In yesterday's tweet, Front Street mentioned that one of the advantages of Pour over(V60) coffee is that it is extremely controllable. During the brewing process, we can adjust the water injection method according to the actual situation, so that the taste of the coffee will not deviate from the deliciousness itself.This statement is not groundless, there are many techniques that can help us do this. What Front Street wants to share today is one of the tips - learn to split the water injection, that is, inject water into multiple sections.This technique is often used in many of the brewing methods shared by Front Street! The so-called segmented water injection is to divide the hot water we are about to inject into multiple segments. For example, when brewing 15g of coffee powder, the amount of water to be injected according to the ratio of 1:15 is 225ml. However, usually we will not inject the 225ml of hot water at one time, but split it into multiple segments according to needs. For example, the three-stage method divides water injection into three stages.Four or six punchesIt is divided into five sections... This is what everyone has always done.
But sometimes, we don't necessarily need to be so step-by-step. When we find unexpected situations before or during brewing coffee, we can also adjust the water injection paragraph appropriately. For example, the original three-stage water injection can be further divided into four or five stages. So when do you need to adjust the water-filled paragraphs? We first need to know what are the advantages of segmented water injection.1. Control the extraction timeUnder the premise that the water injection rate remains unchanged, the more sections we use for water injection, the longer the extraction time will be. Because the increase in the number of subsections will bring us more waiting time, each section of water injection needs to wait until the hot water injected in the previous section has almost penetrated before starting to inject, and the occurrence of these waiting times will prolong the overall extraction time.In addition, because there are more segments split, the amount of water injected into each segment is reduced. Since less water accumulates in the filter bowl, the water pressure is lower, which makes it take longer for the hot water to seep out. Combined with the increased waiting time, the overall brewing time of the coffee is therefore increased.2. Improvement of extraction efficiencySo what does extraction time affect? That's right! It’s extraction efficiency. Extraction time refers to the contact time between water and coffee powder. When the extraction time is longer, the extraction efficiency will be higher, and the water will be able to dissolve more flavor substances from the coffee powder.Not only that, due to the increase in injection stages, the liquid concentration in the filter cup will be refreshed multiple times. The dissolution rate of flavor substances in coffee will be affected by the concentration difference. When the concentration of the liquid is lower, the faster the flavor substances dissolve out of the coffee. By adding water injection paragraphs, we can refresh the concentration of the liquid multiple times. In comparison, this allows hot water to have a higher extraction efficiency.3. Avoid the occurrence of bypass waterMany filter cups are the same as the V60. They are designed with protruding ribs on the inside of the cup wall. One of the functions of these ribs is to support the filter paper, allowing the coffee powder to have an exhaust channel during brewing, so that the water discharge speed can be improved.However, the existence of these channels has a disadvantage, that is, when the water level in the filter cup does not cover the coffee powder, or when hot water is poured onto the wall of the cup without coffee powder, the hot water can easily "slip" through these channels, avoiding the coffee powder, not participating in the extraction, and falling directly into the lower pot.The water that goes through such "sideways" is generally called "bypass water". Front Street has shared this before.PassiveThe appearance of bypass water will reduce the extraction rate of coffee, affect the taste, and reduce the taste experience. Then segmented water injection can greatly improve this phenomenon. Because when the number of water-injected sections is increased, the amount of hot water injected into each section will be reduced. A small amount of hot water is not enough to raise the water level to cover the powder bed, so naturally, the occurrence of bypass water can be reduced.Once everyone is familiar with the advantages brought by the above three segmented water injections, we can know how to flexibly use this technique in coffee.How to use segmentation techniques?Here, let’s first take the feature of segmented water injection to improve the coffee extraction rate as an example. When we find that the injected hot water drops very quickly during the brewing process, or during the preparation process, we find that the coffee powder is ground coarsely and the water temperature does not reach the target temperature, we can adjust the water injection section.Because these situations will reduce the extraction efficiency, the final coffee extraction rate will not be as high, and the taste will therefore become less full. So at times like this, we can increase the extraction efficiency by adding segments, thereby obtaining a pot of coffee with a normal extraction rate.Or as Front Street mentioned a few days agoBean saving method, the case inside is that because the amount of powder is too small, it is very easy to suffer from insufficient extraction during brewing. Front Street then improved the extraction efficiency by injecting water in multiple stages, thereby using a small amount of（5g）of coffee powder to brew a delicious pot of coffee.Also, when we are brewing high-density coffee beans, we can also use the technique of injecting water in multiple stages. Many novice friends will adjust the original three-stage water injection to four-stage water injection when brewing the Front Street Yirgacheffe Washed Fruit Ding Ding in the Front Street Bean List. Why?Because the density of beans is high, if you are not skilled in water control, the injection of a large amount of hot water can easily cause the water level to submerge in the powder bed, resulting in bypass water. Or because the water flow is too large, the fine powder is stirred to the bottom, blocking the filter paper, and eventually the coffee is overextracted.This can be improved by segmented water injection. Because the amount of water in each section is reduced, the water level will not easily submerge the powder bed even if there is no need to control the water flow too deliberately. At the same time, the powder bed will not be allowed to tumble too much.(stirred), it is not easy to cause blockage.Since the fruit dices brewed in this way have no bypass water, the coffee has excellent taste and texture. The taste is sour and sweet, and the texture is solid. The flavor includes citrus, berry, oolong tea, and a light floral aroma. The level will be richer than their original three-stage brew.So the above is the application of the technique of segmented water injection during the brewing process. You can refer to it and then use it according to the actual situation during the brewing process.However, it should be noted that the technique of segmented water injection is not omnipotent. Not all situations are suitable for use or only segmented water injection can be used for improvement. As mentioned before, segmented water injection will increase the extraction rate of coffee. If used rashly without restrictions, it can easily lead to over-extraction of coffee.For example, the extraction parameters are too extreme, or the Guoding Ding example mentioned at the end of the street. The example of brewing fruit dices uses not only the technique of filling water in sections. During the brewing process, we also need to appropriately reduce the height of water filling and the frequency of circles. Because the parameters used during brewing are already quite extreme, if the stirring frequency is not reduced, the coffee will easily become over-extracted due to the long brewing time.Because of this, Front Street always emphasizes the use based on actual conditions. But it’s not as complicated as you think. Try it more and you’ll know what kind of effects it can bring and when it can be put into use~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
