GoodShave's Coffee Journal

Today, I tried the 'Ceremony Coffee Drip Cone' recipe with Mystic Monk Coffee (Meeteetse, WY) - Ethiopian beans and my glass Hario V60-01 dripper.
I finally was able to hit the last tasting note that I have been chasing. It was a pretty good cup but I was too aggressive in the final swirls which stalled my brew a bit even though I was using the Cafec T-90 filter. I will try it again tomorrow with a more gentle final swirl. It was interesting that I hit some tasting notes with this recipe whereas I hit other notes with Hoffmann's 'Better 1 Cup V60' recipe.

MaineYooper You out to give this recipe a try:
Ceremony Coffee Drip Cone recipe

Today I came up with a new way to heat my glass Hario V60-01.

Normally, I like to do V60 brews with my glass Hario V60-01. But being glass, I need to preheat it so it does not rob heat from the slurry. Previously, I swapped out the Hario Switch cone with the glass V60-01 cone (since the cone bases are the same), close the switch on this V60-01 Switch dripper and add my filter and hot water to the brewer while I ground the beans and get ready for a brew. This works, but for recipes where I need to do swirls, you cannot easily swirl the silicone base of the Hario Switch since it is large and the silicone does not easily slide around on top of a server. I find I have to put down my kettle, pick up the brewer and server/carafe/mug at the same time and swirl both. That is too cumbersome and time consuming.

So I came up with the idea of heating the glass V60-01 cone inside of the Hario Switch with the switch closed and then reattach the V60-01 cone to its plastic base and continue with the brew process. That would allow me to easily swirl the V60-01 brewer on top of my server.

So I detach my glass V60-01 cone from its holder and set that (smaller) cone inside of my Hario Switch cone. I add my filter to the V60-01 cone. With the switch closed, I add hot water to heat the V60-01 which was inside the (closed) Hario Switch cone. This heats the V60-01 from inside and outside as the cone is submerged in a pool of hot water inside the Hario Switch cone. When I am ready to add my coffee, I remove the pre-heated V60-01 (which now has its filter rinsed) and insert it into its V60 plastic holder and place it on top of the server. I add my coffee and continue the recipe. That way, I have preheated the glass of my V60-01 so I didn't lose heat from my slurry during the brew and I am able to easily swirl my V60-01 (with its plastic base) on top of my server at appropriate times in the recipe.

I tried more coffee to water again, going almost exactly 1:15, with the decaf Blackstrap from Irving Farm Coffee roasters (Millerton, NY). The decaffeination is done using the "mountain water process" which is like the Swiss water process without using Swiss water, I believe. The 1:15 ratio gave a better mouthfeel and a little less sourness? I have to experiment more. And I thought I'd lengthened the time between shipments, but I guess I did so too late, for today I received another 300g bag of decaf coffee! This one is from Small Planes Coffee (Washington, D.C.) and is called Desvelado. It has tasting notes more to my liking and sure enough, the first cups have been pretty good.

For those wondering why I 'hijacked" David's Journal, it's because 1) it's coffee and b) I am moving the discussion to the forum instead of PMs. And third, this is a Trade Coffee plan. I'd tried it last year and gave up, having too much coffee coming in for various reasons. But this December I go really interested in whether these small roasters could make a great decaf coffee. I renewed my Trade subscription and changed to decaf. Two bags into this, I am happier than I was with the regular coffees!

David, if you'd rather I keep this over on my Journal, PM me and it will vanish *poof* into the ether!

David, if you'd rather I keep this over on my Journal, PM me and it will vanish *poof* into the ether!

Eric,

I am more than happy to have your input on my thread.

I had not heard of the "mountain water process". I did watch James Hoffmann's video on the Swiss water process.

I would be curious how you like the Small Planes Coffee (Washington, D.C.) coffee. Several times in the past, I thought of ordering from them but never did.

I finished up my bag of Mystic Monk Coffee (Meeteetse, WY) - Ethiopian today, but I wanted to finish of the free bag of Wicked Joe Organic Coffee Co. (Topsham, Maine) - Guatemala Huehuetenango before I jumped into my bag of Ceremony Coffee (Annapolis, MD) - Thesis that came in this week.

The reason the Guatemala Huehuetenango was free is that I had ordered a bag of whole bean coffee and they sent me ground coffee instead. I contacted them and they sent me a bag of whole bean as well.

On a whim, I decided to try brewing in a V60 with preground coffee. I was not sure how that was going to go. I figured I would have to tweak water temperature and contact time since the grind size was fixed. Surprisingly, it came out pretty well on the firs try. I used my Hario Switch as a V60 with a T-90 filter using the Ceremony Coffee Drip Cone recipe. By my calculations, I have three more brews of the ground coffee, so I will finish out that bag before I open the next bag of beans.

I have been trying out a variety of brewers (with a pair of 'go to' recipes for each) to see which one gives me the best starting point with the Ceremony Coffee (Annapolis, MD) - Thesis beans. Once I identify that brewer, then I will dial in the beans and recipe for the best cup.

So far the glass April Brewer using the James Perry Coffee - Standard 3 Pour recipe has the lead.

Today I was using the Fellow Products Stagg XF dripper and found that if I use the acrylic ring from my glass April brewer, the Stagg XF can sit well supported/level on top of my Hario V60 Range Server. Without that ring, I usually have to brew on top of a mug for it to sit flat.