Home Brewing Tips

If you're relatively new to brewing coffee at home, don't worry we will try and give you all the information you need to turn you into a pro!

Generic Terms:

Green coffee - This is the raw product of coffee beans. Prior to roasting, the colour of coffee beans are green.

Coffee roasting - The roasting process determines how light or dark the bean you receive is. A roaster determines how long to roast a green coffee bean for depending on the flavour profiles they want to extract as well as trying to balance acidity and bitterness.

Cupping - This is the technique used by many roasters to test their coffee. You can find out how to do this below.

Single Origin - Single origin coffee beans are from the same region, farm, or area within the farm.

Blends - Coffee bean blends are a mix of many coffee beans to create a unique flavour profile for their final product. Brazil is known for their sweet nutty flavours so to achieve a blend with a nutty finish, they may use brazil beans in their mix.

Decaf - Coffee beans that have a very low caffeine level. The decaffeination process removes 99.9% of caffeine using either chemicals or natural processes. At Red Squirrel Coffee we always use the natural method.

Arabica - A species of coffee bean. This species accounts for around 75% of all coffee sold. It is very delicate and requires a lot of skill by farmers to produce.

Robusta - The second most common species of coffee. As the name suggests this species of coffee beans are more robust and are virtually immune to disease. They also contain a much higher caffeine content than Arabica which in turn can lead to a bitter taste.

Equipment:

The equipment needed for home brewing is fairly easy to get a hold of and most of the items you may already have in your kitchen.

Grinder - A grinder is quite possibly the most important tool to have at home for coffee brewing. It is recommended to grind your coffee 30 seconds prior to brewing so that the beans don't lose their aroma. There are two types of grinders that you can get in either manual or electric forms, burr grinders and blade grinders. Burr grinders give a more consistent grind and if you are an espresso drinker, this grinder is probably for you. Blade grinders are the cheaper of the two because it chops your beans instead of grinding them. Using the right technique you can achieve a good grind with a basic blade grinder, and if you are new to home brewing it's probably a better price point. The technique to achieve an even grind with a blade grinder is to only grind for 2 seconds at a time, stop, shake the grinder to move the beans and repeat until the coffee is fine enough. We will explain the perfect grind for each brewing method below.

For an entry level blade grinder I would recommend a Shardor blade grinder for £30. Taking a step up into burr grinders, I would recommend the Bodum Bistro as an entry level burr grinder for around £80-100. It is small, sleek, not too loud and is compact enough to sit on your kitchen worktop. Moving up into burr grinders that will handle grinding for an entry level espresso machine, I'd recommend the Sage Smart Grinder Pro for around £200. If you have invested in an espresso machine it is usually recommended to match your espresso machine with the accompanying grinder.

Please note that whilst we recommend that you grind your coffee at home, a grinder is not a must for a home brewer because we offer to grind your coffee for you. If you have invested in an expensive coffee machine without a built in grinder, you probably want the best flavour for your coffee. An investment in a Burr coffee bean grinder should accompany an investment in a coffee machine.

Scales - Digital scales are a must for precision brewing. You can weigh out the exact amount of coffee and water you want to use. 1ml of water = 1gram of water so scales make it very easy to get the correct amount of water.

Gooseneck Kettle/Jug - A gooseneck spout allows for a slow precision pour compared to a standard kettle. A gooseneck jug is a cheaper alternative to a kettle however by decanting the water from a standard kettle into a jug will lose some heat. A gooseneck kettle allows you to pour directly from the kettle without having to decant the water into a jug, thus retaining the heat. Most gooseneck kettles have built in thermometers to achieve the desired temperature.

Thermometer - Different brewing methods require different temperatures of water for the best results, boiled water at 100 degrees Celsius is rarely recommended.

Reusable Coffee Pod - If you have a coffee pod machine we recommend a Sealpod reusable coffee pod. We found that this pod reduces waste and still produces great tasting coffee. If you are ordering coffee for a reusable pod, and cannot grind the coffee at home, we recommend ordering an espresso grind.

Brewing Techniques:

French Press / Cafetiere

This method is very simple and an entry level French press can be found in your local supermarket for around £5.

Grind Size - Coarse (A similar size to sea salt). Roughly 5-10 seconds in a blade grinder or a low setting on your burr grinder.

Coffee v Water - This is dependent on how strong you like your coffee, so will come with experimentation. I would recommend starting with 20g of coffee (4 tablespoons) and 300g of water, a ratio of 1:15.

Process:

Add the ground coffee beans then half of the water into the French press
Set a timer for 2.5 minutes
Stir the coffee and add the remainder of the water
Put the lid on the French press but do not push down the plunger
Set a timer for 2.5 minutes
Finally push the plunger down, pour into a mug, and enjoy.

Aeropress

An Aeropress is a must have if you enjoy espresso based drinks. It is highly regarded in the coffee world due to it's ability to produce quality coffee with relative ease. An Aeropress is very portable and you can take it anywhere. It can be sourced for around £25.

Grind Size - Fine drip (Slightly finer than table salt). Roughly 20 seconds in a blade grinder or a fine setting on your burr grinder.

Coffee v Water - The Aeropress comes with a pre-measured scoop and has numbers printed on the side for simplicity. Use one scoop of finely ground coffee and fill with water until level 2.

Process:

Push plunger out of chamber.
Put filter in filter cap.
Twist filter cap onto chamber.
Stand chamber on sturdy mug and put one scoop of fine drip grind coffee in chamber.
Shake to level coffee.
Add water heated to 80 degrees in the chamber up to level 2.
Stir for 10 seconds.
Insert plunger and press gently, pausing when you feel resistance, until plunger reaches grounds.
Remove filter cap, push plunger to eject coffee and rinse seal.
Enjoy.

Pour Over

The pour over method provides more vibrant flavours compared to other brewing methods. A Hario V60 and filters can be sourced for around £10. There are also more expensive automatic versions for the pour over method however I will only cover the manual method using a V60.

Grind Size - Medium-fine Grind (Finer than sand but not as fine as an espresso grind). Roughly 18 seconds in a blade grinder or a medium-fine setting on your burr grinder.

Coffee v Water - This is dependent on how strong you like your coffee, so will come with experimentation. I would recommend starting with 22g of coffee and 330g of water, a ratio of 1:15. 1ml of water = 1g of water.

Process:

Place your V60 on top of your container and add a filter. You can use a glass container, french press or even straight into a mug.
We are going to start by rinsing our filter to ensure you don't taste the filter in your coffee. Using a gooseneck kettle/jug, pour hot water around your filter ensuring that it's nice and wet.
Discard the water that is now in your container and place your V60 and container on a scale.
Add your ground coffee inside the V60 and slowly pour in 70g of water that has been heated to 94 degrees. Making sure you cover all of the coffee grounds which will allow it to bloom.
After 30 seconds pour another 70g of water over the grounds in a circular motion, try to avoid pouring onto the filter directly.
Wait another 30 seconds and pour in the remainder of the water.
Let the water drip until finished.
Serve and enjoy.

Cold Brew - Hario Mizudashi

The Hario Mizudashi can be sourced for around £15. An alternative method of cold brewing can be a french press. Use cold filtered water and let it brew in the fridge overnight.

Grind Size - Coarse. This should be slightly larger than a french press grind. Roughly 5 seconds in a blade grinder or the first setting on your burr grinder.

Coffee v Water - This is dependent on how strong you like your coffee, so will come with experimentation. I would recommend starting with 80g of coffee to every 1L of water.

Process:

Slowly pour in cold filtered water in a circular motion until water reaches the top of the container.
Pause and let the water drip through
Again slowly pour in cold filtered water in a circular motion
Repeat these actions until your pot is full
Leave in the fridge for 16 hours
Serve over ice with milk for a refreshing cold brew coffee!