Thin, sour, oddly hollow pour-overs with a recipe that looks fine on paper — nine times out of ten, the bloom is where I start poking. This piece is for home brewers using a…
Here’s the puzzle that sent me down this rabbit hole last winter: two mornings in a row, same bag, same 15 g, same 250 g, same kettle. One cup sang. The next tasted like…
Last Tuesday I followed a roaster’s recipe to the decimal. Fifteen grams in, 250 out, water at 94°C. The cup arrived thin and pinched-sour, the sort of result that sends you back to check…
Last Sunday I weighed a Kenyan washed bean to 15.0 g, ground it on my Kingrinder K6 at my usual click, and the kettle clicked off at exactly 94 °C. The cup tasted hollow.…
Standard AeroPress brews can finish thin and sour, especially with lighter coffees. Flipping the brewer upside down fixes most of it. The grounds steep without dripping early, which pulls more sweetness and a heavier…
You finally got your light roast V60 tasting bright and clean. Then you opened a bag of medium roast, ran the same recipe, and the cup came out muddy and flat. The recipe didn’t…
A 250 g bag of Yirgacheffe sat on my counter last month, opened on a Tuesday. By Sunday the crema on my AeroPress had thinned, the jasmine note was nearly gone, and the cup…
The first sign isn’t taste. It’s the pour. That pencil-thin ribbon you used to lay onto the bloom now surges, sputters, surges again, and the Ethiopian you bought for its jasmine note tastes like…
Last Tuesday I weighed out 15 g of a washed Guji from Onyx, ran my usual medium-roast V60 recipe, and got back a cup that tasted thin, sour, and faintly salty. The beans weren’t…
Last Tuesday I pulled an AeroPress that tasted like I’d squeezed half a lemon into the mug. Sharp, thin, puckering on the sides of my tongue. The beans were good, the water was fresh,…