How to Make a Chemex Pour Over Coffee

Quentin Sponselee March 22, 2017 Comments Off Blog

Chemex is one of my favorite ways to brew Dangerous. A pour over in essence is coffee brewing in it’s rawest most primal form and Chemex captures that in one free flowing single apparatus. The design was inspired by the Bauhaus art movement and designed by Peter Schlumbohm in 1941. Critics of the day dubbed his designs a “a synthesis of logic and madness”. Crazy like a fox I say!

Quick Steps

Heat Water : Fresh off a Boil or 200 F
Grind Beans: Medium to Fine, slightly more coarse than sea salt
Load Chemex Pour Over Coffee Maker : Place filter, load grind, our water over grind slowly and evenly
Agitate: Agitate beans and water using a spoon or mini whisk
Brew: Allow mixture to brew and drain
Serve: Remove filter serve coffee brew

Equipment

Chemex Pour Over Coffee Maker
Dangerous Coffee Beans
Kettle (goose-neck preferred)
Burr Grinder
Table Spoon or small whisk
Water
Scale ( Not necessary but preferred)

Before you Brew

Starting with Fresh Roasted whole bean Dangerous Coffee will make sure you can capture all of the rich smooth dark roast flavor possible. Keep your whole beans sealed in an air tight container if possible.
When you grind your beans all of that terrific smell is your flavor escaping so you want to get water on those grinds a soon as possible.Make sure your water is optimal temp before you grind. That way you can get water on those grinds immediatly!

Serving Ratios

12 oz Serving / Coffee 4 Tbsp or 25 – 30 Grams for a strong brew

Step 1

Heat your water to 205 degrees by bringing it to a boil and letting it sit for 30 seconds.

Step 2

Load your Chemex coffee filter and pour some water into it. The idea is to wet the filter so that you remove any linger chemicals in the paper. Then pour off the water. Honestly in my opinion with most premium filters you don’t have to do this because the chemicals have been removed but but if you want an extra step go ahead. If I don’t include this in my blog the coffee snobs will show up at my door with pitch forks.

Step 3

Place Chemex on your scale then measure and grind your Dangerous Coffee Beans medium to fine grind like sea salt. Load your fresh ground Dangerous and start your pour over. Starting in the center of the grind gently pour twice the amount of water that you have in grinds. You can eye ball it try to get all the grinds saturated using your water stream. The coffee will expand and bubble they call it a coffee bloom. I like to use the whisk here to agitate the grinds and get a super solid CO2 extraction. Allow about 30-45 seconds for the bloom to finish. The theory is that when you allow the CO2 to escape first then your grinds are primed for a swift and solid extraction.

Step 4

After the coffee bloom finishes it is time to finish your pour, Continue to saturate the beans starting in the center and working your way outwards in a circular pattern continuing to try to saturate the grinds evenly as possible. Watch the scale because you are going to stop once you have reached about 500 grams. Once you have reached the target stop and give it another whisk. Agitation during a pour over brew is also another form of classical pour over heresy but F it we live Dangerous I like the extraction it creates.

Step 5

Your done with the work now! Watch the pour over do it’s magic extraction of your delicious strong and super smooth coffee brew. It should only take a few minutes. The nice thing about a pour over is once you get the brew going there is no worry of over extraction you just set and forget. Once the drips stop pull the filter and toss it you are now ready to serve.

Blog