Pittsburgh's Craft Beer Homebrew Club

Those of you who know me well know that I enjoy bitter bitter beer.  The more IBUs the better!  Some of my favorites include Greenflash’s West Coast IPA, Stone’s Oaked Arrogant Bastard, and Weyerbacher’s Double Simcoe.  In fact, the best way for me to determine if I’ve found a new favorite is to hand my glass over to a person who enjoys lighter beers and see if they return a disgusted “I just sucked on a lemon” look back after taking a sip.  That means it fits my bill.

It should come as no surprise that I like my coffee like I like my beer. Bitter!  Generally I’ll try to brew the boldest I can here at home on my auto percolator.  I always follow the CORRECT proportions (read your bags!), 1 table spoon per six ounces and sometimes 2 depending on the style, but sometimes it doesn’t cut it.  This ratio is already too bold for most (I’ve seen 1 table spoon to every 4 cups of water as a norm??) so I assume I’ve either got weak taste buds, a severe death wish towards my stomach, or they use the cheapest, stale, sour coffee you can get (Folgers, Maxwell House, Hills Bros, etc).  Regardless, I’ve found a new method to push the bitter / boldness level in my coffee. 

I use my typical ratio (1 tables spoon per 6oz) and start up the brew.  In my normal sized basket perk I use 4 spoon to 4 6oz cups of water.  Fire up the perk and leave the decanter out so that the brewed coffee does not drain.  This takes a little guess work but let the basket fill up to a little over 3/4 full of water before putting the decanter in and letting the liquid drain.  The longer you let the water sit in with the grinds the better.  Make sure it doesn’t get too high that it spills over or you’ll either have chewy coffee or a mess! 

Once the coffee is drained and you hear all the wonderful sputtering and popping indicating the perk cycle is complete, take the decanter, open the basket holder and pour that brewed coffe back in to about 3/4 full once again.  Let it sit for a bit.  I usually do about a minute because I don’t want it to cool off.  The easiest way to ruin coffee taste is to reheat it!  Put the decanter back on and let the coffee drain once again.  You’ve now completed your batch sparge and you should have coffee that as they say “puts hair on your chest”. 

I would suggest you use a little higher quality coffee if you’re going to attempt this sparge process or you’ll end up with a more sour brew.  Cheap coffee tastes sour.  The stronger you make the sour coffee, the more sour it becomes.  I expect this is why most people either like their cheap coffee weak or don’t like it at all.  Same concept as drinking the lightest and coldest miller, bud, or ic you can find.  It tastes so bad that you want as little of the taste in the drink as possible!    I cannot stress enough that the same cheap = poor taste concept that applies to beer applies to coffee.  I usually use Starbucks French Roast, Italian Roast, Seattle’s Best French Roast, or Henry’s Blend.  You can pick these up in 12 oz bags from your local grocery store.

A note to those that do not have a percolator with a stop when the decanter is pulled.  I use this above method on my little 1 cupper from time to time which has no plug.  You have to use your finger to stop the coffee flow.  It can be hot and will most likely burn your finger a bit but it passes quickly.  I’ve found that running some cold water on your finger before hand helps.  I actually prefer using the one cupper because I can see inside and have more control of when to drain and fill.

One last note.  Reheating coffee greating distorts the coffee taste as it quickly burns.  Try to drink it fresh and from a container that will keep it warm as long as possible.  Little electric mug warmers are a little gentler and won’t burn so much.  If you can, avoid microwaving but you are better off shutting off the electric plate under your decanter and reheating it later than letting it sit.  It will burn quickly and taste disgusting.