Thinking About Brewing Your Own Coffee?

Everything you need to know about brewing coffee at home. 

If you love coffee, you probably thought about making your own at home instead of going to your favourite coffee shop every day.

Main image by Oliver Ghur on Unsplash

Making your drink from the beginning until the end may seem like a long process that requires a professional, while in fact, all it needs is the knowledge and the right equipment.

If you’re considering grinding and brewing coffee at home, you should know that there are several methods to do so, and you can choose the one that provides you with the taste you prefer.

However, before choosing the brewing method, there are a few steps that you should follow in order to get the best taste possible.

Fresh coffee

First things first, to get the same irresistible flavour you have from your coffee shop, you must get your coffee beans fresh. 

If you bought roasted coffee beans without knowing when they were roasted, you might not get the flavour you’re expecting.

Right after roasting, there’s a process called degassing. Just like fruits, the beans go through a similar process where they slowly start to lose components that make coffee full of flavour.

As time goes by, it loses its freshness. To avoid that, you should start grinding immediately after roasting the beans.

Check the amount 

The amount of coffee and water you use is vital in the whole process. A common mistake a lot of people do is measuring their coffee by volume.

This is an inaccurate way to measure it because it differs from one type to another.

The ultimate way is to measure by weight, so keep a scale right beside you before you start grinding and brewing to ensure that you get the right measurements.

Choose the right coffee grinder

If you’re getting your coffee beans fresh, this means that you’ll be grinding them at home. Some people believe that getting any grinder will do the job. However, choosing a good grinder is an essential step.

Having the right grinder is essential because aside from the texture, fellow coffee enthusiasts at brewcoffeehome.com claim that the size of the grind affects the flavour that your drink will get.

When you get small coffee particles, the components and flavour are easier to be extracted, providing you with the sweet flavorful caffeine taste you’re looking for.

A good burr grinder will grind all your coffee into small equal in size particles that will give you total control over your brewing process and they will all brew at the same rate.

Coffee brewing temperature

Before you start your brewing process, you must first make sure that the water you’re going to use for brewing is at the right temperature. 

This is because the temperature affects the extraction process. Coffee brewed at water temperature less than 195 degrees will not provide you with the acidic coffee flavour, while coffee brewed at more than 205 degrees will be extremely bitter.

The ideal temperature is between 195 and 205 degrees F. At this temperature, the components will be extracted evenly while maintaining a sweet taste.

Choose your brewing method

Now that you’ve prepared your coffee, it’s time for brewing. Luckily, nowadays, there are several brewing methods. This allows you to choose the one that provides you with the taste you prefer.

However, you should be familiar with all types in order to choose the one that suits you the most. The most common way of brewing is the French press.

Image by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

It brews by soaking the coffee in hot water first, and then separating it after.

It’s a fast, easy, and efficient way of brewing. It also allows you to make large amounts of coffee without having to repeat the process several times. However, the downside is it doesn’t extract the full flavour.

The Moka pot is another affordable method for brewing. It’s portable and quick, but if not used properly, your coffee will not taste good as you might over or under-extract its particles.

Another method for brewing is cold brew. This method relies on soaking the coffee in cold or room temperature water for 12 hours and filtering the grounds before drinking it.

When you start considering making your coffee at home, you have to be familiar with all the equipment you’re going to use in order to prepare it.

The important tools are a scale, a thermometer, and a grinder. Of course, you can get an all-in-one coffee machine to grind and brew your favourite drink.

This will ease all the steps for you as all you will need to do is get the fresh-roasted coffee.

Brewing Coffee is a fantastic experience

Brewing your coffee at home is a meaningful and productive experience. You can brew coffee in your spare time until it becomes a hobby and then a routine. If you love to drink coffee now, you’ll fall for coffee brewing too. 

The first time you try can be a disaster. But the entire process and the end result will be fulfilling once you finally taste the perfect brew you desire to achieve.

In addition, you can give homemade coffee brews as perfect gifts for your family and friends. This is aside from the popular gifts for coffee lovers, such as coffee beans, mugs, and coffee makers.

So, make every morning more special with a cup of freshly brewed hot coffee to boost their energy.

But don’t rush learning everything. Take one step at a time. Enjoy every coffee brewing session and learn from your mistakes.

Also, don’t feel sorry if you don’t achieve a great-tasting coffee. Eventually, you’ll hone your coffee brewing skills.

Conclusion

So, how do you want to start brewing your own coffee? You’ve just learned the basic steps above.

As you increase your knowledge about brewing coffee, your taste for coffee beans, brewing techniques, and other coffee parameters will also improve until you become a true coffee master.