Admit it: Your morning cup of joe could definitely use some help. Thanks to Redbeard Coffee Roasters, it’s about to get a major upgrade. Stephen Reimar and Nathaniel Izard are behind the local roastery operation, and they’ve created step-by-step guides to teach us all a thing or two about different methods of brewing.
Let’s get to it.
How to Use a Chemex
What you’ll need:
- 6-cup Chemex
- Chemex filters
- grinder
- gooseneck kettle
- digital scale
- a mug for you
- a mug for your friend
- bag of Redbeard
The first thing we do is fill our kettle up with purified water and set the temperature. Water temperature is extremely important to the extraction process. The darker the roast, the cooler the water should be. We recommend brewing light roasts at around 205 degrees Fahrenheit, medium roasts at 200 degrees and dark roasts from 195 degrees. Experiment with your temperature and find out what works best.
Next, weigh out about 40g of fresh beans to yield 600g of coffee, which will be about a 1:15 coffee to water ratio (for a smaller portion, just do some simple math for how much coffee you’ll need with your desired yield size, such as 27g coffee to 405g water). Grind the coffee while your water is heating up to a medium-fine grind, about like slightly coarser table salt. Wet the filter well to get rid of any papery tastes and let the water heat the Chemex. Then, pour the hot water that you used to wet the filter into your mug to heat your mug.
Now you’re ready to brew your coffee. Put your grounds into the filter and pour just enough water to wet all the grounds (about double the weight of the coffee). This is the blooming stage where your fresh coffee will expand as it’s expelling gasses. Wait for about 20-30 seconds, or until your bloom has deflated. Then pour the remainder of the water up to 600g slowly in small circles, making sure you have poured in every area. Pour slow enough so that the Chemex does not fill too quickly, but pour fast enough so the coffee will continuously move and not clump in the bottom of the cone filter.
Once you’ve hit 600g of water, you are now ready to take the filter out and throw it away. Pick up your Chemex, give it a swirl, and pour it in a couple mugs for you and the lucky person who knows you. Enjoy.