Aeropress / budget coffee nerd questions

Unfocussed Mike said

Allesandro B said

I'm also embarrassed to say I was given an Aeropress for xmas a few years ago and haven't taken out of its box even though I was the one who wanted it! I keep thinking I must give it a go.  I'll do it tomorrow! I've hit the maximum dose of caffeine for today!

I love mine; it fits with a fairly laissez-faire, non-obsessive approach to coffee. I'm only looking at a burr grinder for the smallest upgrade in grind consistency. 

All I can say is, don't let anyone sell you on the "inversion" method, which is foolishness. You will eventually knock it over and you may scald yourself.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Super impressed, it won't be going to the back of the cupboard!

Allesandro B said

Unfocussed Mike said

Allesandro B said

I'm also embarrassed to say I was given an Aeropress for xmas a few years ago and haven't taken out of its box even though I was the one who wanted it! I keep thinking I must give it a go.  I'll do it tomorrow! I've hit the maximum dose of caffeine for today!

I love mine; it fits with a fairly laissez-faire, non-obsessive approach to coffee. I'm only looking at a burr grinder for the smallest upgrade in grind consistency. 

All I can say is, don't let anyone sell you on the "inversion" method, which is foolishness. You will eventually knock it over and you may scald yourself.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Super impressed, it won't be going to the back of the cupboard!

It's just a really gentle, simple process isn't it?

So the new plunger cap turned up for mine, and honestly the thing is as good as new again. Also the little grinder I bought, one of these:

https://baristareviews.co.uk/manual-grinder-azontion-kfj-gm-002/

... is really very impressive even from the first grind.

Happy bunny today.

Stu H said

Few things more satisfying than a complete puck falling out the end of the barrel 😊

Yep. And the eject sound :-) 

Unfocussed Mike That's a nice looking bit of kit. I'm tempted by the flow control unit but am wondering if it's worth it

Allesandro B said

Unfocussed Mike That's a nice looking bit of kit. I'm tempted by the flow control unit but am wondering if it's worth it

Yeah. The flow control units have two pretty much evidence-based benefits:

1) you can use a metal filter, which might have taste benefits. More oils, more "tooth" I guess -- might make a better coffee for adding milk to?

2) nothing drips through until you want it to, so you don't need to leave the plunger in the top, which might spare the plunger and means there's no argument for any of the inversion BS

Fellow claimed that the Prismo (on which all the flow control caps are based) allows you to build up more pressure. But I can't see all that much benefit there; it's not going to have any benefits on extraction, it might just make a slightly more visually appealing pour.

I may try one. But I imagine the main benefit for Aeropress themselves is an official flow-control accessory so they can be much more bold about the inversion BS.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Bergman Greenstreet said

Lovely to read a thread about coffee. It makes a pleasant change from some of the old chestnuts that regularly appear.

My aeropress is only two years old so hopefully a few years to go before the plunger thingy wears out.

I still occasionally use a coffee grinder made by Peugeot in the 1800s. It belonged to my great grandad who came from Vienna.It still works well though I tend to use an electric grinder most days as my arms, like the plunger thingy, are not as strong as they once were.

The aeropress is a great piece of kit and certainly easier to clean than my old mokka.

Edited by Bergman Greenstreet

Edited by Bergman Greenstreet

Would you like one of these?

https://www.printables.com/model/903187-moka-pot-filter-stand

https://www.printables.com/model/581428-elegant-moka-pot-filter-stand

https://www.printables.com/model/164900-moka-pot-filter-stand 

If so, measure the stem diameter for me (and DM me your address :-)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Unfocussed Mike

I thought it was you that had one, and recommended the Fellows cap to me ...

Allesandro B

The Fellows cap enables a longer brew in the barrel as the diagram in the cap needs to overcome x amount of pressure before it will pass fluid.

This certainly helps with the brew process; unfortunately my pallet isn't sophisticated enough to detect a change other than duration related.

Stu H said

Unfocussed Mike

I thought it was you that had one, and recommended the Fellows cap to me ...

Allesandro B

The Fellows cap enables a longer brew in the barrel as the diagram in the cap needs to overcome x amount of pressure before it will pass fluid.

This certainly helps with the brew process; unfortunately my pallet isn't sophisticated enough to detect a change other than duration related.

Hm -- I may well have suggested it? I've seen one in use because a local coffee shop tried them, and I liked the look of them, but I don't have one myself.

Unfocussed Mike

They are certainly less faff than having to carry and protect a load of little filter disks

Stu H said

Unfocussed Mike

They are certainly less faff than having to carry and protect a load of little filter disks

Yeah I can definitely see the advantage in terms of portability. I have nice little eco-friendly unbleached paper filters but I hate the box they came in and they are annoyingly fiddly and floppy, so the metal filter does appeal. Luckily paper filters can go in our food recycling bin or I'd have switched long ago.

I really love the Aeropress, though. It's such a classic example of pure, minimal inventiveness -- the kind of thing only an obsessive inventor would even come up with. (As was Alan Adler's other great contribution to the world of leisure -- the Aerobie!)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Unfocussed Mike said

Stu H said

Unfocussed Mike

They are certainly less faff than having to carry and protect a load of little filter disks

Yeah I can definitely see the advantage in terms of portability. I have nice little eco-friendly unbleached paper filters but I hate the box they came in and they are annoyingly fiddly and floppy, so the metal filter does appeal. Luckily paper filters can go in our food recycling bin or I'd have switched long ago.

I really love the Aeropress, though. It's such a classic example of pure, minimal inventiveness -- the kind of thing only an obsessive inventor would even come up with. (As was Alan Adler's other great contribution to the world of leisure -- the Aerobie!)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Hang on ... the guy that made a packet out of cutting the middle out of a frisbee also invented the aeropress?

There's two completely unrelated products if ever there was 

Stu H said

Unfocussed Mike said

Stu H said

Unfocussed Mike

They are certainly less faff than having to carry and protect a load of little filter disks

Yeah I can definitely see the advantage in terms of portability. I have nice little eco-friendly unbleached paper filters but I hate the box they came in and they are annoyingly fiddly and floppy, so the metal filter does appeal. Luckily paper filters can go in our food recycling bin or I'd have switched long ago.

I really love the Aeropress, though. It's such a classic example of pure, minimal inventiveness -- the kind of thing only an obsessive inventor would even come up with. (As was Alan Adler's other great contribution to the world of leisure -- the Aerobie!)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Hang on ... the guy that made a packet out of cutting the middle out of a frisbee also invented the aeropress?

There's two completely unrelated products if ever there was 

Yep! The "Aero" in AeroPress is the Aero in Aerobie. He's an old-school, garage-tinkering lone inventor type. See a thing that can be improved, learn about it, figure out the improvement, make the product.

You can even see that same applied-materials-science stuff. Hard and soft plastics.

(Also a lifelong photography enthusiast, hello Alan if you are here)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Unfocussed Mike said

So, after five or six years of service and I would guess about 1100-1200 coffees

Bergman Greenstreet by the way I looked at my Amazon order history and what I was given at Christmas in 2018 and it turns out the plunger cap lasted through about 1600 coffees, judging by how many papers are left from my last order.

I compared the old cap and the new, to understand why it was skidding and slipping, and the difference is not what I expected.

It's not the edge of the plunger that has worn, which is what I thought I'd see. It is actually that the entire cap has shrunk slightly. (It's also become somewhat shinier over time).

Also I drank a *hell* of a lot of coffee through the first lockdown.

I love coffee.  I always have.  I drink it black and have to have my two cups a day before noon.  But I can’t get all involved in the nerdy-ness  in this debate.  I had no idea what an aeropress was until I looked it up.  Then I realised it is to the French Press what Nutribullet is to blenders.  For me, interesting but not mould breaking.

But what would I know I’m a bean to cup espresso machine man, failing that a stovetop metal screw it together thingy guy……. See Indrink the stuff but don’t know what the basic Italian coffee-making machine is called.   Why would I?  I just use it then drink the stuff.

Until the last ‘coffee debate’ on here I didn’t even know what a ‘French Press’ was…………though I had used one all my coffee-drinking life until about 17 years ago.  Then it hit me ‘French Press’ is to zucchini what Cafetière is to aubergine…..or something like that maybe sidewalk to pavement.

Oh the snobbery of ‘in’ nomenclature…..of using a foreign term when an English (albeit French ‘loan’ word) nomenclature is perfectly fine.  And anyway, the Americans make sh*t coffee IMHO.

Ah, well back to my peasant ways of speaking, preparing and drinking…..

Carlos said

I love coffee.  I always have.  I drink it black and have to have my two cups a day before noon.  But I can’t get all involved in the nerdy-ness  in this debate.  I had no idea what an aeropress was until I looked it up.  Then I realised it is to the French Press what Nutribullet is to blenders.  For me, interesting but not mould breaking.

"French Press" is just what Americans call it, always have? Given they probably pronounce "cafetière" like it's a South American dictator the CIA overthrew. Just look at the mess they make of "processes".

The Aeropress is not meant to be nerdy -- just meant to be easy, efficient, portable, very cheap and very very good. It's like a modern reboot of the 1930s consumer home-coffee-making tech explosion that produced the "moka"/stove top, and the Melitta pour-over/filter coffee/"V60".

Like with the pourover, a lot of nerdiness and wine-tasting woo-woo bullshit *has* attached itself to the Aeropress, alas -- a lot of awful top-knot-haircut, "competitive coffee" nonsense that has a reproducibility crisis that would make a social scientist blush. But that's not the fault of the people that made it.

Flavourwise, it's *not* french press coffee. It really *is* different and somewhat mould-breaking.

I'm not an expert and I really don't want to be. But it's cleaner-tasting and clearer, like halfway between a pour-over and an espresso, because as designed it goes through a paper filter but is pressed through it, at higher pressures than a french press. More "extracted", much less "bitey" to me, much less bitterness. So it's very good if you like lighter roasted arabica or exploring the sweeter/fruitier flavours, basically. That's why there was fuss about it.

You could try one. If you like coffee enough to reject instant, it's arguably the simplest, cheapest, most portable way to take really, really good coffee with you that doesn't involve wasteful "pods".

The one caveat is it works a bit better with a grind that is somewhere between cafetière-grind and espresso-grind.

Loads of indie coffee shops will sell you a cup of Aeropress coffee, and if your preferred indie sells bags of its own blend, they'll possibly be able to sell you an Aeropress itself, appropriately ground coffee, and show you how to use it -- my local indie place did a roaring trade with this stuff and it helped them stay in business during the lockdowns.

But I believe in lazy coffee and the least technique that will make a drinkable mug! I've been using a crap £9 electric bean-smasher grinder for years and eyeballing the grind, and getting really good coffee with essentially no technique at all. I've only just treated myself to a new £28 hand grinder yesterday, after, as I say, probably 1600 coffees through the thing. 

There is one thing that has changed about it since it first appeared on the market, which is people's tolerance for coffee dripping through the filter into the cup before it has fully brewed. Hence this discussion of the flow control valve -- it just lets it all stay in the chamber longer before it is pressed out. Though it's not the only way to achieve that. Leaving the plunger in the top while it brews, which is the method Aeropress recommend, also stops most of the coffee dripping through.

But it's dead cheap, totally noddy stuff, if you want it to be.

(It's also much, much less messy than a cafetière or a stove-top. Reason enough to use it. It ejects a "puck" of compressed coffee at the end and finishes mostly clean already.)

Edited by Unfocussed Mike