Brew Tip: Coffee Brewing Temperature

Brewing tip #001

For our first brewing tip, I thought we should start with water. Water is a great place to start when perfecting your brew because 98% of your cup of coffee is water. Do you know at what temperature you are brewing your coffee? You might be saying, “I don't know, whatever my coffee maker is doing”, or maybe you’ve heard somewhere that you should brew your coffee at 200°F.

However, did you know that the temperature at which you brew determines how quickly you can bring out certain chemicals? Basically, the hotter the water is, the quicker the extraction is happening. To extract good flavors in a reasonable time, your water needs to be at least 200°F. Personally, I set my kettle to 208°F, because I want to extract as much flavor as I can. However, this logic does not continue through, because at some point (around 212°F or boiling point) your coffee can start to taste bitter.

Auto-Drip: One of the reasons it can be hard to get a good coffee out of an inexpensive auto-drip machine is because the water is usually not hot enough to extract enough good flavor. If you’re using an auto-drip machine, a good tip is to put cold water into your machine: this will slow the brewing time, therefore giving you more time for your extraction, and producing more flavor.

Electric Kettle: If you’re using an electric kettle, set your kettle temperature a bit hotter than you would like to brew, between 205°F and 210°F.

Stovetop Kettle: If you’re using a stovetop kettle, you should wait until your water is boiling. Once it's boiling, remove it from the stove, wait a second for the boiling to stop, and then pour.