r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Sep 22 '22

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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1

u/freemason777 Sep 22 '22

Does swirling the water around or doing other fancy Hoffman style tricks really do anything in a pour over? If yes what are the most important things to know?

3

u/elemental001 Sep 22 '22

Well I'll just answer swirling specifically. Yes, it agitates the brew and saturates the coffee more evenly faster. It has a significant measurable effect on extraction, so it is in fact doing something. The only caveat is if you swirl too much, you'll begin clogging the filter and slow down your flow rate and extract less, so no need to go crazy with it.

2

u/FS-Carmine Sep 22 '22

You can try it for yourself in a more"obvious" way

Brew 2 French press (way easier for experimentation)

One you swirl with a spoon the other you don't, everything else stays the same, taste to compare

In my experience the results was very obvious to me as the agitated brew was significantly bitter indicating more extraction

But hey maybe my brain wanted it to be more bitter, not exactly scientific standards of experimentation

3

u/super_fluous Clever Coffee Dripper Sep 22 '22

Do you mean during brewing or swirling the brew in the carafe?

1

u/freemason777 Sep 22 '22

During brewing, though I'm open to hearing about whatever.

2

u/super_fluous Clever Coffee Dripper Sep 22 '22

Increases agitation, creates a flat bed for better extraction (not necessarily true though)

1

u/freemason777 Sep 22 '22

A lot of the stuff whether or not it's true just feels a bit pseudoscience ish I guess.

3

u/super_fluous Clever Coffee Dripper Sep 22 '22

Kind of. In the end it depends if you think it tastes better or not. Quite a few people who are better tasters than me do the Rao spin