Can you describe the acidity? Try grinding at 10A and keeping agitation as minimal as possible during bloom and pour if it’s running long. You can back off the water temp a bit too (93C to 96C range) to try to tame the acidity. Also let it cool to at about 65C before judging.
Won’t a coarse grind and lower water temp still extract the acidity? Tough to describe, it’s not so much a flavor but a mouthfeel, just like an indistinct citrusy kind of sour punch.
I did make it to the roastery I’ve been mail ordering from today, I was hoping to get a cup of both my old dark roast and the new light roast to compare to my home brew, they were only brewing my old dark roast bag though (they had a light roast brewed but it was a different bean). Tasted similar to what I was making so that gives me a little more confidence that I’m doing OK at least.
I’m saying grind coarser due to long drawdowns. Ethiopian beans are dense and tend to shatter during grinding. I’m basically always up toward the higher end of the grind range on them. Cooler water will extract less acid. It’s not just about getting the total acidity right but also getting the different acids to come out in the right ratio. IME boiling water has a tendency to pull out those sour citrus acids you’re describing. In theory, there’s a lower temperature where you strike a perfect balance (try 93C to 94C). On the extreme end of the spectrum, cold brew reduces the acidity in coffee substantially. There should be some sweetness to the acidity that’s more in the ripe fruit flavor territory. Getting that part right is the single thing I’m focused on basically because it’s tough, but when you do it’s amazing.
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I used to make extra strong cups with my Aeropress using warm water and top the cup off with boiling water to bring the temperature up. Result was extra smooth with no hint of bitterness.
Here’s a paper on acid extraction by temperature:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34392-w
This research finds that water temperature during aqueous extraction influences the transport of acidic molecules from the coffee matrix into the water phase substantially enough to alter the total titratable acidity and antioxidant activity of the resulting coffee beverage.
Highlights:
All cold brew coffee samples analyzed in this study were found to have lower titratable acid levels than their hot brew counterparts. Coffee is composed of dozens of low molecular mass compounds, including numerous carboxylic acids such as citric, malic, quinic, succinic, and gluconic acids40,53. While all of these acids are readily soluble in water, their ability to detach from the coffee matrix and diffuse through the intra- and intergranular pore spaces in room temperature water as is used in cold brew method is poorly understood.
The compounds present in hot brew coffee but absent from cold brew coffee may be larger molecules with temperature-dependent solubilities, and/or compounds with significant intermolecular forces that result in strong coffee matrix-compound attraction.
Of note, hot and cold brew had comparable pH levels, so the differences is in total concentration of titratable acids at a given pH. One of the key takeaways is that you can extract different stuff at high temperatures, not just more of the same stuff.
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I was going to say courser grind as well. I can confirm that Ethiopian beans grind much finer. I’m about 5 clicks courser for those guji tera beans
I’m surprised a 7 minute pour doesn’t over extract, which I thought led to bitterness? d10 doesn’t say what the bloom time is tho. Maybe that’s what is bringing out the acidity?
My understanding is that bitterness and acidity are kind of on opposite sides of the spectrum and we’re striving for that perfect combination to bring about both a full smooth body and the flavorful fruitiness of the beans. If you over extract it can become too bitter and if you overshoot to bring about flavor it can become too acidic ??? That’s a question not a statement lol
Typically people associate too much acidity with underextraction, but that’s specifically sour acidity. You really need to balance out the sour acids with some sweetness, otherwise it’s going to taste like lime juice. Overextracted coffee has grassy / vegetal bitterness and is usually present when grinding too fine or having too much contact time. However, these are just generalities, and it’s certainly possible for a coffee to be both sour and bitter at the same time. Usually that’s due to a bad grind size distribution (grinder produces too many fines and too many boulders), but it depends on the coffee.
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If 93C is still too sour, I suspect your brew water may not have enough buffer for this coffee. In that case, try adding a tiny pinch (and I do mean tiny) of baking soda to your brew water in the kettle beforehand to see if that affects it.
There’s also a chance that this is just a fairly sour / citric coffee. Like you, I generally do not care for those with the exception of Kenya AA. Maybe try a Brazilian light roast if you find the acidity overwhelming. Compared to what I usually drink, I’d tend to describe Brazilian coffees as having almost no acidity while still being very good. They retain the nutty / chocolaty notes that North American coffee drinkers identify with but without the bitterness.
Full coarse and 93C turned out great. I could probably go back a bit finer but that was definitely a huge improvement.
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had some amazing espresso this week while on a business trip. When traveling, my usual go-to is either tea or cortado since I basically have zero confidence in most baristas’ ability to deliver a truly decent pour-over.
I was in Durham NC for some internal meetings, stopped in this food hall downtown with a coffee bar inside. They had a very high-quality selection of beans (parlor, little wolf, B&W, a few others). The cortado was definitely top tier, way better than my expectations, and clearly the barista knew what she was doing (she was using the B&W beans).
Next morning I came in and just asked for straight espresso, she asked about my adventure tolerance, I said bring it on and surprise me. This shot I got was off the charts. An immediate but very fast punch in the face with strawberry juice, followed quickly with a great wine note.
https://www.brandywinecoffeeroasters.com/collections/all-coffee-1/products/colombia-guava-banana
anyway, if you’re in Durham, definitely check this place out.
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What does a shot of Brandywine go for? I’ve been weakly considering the idea of a coffee shop, but the only way I can get numbers that are even remotely plausible is doing it as a filter-only kiosk, food truck, or drive-thru. Any full service espresso setup seems like a huge outlay right off the top.
Obv if I could sell 12 oz filtered coffees for $5+ at volume I could make it work.
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My coffee has not been great lately despite throwing everything I know at it. I’ve noticed increasingly more bitterness and sourness than usual and a small amount of mud which is more than the zero I usually have, so I finally had time to check alignment and it’s off. Oddly, the shimmed side was high; I pulled it and the opposite side went high. Fuck me. A single layer of foil can’t really swing things that much can it, right? <padme.jpeg> So I’ll try to level it out this weekend and see if that fixes it.
I still haven’t used the pour over I have. I need minimum a full French press directly into my veins every day. But the grinder you recommended is nice.
Yeah the Encore is a workhorse for French press, and I wouldn’t recommend paying up for a flat burr unless you really get into isolating notes in light/medium single origins. That’s where the exponential increase in difficulty (and price) begins relative to the payoff. The next grinder tier (80mm+ flats) for me is gonna be in the several thousand dollar range, adding almost $1 to cup cost for my personal use amortized over 10 years. Even if I think the difference in quality is worth it, that’s a long commitment for the payoff. Difficult to justify for home use since those machines are both built and priced for commercial.
I am worried about this because it’s suddenly happened to me but I think (hope) it’s this one bag of beans because everything was fine with the last bag. Currently grinding some Ethiopian beans from coffee collective. For now I’m just writing it off to the ephemeral nature of Ethiopians.
Just as an example I’m about halfway through this 250g bag and at a single grind setting (9Q) I’ve had brew times range from 3:30 to 5:30(!)
Yeah, when I first noticed it was an Ethiopian and I wrote it off. So then I tried with a Colombian and same thing. Just can’t get the sweetness to pop at all with the “flat” profile on two orders in a row. My Ethiopian was also running pretty long compared to usual. Wondering if it’s maybe a seasonal / humidity thing.
Spent over an hour this morning doing wipe tests. Think I finished with a 4+4 foil buildup in two spots and it still wasn’t quite enough. That’s a lot, so I’m inclined to think it’s the lower burr that changed. It makes sense to me given that’s where all of the force and moving parts are. The foil I’m using is supposedly between 20 and 25 microns, so four layers would put it in the 80 to 100 um range. Being off by that much is going to affect the grind distribution considerably. I’ll probably do a complete teardown and try the lever method again.