dose. Luke also discusses the impact of coffee grind, bloom, and pre-infusion on extraction time, providing practical tips for achieving the perfect cup. The video offers insights into coffee expansion, extraction ratios, and the significance of timing for optimal flavor.
Takeaways
- 🕒 The three key components of a coffee brew recipe are dose (amount of coffee grounds), yield (amount of liquid extracted), and extraction time.
- ⏱️ Extraction time is measured from the moment water is activated to when liquid starts entering the cup, with a focus on the 30-32 second window for a 22.5g coffee dose.
- 📲 Utilizing built-in timers on coffee machines or using a smartphone can help measure extraction time accurately.
- 🔢 A digital scale that starts timing when liquid is detected can also be used to measure extraction time.
- 💧 Pre-infusion is the time water is in contact with coffee before it starts being extracted into the cup, which is important for understanding the brewing process.
- 🌱 Coffee expansion is a key factor in extraction, with fresher coffee expanding more than older coffee, affecting extraction time.
- 📏 The grind size and coffee bed expansion are crucial for determining extraction time and should be adjusted based on the coffee's age and freshness.
- 🔍 Observing the 'wobble' during extraction can indicate when to stop the process for optimal flavor.
- 📈 A finer grind requires more time for extraction, while a coarser grind can extract too quickly if not managed properly.
- 📊 The relationship between dose, yield, and time is essential for achieving a balanced coffee extraction, with adjustments made based on the coffee's characteristics.
- 📅 The age of the coffee can impact its expansion and extraction time, with fresher coffee generally providing better extraction within the recommended time frame.
Q & A
What are the three main parts of a coffee brew recipe?
-The three main parts of a coffee brew recipe are the dose (the amount of coffee used), the yield (the amount of liquid coffee produced), and the time (the duration of the extraction process).
Why is it important to measure the time from pressing the button to when water starts to extract the coffee?
-Measuring this time is crucial because it helps in understanding the pre-infusion phase, where water touches the coffee before actual extraction. This phase impacts the coffee's flavor and consistency.
What is pre-infusion and why is it important?
-Pre-infusion is the amount of time water is in contact with the coffee before it starts entering the cup. It allows the coffee to expand and fill any gaps, ensuring even extraction and improving the final flavor.
How does the grind size affect the extraction time?
-A finer grind size increases the extraction time because it creates more resistance for the water, while a coarser grind decreases the extraction time by allowing water to flow through more quickly.
What visual cues indicate a good coffee extraction?
-Good extraction is indicated by a rich, dark flow of coffee at the start, followed by a slight wobble in the stream, which shows the coffee bed is expanding and releasing pressure. The extraction should end with minimal pale spots and bubbles.
What happens if the coffee is ground too fine or too coarse?
-If the coffee is ground too fine, it can cause over-extraction, resulting in a bitter taste. If it's too coarse, it can cause under-extraction, leading to a weak, sour taste.
Why might the extraction time vary even with the same dose and yield?
-Extraction time can vary due to the grind size and the freshness of the coffee. Finer grinds and fresher coffee typically require longer extraction times, while coarser grinds and older coffee extract faster.
How does the freshness of coffee beans affect the extraction process?
-Fresher coffee beans expand more during extraction, which can slow down the process. Older beans don't expand as much, leading to a faster extraction.
What role does the coffee bed expansion play in the extraction process?
-The expansion of the coffee bed helps to ensure even extraction by filling any gaps or channels in the coffee puck, which allows for a more consistent flow of water through the coffee.
What is the significance of the 'wobble' observed during the extraction process?
-The wobble indicates that the coffee bed is expanding and releasing pressure. This is a good sign that the extraction is progressing well and nearing completion.
Outlines
⏱️ Coffee Extraction Timing and Brew Recipe
In this paragraph, Luke from the Artistic YouTube channel introduces the topic of coffee extraction timing and its importance in the brew recipe. He emphasizes the three key components of a coffee recipe: dose (amount of coffee), dry ground, and yield (amount of liquid in the cup). The focus is on the extraction time, which Luke defines as the period from activating the water to the moment the coffee starts to flow into the cup. He suggests using a timer or a scale with a timer function to measure this crucial time frame. Luke also touches on the concept of pre-infusion, where water touches the coffee before extraction begins, and how it can affect the brewing process. The paragraph concludes with a discussion on coffee expansion, grind size, and the impact of coffee freshness on extraction time.
📏 Understanding Coffee Extraction Ratios and Wobble Indicator
This paragraph delves deeper into the coffee extraction process, highlighting the significance of the 2:1 ratio for a double espresso. Luke demonstrates how to use a machine with an inbuilt scale and timer to achieve the desired extraction time and weight. He points out the 'wobble' as an indicator of when the coffee bed is expanding and releasing pressure, suggesting to stop extraction shortly after this point for optimal flavor. The paragraph also discusses the visual cues of a good extraction, such as the presence of 'sweetness' and 'body' in the coffee, and how to identify over-extraction through the appearance of pale dots and bubbles. Luke emphasizes the precision required in achieving the perfect coffee recipe, noting the impact of even a small variance in weight on the final result.
🔍 Impact of Grind Size on Coffee Extraction Time
In the final paragraph, Luke explores how grind size affects the extraction time and the final taste of the coffee. He shows the difference in extraction when the grind is made finer or coarser, demonstrating that a finer grind requires more time to extract properly, while a coarser grind can lead to faster extraction but potentially different flavor profiles. Luke also explains the importance of pre-infusion in allowing the coffee to expand and fill gaps, which can help prevent channeling and improve extraction. The paragraph concludes with advice on measuring pre-infusion time and considering the age of the coffee, as older coffee may not expand as much, affecting the extraction process.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Coffee Extraction
💡Brew Recipe
💡Dose
💡Yield
💡Pre-Infusion
💡Grind
💡Expansion
💡Bloom
💡Tamping
💡Over-Extraction
💡Under-Extraction
Highlights
Introduction to the importance of timing in coffee extraction and its relation to the brew recipe.
Explanation of the three parts of a coffee recipe: dose, yield, and extraction time.
The crucial point of measuring time from when water is activated in the coffee machine.
Use of built-in timers or phones to measure coffee extraction time.
The concept of pre-infusion and its role in the coffee brewing process.
How coffee grind and expansion affect extraction time and the importance of measuring it.
The impact of coffee freshness on its expansion and extraction.
Demonstration of preparing a coffee puck and the importance of consistency.
Observing the coffee extraction process and identifying the 'wobble' as a sign of coffee bed expansion.
The significance of the 'wobble' in determining the optimal end point of extraction.
Visual analysis of coffee extraction results and the identification of over-extraction signs.
The effect of grind size on extraction time and the resulting coffee flavor.
Experiment with different grind sizes to see how they affect extraction and flavor.
The role of pre-infusion in achieving a longer extraction time and better coffee expansion.
How to adjust extraction time based on coffee age and grind to achieve optimal results.
Conclusion on the importance of measuring pre-infusion time and its integration into the brew recipe.
Transcripts
how do we time our coffee extractions
and how do we fit into our brew recipe
hang about and i'll tell you all you
need to know g'day everyone i'm luke and
welcome back to the artistic youtube
channel where we guide you through all
things coffee
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and if you've got a question about this
please leave a comment below we do love
answering them
so today we're talking about time and
how we measure that when we extract
coffee
and the relationship with a brew recipe
so we've talked about brew recipes a
lot over our channel and there's other
videos you can go and have a look at
so we're really going to focus down on
the time factor because we do get a lot
of questions from you and we want to get
some clarity around that for you
so the three parts to a recipe for
coffee
are our dose which is how much coffee
we're putting into our handle
dry ground our yield which is what we
get out of the actual
liquid into the cup and then the
relationship of how
much time is used to extract that coffee
so we're just focusing on that time at
the moment so
what do we do here at artisti as soon as
we
press a button on a machine that
activates water
into the coffee so for us we see that as
the crucial point that we need to
measure
and from there we go all the way through
for us
about 30 to 32 seconds when we're dosing
22 and a half grams
of coffee and that will give us our two
to one ratio
giving us our 45 grams of liquid in the
cup
so depending on the machine you've got
you may have a timer inbuilt with the
machine which is really handy
and as soon as you press a button that
will activate you can also use your
phone
and make sure when you hit a button just
push that start timer there and you can
start to measure as well
and when you hit your end weight you
could be hitting stop with your hand
manually
or if you've got say a kr digital style
scale that will actually start when you
get liquid into the cup so that's a
little bit different
because it's waiting to receive the
weight of liquid before it actually
starts the timer
so from that point back to when we press
a button
is what we see as a crucial part of
the coffee brewing process now
there's a lot of debate about this but
it is what we would like to call
pre-infusion
and that is the amount of time that
basically water is touching the coffee
before it actually starts to enter into
your cup
so that amount of time for us is when we
have
water touching the coffee and we want to
measure that and understand what's
actually happening in that time
frame now because we have a standard
recipe we've got the standard dose
and we're looking for the standard yield
we know that the only change that we're
going to have
inside this coffee handle is dependent
on the grind
and also the expansion of the actual
coffee
so i'm going to break that up into two
things grind we're going to come back to
a second
but i really want to focus into
expansion of coffee
so as soon as you add water to coffee
it's like a sponge it's going to soak it
up and
actually expand a little bit and the
recipes we always talk about
allow you room for that coffee to expand
so if you're looking at an alternative
brew method
we they talk about bloom and we're
basically
allowing for that bloom that is
happening inside the coffee basket
we're allowing there enough gap for the
coffee to rise when a bit of water gets
in there
and then that can actually start to slow
down the extraction
so the fresher your coffee is the more
it's going to expand
the older the coffee is it won't expand
as much
so that can really have an effect on
your overall
time of extraction so how do we work
this out
well i'm going to show you a couple
little things and we'll run through it
okay so let's get our coffee puck ready
okay so we're 22.5 grams that's actually
just a smidge over
great we'll take that
again consistency in everything that you
do
you're just disproducing your tamping
pressure we're not talking about that in
this video it's after we've got that all
nailed
now you can see that there is a rim on
this basket
and we've allowed a lot of room for
there to have some expansion
so we're going to lock this in
we're going to hit what we're going to
go for a 2 1 which is a double espresso
now this is a unit that has scales in it
so it's going to weigh it for us which
is great
and if we look at the timer we've hit
just on before eight seconds before that
liquid
actually went into the cup so
we can see it's extracting nicely it's
quite dark at the start
we can see that there's a nice in my
mouth style you might call it
now i'm going to point out one little
part here for you we're at a one-to-one
ratio now
as we keep going you'll start to see it
there you go that little wobble
i like everyone to look for that wobble
because that's when the coffee bed is
actually starting to expand
and release any pressure that's actually
been happening
and that can speed up your extraction a
lot so
if you have to manually look of when you
want to stop an extraction
and stop your time i would look for that
wobble
and then just wait maybe two seconds and
that's going to give you an amazing
extraction
so let's have a little bit look closer
at the actual coffee
now you can see over here this is what
we like to call our sweetness which is
all that really nice dark coffee
we like to call this part here our body
and when we get to the end of the
extraction you can see the pale dots
starting to happen
and also little bubbles that means the
liquid is a lot thinner and it's
actually starting to
to splash when it hits the surface so
this is just slightly over extracted
over here but it's pretty good if you
have a look at our recipe up here
our recipe is 22 and a half grams for a
two to one we're looking at 45 grams
so this is again an inbuilt scaled
machine and it managed to stop it at
45.6 seconds
sorry
and this actually stopped us at 45.6
grams
at 32 seconds so this is pretty much
bang on an exact recipe that we want for
our coffee
now imagine if we didn't have the 0.6 of
a gram we probably wouldn't have that
paleness
and the bubbles and it would be a
spot-on beautiful recipe
so what happens when our time is
shorter than this so before i make the
next coffee
i want to show you that we do have
pre-infusion put on this machine
so you'll see what this is going to do
when we press a button it will actually
activate some water for two seconds
turn off for two seconds and then start
again
so we do that because we believe
that if we expand the coffee a bit first
it'll help fill any little
gaps and channels that might be in there
and then when we put our full amount of
water onto the coffee bed we'll get the
extraction that we like
so again people love puree infusion
other people don't i'll keep that for
another video
but i've made the grinder a lot finer
and let's have a look and let's see what
happens with the next extraction
[Music]
now i've gone finer so we need a bit
more time
to be able to get the coffee we need
whoops a bit too far
so back to 22.5 again the same technique
all the way through
so last time it was just before eight
seconds when the liquid actually started
to pour
so i'm expecting it to be a little bit
longer there we go it's just before nine
now you can actually see it's a much
richer darker kind of extraction that's
happening
really quite delicious actually
now you can see a bit of a wobble
happening but that's not what i'm
talking about
we want to start to identify when we're
stopping
this is the wobble here you can see it's
really starting to wobble
and get a bit of a corkscrew actually in
that liquid
now because this machine is aiming for
45 grams
because it runs off the recipe using the
scale it's just kept going to give us
the 45 grams
but if you have a look up here you can
see that it took 39
seconds and we actually got a little bit
less coffee we've got
0.4 of a gram less when we have a look
at the actual coffee itself
can see that there is like these really
big bubbles and a lot more paleness in
there
so we actually started to over extract
the coffee a lot earlier
and that's because we went finer on the
grind so if we go the other way we go
coarser on the ground i'll show you what
happens there
let's do that right now one second
i just had a look when i went to take
this out and going finer
and lower dose you can see that whole
shot is lifted right up
it really will move a lot so that allows
that water to get
underneath and outside the actual coffee
park that means that
the coffee park's floated up so be aware
if you do go fine i
generally you can't go longer because
that will eventually happen
at some stage so i've gone a lot coarser
on the grind
and i'll show you what happens
okay so when we go coarser essentially
we end up with more
coffee for the same amount of time in a
grinder got our 22 and a half grams
there
again the same distributing of the
coffee puck
okay so we've got the same time but if
you look at that actual extraction it
came out a lot faster there was no
dripping basically the pre-infusion did
what it needed to do by expanding the
coffee
but the finer grind wasn't there to slow
it down and you can see it's pouring
very fast
in the whole flow it's actually quite
thick and fat
we've got our 45.6 grams of
end liquid weight which is great but it
only took us
24 seconds so we're actually six seconds
slower
in brewing our coffee so that's what i
like to point out pre-infusion actually
helps us get a longer time and expand
the coffee
but it still depends on the grind and
the size that you're using which will
give you the end result
so have a look here
we don't have as much we've got a few
little bubbles on there essentially so
we still need to over extract this
coffee
but it's going to taste very different
to our
baseline coffee essentially we brewed it
for six seconds less
so let's take a look at the coarse grind
you can see here it has really expanded
and it does look a little bit grainy
there as well
and it's it's definitely a little bit
firmer but it's not
floating like the fine grind okay so
that's um pretty typical of of course a
grind of coffee it's still
expanding but it's not going to float
so how does this all all come back
together
well we want to measure our pre-infusion
time
because as you could see whether it was
fine it was spot
on or too coarse it was pretty much
dropping around the eight seconds
from when we pressed a button but from
that point onwards
the time was changing because of the
grind
so that's where we look at and think
okay there's a bloom happening
getting rid of the channeling and we're
working with the perfect aged coffee
again for us it's about 10 days but
if you start to measure the time when
you press a button
to when the liquid comes out and it
starts to
go really short it would typically mean
that is an
older coffee and it's not expanding if
you find that
that time let's say we're measuring
eight seconds if you're using a coffee
and it's starting to hit
10 or 12 seconds it might not not
necessarily be your grind it could
actually be that the coffee is one or
two days old so check that batch date
and see if you can age that coffee a
little bit and do the
test in a couple more days so hopefully
that helps you guys understand
why we actually measure our pre-infusion
and how time fits into the brew recipe
of
dose and yield i'd love to hear how you
guys are going with all this
leave the comments below thanks very
much for watching have an awesome day
[Music]
you
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