Coffee Commandments: The Aeropress

The Aeropress is one of the most versatile brewers with many different schools of thought, there is even a whole championship and community dedicated to finding new and innovative ways to brew it. 

The Aeropress allows for many variations of your brew - from the orientation, the timing, the agitation, or the dilution - this versatile brewer produces delicious coffee and there is no single ‘best way’ to brew it.  Simply different ways of accentuating the various characteristics!

The Aeropress caters towards the coffee fanatic, who enjoys tinkering and learning from forever evolving brews. Our aim with this blog is to give you the fundamentals and so you can use it as a launchpad to play about with the different techniques and learn for yourself! To fully explore this brewer, we highly recommend having: 

• A grinder
• Thermometer 
• Digital scales

As with any brew method, you will need to use your taste, smell, and sight when brewing to understand what works, and what doesn’t. So try new things, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box...even if it does result in the odd funky in the morning cup!

The principles of the Aeropress:

The variables:

1. Time: By changing the amount of time you let the coffee extract for, this will also change the flavours you extract from the coffee. Allowing the slurry to sit for longer will allow more of the solids to dissolve... but do remember, there are some which you want and some which you don’t.
2. Dose and Grind size: The dose is the amount of coffee you add to your Aeropress. When choosing a dose, you need to consider it in conjunction with the grind size. As a general rule, the finer you choose to grind your coffee, the less ground coffee you should use.  Grinds can vary wildly with an Aeropress, all the way from very fine to very coarse. As a starting point, if you enjoy sweetness and body, you will want a finer grind.  However, if you enjoy clean, sparkling, and acidic flavours, choose a coarser grind.  Of course, there are many, many exceptions and you will need to find what is right for you.
3. Volume of water: This brewing method is all about learning how to balance varying components. For the volume of water, think to yourself  “How do I balance intensity, while having enough water to properly extract the coffee?” Many people will recommend 100ml for every 6g of coffee, but for this brew method, have a play. 
4. Agitation: Agitation can be used to increase the speed and uniformity at which the coffee extracts. However, too much agitation will result in over-extraction and a bitter, hollow-tasting cup. This can either be done via stirring or by pressure when you plunge. Remember to take the brewer off the scales before doing so!
5. Water temperature: The Aeropress is often brewed with lower temperatures. Anywhere from mid-80C and up as this brewer is very good at heat conservation, so higher temperatures are not always needed. However, different water temperatures will accentuate the different parts of the coffee. When choosing or adjusting your temperature, remember to take into consideration the roast level of your coffee. Lighter roasts will often require a higher water temperature.
6. Post brew dilution: This is a very personal preference, as most people enjoy differing strengths of coffee. On the whole, this is used when brewing with a large amount of coffee and a small amount of water to result in a clean cup with a sparkling acidity! However, feel free to add water to adapt any brew, to your desired strength!

The method: Filter grind method 

*Select 'filter' grind when purchasing Pilgrims Coffee on our online store

Start the Aeropress inverted

Step 1: Boil your kettle with at least 250ml fresh filtered water.

Step 2: Rinse the filter paper with the boiled water. 

Step 3: Place 18g filter ground coffee into the Aeropress, we used 'Holy Grail' this time.

Step 4: Start a stopwatch. Add 35g of water at 95 Celsius and stir for 5 seconds.

Step 5: At 20 seconds, add a further 185g of water, and fix the filter to the Aeropress.

Step 6: At 55s invert the Aeropress onto your mug or jug and press with medium pressure. It should take until 1m30s for all the coffee to be pressed through the puck. 

Enjoy!