Late to this party, but I've been realizing that starting with a center pour on my V60s and then circling out helps a lot with saturation, because that initial center pour gets deeper into the deepest part of the coffee bed. It also lets me use a bit finer grind, because it seems to lift the grounds up off the filter a bit, but others' experience may vary. All that to say, I like a little of both in my cone-shaped dripper too!
Nice video! I use a V60 rather than a flat bottom brewer, but I use some of the same concepts. I use multiple pours, sometimes circular and sometimes in the center, to control extraction and brew time. Some coffees produce a lot of fines and require some center pours to keep the drawdown time and bitterness under control, especially when using multiple pours.
I don’t have the April brewer, I do have kalita 155, 185 and a Blue Bottle Dripper. This pouring structure you stick to is useful in these other brewers as well.
I recently bought a new glass dripper from a certain manufacturer that you are VERY familiar with that allows even saturation no matter your pouring structure. I think this is a very interesting method that I want to try osmotic flow method which is very famous for having a good result but a super uneven extraction I might give an update to this very soon with the different pouring structure. I don't have an April brewer yet but my pouring technique is a zig zag technique which is easier than the circle pour but also gives even saturation.
A very very simple thing that can be done if you're getting the flavor profile right, but strength is too much... just add a little brew water to the cup. I ALWAYS have to do this anyway, as my palette cannot handle the the 1:15 - 1:17 brew strength. Your brewed amount DOES NOT need to be the final coffee cup amount.
Hey, I’m enjoying the plastic April brewer, I noticed the air gap at the bottom is much more pronounced on the plastic vs ceramic, I’ve not noticed much difference in the cup however, but it being more durable and lighter is a good improvement. In terms of brewing I’ve given up on pouring onto the bed I find it muddies the flavour on a lot of my roasts, I use the gabbi b for a really clean cup, if it’s a really light roast I’ll still pour onto the bed to get more out of it, but I’m still playing around so it could all change.
I still have no idea how you get a 3+ min drawdown on the April brewer with the 2 100g pour technique. I just can't get anywhere near that without near espresso-fine grind (which is clearly not what you're doing)
What coffee are you using? April's coffee tend to be really light roasted so they have a slower flowrate which is why he tends to front load his pours so the cup doesn't loss that clarity. Also test it out with with his filters too they have a unique flow rate restriction. Sincerely a coffee professional who uses the April Brewer as his daily home brewer.
@@marvinduncan5832 cheers for the reply I've never bought April coffee, but I've used La Cabra, Coffee Collective, Bonanza, Campbell and Syme and other roasters of pretty damn light roasts. I don't use the new papers but he also got the same drawdown time before with Kalita filters. Anyhow I'll try get round to giving April's coffee and filters a go, thanks again for the reply and advice!
A lot of different factors can affect the drawdown time of a brew. There's the above mentioned coffee beans and filters, but also your grinder, and maybe even your water will play a role in the speed of the brew. My advice is not to worry about it too much and just go by taste instead. That's all that matters in the end after all
@@JoejoeReference yeah I get that, I'm pretty far down the rabbit hole. I have extensively used a lido E, wilfa svart, Wilfa uniform and versalab M3, none get close to 3 mins, closest is the svart due to greater fine production. And i use minerally identical water to Patrik ;) It really seems like it is somehow all in the beans now but i don't really get how his beans are so so different to every single roaster in Denmark and top light roasters in Europe
2 года назад
I also had the same experience as you and found that grind size has surprisingly low influence on drawdown with this method. I've found that the actual pouring also matters. The ideal would be to evenly pour through the 100g, but based on the kettle you have that can be hard for this fast flow rate. And if you do the center pour too fast (even if in total time you don't exceed the 10 seconds) you will get much faster drawdown. So to extend the video: the faster you pour down the center the faster your brew time will be. Fixing the the too fast center pour helped me, although it's still around 2 minute. Currently what I do is that I try to do the circle pour as fast as possible (just making sure to evenly wet the bed) and then I can do a slower center pour and still be in 10 seconds. But for perfect brewing with this method I think I would need a different kettle or somehow some direct practice for flow rate controlling.
Finally snagged the plastic version of the April Brewer after seeing its available on this! I've been using your recipes on the Torch Mountain, but I wanted something plastic so I can more easily transport without worry of breaking, and also am curious how the flow differences are going to be. Excited to try it.
Hi, not sure if you will be able to read this still since this video is almost over two years old, but I was thinking, would it be possible to get the results of the circle and center pour technique with ONLY a circle pour technique but with a slightly courser grind? I'm asking this because while circle and center might be the best in this particular test, I think a constant circle pour might be much more repeatable across multiple brews, resulting in higher consistency as well throughout all the brews.
Hi Patrick, In the video you mentioned that you're not fond of using a small tap after the 2nd pour and I was wondering why. While I would have concerns in regards to clogging, it seems to me like an efficient option to tackle the issues created by high-rising grounds from a circle-pour, and allow a better extraction of these risen grounds. Also, your main criticism of the circle-pour seemed to be due to too high extraction/contact time. Would it be an option to just ground coarser to get a cleaner, better cup using coarser grounds in the circle pour and how would the result differ from the circle+center pour?
Thank you for watching. In our experience grinding coarser on the circle pour does lower TDS and total brew time but is still not showing optimal taste quality. You can have several different qualities of taste on the same TDS. That's when for example pouring structures has a major impact.
@@coffeewithapril can you tell us more about tapping/shaking the brewer? I got the plastic April brewer a few days ago and grounds do end up on the walls instead on the coffee bed which I "fix" by gently shaking the brewer right after the first pour.
you do understand that "better extraction" will increase strength right? And coarsening your grind will lead to more grounds on the side walls as the larger the particle the longer it takes to fully absorb water making more float and be drawn to the side walls. Swirling would help this but will add another variable that is not so easy to keep consistent..
@@coffeewithapril I find it very interesting that you say "You can have several different qualities of taste on the same TDS." Of course, while being completely true it sidesteps the other major factor of any coffee brew. TDS is, of course, no indicator of taste at all, but a quantity measurement of the amount of compounds in the brewed liquid that are not water and does not address Extraction (taste/taste profile), the other major factor of any coffee brew (let alone share the calculated extractions). While Extraction is a difficult topic as one person's extractions readings are not usefully comparable to another's regardless of the possibility of the numbers and variables corresponding exactly it is still a highly useful value when understood and used within its limitations. What most don't know or understand (adding to the difficulty of understand Extraction and it's limitations is that you can have several different qualities of taste on the same measured Extraction It would be really cool if you did a specific video on Extraction, including why you don't ever include calculated Extraction in you videos where you brew and analyze the brews. Please don't misunderstand me. I have great respect and appreciation for all the work you do for coffee lovers. Thanks for all the hard work 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
While being very interesting and somewhat helpful, this, like all brewing comparisons, fail to address the reality that changing one variable is not really a fair comparison of what that variable does. Rather, it provides an idea of what the variable changes. To optimize the change in one variable, other variables need to be adjusted. I think many people don't understand this and think that, in the case of this video, Circle pour= good, Center pour= not good, Circle/Center pour= best, which isn't true and misses what I see as the useful information here- With the given method/grinder/grind size/variables Circle pour- highest TDS/Extraction Center pour- lowest TDS/Extraction Circle/Center pour- very high TDS/Extraction nothing more, nothing less. An important point, while Extraction rises with a larger coffee/water ratio, TDS rises to a peak and then lowers with a larger coffee/water ratio (the peak being dependent on the grind size) Thanks for the comparison and all your work 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Hi, not sure if you will be able to read this still since this comment is over a year old, but I was thinking, would it be possible to get the results of the circle and center pour technique with ONLY a circle pour technique but with a slightly courser grind? I'm asking this because while circle and center might be the best in this particular test, I think a constant circle pour might be much more repeatable across your brews, resulting in higher consistency as well throughout all your brews.
Dude, what's with you & the word "basically"? have you counted yourself how many times you said that word in the video? 12 times dude ! is this the only word that you know? next time review your video first before release.