Yellow belt level 1 principle

Red belt level 3 in practice

Hone Your Skills

With Sensei Joe

In order to hone your skills as a home barista, you must recognize under extraction and over extraction. Because of its ease of success, I strongly suggest using the Manual pour over as the “buffer” for determining proper extraction in a new method of brewing. Honing a brew involves patients and failure. However “conquering” a brew method is quite an accomplishment and is anything but boring.

I had a fast brewer (you know one of those machines that claim a 3 minute brew for 10 cups of coffee) for one full year before honing that brew. I just could not get the brew to taste right and I had no reason to try. I loved my manual pour over and I had no intentions to quit using that method. That changed when I had to get up earlier than I wanted. I no longer had time to manually brew my coffee every day, so I began a two week journey to figure out that machine.

I will have an in depth article on the process I took in honing the grind size: amount of water ratio I use for these machines. But for now the basic process I used was to start with a good Manual brew and taste test the machines brew; comparing the two. I had to start with a fine grind and move slightly courser with very brew I did until I finally had a match. Of course the two brews did not exactly taste the same, as all brew methods have their own taste and characteristics that go with them. The result however was a very good tasting cup of coffee that I didn’t have to wake up any earlier than I already had to in order to get it.

Honing your skills in a particular brew can be frustrating. Stick it out and do your best to have fun. Learning multiple ways of brewing coffee is incredibly rewarding. With a new method of brewing coffee in your arsenal, your coffee will never be the same.

Go to the videos: Manual Pour Over Coffee, French Press, Syphon Brew

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