Brewing Guide: Aeropress Coffee
Your Essential Brew Guide To Enjoy A Versatile Aeropress Coffee
Perhaps one of the more unusual-looking methods of coffee brewing, the Aeropress is widely considered to be one of the cleanest, as well as most versatile, of brewing methods. Very easily transportable, this method is also popular with the keener coffee makers amongst us who wish to brew quality coffee outside of the home, wherever they may be.
Invented by the humble frisbee's Alan Adler, the Aeropress can essentially be considered a combination of a filter brewer and an espresso maker all in one, with a main advantage of the Aeropress being its' ability to produce a vast variety of coffee types. We say filter brewer as it has a filter, as expected, but it essentially works by way of air compression and pressure being applied, forcing the coffee and water to mix and purge through, much like an espresso machine. Whilst the pressures created are far from the same weight of forces involved within an actual espresso machine, the result of this being part of the brewing process is that the coffee becomes bolder and has more body to it than other filter brewing processes such as the v60 or cafetiere.
Given the espresso nature of an Aeropress and it's versatility, we more recommend any filter roasted coffees to achieve the best results, however you may also like to experiment and use coffees roasted for expresso. Wholebeans and pre-ground coffee are both available from all our roasters via GUSTATORY subscriptions, in which we recommend our Selected Mix coffees, the Blend / Darker coffee subscription, or our Single Origin / Light coffees - basically any package will work!
Use Medium Ground Coffee
We recommend using between 14-17g of medium ground coffee depending on the strength you like your coffee. Given that an Aeropress coffee maker has a max capacity of holding ~250ml of water within it's cylinder, by using a brew ratio of 1g of coffee for every ~16ml of water, you will be using ~15g of coffee. You may use wholebeans and your own grinder (recommended) or pre-ground for filter coffee. Note: The term 'espresso roast' is different to an 'espresso grind', and pre-ground for espresso coffee would be too fine a grind for an Aeropress. If wholebeans, to achieve a medium grind, you should use a mid-point setting on your grinder's dashboard, with the resulting coffee grinds neither as fine as sand nor visibly coarse
1 What You Need
To make your Aeropress coffee, you will need: 1x Aeropress coffee maker, 1x Aeropress filter paper, 1x cup or serving jug, 1x digital scales, boiling water (using filtered water is also recommended) and medium ground coffee
2 Rinse Your Aeropress Filter Paper
Begin by placing your filter paper inside the Aeropress's cap piece, which is in turn placed over your cup, and then rinsing through some boiling water until all the paper is wet
3 Discard Excess Water & Assemble
Discard the now excess water from your cup and screw your Aeropress's cap piece onto the main cylinder section of the Aeropress, in turn placing this on top of your serving jug or cup, and then collectively onto a set of digitial scales. Leave the top plunger section to one side for now
4 Load Coffee Into Aeropress & Tare Scales
Load your amount of ground coffee into the Aeropress cylinder and ensure that the top surface of the coffee is made flat once inside. Next, tare the scales so that it states zero
5 Pour Water Into Your Aeropress
First pour 50ml of water into the Aeropress, checking the scales as you do for it's weight. Next, wait 30 seconds to allow the coffee to 'bloom' to allow gasses to escape (which is a good sign, indicative of fresh coffee), and then continue with the remainder of water until your scales shows as 230-250g
6 Attach Top Section, Wait, Plunge & Enjoy
Finally, now attach the top plunger section that you've so far kept to one side onto the top of the Aeropress' main cylinder section, remove from your scales and wait for 1.5-2 minutes to allow your coffee to steep. After the time has passed, next plunge your Aeropress' top section to force the water through the filter paper. You should press down firmly but slowly, with the total time of plunging taking ~15 seconds. Once all the water has been plunged, simply enjoy...GUSTATORY (adjective): curating excellence in taste.