These are great tips! Thank you for sharing! I have a tip to share about water temperature: I find that using piping hot water that just boiled results in a scalded flavor. In my opinion, the ideal temperature for water when it is being poured into the Aeropress is 175°F or so. The easiest way to achieve this is to boil your water, pour it into a mug or server, then using a second mug or server, pour the water back and forth four times before introducing it to the Aeropress. If you measure the temperature of that water after that pouring ritual, you will find that it is around 175° F.
Thanks James! Another hack you can try is to use the inside of the plunger to pour from. That will also help to cool it down, and it can work as a measuring device as well :)
After watching this, I disassembled my AeroPress to clean it as you demonstrated. Well… there was all this gunk under the gasket. If anyone doesn’t believe that there is oil in coffee, let me tell you it looked like cocoa butter in there. I washed mine with detergent, that cannot be a problem if you rinse thoroughly.
Great tip about regularly cleaning the AeroPress. I recommend soaking the brew chamber in a baking soda water solution as well. I had to retire my 4-5 yr old AeroPress a while back bc it started leaching a stale rancid off-taste to my coffee. The old models also had ridges on the outside of the plunger that would scratch up the inside of the chamber. I recently bought a replacement and it’s really helpful for filtering out cold brew. I wish they went back to the gold letters. The red branding just isn’t the same 😂
Great advice on an awesome coffee maker. Great water is everything. My formula....grinde whole beans extra fine.....1 and 1/4 spoonfull ( Starbucks Cafe Verona ) Add boiling water....stir 10 seconds then plunge imediately. The Aeropress is equal to the very expensive commercial Clover Machine.
I'm laughing at myself because I never knew you could take the gasket off! That's definitely something I'm doing. While I try to get the unit good and clean about once a week, it definitely does start to taste worse toward the end of that week.
I used to notice the coffee seeping in between the filter, through the side holes, like you mention happening, I did it with too much pressure. I noticed that this doesn't happen anymore if you screw the filter holder on extra tight. Maybe interesting to know :) I will experiment with less pressure next time!
I brew ~ 20oz each morning. First I heat the pure mixing water then pour it into a thermos to keep it hot and raise the internal temp of the thermos. I then bring the mineral water to a boil and pour into a cup. I then return the hot water to my pot to maintain ~ 175*s , then put the AP over a thermos, pour the ~ 220* mineral water into the dry grinds, plunge, then swirl the pure 175*ish water
The only problem with brewing into an intermediate contaigner before pouring the coffee into the cup is the heat loss. I often nuke the final cup in the microrave for 15-20 seconds to get the temp back up.
Those were some really great tips, thanks! I'm wondering about the 60 sec press. I steep for 60 sec and press for 30 sec. If I add 30 more sec in the end of the brewing process I'm afraid I'll over extract the coffee. Do you adjust your grind size for a longer total brew time?
Thanks Eirik! The 60 second plunge is more a guideline to show how soft it should be rather than a hard rule, so if you do a 45 seconds one, it should be fine as well. But actually, the soft plunge will decrease the extraction, so overall the extra seconds don't matter and you wouldn't have to change grind size:)
I didn't use my Aeropress for months and when I went to use it, I noticed how sticky the gasket was. I went to the AP site and followed their cleaning directions. When they didn't work, I called AP. They sent me a new gasket for free. Have you ever used the Aesir filters?
Thanks for another interesting AeroPress video. Given your suggestion of using the inside of the plunger as a pouring kettle, I hope you also do a thorough cleaning on it too. I would suggest using an old toothbrush in your cleaning around the inside of the gasket and other areas. Another area that collects a lot of dirt in my experience is the area around where the screen secures in place on the main vessel.
Aeropress is my usual daily brewer so this is much appreciated. For the filtration, I usually use 2 filters too but one of them is metal and the other one paper. Have you ever tried that? I just got the Fellow Prismo so have been using that quite a bit, it is pretty good and fast.
@@coffeechronicler I have some Aesir filters now too though I have a hard time not brewing with the Prismo. It's fun! By the way I followed your advice about cleaning under the gasket, shocking the junk I found under there 😝 Thanks for your great tips
I'm new to aeropress. Your tips are great, thanks. How coffee is in coffee jar? Looks more than aeropress can extract (I watched your video about big cups, but seems is even more)
Great video and very helpful to a beginner like myself. Wondering if you could please tell me the brand of your Kettle, server pitcher and your coffee cup? All beautiful pieces I would love to purchase. Thanks again.
Thanks for the kind words. The kettle is from Brewista amzn.to/3kNxVcx and the pitcher is this one from Kinto amzn.to/39goIHP - not sure about the cup, though.
This is a great set of tips about the Aeropress. I should have taken a picture of the underside of that gasket when I removed it for the first time since Obama became President.
thanks, great tips! i just got an aeropress, so very helpful. id say a non-detergent castile soap would work for cleaning, too. do the added minerals really affect the taste positively?
How is more pressure = better coffee with espresso? Just like in everything there's a balance. If you want to take it to real extreme, you can watch the hydraulic press channel press the coffee in a split second. I don't quite follow why aeropress and espresso are fundamentally different in that sense (other than that finer grind of espresso requires more pressure to get the water through, but that's not a case of press harder = better taste, that's more resistance = more restricted flow). Espresso people also regularly point out that the time it takes to draw the coffee is a big component, too fast is not good just like too slow is not good. Personally I didn't like using two filters. Sort of waste and it created too much resistance, it was just harder to push the coffee through and I didn't find it improved the coffee in meaningful measures. Maybe the difference is bigger depending on your coffee grind quality. Other than those disagreements that might be more of personal opinions and tastes, people will probably enjoy their aeropress more following these (assuming someone is not cleaning their equipment and is not using a filter in filtered brewing method).
My problem with Aeropress is that the water leaks a lot even before I press the plunger.. I noticed yours doesn't in the video. I wonder why.. maybe because of using two filters?
Here's how you deal w Aeropress.. Use inverted method.. Microwave your water in your coffee mug, so the mug is hot, cause after pressing, the coffee will be lukewarm otherwise.
Many people prefer paper filtration to methods like the French press, which allows more oils. But of course, it's just personal preference. You can always get the metal filter or prismo if you want more oils.
The Coffee Chronicler No I hate French press. IMO the results are awful. I like the paper filter w/aeropress, with french press you get so much soot which makes it taste awful. However oil is another story, with a single paper filer in the aeropress you get a perfect brew, but the more oils the better/richer the flavor. I just don’t get why someone wouldn’t want the oils. That’s not what makes french press bad.
Even with two filters, as soon as I pour the water in, it flows right through the filter. Any suggestions to help increase the brew time so that I can use the plunger?
This one from Kinto is nice: kinto-europe.com/products/27592 You can use the common Hario Buono server as well, but the fit is a bit narrow and awkward. Not surprisingly, the new travel cup that comes with Aeropress Go is also very nice to work with. It has a great pour and no glass to worry about. coffeechronicler.com/aeropress-go/
I got a metal frothing pitcher and use it to press the coffee into, as well as for storing my aeropress. Like so: imgur.com/gallery/dCUOe Really useful if you are brewing a lot of coffee and want to split it into two cups!
These are all great tips, expect maybe the last one which just seems a bit silly. I've never had an issue with aeropress coffee being too hot (more often the opposite) and I don't believe pouring from one vessel to another is going to significantly affect aeration when the coffee is already slowly dripping out while pressing.
Most of these tips are bad other than the cleaning tip. My tips: #1, learn to reverse brew with your aeropress. #2, make sure you pre rinse your paper filter with warm water, as well as the rubber gasket and the rest of the insides of the Aeropress.