Danes Specialty Coffee Director Paul Jackson explores alternative methods of brewing and extraction.

This article was published in Beanscene magazine in February 2015.

What’s old is new again. These days we’re all familiar with espresso, and high quality espresso at that. From the time I began in the coffee industry more than 20 years ago, I’ve seen a huge leap in espresso growth and increasingly high standards, resulting in an Australian café culture that is world class.

However, the coffee world has never been one to sit still, and the newest trend to gain momentum is the rise of alternative brew methods.

This “Third Wave” of coffee, as those in the industry refer to it, has been gaining popularity in homes and in cafés over the last five years. At the heart of this movement are the same guiding principles shared by coffee lovers everywhere: the pursuit of spectacular tasting coffee.

Customers are no longer satisfied with just a quick caffeine fix. They have become more discerning in their preferences, and with this, comes greater expectations on baristas and café owners to deliver coffees with more complex flavours, and provide further education.

Alternative brews, with their ability to highlight the unique character of coffee, are able to cater to this customer want, and offer the added advantage of theatrics. Unlike espresso, where the mechanics are hidden behind a machine, alternative brewing offers a visual experience. Customers can see the temperatures the barista measures, the grind settings and the brewing times, plus be awed by the appearance of some of the contraptions used. As customers become more knowledgeable, the industry is answering back and giving them what they want.

History of brewing
Coffee brewing and extraction dates back to the 15th century. More recently, however, in the 1950s, Dr. Ernest E Lockhart founded the Coffee Brewing Institute (and later the Coffee Brewing Centre) in the United States. His extensive research adopted a scientific approach to creating the perfect beverage.

The research at this Institute in New York facilitated the development of standardised concentrations of flavour, and took a scientific approach to coffee extraction. The ideal beverage, defined by Coffee Brewing Institute guidelines created from this time, is one that has a flavour concentrate of 1.15 – 1.35 per cent, and a soluble extraction yield of 18 – 22 per cent organic and inorganic compounds.

Throughout the decades, the information that Dr. Lockhart and his colleagues compiled has stood the test of time. This information was the predecessor to The Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) Brewing and Extraction course which dispels the myths and conjecture behind brewing coffee, and gives baristas the basic building blocks of brewing and extraction.

Fast forward to today, and we can see an emerging fondness for the retro-style manual coffee methods. While standardisation forms the foundation of these methods, each method requires very specific knowledge. Learning these manual methods enables baristas to control every variable in the brewing process and in doing so, create a cup exactly suited to one’s preferences.

What happens when you brew coffee?

Brewing coffee is so much more than pouring hot water over ground coffee. When coffee is brewed, hot water acts as a solvent, washing the soluble solids out of the coffee grinds and into the brew. This soluble solid contains the oils which carry the extract and flavour into a cup of coffee. Brew methods that use paper filters only have the soluble solids in the cup. Some brew methods allow insoluble solids to enter the brew, like French Press, espresso or Turkish coffee.

Immersion brewing: French Press and AeroPress

Perhaps the most recognisable of the manual brewing devices, the French press is a classic made popular by Bodum in the 1970s. Contrary to its name, it was patented by an Italian in 1929. It’s made up of a glass or metal beaker and a mesh plunger that separates coffee grounds from water.

The AeroPress, which was designed in 2005 by a Stanford engineer, uses a plunger to push coffee from the grounds through a paper or metal filter.

Immersion brews create a rich, full-bodied coffee. As with all alternative brewing methods, the AeroPress is best suited to a light roast. A compatible origin for immersion brewing is one that’s light and delicate.

Decoction brewing

More widely known as Turkish coffee, decoction brewing is the original way to brew coffee, dating back to the Yemenite monks of the 1400s. The coffee they roasted was incredibly dark, ground very fine, and cooked in a cast iron pot. It was boiled and the grounds scooped off to reveal a rich, dark, intense beverage. Decoction brewing results in a rich, dark, intense flavour profile.

Pour Over brewing

The Chemex is an American pour over brewing method created in 1941 and combines a filter cone with a beautiful glass decanter. The V60, from Japan, is a simple cone-shaped dripper with a large opening at the bottom which comes in plastic, glass, and ceramic.

Both use a paper filter but the V60 filters are much thinner. Pour over brewing results in a very clear, bright, delicate result.

Vacuum filtration

The syphon (or vacpot) is the most eye-catching of all brew methods. It consists of two chambers, one at the bottom filled with water, which is placed over a heat source (either a gas Bunsen burner or a halogen lamp). Steam pressure pushes the water through to the top chamber where the coffee brews and then retreats back through a cloth filter. The end result is a very full-bodied coffee which is still capable of retaining delicate flavours.

Cold drip

Cold drip is a way of extracting coffee using cold water over a lengthy amount of time. Depending on the size of the device, brewing can run from three to 12 hours. The results can be a light, fruity tea-like coffee that is best served over ice. Any high-grade natural processed coffee is suitable.