Brew It Right: Water & Grind
A perfectly brewed cup of coffee is a magical thing. Our #brewitright blog series takes the mystery out of the process with tips and tricks for making coffee magic in your own home. This time, we’re talking about water and grind.
Water matters
A cup of coffee is 98.6% water—so choose your H2O wisely because it will have a big impact on your final brew.
- What kind? Use fresh, clean, filtered water. We’re lucky to have fairly soft tap water in Vancouver, which works quite well for home brewing. If you have hard water, try using a simple home filtration system, like a Brita. Avoid using spring or bottled water.
- How much? As a general rule of thumb, start with 1 part coffee to 16 parts water measured by weight on a scale. From there, you can adjust the ratio to suit your brewing method and personal taste.
- How hot? The ideal water temperature for brewing is between 195 and 205 degrees Fahrenheit (or 90 and 96 degrees Celsius). Bring your water to a boil, then let it rest for 30 seconds to 1 minute before using it—just enough time to grind your beans!
Get the right grind
In our first post, we talked about grinders and how different types—blade, mill and burr—can affect the consistency of your ground coffee. Once you’ve achieved a consistent grind, the next step is figuring out how fine (or coarse) to go.
When it comes to brewing coffee, getting the right grind is a bit like Goldilocks looking for the right bowl of porridge in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Too fine and your coffee will be bitter and strong; too coarse and your coffee will be thin and sour with a grassy flavour.
“Just right” will depend on your brew method of choice. Our coffee team recommends medium-coarse for Chemex and French press, medium for auto-drip, medium-fine for pour-over and fine for Aeropress. Find out why in our next post.
Learn more
Read our blog post on beans & equipment
Watch our brewing video series
Get brewing instructions for your favourite brew method
Show us how you #brewitright
Snap a photo of your home brew, tag #brewitright and share it with us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
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