Please help me make good coffee at home

[Smithy]

Like @andiesenji before me, I'm bumping this up because I'm now seeing firsthand the importance of water temperature when brewing coffee. I'm visiting my best friends. We all normally live near sea level. We use slightly different equipment and slightly different coffees, but have very similar tastes in our coffee flavor and strength. Normally we're happy with each other's coffee.

 

Here, we're using the same coffee (trading off types), same equipment. Good water. None of us is satisfied with it: too weak, cools off too quickly. Well, you know what? We're at 8900' above sea level, and the water isn't getting hot enough for a good brew! Those of you who routinely measure and control the water temperature may laugh at me for only just experiencing this -- but now I get the idea. 🙂

 

[Tropicalsenior]

I solved this years ago when I listened to Paul Harvey Rave about his coffee maker. He was advertising the Bunn coffee maker and I bought one. It has a hot water reservoir and all the machine parts inside are copper which permits a higher temperature brew. It also makes a pot of coffee in 3 minutes. The coffee always tastes great. Of course it doesn't hurt that I am here in coffee country where even our ordinary coffee is some of the very best. Another great thing about the Bunn coffee maker is that I bought my first coffee maker in 1985 and I am only on my third coffee maker since then. Yes, they seem fairly expensive but when you figure each one lasts about 12 to 14 years they are well worth it.

Edited August 16 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[rotuts]

@Smithy

 

you are correct that extraction is best at about 200 - 205 F  

 

difficult to get that at altitude possibly.

 

Techinivorm  ( double blind testing ) out preforms many other auto-drip machines because

 

the brew temp is higher in their models .  and that costs a little money 

 

consider a Mocha Pot .

 

https://www.amazon.com/moka-pots/s?k=moka+pots

 

the water will at least reach your local boiling point , and pass through the ground coffee only once.

 

get the larger size(s)

 

that's the best I can think of given your altitude.

[AlaMoi]

at 8,900 feet the boiling point of water is 195.7'F

in a high pressure weather event, slightly higher.

low pressure event, slightly lower.

 

bottom line, aside from brewing coffee inside a pressure vessel, there's no way you'll get the 200+'F min 'recommended' brew temp.

espresso machines force water under pressure thru the cup . . . that increase in pressure might get better results, but there's a difference between espresso and "coffee"

 

no clue if some mystery coffee bean supplier/roaster produces a 'pre-brewed' product that is intended to work at lower temps.

[donk79]

In my experience, immersion brewing tolerates lower temps better.  For example, I would expect to get something at least drinkable from an inverted Aeropress brew with a couple minutes of steeping starting at 195 degrees.

Edited August 16 by donk79 (log)

[haresfur]

5 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

at 8,900 feet the boiling point of water is 195.7'F

in a high pressure weather event, slightly higher.

low pressure event, slightly lower.

 

bottom line, aside from brewing coffee inside a pressure vessel, there's no way you'll get the 200+'F min 'recommended' brew temp.

espresso machines force water under pressure thru the cup . . . that increase in pressure might get better results, but there's a difference between espresso and "coffee"

 

no clue if some mystery coffee bean supplier/roaster produces a 'pre-brewed' product that is intended to work at lower temps.

 

Well I suppose that some designer instant coffee could be considered pre-brewed and do the trick. I can handle the stuff from the roasters my coffee shop uses. It's called Magic Bogan Dust.