I don’t know if you have heard of the saying: It is easier to master than to break into the door by hand. It means that you can make coffee with your hands, but it is very difficult to make a cup of delicious coffee according to your own ideas.
There are actually not many factors that affect Pour over(V60) coffee, among which water temperature is one of the four major factors in brewing. The water temperature will continue to drop during the hand brewing process, and the water temperature is crucial to the flavor of a cup of coffee. Different water temperatures will affect the concentration of the final extraction. Front Street Coffee will discuss the topic of hand brewing with everyone about water temperature.
So how do we determine the water temperature we usually use for brewing?
Generally, we recommend that the water temperature for brewing Pour over(V60) coffee is between 86-93°C, of which 90-93°C is recommended for brewing medium-light roasted coffee, and 86-89°C is recommended for brewing medium-dark roasted coffee. So how is this interval obtained?
First of all, we have to start with the extraction efficiency of water. When the water temperature is higher, the coffee extraction efficiency is higher, and it is easier to extract coffee bean substances. The higher the concentration of coffee, of course, it is easier to extract bad flavor substances, that is, over-extraction. The lower the water temperature, the lower the coffee extraction efficiency, the harder it is to extract coffee bean substances, and the lower the concentration of coffee, but it may lead to under-extraction. Therefore, we know that normal temperature water and boiling water are not suitable for brewing coffee.
Secondly, there are coffee associations such as SCAA and SCAE that use data science as standards and the advancement of technology. It is easy for us to sit on the shoulders of these giants and look at problems. The extraction efficiency of water temperature between 86-93℃ is very easy to reach an extraction rate of 18-22%. After many tests, Front Street found that when brewing most medium-light roasted coffee, controlling the water temperature at 90-91°C can stably brew the flavor of the coffee.
Does a 1°C difference in water temperature have a big impact?
A 1°C difference in water temperature will definitely have an impact, but is the impact really big? Therefore, Front Street conducted a comparative experiment, using 89°C, 90°C, and 91°C to brew Yirgacheffe coffee (recommended water temperature is 90°C). Except for the water temperature, other parameters were as consistent as possible. There are differences in the results, but they are not very obvious. It is difficult to distinguish without horizontal comparison. The measured coffee concentrations are 1.26%, 1.27%, and 1.30% respectively.
Of course, if the water temperature in the kettle differs by 1℃, it will not have a great impact on the coffee brewing of the opponent, but this is not a victory of the "almost" principle (the so-called "butterfly effect", a slight difference may lead to a different outcome).
Because there are many factors that affect water temperature, the water temperature that effectively participates in the extraction of coffee powder is the water temperature in the filter cup, not the water temperature in the pot. This raises a question. If we want to know the water temperature, it should be the water temperature in the filter cup when it comes into contact with the coffee powder. However, the water temperature in the filter cup is difficult to determine. We can only take the water temperature in the source pot as a reference.
If you only use the pot temperature as the basis for water temperature, there are indeed too many uncertain factors.
1. The heat preservation of the kettle. You know, brewing coffee is an extraction process, and pots made of different materials have different heat preservation properties. For example, a copper kettle needs to be kept warmer than a stainless steel kettle. If you start brewing at the same temperature of 90°C, the water temperature after one minute, one minute and 30 seconds will be 86.4°C. The water temperature of stainless steel material after 1 minute and 30 seconds is 83.6°C. The amount of water in the pot will also affect its cooling rate.
2. The height of the water flow. Front Street did it onceexperiment, why the concentration of high water column water injection is lower than that of low water column water injection. The big reason is that the larger the surface area of the water column exposed to the air when entering the filter cup, the faster its cooling rate.
3. The heat preservation of the filter cup. The actual coffee extraction temperature will definitely be lower than the pot temperature. For example, the highest temperature of a ceramic filter cup during extraction is 87.7°C (the initial temperature of the pot is 91°C). If the ceramic cup is not pre-warmed, the temperature during extraction will be lower (the highest temperature measured is 86.9°C).
Water temperature is a very important parameter, but the water temperature we refer to does not only refer to the initial temperature of the pot. The temperature change after leaving the spout is also worthy of our study. The real water temperature is essentially the temperature in the extracted coffee.
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
