[...] For more information there are some notes on the Square Mile blog. [...]

[...] Published December 31, 2008 brewing , coffee James Hoffmann published a nice video on Chemex brewing. I was glad to see this since I have had a long learning curve with this method. Nice informative [...]

[...] Neuling ,nur Handfiltern Das Video im Squaremile Coffee Blog oder der direkte Link zu Vimeo … jimseven.com ist manchmal elendig langsam (bis [...]

[...] mean, just check out this video from Square Mile Coffee Roasters in London for how painfully protracted the process can be with a [...]

Great stuff! Keep these type videos coming.

I’m looking to make the switch from French press to a pour over for home. I’ve been leaning towards a Melitta, but your preference for Chemex makes sense.

As for the kettle, i’ve heard that a pouring kettle makes ALL the difference in the world. Something having to do with the slow, steady nature of the pour. What do you think?

Ben Helfen added these pithy words on Dec 27 08 at 5:50 pm

Nice job – these brewing guides are absolutely top notch!

luca added these pithy words on Dec 28 08 at 7:44 am

Great video, chemex is definately on the to-get list. Is that a Muji-bought timer? They’re great, like a poor-mans iPod

Colin Harmon added these pithy words on Dec 28 08 at 10:14 pm

GREAT Video! A course in Chemex…perfect! I just purchased 3 Chemex coffee makers of different sizes at a local thrift store her in Fresno, California in the last month. I ordered up some of their filters and have been trying them out. But no videos or information I have found to date have helped as much as yours has. I’ll be needing a nice pourover kettle I see so that will be my next treasure. But until then I can’t wait to get up tomorrow and put my Chemex to proper use.
Thanks Much!

Dave added these pithy words on Dec 29 08 at 7:17 am

I’d promised myself a chemex for christmas yet it seems HB have dropped them from the webshop! – any ideas?

Dale added these pithy words on Dec 29 08 at 11:36 pm

Very cool video. I really like your tips and advice. Oh and very good choice of soundtrack too. Keep them coming.

Henry added these pithy words on Dec 31 08 at 10:59 am

thanks for the vid.
I work with my Chemex since 2 years, but always thought it missed something.
And now I see I never rinsed the paper!!!
And didn’t use the right kettle I guess.

This week we’ll get the Chemex out of the Kitchen Cabinet for new brews.
Keep up the good work James.

rob berghmans added these pithy words on Jan 04 09 at 5:08 pm

James, This technique is quite flawed. It WILL and almost certainly did result in very uneven extraction. Even before trying it, one can see that the grounds at the top/sides that stick to the filter spend a great deal of the drawdown (drainage) time NOT extracting, while the grounds in the middle spend much more time extracting. Based on the timer in your video, your pour ended around 1:11, and around 1:25 grounds at the top were clearly sticking to the filter and were no longer extracting as the level of the coffee in the filter started to drop. The drainage continued until 3:45 and for that 2:20 progressively more grounds were sticking to the sides of the filter and were no longer participating in the extraction.

Your resulting brew was one of two types: either you had proper brew strength but underextracted grounds at the top and overextracted grounds at the bottom, or your brew strength was a little low and the bottom was properly extracted and top grounds underextracted. (Given your standard water: grounds ratio, total extraction time, and batch size, it’s less likely your grind was so fine that the brew strength was too high)

I believe this because I’ve brewed thousands of one-cup pourovers in the past few months and have taken hundreds of readings with the extractMOJO refractometer and have tasted those hundreds of cups and played with an ungodly number of variations of pouring techniques.

If you doubt I am correct, I invite you to make a chemex with your technique, excavate a section of spent grounds from the top of the filter, excavate another section of grounds from the bottom of the filter, dehydrate the two samples, and then re-brew them using any immersion method and identical brewing parameters. Then check the respective brew strengths of the two re-brewed cups, and you will find the coffee made with the spent grounds from the top of filter has much higher brew strength. (Because those grounds were much less extracted the first time around and have a lot more extractable solids remaining. This test is a trick borrowed from Jim Schulman’s excellent brain.

The only answers I know to this pouring problem for chemex or any pourover percolation brew are to use a fair amount of agitation (not recommended because it is dicey and nearly impossible to replicate brew-to-brew) or to shower the water onto the grounds at a much slower rate. Much like in an auto-drip brewer, the flow rate of water onto the grounds should be similar to the flow rate of coffee out of the filter. The key is to not let the grounds rise too high in the filter, because in a pure percolation system (i.e. not a steep-and-release like the “abid brewer” I hear you have) the drainage will be slow and too much of the grounds will stick high up on the filter and too early in the process these grounds will cease to participate in the extraction. A flat or slightly domed bed of spent grounds (much like a syphon dome) is visible evidence of even extraction.

At Cafe Myriade we have rigged up a “shower head” of sorts (affectionately dubbed the “Raomatic” by Anthony) that allows us to pour boiling water into the shower head and have it dispensed at the proper temperature and flow rate onto the grounds. The difference between the cups brewed with the shower head and those brewed by manually pouring the water is dramatic. (Unless you want to stand and pour through the entire brewing cycle AND have an impressive ability to pour at a consistent rate.) The shower-head brews are far superior and also perfectly repeatable.

You could also simply pour your water onto the grounds at a much slower rate (say, over a 3-minute time), keeping the grounds from risisng too high. That will improve the evenness of the extraction, though you may have to change your grind to get the best-tasting cup.

Respectfully yours,
Scott Rao

Scott Rao added these pithy words on Feb 11 09 at 9:48 pm

I am way out of my league here, having just graduated from a Bodum Electric Santos (using store-bought ground coffee at 1Tbls/cup indicated) to now having a new Chemex on the way (thermal breaker broke) and freshly roasted and ground coffee.

It seems that like anything, people can get as much into something as they want and fuss over the details. That’s fine, this is a new hobby for me so we’ll see if I too obsess over it as the coffee becomes noticeably better tasting.

My question for Scott and everyone else, is why not just use a simple garden watering can? Even pour from a shower-head-like device without risking infringement on the Raomatic? Plus for those of us looking for a pour over kettle, the garden can comes in larger capacities than the fairly small Hario shown above.

If there is a problem with this method I’d like to know, but if not, a simple Amazon search points here: http://www.amazon.com/Gardman-WC4007-1-32GAL-Large-Stainless/dp/B000WEIKS8/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1244414904&sr=8-9
Stainless, and I can’t think of a reason why you couldn’t heat right on a burner.

Joe Hoffman added these pithy words on Jun 07 09 at 10:51 pm

Great video, who did that remix of the Stones song?

Eric H added these pithy words on Mar 03 10 at 7:40 pm