Multi-cup Brewers

The Steps: (See below for specifics on each)

Fill the tank to the mark of the desired amount you want to brew.

Pro tip: if you haven’t thought about how the kind of water you’re using affects your coffee’s flavor, you need to. Check out the 3rd Key to brewing better coffee than the coffee shop.

Step 1: Pour your water

You can do this a couple ways:
Good- Start your kitchen sink water on as hot as it will go. Hold the basket under the water for 45-60 seconds.
Better- Skip step 1, and simply turn on your coffee machine with 4 cups of water and no coffee in the filter basket and let it just run while you are weighing and grinding your coffee. Dump out the water and you’re preheated and ready to go.

The goal here is to warm it up enough to prevent significant heat loss from the water at the beginning of the brew, which leads to the entire brew being under-extracted. At best this gives a less flavorful cup and can even cause undesirable flavors.

Step 2: Pre-heat your filter basket

Insert the filter into the basket and using a small stream of the hottest water you can, get the entire filter wet. Be careful not to let the filter cave on the sides. If you’re using white filters, there’s no need to use lots of water.

Filters are made from paper. If you don’t rinse it, you can add a paper or cardboard flavor to your coffee. This is especially true if you use brown filters. I strongly recommend that you only use white filters.

Step 3: Insert and rinse your filter

Do I REALLY have to weigh my coffee?
Yes.
You can eyeball it, but you guarantee yourself inconsistent and possibly bad coffee.
Most people can taste the difference in a gram or two, so yes it really does matter.
If you don’t have one, spend the $14 and get a simple scale.

Pro tip: if you find this hard to do daily, once a week you can weigh and portion out your coffee into ziplock bags for the entire week.

How much do I use?
This will take just a tiny bit of work, but most people brew the same amount all the time, so once you know you don’t have to do this again. Don’t let this overwhelm you. It will be one or two 4th-grade level math problems. So whip out your calculator quick and this will be painless.

The way you should think about how much coffee grounds to use is as a ratio to the water. A good place to start for a multi-cup brewer is around 20:1. However, you may prefer it weaker or stronger, depending on a couple of factors:
•Roast: the darker a coffee is roasted, you may want a higher ratio as the coffee is more easily extracted.
•# of cups: the more cups you’re brewing, you may want a higher ratio.
•Grind: how fine or coarse your grind is will likely impact brew strength. A finer grind might produce a stronger brew.

Now for the simple math.
Based on the cup marking on your coffee maker, find that number below and divide the weight by 20.

4 cups = 591g
5 cups = 739g
6 cups = 887g
7 cups = 1035g
8 cups =1183g
9 cups = 1330g
10 cups = 1479g
11 cups = 1626g
12 cups = 1774g

Once you’ve made a pot, you can revisit this ratio. If it tasted good but it was too weak, try dividing by 18 or 17. If it was too strong, but not especially bitter, then try dividing by 20-21. If the flavor is too sour or bitter, check out troubleshooting for your grind size.

Step 4: Weighing coffee

Your grind size should be somewhere between granulated sugar and kosher salt.

Pro tip 1: Weigh your coffee after you grind it for a couple brews. Most grinders hold on to a gram or two. If you know that your grinder holds on to 2g, you should add a couple grams when you weigh before grinding to account for it. After all, the coffee you taste is what gets brewed, not what gets poured into your grinder.

Pro tip 2: The consistency of your grind and grind size matters a LOT for flavor. It’s the 2nd Key of brewing better than the coffee shop.

Step 5: Grind your coffee

Step 6: Pour grinds into filter and evenly distribute

Using your palm, gently tap the side to create as flat of a surface as possible. This will help promote an even extraction for optimal flavor.

There is one notable exception. If your brewer uses a cone-shaped filter basket, instead of a flat bottom, you should use the “bird’s nest” method. Pour the grounds in the filter and then lift the grounds that are in the middle up to the edges so that the middle of the cone is lower than the edges, like a bird’s nest. This will ensure the grounds at the bottom of the cone extract at a similar rate to the grounds at the top.

FAQ

  • I don’t recommend it. Doing so usually crumples up the filter. We don’t want the filter to fold down during a brew easily and have coffee grounds end up in the carafe. The extra 10 seconds isn’t worth the risk.

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