Chemex

 

What You Need 

• 8 Cup Chemex Coffee Brewer
• Chemex Coffee Filter
• Water ≈ 200°F
• Ground Coffee ≈ 42g
• Gram Scale
• Timer

 

1. Setting Up

Begin by placing your filter in the Chemex with the thicker, 3-fold side toward the spout. Then, pour some hot water through the filter to rinse out any paper taste. This will also preheat the Chemex. You can preheat your cup at this time as well.

 

2. Water to coffee ratio of 16:1

This is a great starting point, but you may find that a little more or a little less coffee is suitable to your palate. I’ll be aiming for about 670g of water and using 42g of coffee. This equates to about 6 tablespoons of whole bean coffee. With our coffee weighed out, it’s time to grind on a setting that is slightly coarser than what we’d use for standard drip coffee.

 

3. Grind your coffee

While the coffee is grinding we can empty out the water that was preheating our Chemex.

 

4. Start Brewing

Add your coffee to the Chemex and be sure the bed of grounds is level. Now you can zero out your scale, start a 4-minute timer and begin brewing. This first pour, called the bloom, should be about 100g of water. Start in the center of the coffee and slowly work your way to the edge in concentric circles. Be sure to evenly saturate all the grounds to ensure a uniform extraction. We’ll let the coffee bloom for about 45 seconds.

 

5. Second Pour

For our next pour we’ll add 300g of water, again pouring in a steady, even spiral.

 

6. Final Pour

One minute after our second pour, our final pour will bring the total water weight up to about 670g.

 

5. Remove Filter

Now that we’ve reached our total brew time of 4 minutes, remove the filter even if some of the water has not made it through the coffee bed.

 

5. Serve

Empty out your preheated cup, and now you’re ready to serve some fresh coffee.

 

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