🤦♂️ so I messed up the Commandante clicks thing. I did not measure the proper way, because I’m an idiot. I’m probably out by 5-7 clicks so somewhere from 18-23 might be the right range. I’ll confirm tomorrow when I get my hands on the grinder. Apologies!
ah! that makes sense! I usually run at somewhere near 22, so 25-30 generated a "yikes!" response from me, particularly as Scott Rao (or maybe Barista Hustle) had recently mentioned an experiment where one of the parameters was 30 clicks for a French Press brew. So 30 seemed a bit coarse from the guy who's always exhorting us to grind "finer than you think/expect"
I literally shouted “what are you on!” when I heard the range being 25-30 clicks for Comandante lol. Looking forward to the update with the actual grind setting!
Two commandantes never had the same amount of clicks for the same grind size in my experience. They are never the same. And one my primary one , for every kind of brew my clicks need to be way way lower then what you read online, while another is more 'in line'. Do it by taste , only way to determine grind setting for yourself...
I'm using this technique successfully with a 30g to 500ml ratio, on a v60 size 002. 100mls per pour, and 20 seconds between intervals. I'm really enjoying that this method doesn't dirty a spoon - it's one less thing at my coffee station. I seem to get more consistent results than I was with the Ultimate v60 technique. Thanks for the work you do, and all the great cups of coffee I've enjoyed using your brewing methods.
Thanks Joe I also tried this with 30/500 and as a 10sec pause is a little problematic with overflowing, I was thinking about increasing to 20sec (and now I will)
We are so lucky to have this much attentive support! Thanks James! Also, since it is currently exam season, it got me wondering what you'd think about doing a video for students? Kinda what your ideal setup would be for someone on a budget in a dorm or small apartment. Cheers from Canada 🍁
Decent handgrinder (I got 1zPresso JX for about $100. Aeropress - $30 (V60 is cheaper) Coffee - $10 That's all you need really. Espresso at home is a hobby, not a drink.
@@tomgosling4458 i agree with these suggestions though i think you could go even cheaper on a handgrinder, especially used. Why do you bring up espresso?
I personally would recommend spending more on coffee. At least in my area if wants a 12oz bag of specialty coffee that would start around $15. I highly recommend supporting a local roaster that you know has ethical dealings. 1zpresso Q2 is an easy recommendation with regular price at about $100, and Black Friday sales taking it down to around $80. Aeropress is an excellent brewer to get started with. Super easy to use and relatively forgiving. I would highly recommend getting an electric kettle to make your coffee routine much easier. Even if you get the cheap Amazon basics kettle it will work perfectly fine with an aeropress. Trying to pour a small pot or saucepan into an aeropress is extremely unpleasant.
@@tomgosling4458 Moka pot works great as well, more expensive though, but you save up on paper filters, and the metal filtering (and possible concentration) is closer to espresso
Will only add this little bit for anyone like me who are rather new. But if you brew straight into the cup, make sure you give it a good stir before drinking. To me this made a rather big difference with any v60 recipe.
Agree 100%! Without stirring, I’ll find my cups are bitter at the beginning and overly acidic at the end since that seems to be the order the coffee extracts in
As coffee is extracted the first note to come out are acidic. Followed by sweets, oils and then bitters. When coffee is steeped for to long or when a pour over has too much water used the bitters that come out keep coming out and produce a thin and bitter cup. Ratios and timing are super important. Thank you for your comment and best wishes.
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat That's very interesting! The nerd in me wants to try divide the extraction into cuts like the distilling process in alcohol making, compare tasting notes, and blend the cuts I like to create the exact taste I'm looking for. BUT that seems needlessly work intensive, and I already like the result of V60 brew I'm getting with James' recipe. Maybe I'll try that one day when I'm really bored and have time to kill.
@Watch and things I feel the same way. Any failures we make will still teach us something. The more we learn about coffee, the less we know. It's like quantum physics, where if you think you know quantum physics, you don't know quantum physics. Lol I'm a big ADHD nerd 2. 😂 I would love to hear of your future discoveries. Plz let me know when you learn something new and interesting. Take it easy, my friend.
This recipe does indeed work great on the kalita. Using a ceramic kalita I get a finished brew at exactly 3 min and the results were superior to what I was previously doing.
I'm not immersed in the minutiae of the coffee world personally, but my brother has been doing small batch roasts for local distribution for a couple years. It's always fascinating to hear such depth of knowledge about a subject that would appear so simple to the outsider. Brewing technique is like the particle physics of coffee.
I have a Bodum Melior Gooseneck kettle. What I’ve been doing is putting the V60 on it right side up and covering it with the hopper lid of my Baratza Encore grinder. Works perfectly.
A nice bonus with using the Hario Switch as a dripper is that you can shut its valve and let the water steep and thoroughly preheat the brewer while you finish getting everything set up.
At 12:37 you mentioned placing the v60 on the kettle to preheat. I do this with my ceramic v60 but rather than turning it upside down I place it on the kettle as I would if I were brewing and then I put the kettle lid inside the brewer. Works like a charm.
I tried the upside down with my plastic 2cup... Didn't do much at all. In a situation where tap water hot takes ages and gas is f. expensive compared to electric. Kettle it is. I do like to use the Hario switch for this. Yes, it's a glass V2. But you can close the bottom, making it easier to preheat by just pouring in it and waiting.
@@j0sh_j0hnson i used it as daily driver for a long, long time. Absolutely love it, if only for the simple workflow . But after using an aeropress and then the switch , ice been trying 'pure' v60 again.. for the only reason that 'it has been a while'. It's less clean tasting compared to a normal v60, but fuller / more extracted. And without the plastic rubbery taste i sometimes (think i) get from an aeropress. And by just not using the stopper it's a glass 2cup v60 :).
I was a manager at a cafe in the US for many years and was never able to find great info on methods to make great large batch brew coffee (like on a Curtis for instance) there are so many options when programming a brew that I became overwhelmed. I’d love to suggest a cafe series on best practices on brewing very large scales of coffee (like cold brew and drip) for managers and owners to reference!! You are fantastic at explaining thoughts behind a process I think your explanations would be very valuable. Thanks!
The simplest would be for batch brewing get a moccamaster? 10-20 cupper and then just scale up his recipe just for perspective Hoffmann's 60 grams to a 1 liter which would be the ratio of 1:16.6666 so either go up or down from that you will need to see where your happy medium lies since typically speaking a ratio of 15 is not "worth" in a commercial setting
I think having a video on larger 4 - 6 cup batches makes sense if you're making a pour over for 2 to 6 adults. I have a Bodum pour over with metal screen which I use a filter paper on.
@@lesslighter These things don't really scale up predictably. It's like cooking rice in a pot. Plus different batch brewers have different geometries and water distribution/temps. I agree that cafe-volume batch brew guide would be helpful, but to get to the level of detail in this video would require brand specific guides.
@@AdiJayanto there’s lots of good videos out there that definitely share and train some trade secrets! That’s what I love about most coffee people, it’s not super gate-keepy (though sometimes it is quite pretentious) and I’d argue that most of James’ videos are definitely viable help in commercial settings! I used knowledge he teaches when learning to make coffee for my cafe and sent links to his videos for our baristas to watch
After using the Aeropress exclusively for years, your last video actually got me into using the V60. I always thought pour-over would be too finicky and not worth the effort for one single cup but turns out I really like it! My single big question is though: why the V60? I can get a nice Melitta brewer for the same price but the filters are way cheaper and available in any store (GER). I was pretty surprised that there a veeeery few videos on YT that compare the V60 and the Melitta even though these two must be the most popular pour-over brewers out there. So I would be very interested in a video that covers that (ideally the modern one with two holes that can brew into two cups simultaneously).
Yes! A thousand times, this! We're almost twins. I switched to pour over around the same time, because of the first V60 video. I used that technique, but struggled for a long time to get good results. Pour over technique for normies (I.e. not a V60) is a must.
Thanks James, I appreciate the revisit of the revisited method! I didn't really have any questions - but now I do 😉😁. Grind size "25-30 clicks from 'absolute zero' on a Comandante"; which leads me to ask "where is absolute zero?". I've always set zero as the point at which the handle won't rotate under its own mass when the unit is horizontal (per Comandante recommendations). But "absolute zero" sounds like it's wound to the point where the adjustment knob won't move any further. That's quite a few more clicks on from my (& Comandante's) zero.
Great question. I agree with everything you wrote here re: the official commandants setting and the „absolute“ zero setting. Also makes me wonder how comparable the Commandante‘s are - I read a lot of comments here that they are not really calibrated any way and could differ from one to another
Swirling always leads to air pockets for me, regardless of how much bloom water I use. I stir with a chopstick, it gets around the bed easier without potentially over-agitating like a teaspoon in a small bed of coffee might
@@kekelapp0r Bubbles coming up from the bed later in the brew process -- it means there were some grounds that had been dry the entire time and just made contact with the water, hence uneven extraction. It might be an insignificant portion of the grounds (and lord knows my palate isn't sophisticated enough to notice a difference), but it makes sense to me to try to avoid them anyway
I've been using your technique since I watched the part 1 video and it works for me. I have a ceramic V60 so it requires a bit of waste of boiling water but I can live with that. Now I've been testing my coarse to find the right taste of my brews. Thank you James. I love watching your videos and I've learnt a whole lot from you
I heat my V60 on my kettle like this. It's what I do for my Flair brew chamber, so it just made sense. Also tried this method for a 30g/500g pour and it worked out well. Very tasty.
Funny thing about this video... the one thing you did not recommend doing is the one thing that ended up working great for me. Pre-heating upside down on the kettle is now part of my morning routine and I love it! It does a great job and it feels so efficient!
For the record, the new technique from the previous video revolutionized my personal pour over brews. I've never seen such a dramatic improvement in consistency and quality when experimenting with methods before. Flat beds, very few grounds on the sides, and wonderful flavor. I am tending to get slower draw downs, but James even covers that in the previous video!
Just got my v60 this holiday season and have brewed with varying degrees of success. This ought to help. I don't have the kettle with the curved spout yet so my technique will have to be different. Thanks for your excellent tutelage!
I’ve found it so useful. Fifteen years of working in coffee, and some how I just forgot how to make V60s a few years back (between having to get a job outside of speciality, then two years of stay at home dadding). I never had much joy with the previous method, but this one has upped the quality of my coffee hugely.
This technique is actually very very effective and yields delicious coffee. I'm using my Hario switch instead of the traditional V60 as this one makes possible to control the contact time way better. Steeping each pour for a certain time (i also use 10 seconds) makes it possible to use coarse grinds and it's way more forgiving about the pouring technique. Regarding the preheating, i find the switch to be the best option. Just close the valve and pour some water. Let it steep for one minute and you'll get a super effective preheating with much much less water waste.
@@dontpanic00xx Yes. I'm using 5 equal pours. 1st pour (blooming): once all the water in, open the valve 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th pours: steep for 10 seconds then open the valve and let it drain but not fully. Once water level is at the bed's close the switch and pour again. Pour always first to the center and then slightly out. Imagine your pouring diameter not bigger than a medium size coin. This creates more turbulence as the V60 is conical. With this method I normally use 92-94°C for medium roasts. If you're more into light roasts, keep water temperature at 94-96°C and in case you want more extraction just increase the steeping time from 10 to 15 or even 20 seconds. Grind size: I use 900~950 microns (this is 10 numbers on the kplus or 31-32 clicks on Comandante C40)
I followed James' video on grind sizes. Get finer til you reach a wall of acidity, then pull back. For my fellow Hario hand grinders out there, I find it is 4 clicks (from closed) for most medium to dark blends.
Probably not acidity but bitterness? Since if you grind too finely, the coffee will end up badly over extracted, which means a lot of nasty, bitter stuff?
I'm at 4 to 5 clicks as well for the same type of blends on my Mini Mill, can confirm it works very well. I prefer it with a higher ratio, so something like 15g to 210ish ml of water
Thank you James. Your 1 cup V60 recipe has been a game changer for me. I use it for my afternoon decaffeinated coffee. It's just perfect. I had some issues with clogging when swirling thought. I fixed it with this method: no well in the middle of the coffee, and a VERY SLOW AND LOW pour for the blooming. Finally, one gentle swirl to flatten the bed at the end of the last pour. Turns out fantastic. I use a Wilfa uniform, which not produces much fines. But I had lots of clogging when swirling with developed roasts.
The pursuit of Least Possible Faff (hereby LPF) is how I ended up at my current Clever/Switch method: 1. Pour water 2. Pour coffee on top, start timer 3. Spread coffee bed evenly on top of water, do not stir or mix with water 4. Go wash dishes until 2 minute mark 5. Break crust 6. Stir to submerge all crust 7. Deep stir to agitate all coffee at bottom 8. Go back to cleaning up until 4 minute mark 9. Hoffman swirl & drawdown 10. Enjoy coffee with about 20-30 seconds of total interaction time with loaded brewer 16.7g for 250g You don't need a temperature controlled kettle You don't need a gooseneck kettle You don't need a melodrip - great tool, I have one, but I optimised it out Standard kettle or a pot boiling water from any source, only 1 boil, a spoon, don't need a fancy scale. Optimal. 👌
I used your technique with my 2 cup ceramic v60 and it was the smoothest cup of coffee ever. I then did a second cup but as a variable did the convenience mode of not prewarming my V60. I could not believe what a (bad) difference that made. I'm now committed to figuring out how best to heat up my V60 before brewing.
Hi James, Thank you for elaborating and making this video! I'm glad that you mentioned the V60 on the kettle option. However, I feel like it did not get utilized fully. Indeed only the bottom is heated when you leave the V60 on top without any cover. However, I put the lid of my kettle on top of the V60 as well. This way the steam does not escape as easily and the heat is still trapped in the V60. By doing it this way, my V60 is always hot (too hot to hold for longer than a few seconds). After that I rinse the paper with some of my hot brew water, resulting in a sufficiently pre-heated V60 without wasting water or (too much) heat. Hopefully that helps some others too!
Hi James! Your recommendation on the grind size (25-30 clicks) seems coarser than I would've thought. Does the comandante you grind on have the red clix upgrade attached?
I thought the exact same thing. 25-30 is a really coarse range that James doesn't really prefer/promote for his high extraction methods especially for light roasts. 28-30 is the range I would use only for dark roasts for filter coffee. Perhaps he meant 20?. 20-22 is a good starting point for light roasts I think.
Right?! I’ve been in the 20-24 clicks for medium roast for years. I’ve always thought that it was a good range. Who knows, maybe going coarser is good too. 🤷🏻♀️ I’ll have to try it out.
@@CamarogirlLSX The explanation is in Hoffman's pinned comment. He says it should be in the 18-23 range but will confirm once he checks again. I've always been in the 20-24 clicks range, for pour-over (but went down to 18-16 for lighter roasts).
Preach, James! So recipes that are so similar, but all with slightly different results - I loved your approach to brewing like this! I'm always learning also :)
Hey James, do you prefer keep the water temp at a constant or let it naturally drop throughout pours to match/offset the changing solubles of the coffee?
I used your v60 technique for a single cup plastic flat brewer and (in my opinion) it worked out beautifully! The only difference I had to make was to stir the bloom instead of swirl, but otherwise i followed your video exactly. Thank you for your entertaining and informative videos :)
I heat my v60 the way you said not to. Not trying to create more controversy or say you’re wrong lol. But I do notice the walls get very hot. I typically put the kettle lid in the well of the v60 to trap some of the steam in (the brewer almost gets too hot to touch, actually). So I wouldn’t say it only heats the bottom part, at least in my experience.
RE: Grinders. Would be interesting to see the optimal V60 technique for grinders in the $€£ 50-150 range. Think Timemore, 1zpresso, Xeoleo, and other hand grinders that are above the usual entry-level ceramic burrs, but still riddled by fines (especially with lighter Ethiopian beans..). Would probably also apply to many popular electric grinders (Baratza Encore, Wilfa). Thanks! It's been fun to experiment with the V60 lately.
The one simple change you can make here is weigh your ground coffee out on a paper towel and then deposit it in the brewer by sliding it off of said towel. It will pick up a ton of the fines and they won't make it into the brew.
I used to have a really bad grinder so I kept the grinds very coarse to reduce the fines, the best technique I know for pour over coarse grind is the tetsu 4:6
are hand grinders more prone to produce a lot of fines? I have the 1zpresso K-max, which I consider a very premium hand grinder, but I'm not sure if it produces a lot of fines or not relative to other kind of expensive grinders. Also I'm able to filter the fines out automatically because of the static which makes the fines stick to the wall of the grinder cup and such
@@nikolajhansen15 In the 50-100 budget range hand grinders are probably quite a bit better than any electric ones. But that doesn't mean they aren't without any faults, for example eccentricity in burr calibration, or burrs not optimized for filter brew, both which can cause issue with fines. The K-Max though is quite close to Comandante in price, so I'd expect it to perform relatively well.
Life! Making coffee with Daddy Hoff every morning. My normal coffee routine usually takes about 30mins. (A V60 and 2 shots of espresso from my Cafelat Robot) it’s always nice to accompany it with Daddy Hoff’s videos.
I didn't get on with the V60, but I'm quite liking the Clever Dripper. Follows a very similar pre-heat, but I drink mine with milk, so for the preheat I put it on my mug and pour about 100ml boiled filter water into the cone. After it drains I re-boil and start making the coffee. Then, by the time my coffee about ready for drawdown I empty the mug, put in my milk, swirl to pull some of the heat from the ceramic and then the dripper goes on top. That works for me. Coffee is still nice 'n hot and very little faffing aboot is needed
Thank you, this was a really interesting video! I thoroughly appreciate your educational content with attention to detail, like the fact that the bed gets cooler if you let it drain completely. It makes sense, but it had never crossed my mind before, so thanks! 🦄
It actually works well with a Kalita ! I tried it every day for 2 weeks (because I didn't have any more V60 filters ^^), and with of course some grind ajustments it was very good !
When we move house, I’m going to be switching from my espresso machine (which I am maximising but hitting the limit with the quality it can reliably produce) and switching to V60 with a much higher quality grinder, so these videos came out at a most opportune time. Thank you!
Most often, I use my Chemex nowadays, but preheating my ceramic brewer atop my kettle is something I've done at least several times. Being ceramic, and having big slots around the base for the steam to travel through, this works very well for me with it on the right way up.
I went with 20 clicks with the commandante (light roast) and it was great, had a poor down time of 3:10 and the taste was amazing. I was kinda suprised James went with ~30 but that is just my take
Exactly my thoughts, 30~ is closer to medium-coarse referencing my commandante. 20-25 clicks(depending on the coffee) is usually the sweet spot for me.
I’m usually sitting around 17 clicks on mine! I’ve often wondered if mine is out of alignment or something - tend to always go finer than what I see online 🤷🏻♂️
I wondered the same thing. I’ve been brewing satisfactory brews with this method at 18 clicks. (Light roasts, aiming for a well rounded brew that’s closer to the bitter/ sweet side of things than bright/astringent)
Here's a 2 step method to preheating your brewer while minimizing waste. Granted, it complicates the setup, but not overtly so. 1. Rinse the paper in the v60 under the sink to remove the paper taste from the brew. 2. Pour boiling water from the kettle into the brewer to preheat while the brewer is placed over a cup. This water can return to the kettle. With this, you minimize waste at the sink while also not wasting your brewing water. No need for awkwardly placing the brewer over the kettle and no need to wasting electricity using a microwave. It's two steps, not one, but nothing outside of what you're doing already--it's just one extra pour sans ground coffee.
For "preheating" I pour hot (not boiling) water into the ceramic Melida w/filter while it sits on the empty mug. Then I grind the beans, put this in the Melida, boil the water and pour per your suggestion. Now I have a hot cup of coffee! Thank you very much....
I’ve settled on a nice preheat method for my v60. I have a ceramic one. I too found that pouring in hot water with the kettle didn’t heat effectively and my tap takes ages to get hot in the morning so I rinse it with the cold water to rinse and get a seal and then I pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds as I grab my mug. Works great!
For what it’s worth, I tried James’ V60 technique with the April Brewer and it worked quite well. For those who don’t know, the April Brewer suggests a simple technique: 12 grams of coffee, 200 grams of water, dispensed in two distinct 100 gram pours with :30 between them, pulling the brewer at 2:30 or so. I do a swirl after the first pour. Patrik Rolf suggests a 50 gram circle pour and a 50 gram center pour (it used to be 30/70 but he changed it just recently). But indeed, the V60 is worth a try with the April brewer. It works as well with the Kurasu wire mesh brewer that I also learned about through April.
Hey James, can you pretty please try making a video on the humble Melitta? It’s where a lot of us got our beginnings, and I’ve been using your v60 methods with one for years now. Thanks for another great technique (:
Bought a plastic Hario V60 yesterday on your recommendation on the heat retention when preheating the V60. Maybe it's the newer one, but it definitely does not hold any heat whatsoever, even when running boiling water on it. I found that my older ceramic one worked better at being preheated in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. I do agree that the taste when preheating the V60 is night and day. With that said, love the content James.
How are you testing? If the brewer isn't hot that could mean that retention is great. (remember you want the water to stay hot and not transfer the heat to the brewer)
I've put it without paper upside down on my kettle which does get it hot. Just pouring hot water didn't get it as hot and it is key as you mentioned. It also leverages the existing steam, so you don't use 2 energy sources.
It's not supposed to _hold_ heat, as in getting hot. It's supposed to insulate, as in little heat transfer. So if it doesn't feel as hot, it's actually a good thing. That's why preheating isn't as important with a plastic brewer as it is with glass and ceramic. I still prefer glass/ceramic, the only downside for me is that I have to preheat it. Which I do while rinsing the paper anyway, so not really a downside.
@@ximono Yes, that's how I understand it as well: Contrary to other materials, the plastic doesn't suck the heat out of the water. But why do you still prefer glass or ceramic? Just for style?
I am just starting my coffee journey following some of your videos and comparing self brewed coffee vs machine coffee. I have to say that the V60 technique produced a surprisingly (to me at least) tasty coffee. I found the V60 technique a bit hard to follow, specially because I wasn't getting water pours fast enough and never got a 3min brew time (following your advise I am focusing more on taste than secs though and I'm quite happy about it). I know this can be because of many variables but I'll keep trying it and comparing taste as I get better. Thanks a lot for sharing!
*watches while sipping pour-over* You and Lance have helped me so much with my pour-over consistency that I feel free to make pour-over with most any type of bean in most any type of size. I wanna say thanks for that.
the problem with telling people to choose a grind size based on taste is that most beginners and even enthusiasts don't know how to interpret what they are tasting. they need a baseline that they can be confident is correct.
Okay, on both the water and heating. The Hario Switch does a great job of being a versatile brewer, regardless if you steep and release or straight percolate. Either way, if you flip the Switch so the water does not drain, then you can use surprisingly little water to heat the brewer. My tap takes way too long, and although it likely does not have a notable (if any) difference, I prefer keeping all the water I use, for my brew, from the same source. The chemistry is the same (for consistency's sake) and I don't have to heat up additional water. I wait until my kettle is near boiling and fill up my Switch about half way (only about a third if I'm using it like a switch and not a V60). About the minute it takes for your water to boil, you filter paper will be wet and your glass brewer heated. I recognize not everybody wants nor can spend the money to get a Switch, but it's one of the reasons I like using it. One-cup method, two-cup method, or steep and release it doesn't matter (which makes everything easier for my coffee deprived mind).
I second the Hario Switch! It's so versatile in that you can do basic pour-overs or immersion brews. I also flip the switch for preheating and it actually takes very little water.
I got gifted a V60 and a lovely carafe last year and have struggled to make better coffee than my aeropress when only brewing one cup with the V60. I've made easily the best coffee I've had with it since trying since this technique. It's great!
I have been using your method from part 1 with my non-V60 pour over and I feel like it is an improvement from what I did before. I tried the recipe with 18g of coffee and 275ml of water and that worked fine as well. To avoid wasting water to warm up my ceramic brewer, I just throw it in the microwave for about 45-55 seconds, and I’ve gotten great results from that
You can also run the water thru the brewer once to hear it. I have a cheap coffee maker with a swinging arm and I feed the heated cold water back into the tank until it's warm. After that it comes out close to 200 degrees instead of 175 degrees.
the previous video made me go and buy a v60 set really enjoy using this method it is very consistent and very easy to follow without thinking now i just need to find accessible good light roasted beans
I think the overwhelming majority of coffee enthusiasts are simply using filtered tap water, and boiling a bit extra to preheat the dripper is the answer. The sink takes ages to get hot water for many (most?) people unless they have a demand system. In the context of energy consumption, the amount of extra power to heat a little more water is absolutely trivial. If you're in the tiny fraction of people who builds special coffee water, you're then in a sufficient fringe to just get a second kettle for preheating water for like 10 bucks.
My biggest challenge brewing coffee is I tend to only have one a day, so I end up forgetting the nuance’s of the brew by the next and therefore struggle to compare and iterate, any suggestions? I thought maybe making notes but not sure how or what to write down 😂
I finally started a google sheet for my coffee brewing notes. it almost feels like a sickness 😅 On the plus side, I am doing a masters in data science right now, so I can actually play with the data in interesting ways. I am tracking all the coffee I buy in 1 sheet and my brewing variables & notes in another sheet. I started at the beginning of September and today I recorded my 82nd brew.
Take notes, absolutely: in my experience, it’s one of the best ways to improve over time. Note your input variables (e.g., grind setting, dose, ratio), technique (e.g., JH 1-cup), and output variables (e.g., time, yield), log any taste notes (too bitter, too sour, fruity, long finish, better as it cooled, worse as it cooled…), and decide on any tweaks for the next day. I do this all in a long-running note on my phone, but you could use anything from a piece of paper to a spreadsheet, depending on how geeky you want to get :P The next day, you have a new place to start, and you do it all over again… enjoy the journey!
everyone's suggestions to write things down are great, but what about making it a social thing? Buy a bag you like and invite some friends over on a Saturday to make coffee different ways and try to find the best technique for it! Everyone can have a little bit of each cup and that takes care of the waste
2:05 just a little note - I have both 1 and 2 cup v60 and the holes are different ;) In 1 cup hole’s diameter is ca 19mm and in 2 cup it is ca 23mm, thus the latter is 21% bigger. In my experience it makes a noticeable difference, water flow is a lot faster in the 2 cup.
I’m still having great success with your original V60 technique to brew my morning to-go cup (30 grams to 500mls). I’m going to try to scale this new one up to 30 grams and see how it compares to the OG.
On pre-heating: I have been pouring an excess of water through the brewer to heat it and then pouring the water that has flowed though back into the kettle. By the time I've put my coffee from the grinder into the filter, the kettle has reheated the water and I'm ready to go. Love your videos.
I make 400ml of coffee for myself using 24g of coffee. I really like the new method, but adjusted the timing to 15 second increments instead of 10 second. Scaling it up to 500ml with 30g I did the same, but the bloom would use 100g of water which I felt like was a lot. I used 75g of water for the bloom and ~106g for each pour. Good results for these.
One thing I've found helpful for challenging and light roasts in an induction stove next to my brewer, so I can keep the water right on the boil between pulses. This is with both 1 cup and 2 cup brews. Just set it down between pours, and because the heat is induced in the metal itself it's quite effective.
For what it's worth, since the video was posted I've been doing the recipe with 30g to 500g and the results have been great and especially SUPER consistent, while I regularly had trouble with the original.
This is entirely unrelated to V60, but your channel makes me curious at experimenting in the kitchen and I needed to share this…pouring red wine through an aeropress with a paper filter seems to have eliminated red wine hangovers for me…it’s kind of amazing and people should definitely try. I wonder if there are good kitchen crossovers/hacks you could share with the community pursuant to your goal of reducing the number of things in your life/coffee making are there tools useful for coffee that have good function elsewhere?
11:05 This, I think, is a very important point, because it just relates to particular circumstances that Mr. Hoffmann experiences in London. Living in Finland with soft tap water, that's relatively good for coffee brewing according to my own research into the local water supply and that of every coffee roaster I've talked to here, this doesn't concern me at all and I'm happy I didn't take this lesson from the original video either. Also, for those of us who dislike plastic and use ceramic (or metal/glass) it's so much better to be heating up the brewer with 100°C water while rinsing my paper.
Yeah, I am not going to place the brewer upside down on my kettle. That looks dangerous, and my kettle is the stove-top version. As to the brew method in part 1: It works, Mr Hoffman! I love it. Very balanced extraction. Delicious!
in order to preheating and prewetting the brewer/filter I usually take whichever microwave safe glass Im gonna use, pour good amount of water in it and toss it to the microwave for about 1 min or 90 secs depending on how much time I have left for preparation until my water boils. It helps me to save time and most importantly water.
This was so comforting and generally enjoyable to watch
2 года назад
I had great success on this technique with 21:350 and 30:500 brews. But I did small adjustments on wait time therefore contact time. I don't want this to be more complicated than now but I've increased pour/wait times in pulses +1 second every 50 ml. For example; in a 30:500 brew; Bloom: 0-0:45 up to 75-100g 1st pour: 0:45-1:00, 200g 2nd pour: 1:10-1:25, 300g 3rd pour: 1:40-1:55, 400g 4th pour: 2:10-2:25, 500g TBT ~ 3:15-3:30 it varies a lot depending coffee, water, grind distribution etc.
Quick tip if your kettle won't fit your v60 upside down: I've found that if you put a saucer in the top of the v60 (as a lid) it traps the steam and preheats it very effectively
The brew method worked great for me! I did 30g/500g for thanksgiving after dinner coffee and everyone loved it. I just waited a bit longer between pours for the brewer to drain.
I've been using the new technique since you presented it the other day, and I immediately noticed a fuller flavor in my cup. I also like it because I've been having a lot of trouble achieving a flat bed for some time now, possibly because I switched to a finer grind (dead center on the Baratza Virtuoso+.)
I am struggling for years with sour coffee and cant help think it´s the baratza virtuoso+ and the fines it produces. I cannot buy a better grinder, but the same coffee made with ground coffee from a flat burr grinder taste nothing like mine. Have you had the same experience? I think my technique can´t be that off...
🤦♂️ so I messed up the Commandante clicks thing. I did not measure the proper way, because I’m an idiot. I’m probably out by 5-7 clicks so somewhere from 18-23 might be the right range. I’ll confirm tomorrow when I get my hands on the grinder. Apologies!
Could it be because you use RedClix on your Commandente, not the stock version?
Ha, I felt like 25-30 seemed a bit too coarse, props to James for keeping us updated!
ah! that makes sense! I usually run at somewhere near 22, so 25-30 generated a "yikes!" response from me, particularly as Scott Rao (or maybe Barista Hustle) had recently mentioned an experiment where one of the parameters was 30 clicks for a French Press brew. So 30 seemed a bit coarse from the guy who's always exhorting us to grind "finer than you think/expect"
I literally shouted “what are you on!” when I heard the range being 25-30 clicks for Comandante lol. Looking forward to the update with the actual grind setting!
Two commandantes never had the same amount of clicks for the same grind size in my experience. They are never the same. And one my primary one , for every kind of brew my clicks need to be way way lower then what you read online, while another is more 'in line'.
Do it by taste , only way to determine grind setting for yourself...
I gotta say - it's nice to wake up, make my coffee, and then watch a new Hoffman video on making coffee!
@@Tatertodd007 Sooo... where exactly is this "a problem"?
@@lonestarr1490 No problem, just watch another JH video during the second cup.
@@Morgwic instructions unclear, I haven't slept in 14 days, do I need more coffee?
same got a v60 2 cup 3 weks ago instead of buying an espresso machine love how good coffee is using this method
Well said man, well said
Ah, 'tis the season of James' exceptional knitwear collection.
Yeah, where can I get a "snowflakes in the evening" sweater?!?
I couldn't take my eyes off it. It looks so damn comfy
It’s giving Knives Out
As a knitter, I am constantly rewinding James’ videos because I get distracted by the sweaters. I cannot be alone in this.
The knitwear is originally what brought me to the channel. It was only after that I got into coffee.
I'm using this technique successfully with a 30g to 500ml ratio, on a v60 size 002. 100mls per pour, and 20 seconds between intervals. I'm really enjoying that this method doesn't dirty a spoon - it's one less thing at my coffee station. I seem to get more consistent results than I was with the Ultimate v60 technique. Thanks for the work you do, and all the great cups of coffee I've enjoyed using your brewing methods.
Thanks Joe I also tried this with 30/500 and as a 10sec pause is a little problematic with overflowing, I was thinking about increasing to 20sec (and now I will)
New to this, do you still aim for a 3 min brew with this? Cheers Joe
"Before I got into swirling" has to be the most coffee-enthusiast thing I have ever heard! 😆
We are so lucky to have this much attentive support! Thanks James! Also, since it is currently exam season, it got me wondering what you'd think about doing a video for students? Kinda what your ideal setup would be for someone on a budget in a dorm or small apartment.
Cheers from Canada 🍁
Decent handgrinder (I got 1zPresso JX for about $100.
Aeropress - $30 (V60 is cheaper)
Coffee - $10
That's all you need really. Espresso at home is a hobby, not a drink.
@@tomgosling4458 i agree with these suggestions though i think you could go even cheaper on a handgrinder, especially used.
Why do you bring up espresso?
I personally would recommend spending more on coffee. At least in my area if wants a 12oz bag of specialty coffee that would start around $15. I highly recommend supporting a local roaster that you know has ethical dealings.
1zpresso Q2 is an easy recommendation with regular price at about $100, and Black Friday sales taking it down to around $80.
Aeropress is an excellent brewer to get started with. Super easy to use and relatively forgiving.
I would highly recommend getting an electric kettle to make your coffee routine much easier. Even if you get the cheap Amazon basics kettle it will work perfectly fine with an aeropress. Trying to pour a small pot or saucepan into an aeropress is extremely unpleasant.
2x French Press. One for coffee. One for foaming milk. Small hand grinder. beans arent that pricey. Bingo. Latte every morning.
@@tomgosling4458 Moka pot works great as well, more expensive though, but you save up on paper filters, and the metal filtering (and possible concentration) is closer to espresso
Will only add this little bit for anyone like me who are rather new.
But if you brew straight into the cup, make sure you give it a good stir before drinking.
To me this made a rather big difference with any v60 recipe.
Agree 100%! Without stirring, I’ll find my cups are bitter at the beginning and overly acidic at the end since that seems to be the order the coffee extracts in
@@parthd9733 omg that’s why my coffee tasted weird! I was like why is it more bitter when I take the first sip😮
As coffee is extracted the first note to come out are acidic. Followed by sweets, oils and then bitters. When coffee is steeped for to long or when a pour over has too much water used the bitters that come out keep coming out and produce a thin and bitter cup. Ratios and timing are super important. Thank you for your comment and best wishes.
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat That's very interesting! The nerd in me wants to try divide the extraction into cuts like the distilling process in alcohol making, compare tasting notes, and blend the cuts I like to create the exact taste I'm looking for. BUT that seems needlessly work intensive, and I already like the result of V60 brew I'm getting with James' recipe. Maybe I'll try that one day when I'm really bored and have time to kill.
@Watch and things I feel the same way. Any failures we make will still teach us something. The more we learn about coffee, the less we know. It's like quantum physics, where if you think you know quantum physics, you don't know quantum physics. Lol
I'm a big ADHD nerd 2. 😂
I would love to hear of your future discoveries. Plz let me know when you learn something new and interesting.
Take it easy, my friend.
Thanks James. It's been fun going on this adventure with you; I literally brewed a V60 to sit and watch this video about V60 brewing.
same :)
I've been using the swirl/V60 method in my Chemex and it works great. I usually do 30-500mL or 45-750mL brews.
This recipe does indeed work great on the kalita. Using a ceramic kalita I get a finished brew at exactly 3 min and the results were superior to what I was previously doing.
I'm not immersed in the minutiae of the coffee world personally, but my brother has been doing small batch roasts for local distribution for a couple years. It's always fascinating to hear such depth of knowledge about a subject that would appear so simple to the outsider. Brewing technique is like the particle physics of coffee.
perhaps you would like to read Jonathan Gagne's (astrophysicist from Montreal) book "The Physics of Filter Coffee" or maybe you already have...
@@BBB_025 thanks for the recommendation!
The brewer on kettle part cracked me up 😂 we need a separate video for James to demonstrate all the ingenuities of the community☕️
Too funny when he said it works like a little hat
Quite a good idea I think! I will give it a go tomorrow.
I use a ceramic V60. I preheat the V60 in the toaster oven, then rinse the filter in the V60 with hot water from the kettle.
I have a Bodum Melior Gooseneck kettle. What I’ve been doing is putting the V60 on it right side up and covering it with the hopper lid of my Baratza Encore grinder. Works perfectly.
Yeah honestly if you have a decent sized family the sink might not be clean very often, so doing it over the kettle seems like less hassle to me.
A nice bonus with using the Hario Switch as a dripper is that you can shut its valve and let the water steep and thoroughly preheat the brewer while you finish getting everything set up.
At 12:37 you mentioned placing the v60 on the kettle to preheat. I do this with my ceramic v60 but rather than turning it upside down I place it on the kettle as I would if I were brewing and then I put the kettle lid inside the brewer. Works like a charm.
plus, it's somewhat more stable that way up - don't want a ceramic V60 taking a tumble into the floor!
I tried the upside down with my plastic 2cup... Didn't do much at all. In a situation where tap water hot takes ages and gas is f. expensive compared to electric. Kettle it is.
I do like to use the Hario switch for this. Yes, it's a glass V2. But you can close the bottom, making it easier to preheat by just pouring in it and waiting.
@@jorismak is the switch your daily driver? I’ve been considering one but haven’t really heard much about it.
@@j0sh_j0hnson i used it as daily driver for a long, long time. Absolutely love it, if only for the simple workflow . But after using an aeropress and then the switch , ice been trying 'pure' v60 again.. for the only reason that 'it has been a while'. It's less clean tasting compared to a normal v60, but fuller / more extracted. And without the plastic rubbery taste i sometimes (think i) get from an aeropress. And by just not using the stopper it's a glass 2cup v60 :).
I was a manager at a cafe in the US for many years and was never able to find great info on methods to make great large batch brew coffee (like on a Curtis for instance) there are so many options when programming a brew that I became overwhelmed. I’d love to suggest a cafe series on best practices on brewing very large scales of coffee (like cold brew and drip) for managers and owners to reference!! You are fantastic at explaining thoughts behind a process I think your explanations would be very valuable. Thanks!
The simplest would be for batch brewing get a moccamaster? 10-20 cupper and then just scale up his recipe just for perspective Hoffmann's 60 grams to a 1 liter which would be the ratio of 1:16.6666 so either go up or down from that you will need to see where your happy medium lies since typically speaking a ratio of 15 is not "worth" in a commercial setting
I think, just a feeling... This channel or any coffee channel would never spill a 'commercial grade' recipe. 😄
I think having a video on larger 4 - 6 cup batches makes sense if you're making a pour over for 2 to 6 adults. I have a Bodum pour over with metal screen which I use a filter paper on.
@@lesslighter These things don't really scale up predictably. It's like cooking rice in a pot. Plus different batch brewers have different geometries and water distribution/temps. I agree that cafe-volume batch brew guide would be helpful, but to get to the level of detail in this video would require brand specific guides.
@@AdiJayanto there’s lots of good videos out there that definitely share and train some trade secrets! That’s what I love about most coffee people, it’s not super gate-keepy (though sometimes it is quite pretentious) and I’d argue that most of James’ videos are definitely viable help in commercial settings! I used knowledge he teaches when learning to make coffee for my cafe and sent links to his videos for our baristas to watch
I have to say James, mad respect to you for engaging with your audience so readily. Huge effort involved and in such a short space of time too.
I have been enjoying this recipe immensely. I feel like my V60 has improved tremendously. Thank you James ❤❤❤ ☕️
I swear hearing James’ voice melts all my worries away.
After using the Aeropress exclusively for years, your last video actually got me into using the V60. I always thought pour-over would be too finicky and not worth the effort for one single cup but turns out I really like it! My single big question is though: why the V60? I can get a nice Melitta brewer for the same price but the filters are way cheaper and available in any store (GER). I was pretty surprised that there a veeeery few videos on YT that compare the V60 and the Melitta even though these two must be the most popular pour-over brewers out there. So I would be very interested in a video that covers that (ideally the modern one with two holes that can brew into two cups simultaneously).
Yes! A thousand times, this! We're almost twins. I switched to pour over around the same time, because of the first V60 video. I used that technique, but struggled for a long time to get good results.
Pour over technique for normies (I.e. not a V60) is a must.
In his book on how to brew coffee at home, James mentioned the v60 technique is applicable even to Mellita, so difference between them.
Thanks James, I appreciate the revisit of the revisited method! I didn't really have any questions - but now I do 😉😁. Grind size "25-30 clicks from 'absolute zero' on a Comandante"; which leads me to ask "where is absolute zero?".
I've always set zero as the point at which the handle won't rotate under its own mass when the unit is horizontal (per Comandante recommendations). But "absolute zero" sounds like it's wound to the point where the adjustment knob won't move any further. That's quite a few more clicks on from my (& Comandante's) zero.
Great question. I agree with everything you wrote here re: the official commandants setting and the „absolute“ zero setting.
Also makes me wonder how comparable the Commandante‘s are - I read a lot of comments here that they are not really calibrated any way and could differ from one to another
Swirling always leads to air pockets for me, regardless of how much bloom water I use. I stir with a chopstick, it gets around the bed easier without potentially over-agitating like a teaspoon in a small bed of coffee might
How can you tell that there are air pockets?
@@kekelapp0r Bubbles coming up from the bed later in the brew process -- it means there were some grounds that had been dry the entire time and just made contact with the water, hence uneven extraction. It might be an insignificant portion of the grounds (and lord knows my palate isn't sophisticated enough to notice a difference), but it makes sense to me to try to avoid them anyway
I've been using your technique since I watched the part 1 video and it works for me. I have a ceramic V60 so it requires a bit of waste of boiling water but I can live with that. Now I've been testing my coarse to find the right taste of my brews. Thank you James. I love watching your videos and I've learnt a whole lot from you
If you don’t want to waste boiling water, try heating it up in the microwave if you have one. It works well for me
I heat my V60 on my kettle like this. It's what I do for my Flair brew chamber, so it just made sense. Also tried this method for a 30g/500g pour and it worked out well. Very tasty.
Definitely now need the ideal kettle/brewer combo, where the brewer is designed act as the kettle lid!
Discovered the channel a week ago. Can't stop watching. It's been years since I've been this excited about coffee.
Funny thing about this video... the one thing you did not recommend doing is the one thing that ended up working great for me. Pre-heating upside down on the kettle is now part of my morning routine and I love it! It does a great job and it feels so efficient!
For the record, the new technique from the previous video revolutionized my personal pour over brews. I've never seen such a dramatic improvement in consistency and quality when experimenting with methods before. Flat beds, very few grounds on the sides, and wonderful flavor. I am tending to get slower draw downs, but James even covers that in the previous video!
Same! I'm so happy with the huge improvement in my daily coffee just from the V60 technique video.
Absolutely same! I've used this technique a few times since the video and it's very easy, consistent and gives a great cup of coffee.
Just got my v60 this holiday season and have brewed with varying degrees of success. This ought to help. I don't have the kettle with the curved spout yet so my technique will have to be different. Thanks for your excellent tutelage!
I’ve found it so useful. Fifteen years of working in coffee, and some how I just forgot how to make V60s a few years back (between having to get a job outside of speciality, then two years of stay at home dadding). I never had much joy with the previous method, but this one has upped the quality of my coffee hugely.
I like how you touch on the subject of making coffee, before having coffee is difficult, as you haven't had coffee yet.
This technique is actually very very effective and yields delicious coffee.
I'm using my Hario switch instead of the traditional V60 as this one makes possible to control the contact time way better. Steeping each pour for a certain time (i also use 10 seconds) makes it possible to use coarse grinds and it's way more forgiving about the pouring technique.
Regarding the preheating, i find the switch to be the best option. Just close the valve and pour some water. Let it steep for one minute and you'll get a super effective preheating with much much less water waste.
You're using the Switch for immersion but pouring every 10 seconds?
@@dontpanic00xx Yes. I'm using 5 equal pours.
1st pour (blooming): once all the water in, open the valve
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th pours: steep for 10 seconds then open the valve and let it drain but not fully. Once water level is at the bed's close the switch and pour again. Pour always first to the center and then slightly out. Imagine your pouring diameter not bigger than a medium size coin. This creates more turbulence as the V60 is conical.
With this method I normally use 92-94°C for medium roasts. If you're more into light roasts, keep water temperature at 94-96°C and in case you want more extraction just increase the steeping time from 10 to 15 or even 20 seconds.
Grind size: I use 900~950 microns (this is 10 numbers on the kplus or 31-32 clicks on Comandante C40)
I was already getting good results with your previous V60 method, but I saw a noticeable improvement with this new method, so thank you!
I followed James' video on grind sizes. Get finer til you reach a wall of acidity, then pull back. For my fellow Hario hand grinders out there, I find it is 4 clicks (from closed) for most medium to dark blends.
Probably not acidity but bitterness? Since if you grind too finely, the coffee will end up badly over extracted, which means a lot of nasty, bitter stuff?
I'm at 4 to 5 clicks as well for the same type of blends on my Mini Mill, can confirm it works very well. I prefer it with a higher ratio, so something like 15g to 210ish ml of water
Thank you James. Your 1 cup V60 recipe has been a game changer for me. I use it for my afternoon decaffeinated coffee. It's just perfect.
I had some issues with clogging when swirling thought. I fixed it with this method: no well in the middle of the coffee, and a VERY SLOW AND LOW pour for the blooming. Finally, one gentle swirl to flatten the bed at the end of the last pour. Turns out fantastic.
I use a Wilfa uniform, which not produces much fines. But I had lots of clogging when swirling with developed roasts.
The pursuit of Least Possible Faff (hereby LPF) is how I ended up at my current Clever/Switch method:
1. Pour water
2. Pour coffee on top, start timer
3. Spread coffee bed evenly on top of water, do not stir or mix with water
4. Go wash dishes until 2 minute mark
5. Break crust
6. Stir to submerge all crust
7. Deep stir to agitate all coffee at bottom
8. Go back to cleaning up until 4 minute mark
9. Hoffman swirl & drawdown
10. Enjoy coffee with about 20-30 seconds of total interaction time with loaded brewer
16.7g for 250g
You don't need a temperature controlled kettle
You don't need a gooseneck kettle
You don't need a melodrip - great tool, I have one, but I optimised it out
Standard kettle or a pot boiling water from any source, only 1 boil, a spoon, don't need a fancy scale. Optimal. 👌
Swirling The Bloom…. What a band!
I used your technique with my 2 cup ceramic v60 and it was the smoothest cup of coffee ever. I then did a second cup but as a variable did the convenience mode of not prewarming my V60. I could not believe what a (bad) difference that made. I'm now committed to figuring out how best to heat up my V60 before brewing.
I did not think of that step, either. I knew to hit my cup, didn’t consider the brewer. Working on that one, myself.
Hi James, Thank you for elaborating and making this video! I'm glad that you mentioned the V60 on the kettle option. However, I feel like it did not get utilized fully. Indeed only the bottom is heated when you leave the V60 on top without any cover. However, I put the lid of my kettle on top of the V60 as well. This way the steam does not escape as easily and the heat is still trapped in the V60. By doing it this way, my V60 is always hot (too hot to hold for longer than a few seconds). After that I rinse the paper with some of my hot brew water, resulting in a sufficiently pre-heated V60 without wasting water or (too much) heat. Hopefully that helps some others too!
Hi James! Your recommendation on the grind size (25-30 clicks) seems coarser than I would've thought. Does the comandante you grind on have the red clix upgrade attached?
agree with this. im at about half that many clicks...
I thought the exact same thing. 25-30 is a really coarse range that James doesn't really prefer/promote for his high extraction methods especially for light roasts. 28-30 is the range I would use only for dark roasts for filter coffee. Perhaps he meant 20?. 20-22 is a good starting point for light roasts I think.
Was gonna post the exact same comment! How does the red-clix number of clicks translates to the stock unit?
Right?! I’ve been in the 20-24 clicks for medium roast for years. I’ve always thought that it was a good range. Who knows, maybe going coarser is good too. 🤷🏻♀️ I’ll have to try it out.
@@CamarogirlLSX The explanation is in Hoffman's pinned comment. He says it should be in the 18-23 range but will confirm once he checks again. I've always been in the 20-24 clicks range, for pour-over (but went down to 18-16 for lighter roasts).
Preach, James! So recipes that are so similar, but all with slightly different results - I loved your approach to brewing like this! I'm always learning also :)
Hey James, do you prefer keep the water temp at a constant or let it naturally drop throughout pours to match/offset the changing solubles of the coffee?
I used your v60 technique for a single cup plastic flat brewer and (in my opinion) it worked out beautifully! The only difference I had to make was to stir the bloom instead of swirl, but otherwise i followed your video exactly. Thank you for your entertaining and informative videos :)
I heat my v60 the way you said not to. Not trying to create more controversy or say you’re wrong lol. But I do notice the walls get very hot. I typically put the kettle lid in the well of the v60 to trap some of the steam in (the brewer almost gets too hot to touch, actually). So I wouldn’t say it only heats the bottom part, at least in my experience.
The world needs more people like you.
Keep up the good work. I would like a 4 - 6 cup pour over video using a Bodum or Chemex. Especially helpful when serving 3 to 6 adults.
I so need to get your book in audio book format! Listening to your voice is one of the best things. Also I learn new stuff every time! Cheers!
RE: Grinders. Would be interesting to see the optimal V60 technique for grinders in the $€£ 50-150 range. Think Timemore, 1zpresso, Xeoleo, and other hand grinders that are above the usual entry-level ceramic burrs, but still riddled by fines (especially with lighter Ethiopian beans..). Would probably also apply to many popular electric grinders (Baratza Encore, Wilfa). Thanks! It's been fun to experiment with the V60 lately.
The one simple change you can make here is weigh your ground coffee out on a paper towel and then deposit it in the brewer by sliding it off of said towel. It will pick up a ton of the fines and they won't make it into the brew.
I used to have a really bad grinder so I kept the grinds very coarse to reduce the fines, the best technique I know for pour over coarse grind is the tetsu 4:6
Along these lines, I use WDT in my dosing cup before pouring it out into the brewer to help break up clumps from the grinder.
are hand grinders more prone to produce a lot of fines? I have the 1zpresso K-max, which I consider a very premium hand grinder, but I'm not sure if it produces a lot of fines or not relative to other kind of expensive grinders. Also I'm able to filter the fines out automatically because of the static which makes the fines stick to the wall of the grinder cup and such
@@nikolajhansen15 In the 50-100 budget range hand grinders are probably quite a bit better than any electric ones. But that doesn't mean they aren't without any faults, for example eccentricity in burr calibration, or burrs not optimized for filter brew, both which can cause issue with fines. The K-Max though is quite close to Comandante in price, so I'd expect it to perform relatively well.
Life! Making coffee with Daddy Hoff every morning. My normal coffee routine usually takes about 30mins. (A V60 and 2 shots of espresso from my Cafelat Robot) it’s always nice to accompany it with Daddy Hoff’s videos.
Literally was using the one cup v60 technique this morning, great timing haha
Me too!
I didn't get on with the V60, but I'm quite liking the Clever Dripper.
Follows a very similar pre-heat, but I drink mine with milk, so for the preheat I put it on my mug and pour about 100ml boiled filter water into the cone.
After it drains I re-boil and start making the coffee.
Then, by the time my coffee about ready for drawdown I empty the mug, put in my milk, swirl to pull some of the heat from the ceramic and then the dripper goes on top.
That works for me. Coffee is still nice 'n hot and very little faffing aboot is needed
Thank you, this was a really interesting video! I thoroughly appreciate your educational content with attention to detail, like the fact that the bed gets cooler if you let it drain completely. It makes sense, but it had never crossed my mind before, so thanks! 🦄
Also, the 1970 server in the background is looking very cute and Christmasy 🎅☃
It actually works well with a Kalita ! I tried it every day for 2 weeks (because I didn't have any more V60 filters ^^), and with of course some grind ajustments it was very good !
When we move house, I’m going to be switching from my espresso machine (which I am maximising but hitting the limit with the quality it can reliably produce) and switching to V60 with a much higher quality grinder, so these videos came out at a most opportune time. Thank you!
Espresso is great, but it's just so easy to make an incredible v60 brew. Best of luck!
same
What grinder?
Most often, I use my Chemex nowadays, but preheating my ceramic brewer atop my kettle is something I've done at least several times. Being ceramic, and having big slots around the base for the steam to travel through, this works very well for me with it on the right way up.
I went with 20 clicks with the commandante (light roast) and it was great, had a poor down time of 3:10 and the taste was amazing. I was kinda suprised James went with ~30 but that is just my take
Exactly my thoughts, 30~ is closer to medium-coarse referencing my commandante. 20-25 clicks(depending on the coffee) is usually the sweet spot for me.
Does he have stock or red clicks?
I’m usually sitting around 17 clicks on mine! I’ve often wondered if mine is out of alignment or something - tend to always go finer than what I see online 🤷🏻♂️
Is it total clicks from full tightness or clicks starting from when the handle turns loosely?
I wondered the same thing. I’ve been brewing satisfactory brews with this method at 18 clicks. (Light roasts, aiming for a well rounded brew that’s closer to the bitter/ sweet side of things than bright/astringent)
There's something soothing about watching his videos.
Here's a 2 step method to preheating your brewer while minimizing waste. Granted, it complicates the setup, but not overtly so.
1. Rinse the paper in the v60 under the sink to remove the paper taste from the brew.
2. Pour boiling water from the kettle into the brewer to preheat while the brewer is placed over a cup. This water can return to the kettle.
With this, you minimize waste at the sink while also not wasting your brewing water. No need for awkwardly placing the brewer over the kettle and no need to wasting electricity using a microwave. It's two steps, not one, but nothing outside of what you're doing already--it's just one extra pour sans ground coffee.
A great suggestion! Thanks!
For "preheating" I pour hot (not boiling) water into the ceramic Melida w/filter while it sits on the empty mug. Then I grind the beans, put this in the Melida, boil the water and pour per your suggestion. Now I have a hot cup of coffee! Thank you very much....
I’ve settled on a nice preheat method for my v60. I have a ceramic one. I too found that pouring in hot water with the kettle didn’t heat effectively and my tap takes ages to get hot in the morning so I rinse it with the cold water to rinse and get a seal and then I pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds as I grab my mug. Works great!
Same! I preheat my glass V60 by popping it 2 mins in the microwave while I boil the water and grind the coffee. Works like a charm!
Do you put it in upside down in the microwave or the same way you brew coffee with? I gather this is also without the paper filter at this point.
For what it’s worth, I tried James’ V60 technique with the April Brewer and it worked quite well. For those who don’t know, the April Brewer suggests a simple technique: 12 grams of coffee, 200 grams of water, dispensed in two distinct 100 gram pours with :30 between them, pulling the brewer at 2:30 or so. I do a swirl after the first pour. Patrik Rolf suggests a 50 gram circle pour and a 50 gram center pour (it used to be 30/70 but he changed it just recently). But indeed, the V60 is worth a try with the April brewer. It works as well with the Kurasu wire mesh brewer that I also learned about through April.
Hey James, can you pretty please try making a video on the humble Melitta? It’s where a lot of us got our beginnings, and I’ve been using your v60 methods with one for years now. Thanks for another great technique (:
I have used your method for larger brews (550ml). Works great.
Bought a plastic Hario V60 yesterday on your recommendation on the heat retention when preheating the V60. Maybe it's the newer one, but it definitely does not hold any heat whatsoever, even when running boiling water on it. I found that my older ceramic one worked better at being preheated in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. I do agree that the taste when preheating the V60 is night and day. With that said, love the content James.
How are you testing? If the brewer isn't hot that could mean that retention is great. (remember you want the water to stay hot and not transfer the heat to the brewer)
I've put it without paper upside down on my kettle which does get it hot. Just pouring hot water didn't get it as hot and it is key as you mentioned. It also leverages the existing steam, so you don't use 2 energy sources.
It's not supposed to _hold_ heat, as in getting hot. It's supposed to insulate, as in little heat transfer. So if it doesn't feel as hot, it's actually a good thing. That's why preheating isn't as important with a plastic brewer as it is with glass and ceramic. I still prefer glass/ceramic, the only downside for me is that I have to preheat it. Which I do while rinsing the paper anyway, so not really a downside.
@@ximono Then why do you prefer the glass or ceramic over plastic? aesthetics?
@@ximono Yes, that's how I understand it as well: Contrary to other materials, the plastic doesn't suck the heat out of the water.
But why do you still prefer glass or ceramic? Just for style?
I am just starting my coffee journey following some of your videos and comparing self brewed coffee vs machine coffee. I have to say that the V60 technique produced a surprisingly (to me at least) tasty coffee. I found the V60 technique a bit hard to follow, specially because I wasn't getting water pours fast enough and never got a 3min brew time (following your advise I am focusing more on taste than secs though and I'm quite happy about it). I know this can be because of many variables but I'll keep trying it and comparing taste as I get better. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Great sweater, James.
No. It's wrong.
How can I buy one?
Hahaha this number 2 made me want to get out my V60 and EXPERIMENT. 🎉 Well done James!
*watches while sipping pour-over* You and Lance have helped me so much with my pour-over consistency that I feel free to make pour-over with most any type of bean in most any type of size. I wanna say thanks for that.
so good to read!
@@LanceHedrick love you, lance!
smiles we are only human....your an great teacher.....i learned so much,about coffee.your ok sir
the problem with telling people to choose a grind size based on taste is that most beginners and even enthusiasts don't know how to interpret what they are tasting. they need a baseline that they can be confident is correct.
When James break it down for us coffee novices part by part what we should be looking for as always. Brewing coffee while watching coffee videos 👌
Okay, on both the water and heating. The Hario Switch does a great job of being a versatile brewer, regardless if you steep and release or straight percolate. Either way, if you flip the Switch so the water does not drain, then you can use surprisingly little water to heat the brewer. My tap takes way too long, and although it likely does not have a notable (if any) difference, I prefer keeping all the water I use, for my brew, from the same source. The chemistry is the same (for consistency's sake) and I don't have to heat up additional water. I wait until my kettle is near boiling and fill up my Switch about half way (only about a third if I'm using it like a switch and not a V60). About the minute it takes for your water to boil, you filter paper will be wet and your glass brewer heated.
I recognize not everybody wants nor can spend the money to get a Switch, but it's one of the reasons I like using it. One-cup method, two-cup method, or steep and release it doesn't matter (which makes everything easier for my coffee deprived mind).
I second the Hario Switch! It's so versatile in that you can do basic pour-overs or immersion brews. I also flip the switch for preheating and it actually takes very little water.
I got gifted a V60 and a lovely carafe last year and have struggled to make better coffee than my aeropress when only brewing one cup with the V60. I've made easily the best coffee I've had with it since trying since this technique. It's great!
I have been using your method from part 1 with my non-V60 pour over and I feel like it is an improvement from what I did before. I tried the recipe with 18g of coffee and 275ml of water and that worked fine as well. To avoid wasting water to warm up my ceramic brewer, I just throw it in the microwave for about 45-55 seconds, and I’ve gotten great results from that
You can also run the water thru the brewer once to hear it. I have a cheap coffee maker with a swinging arm and I feed the heated cold water back into the tank until it's warm. After that it comes out close to 200 degrees instead of 175 degrees.
Thanks for taking the time to address our questions in this video!
Hey James, is it possible that you have the red clix installed on your Commandante to recommend 25-30? That seems very coarse on the regular system.
the previous video made me go and buy a v60 set really enjoy using this method it is very consistent and very easy to follow without thinking now i just need to find accessible good light roasted beans
I think the overwhelming majority of coffee enthusiasts are simply using filtered tap water, and boiling a bit extra to preheat the dripper is the answer. The sink takes ages to get hot water for many (most?) people unless they have a demand system.
In the context of energy consumption, the amount of extra power to heat a little more water is absolutely trivial. If you're in the tiny fraction of people who builds special coffee water, you're then in a sufficient fringe to just get a second kettle for preheating water for like 10 bucks.
Getting someone a 2cup v60 this christmas. Thanks for answering the scalability question!
My biggest challenge brewing coffee is I tend to only have one a day, so I end up forgetting the nuance’s of the brew by the next and therefore struggle to compare and iterate, any suggestions? I thought maybe making notes but not sure how or what to write down 😂
You could always use the Ultimate Coffee Brew Logger by ARAMSE. Search it on YT for a video.
I finally started a google sheet for my coffee brewing notes. it almost feels like a sickness 😅
On the plus side, I am doing a masters in data science right now, so I can actually play with the data in interesting ways.
I am tracking all the coffee I buy in 1 sheet and my brewing variables & notes in another sheet.
I started at the beginning of September and today I recorded my 82nd brew.
Take notes, absolutely: in my experience, it’s one of the best ways to improve over time. Note your input variables (e.g., grind setting, dose, ratio), technique (e.g., JH 1-cup), and output variables (e.g., time, yield), log any taste notes (too bitter, too sour, fruity, long finish, better as it cooled, worse as it cooled…), and decide on any tweaks for the next day. I do this all in a long-running note on my phone, but you could use anything from a piece of paper to a spreadsheet, depending on how geeky you want to get :P
The next day, you have a new place to start, and you do it all over again… enjoy the journey!
Just write it in your phone
everyone's suggestions to write things down are great, but what about making it a social thing? Buy a bag you like and invite some friends over on a Saturday to make coffee different ways and try to find the best technique for it! Everyone can have a little bit of each cup and that takes care of the waste
2:05 just a little note - I have both 1 and 2 cup v60 and the holes are different ;) In 1 cup hole’s diameter is ca 19mm and in 2 cup it is ca 23mm, thus the latter is 21% bigger. In my experience it makes a noticeable difference, water flow is a lot faster in the 2 cup.
This is news to me! Are they both plastic? I know there is some variance between plastic, ceramic, and metal.
Yes, they are both plastic. I didn’t know about differences in sizes depending on materials
I’m still having great success with your original V60 technique to brew my morning to-go cup (30 grams to 500mls). I’m going to try to scale this new one up to 30 grams and see how it compares to the OG.
On pre-heating: I have been pouring an excess of water through the brewer to heat it and then pouring the water that has flowed though back into the kettle. By the time I've put my coffee from the grinder into the filter, the kettle has reheated the water and I'm ready to go. Love your videos.
I make 400ml of coffee for myself using 24g of coffee. I really like the new method, but adjusted the timing to 15 second increments instead of 10 second.
Scaling it up to 500ml with 30g I did the same, but the bloom would use 100g of water which I felt like was a lot. I used 75g of water for the bloom and ~106g for each pour.
Good results for these.
One thing I've found helpful for challenging and light roasts in an induction stove next to my brewer, so I can keep the water right on the boil between pulses. This is with both 1 cup and 2 cup brews. Just set it down between pours, and because the heat is induced in the metal itself it's quite effective.
Whoa, that is a lot coarser than I thought! I have been doing 18-20 c40-clicks
I wonder if he's using the Red Clix.
@@MTheKing09 yeah I did wonder that too. He did say fine grind in the original, but 30 standard clicks is usually considered quite coarse 🤔
Completely agree. 17 is about right for me.
I did the exact same thing! Was surprised.
For what it's worth, since the video was posted I've been doing the recipe with 30g to 500g and the results have been great and especially SUPER consistent, while I regularly had trouble with the original.
This is entirely unrelated to V60, but your channel makes me curious at experimenting in the kitchen and I needed to share this…pouring red wine through an aeropress with a paper filter seems to have eliminated red wine hangovers for me…it’s kind of amazing and people should definitely try. I wonder if there are good kitchen crossovers/hacks you could share with the community pursuant to your goal of reducing the number of things in your life/coffee making are there tools useful for coffee that have good function elsewhere?
11:05 This, I think, is a very important point, because it just relates to particular circumstances that Mr. Hoffmann experiences in London. Living in Finland with soft tap water, that's relatively good for coffee brewing according to my own research into the local water supply and that of every coffee roaster I've talked to here, this doesn't concern me at all and I'm happy I didn't take this lesson from the original video either.
Also, for those of us who dislike plastic and use ceramic (or metal/glass) it's so much better to be heating up the brewer with 100°C water while rinsing my paper.
Why don’t you ever use metal V60s? Xris did a comparison concluding that the steel and copper V60s had better thermal retention than plastic.
And, from my experience, the copper V60 preheats just fine when sitting straight on the kettle (I assume the metal one as well)
Yeah, I am not going to place the brewer upside down on my kettle. That looks dangerous, and my kettle is the stove-top version. As to the brew method in part 1: It works, Mr Hoffman! I love it. Very balanced extraction. Delicious!
This is where the Hario switch comes in handy. Flip the switch, fill with some hot coffee water, let it sit.
I just used this device/technique, and it created really disgusting coffee. It was back to the Aeropress for me.
in order to preheating and prewetting the brewer/filter I usually take whichever microwave safe glass Im gonna use, pour good amount of water in it and toss it to the microwave for about 1 min or 90 secs depending on how much time I have left for preparation until my water boils. It helps me to save time and most importantly water.
What exactly were the things about the original technique that made it less suitable for a 1-cup V60 in your testing?
This was so comforting and generally enjoyable to watch
I had great success on this technique with 21:350 and 30:500 brews. But I did small adjustments on wait time therefore contact time. I don't want this to be more complicated than now but I've increased pour/wait times in pulses +1 second every 50 ml. For example; in a 30:500 brew;
Bloom: 0-0:45 up to 75-100g
1st pour: 0:45-1:00, 200g
2nd pour: 1:10-1:25, 300g
3rd pour: 1:40-1:55, 400g
4th pour: 2:10-2:25, 500g
TBT ~ 3:15-3:30 it varies a lot depending coffee, water, grind distribution etc.
I brew 30 to 500 regularly and have fantastic results in my V60 size 03 as well as my V60 size 2 drip decanter.
Loved what you said about the WDT tool
Quick tip if your kettle won't fit your v60 upside down: I've found that if you put a saucer in the top of the v60 (as a lid) it traps the steam and preheats it very effectively
Thanks! This seems like the perfect way to preheat without wasting any brew water.
The brew method worked great for me! I did 30g/500g for thanksgiving after dinner coffee and everyone loved it. I just waited a bit longer between pours for the brewer to drain.
I've been using the new technique since you presented it the other day, and I immediately noticed a fuller flavor in my cup. I also like it because I've been having a lot of trouble achieving a flat bed for some time now, possibly because I switched to a finer grind (dead center on the Baratza Virtuoso+.)
I am struggling for years with sour coffee and cant help think it´s the baratza virtuoso+ and the fines it produces. I cannot buy a better grinder, but the same coffee made with ground coffee from a flat burr grinder taste nothing like mine. Have you had the same experience? I think my technique can´t be that off...
@@hernanbucci6181 What water are you using? If it's tap/unfiltered water that could it be. It's either that or you're grinding too coarse.