Chemex Method

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Postby toma » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:17 pm

One question I have is do you get mud (fine particles) at the bottom of the paper filter when the extraction is finished?


I don't. (Using Chemex filters.)
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Postby syscrusher » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:16 pm

dsc wrote:One question I have is do you get mud (fine particles) at the bottom of the paper filter when the extraction is finished?


I'm sorry to say this means your grinder is producing some dust. I've seen it happen with dull burrs.
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Postby Neo » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:01 pm

toma wrote:
One question I have is do you get mud (fine particles) at the bottom of the paper filter when the extraction is finished?


I don't. (Using Chemex filters.)

Perhaps your grind is too fine. Is your coffee bitter?
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Postby dsc » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:40 pm

Hi guys,

I agree it might be the burrs, as they've touched a few times too much over the last few months.

I tried an even finer grind to get the extraction to last 4 minutes. It did that but the effect in the cup was rather bad, bitter, overextracted. When I try anything coarser I can't for the life of me get extraction times longer than 2min. Not sure what's going on here to be honest. I'm using 6g of coffee per 100ml and usually brew 400ml (using 24g of coffee). The process is pretty much the same as on James's video, wet the grounds for 30s (allowing to bloom), fill the filter holder by pouring slowly and pour very slowly in the centre.

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Postby Apex » Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:48 am

It seems to be accepted that 4min is the guideline extraction time?

I started off brewing about 750ml at 4 minutes and am happy with the results so far. Adjusting the grind to a coarser setting is going to be the only way to speed the extraction time to 4min for a larger brew, is there an accepted ideal ml value that should be used to aim for a corresponding grind size. I don't buy that adjusting the grind to suit the volume of water is the best way of running the chemex. Surely the level of grind should be a constant* for any brewing process?


*there will be some variables that will affect the aging roasted bean, but we can discount them here.
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Postby dsc » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:27 am

Hi Apex,

well you use different grind settings for lungo, normale and ristretto and I think you can use different grind settings for drip/Chemex/FP depending on the extraction time.

The thing that always surprises me is how 4min is assumed the default brewing time but no one mentions the amount of coffee that is the result of the extraction. You can't really aim for 4min if you're brewing one/two cups as there's no way to get the extraction to last so long unless you grind very fine. Coffee absorbs some of the water and the more you have it in the filter the longer the water takes to go through it.

Currently I'm using a funny technique for brewing small amounts (single mug, around 300ml) when I block the drip completely for 30-60s (pre-brew) at the beginning (with around 100ml). This gives me 'more' taste as water doesn't really go straight through the coffee and prolongs the extraction.

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Postby Apex » Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:37 am

Thanks dsc. I don't use different grind settings for the different espresso based drinks though. For lungo I just add water to my shot, for ristretto I up-dose or use a tripe basket ideally, have I been doing something away from the 'norm'. My grind for every other type of brewing method is consistent no matter what volume of water I add, it's the dose that changes. This is where the chemex differs for me.
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Postby dsc » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:18 am

Hi Apex,

I might of course be wrong as I'm no expert at this. On the other hand there's no harm in trying it for yourself and playing with different grind settings.

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RE: re

Postby dsc » Sun Jun 14, 2009 11:01 am

Hi again guys,

thought I would update this a bit.

I've tried brewing today from my handy over-the-cup filter holder, but this time I didn't block the pour for the first 60s, I just let it run. The result was far less impressing than when using the block-pout method. Using the Aricha the change taste-wise was less acidity and fruit, a bit more bitterness, some herbs in the background and a bit of turf-like aromas.

Anyway I know that some drip machines allow you to block the pour and it looks like it works well.

I'm curious whether you get the same results from Chemex when using smaller amounts of coffee?

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