Coffee Brewing

How to be a morning person:

With Byron Beans coffee, being a morning person is easy!

There are a lot of ways to make coffee in your home, from a simple plunger brew, to a grinder-espresso machine combination. This article provides basic information on coffee brewing methods.

Unlike instant coffee, Byron Beans coffee has to be brewed. It’s an easy process that you’ll find will make your morning coffee a much more rewarding experience. The simplest brewing set-up is a plunger.

Plunger

Plunger coffee (or the French press) requires a fairly coarse grind, and it’s the most basic way to brew coffee. You mix ground coffee and near boiling water in your plunger flask. The aromas and oils of the coffee are dissolved into the boiling water. The expended coffee grinds are then separated from the liquid by plunging the filter through the brew. The coffee is then poured out of the plunger.

Pro's and Con's

• Plunger coffee, as the coffee maintains contact with the water extracts more flavour and aromas than does drip coffee.
• Plungers can be annoying to clean, and like drip coffee they don’t produce a very concentrated product.

Filter Coffee

Pouring boiling water through ground coffee makes drip filter coffee. A filter contains the coffee, and as the water passes through it, the flavour, aromas, and oils are extracted, keeping the coffee in the cup free from the particulate grounds, which are unpleasant to drink. There are different types of filters used in this process. Paper filters are disposable and very simple, while metal filters require a little more cleaning, but can be re-used.

Pro's and Con's

• An easy way to brew coffee, and is very popular.Like plunger coffee great for easy to drink long black coffees or white coffee using less milk than espresso based coffees.
• Drip coffee, compared to espresso coffee, is not very concentrated in flavour and it captures less essential oils. They are often trapped in the paper filter as the coffee passes through.

Percolator Coffee

An electric percolator holds the coffee in a metal basket at the top of a machine that looks like a kettle. The bottom of the basket is a steel mesh, and water is brought up from the base of the device as it boils by a thin steel pipe, which then allows the water to fall down through the coffee. This is a cyclical process that often passes brewed coffee back through the grounds.

Pro's and Con's

• If you want your house to smell like coffee, this is the choice for you. Electronic percolators vaporise more essential oils than most methods do. This is also a very easy way to make coffee.
• When these oils are vaporised they aren’t carried through into the actual beverage, instead into the air. The cyclical process can also “over-extract” or burn the coffee if not monitored closely.

Stovetop

Stove-top percolators, or moka pots, are like a percolator on steroids. They consist of two chambers, and three sections. The bottom contains water, which is heated, and as it builds up pressure it is forced through the middle section, which contains the ground coffee, and into the top section ready for drinking.

Pro's and Con's

• This is a similar brewing method to espresso coffee. It tends to extract a lot of the flavours and oils, and even develops a crema.
• This can be quite a difficult process to get right. Not quite the full flavour produced in an espresso machine.

Espresso

Espresso machines are for the dedicated coffee drinker. They consist of a boiler that heats the water and builds up pressure. This water is then forced under pressure through compacted coffee grounds contained in the porta-filter, and then into the cup. The pressure of the extraction gets more flavours and oils from the coffee than any other method, and a single shot ideally produces 30ml of highly concentrated and thick coffee coated in a nice brown crema. Some machines use pumps to ensure that there is a consistent pressure, as the temperature of the water needed to maintain the ideal pressure for extraction can burn the coffee. These are the machines used in most cafes in Australia.

Pro's and Con's

• Espresso machines in the right hands will extract more of the coffee’s aromas and oils than any other method.
• Espresso machines, however, are expensive pieces of equipment, and can take a fair amount of looking after. Making an espresso coffee is a process, and many people enjoy the challenge, but some would prefer an easier method.