Most drip devotees are probably aware of the two main categories of brewing in this category seen around the net, those being infusion and permeative. I made some videos of myself preparing both styles linked below. You could find much better pours elsewhere on the net quite easily, in fact I had some distractions in the background when filming. But they do demonstrate the different styles quite well.
Permeative drip brewing is about keeping the brew water level in your dripper to around the level established from the initial bloom. You pour in concentric circles in the centre, distributing turbulence as evenly as possible in a relatively small diameter, while maintaining a decent sized bank or moat of coffee around the outside. In the Kalita 101 I'm using in the attached video, you can get away with keeping your pour to around the diameter of a 50c piece. With the V60 probably more like a 20 cent piece. This style of brewing calls for super high ratios of up to 1:10, 1g of coffee to 10ml of water, and quite coarse grinds. It tends to highlight the acidity present in a bean. It can be good for darker roasts which may taste too flat using the infusion method.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/50ui1k8qya...ative.MOV?dl=0
Infusion drip is a simpler method, pour out your water onto the grounds at your chosen speed, and wait for the draw down. Stagger your pour if you want, e.g Barismo method. Here the coffee is getting saturated with water and you really are aiming to cover the bed of grounds with water after the bloom. The key here is that you are not too fussed about creating agitation, while in permeative brewing you are trying as hard as possible to avoid it. After that final pour, the grind size of the coffee will control the rate of draw down. So depending on how fast you want to pour out in the first place, you will need to adjust the fineness so you get your preferred brew time, which for me is around 2-2:30, including a 30 second bloom. Typically infusion type brewing calls for a finer grind than permeative, and a shorter brewing time. I typically grind significantly finer than presented in this video.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2jq5w5rjy...rsion.MOV?dl=0
A lot of the instructional stuff you see on the net is a hybrid of both methods. I find generally that infusion gives a darker, richer more satisfying cup. Think about a long black from your espresso machine, but with more dimension. Permeative brewing gives a cleaner cup but can be too acidic if not brewed long enough, or if brewing a particularly light roast. Because caffeine is easily dissolved into the water the high ratios when using permeative mean quite a strong cup caffeine wise, even though the brew tastes quite mild.
With the finer grind, infusion can be quite temperature sensitive. I use ~92 deg C as my baseline, and go up or down from there. Just like an espresso machine, every new bean requires dialling in. One way to trouble shoot your grind is to continue adding water and brewing after you've removed the dripper from your server. If these dregs taste bitter then it is likely that you've extracted all the goodness already from the bean earlier on, and may need to coarsen your grind up. If on the other hand you are still getting sweetness and good colour in the brew water than you may want to fine up your grind. This is assuming you are holding brew time and temperature fixed.
So drip brewers of CS, what is your chosen approach to brewing? What beans are you drinking through your dripper at the moment ?
Permeative drip brewing is about keeping the brew water level in your dripper to around the level established from the initial bloom. You pour in concentric circles in the centre, distributing turbulence as evenly as possible in a relatively small diameter, while maintaining a decent sized bank or moat of coffee around the outside. In the Kalita 101 I'm using in the attached video, you can get away with keeping your pour to around the diameter of a 50c piece. With the V60 probably more like a 20 cent piece. This style of brewing calls for super high ratios of up to 1:10, 1g of coffee to 10ml of water, and quite coarse grinds. It tends to highlight the acidity present in a bean. It can be good for darker roasts which may taste too flat using the infusion method.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/50ui1k8qya...ative.MOV?dl=0
Infusion drip is a simpler method, pour out your water onto the grounds at your chosen speed, and wait for the draw down. Stagger your pour if you want, e.g Barismo method. Here the coffee is getting saturated with water and you really are aiming to cover the bed of grounds with water after the bloom. The key here is that you are not too fussed about creating agitation, while in permeative brewing you are trying as hard as possible to avoid it. After that final pour, the grind size of the coffee will control the rate of draw down. So depending on how fast you want to pour out in the first place, you will need to adjust the fineness so you get your preferred brew time, which for me is around 2-2:30, including a 30 second bloom. Typically infusion type brewing calls for a finer grind than permeative, and a shorter brewing time. I typically grind significantly finer than presented in this video.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2jq5w5rjy...rsion.MOV?dl=0
A lot of the instructional stuff you see on the net is a hybrid of both methods. I find generally that infusion gives a darker, richer more satisfying cup. Think about a long black from your espresso machine, but with more dimension. Permeative brewing gives a cleaner cup but can be too acidic if not brewed long enough, or if brewing a particularly light roast. Because caffeine is easily dissolved into the water the high ratios when using permeative mean quite a strong cup caffeine wise, even though the brew tastes quite mild.
With the finer grind, infusion can be quite temperature sensitive. I use ~92 deg C as my baseline, and go up or down from there. Just like an espresso machine, every new bean requires dialling in. One way to trouble shoot your grind is to continue adding water and brewing after you've removed the dripper from your server. If these dregs taste bitter then it is likely that you've extracted all the goodness already from the bean earlier on, and may need to coarsen your grind up. If on the other hand you are still getting sweetness and good colour in the brew water than you may want to fine up your grind. This is assuming you are holding brew time and temperature fixed.
So drip brewers of CS, what is your chosen approach to brewing? What beans are you drinking through your dripper at the moment ?

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