Roast #40: V6 Brewing Guide
We brought it back.
Before we continue — V6 Survey Winner:
Thank you everyone for filling out the survey. I love reading the feedback (good and bad). It’s super helpful to me in figuring out what I can improve on. 🙇♂️
Brew Guide for V7.
Check back before you brew as the recipes below could change.
This is the least processed round yet. We think you'll taste a range of dry berries, complex spices/florals/idk how to describe it, and light hints of refreshing fruit.
Note that everyone's palate is different. What tastes good to you might taste bad to me. Use what’s shared here as a starting point, and then adjust based on your tasting preferences.
Before I continue, there's one small blurb that I'd like to share from Lance Hendrick that really resonated with me.
He says:
I think it's so important to find a recipe and really stick to it because you'll really understand what that is like for your own taste so you can change things.... I have all these variables but in my mind they're not overwhelming. Once you learn them and you know what to look for and you know your style of coffee, it's very easy to make slight changes on the fly just by looking at the bloom, just by looking at how it's drawing down in order to understand how it's going to affect the final cup.
I keep a single recipe mainly for workflow purposes, but his point makes a ton of sense. Once you understand how your changes affect your brew, dialing in becomes a lot easier.
The setup:
Equipment List:
Coffee grinder: EK43 (with old dial)
Coffee filters: Cafec Abaca V60 O2 Filters y
Brewer: Hario Switch + V60
Kettle: Fellow Stagg EKG
Scale: Weightman Espresso Scale with Timer
Carafe: Fellow Mighty Small Glass Carafe
Refractometer: VST Lab Coffee Refractometer
Other variables that I kept constant:
The brew temperature was around 92-95C for my testing
The amount of ground used was 18g
I let the bloom sit for 40-60 seconds
Grind size:
I'm opting to save myself some work by only providing one baggie and then sharing how to grind relative to the baggie. This way, I save on putting together baggies as the time to put them together adds up.
White Honey Gesha: This is at a grind setting of 7 on my EK.
This’ll be what the baggie will contain
Washed Pink Bourbon: This is at a grind setting of 6 (finer)
Low Oxygen Natural Red Bourbon: This is at a grind setting of 8 (coarser)
From the photos, you can see that the difference isn’t super visible. I’d suggest you aim for the size of the baggie first, then tweak clicks up/down.
White Honey Gesha:
Complexity is how I describe this one. It's similar to the Black Honey Sidra in that there's a spice note to it, but differs in that there's additional dimensions to the end cup. This white honey gesha also expresses some levels of fruit (grapefruit? lemon?). The profile as a whole is a little bit of everything.
For this one, I'd suggest going with a V60 and trying to push extraction. I started off with a 2-pour structure, and honestly, I was pretty happy with its results so I didn't iterate much more.
I've also included an iced recipe, as this was really interesting. I've found that coffees that are interesting hot don't always translate well when done as iced (especially highly processed coffees).
This one maintained its complexity over iced, so I suggest saving a few dosages for iced.
The recipe:
With V60:
Bloom with 60mL
Pour to 180mL
Pour to 300mL
Feel free to explore higher extractions by increasing number of pours
Iced recipe:
With V60:
Have 60g of ice in carafe
Bloom with 60g
Pour 120g water
Swirl to get most of the ice melted
Have a separate cup ready with 60g of ice
Pour the brew from your carafe into your cup
Total mass of water should be at 300g
Grind size:
This will be the grind size in the baggie.
Resting notes:
On the sampling table, I let it rest for 2 months (read more). With my profile roasts, I tried this, but unfortunately wasn't able to replicate. I'd say the minimum would be 3 weeks to a month. I've found it still drinkable after a week, but usually with complex coffees, I tend to give it more time.
Frank Torres Washed Pink Bourbon:
I'll be honest, I'm not one to chase and seek out clean, washed coffees. So when this one stood out on the cupping table, I was pretty surprised.
For this one, I went through a few brewing iterations. I went coarse, then went fine, and found this bean could hold at higher extractions. If you go too fine, I've found the acidity to start getting muted. When you hit that point, then you can back off.
Also let the brew cool. When hot, it tastes like you are just drinking water. lol.
The recipe:
With V60:
Bloom with 60mL
Pour to 180mL
Pour to 300mL
Grind size:
Relative to the baggie, grind finer.
Resting notes:
2-3 weeks. Maybe even longer.
Humure Abishyizehamwe Low Oxygen Natural Red Bourbon:
The funkiest boi of this batch.
With funky bois, I've found that an immersion step helps curb the funk and bring balance to the end cup.
What you should get is a rush of light watermelon on first sip followed by dry red fruits and funk for the finish.
The recipe:
With Hario Switch:
Bloom with 60mL for 40 seconds with stopper open
Close the stopper to prepare the brewer for immersion
Pour to 300mL of water
After 3-4 minutes, hit the stopper to drain.
Grind size:
Relative to the baggie, grind coarser.
Resting notes:
1-2 weeks. If you get green notes, keep it resting.
How many grams of coffee do you use with each recipe?