When brewing coffee at home, there are several different options you can choose from. If you’re new to craft coffee, you’ve likely been using something like a Mr. Coffee or Bunn coffee pot to brew your coffee up to this point. And there’s nothing wrong with this!
In this article, we’ll explain what situations a coffee pot is best utilized. We’ll also introduce two other at home brewing methods to consider based on your household’s consumption amounts.
As mentioned above, an automatic coffee brewer is what you’d traditionally see in a cafe, restaurant, or home for brewing coffee. It’s your Mr. Coffee or Bunn coffee pot. These are best used at home when the household contains 3 or more coffee drinkers.
Grind on a medium setting. Your grinds should look like sand when it’s ground properly.
(Grams) 1:17 - Use 1 gram of ground coffee for every 17 ounces of water.
(Tablespoons) 1:4 - Add 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds per 4 oz. of water.
For a standard Bunn coffee pot, use the following inputs:
The French Press method makes the most full-bodied cup of coffee out of the 3 methods. This method is easy to make and produces a much better cup of coffee than a drip coffee brewer. Ideal for households with 2 coffee drinkers.
Coffee is brewed by allowing grounds to soak in hot water for 4-5 minutes within the glass beaker. Due to the fact that the water never “passes through” the grounds as in other methods, the end product of a french press will produce a bold cup of joe.
Grind on a coarse setting. Your grinds should be roughly the size of pretzel salt.
1:15: Use 1 gram of ground coffee for every 15 ounces of water.
For a standard 28 oz pour over use the following inputs:
The pour over is our favorite way of preparing coffee. It allows for the most flavorful coffee experience between the 3 a home brewing methods. There are several different styles of pour overs. We use Kalita Waves in our retail shop to deliver sweet, clean cups of coffee. We’re also fans of Chemex for in home use as it’s easier to brew a double portion for 2 people in a Chemex.
Pour overs are a fantastic way to experience the unique flavors of different coffee beans. They’re also the most labor intensive. These are suited best for coffee connoisseurs. Combining the use of a beaker, cone, filter, scale, and grinder allows for complete customization and the ability to calibrate variables to produce the exact coffee flavor you want.
A medium to medium-fine grind is recommended as a starting point for pour overs. As you practice your pour over, you’ll be able to experiment with different grind sizes to tweak the flavors of the coffee. In our experience, Chemex likes a medium grind similar to sand. Other pour over methods like the Kalita wave prefer a medium-fine grind, which is slightly finer than sand but not quite powder like.
1:16: Use 1 gram of ground coffee for every 16 ounces of water.
For a single serve pour over use the following ratio:
We mentioned three different types of at home brewing methods above. Each brewing method has its benefits for specific situations. Once you’ve identified which brewing method you’d like to use in your home, there’s variables for each method that we can help you optimize. This lesson is meant to be an overview, but we’ll be diving deeper into each specific brewing method in future articles. If you have any questions about choosing your brewing method, don’t hesitate to send us an email :)