Why Four?

In my experience with pour over brew stations, I have yet to find a reason to try and use all four brew stations at the same time. I have seen people do two sets of two, with lackluster results though. But I have seen three used somewhat successfully, with proper staging in-between each; i.e. first at end of brew cycle, second still in brew, third in pre-wet. So it has led me to believe it is merely a design aspect, symmetry, looks or the like. In a nutshell, more is not inherently better, but cooler.>><<

But it still kind of boils down to brew styles, of which I have identified three types.

First: Free Pour - simply put, pour until the cup is full, without regard to the amount of water used, the cone may have a lot of water left over, or may be closer to exact. This results in large variants in the flavor of the coffee, I regard this as the poorest method. One advantage is anyone can do this, and quickly, even monkeys.

Second: Guestimate Pour - This is considerable more exact than the first, where the person preparing the drink guesses how much water is needed, and tries to keep excess water away from the end of the brew cycle. The major advantage of this is better consistency, and therefor better taste, but at the cost of some speed.

Third: Weigh/Volume Measured Pour - This is, to myself, the best but slowest method of the three. In this method the water is either weighed, or a measured volume is used to brew. This method has some major advantages: Very consistent flavor and excellent quality, and no need to pay attention to brew after volume of water has been used. But this is by far the slowest of all methods because the weighing or volume measuring step is added.

Another variant is the brewing style, in other words, the manner in which someone pours water onto the coffee grounds, which can change the flavor of the coffee greatly, for good or bad. The first method is Unwashed, or center pouring, which involves pouring the water into the center of the cone and avoiding the edges, end in a more even distribution of grounds along all sides of the cone. The second is washed edges, this way involves pouring the water both in the center but mostly along the edge, resulting in a larger grounds bed at the bottom of the brew cone.

Unwashed Brew, poured in a half-dollar sized area in the middle of the cone.

Unwashed Brew, notice the even distribution of grounds.

Washed Brew, poured along edges throughout the brew cycle.

Washed Brew, notice the larger amount of grounds in the bottom.

The final variant that I am aware of is pre-infusion, which is pouring a small amount of water (approx 1 ounce) onto the grounds to get soaked up. this can add up to 30 seconds to each brew time, a significant time addition.

So, why four pours?

I meet a guy with a Team Zissou tattoo, too cool for words.

A picture I took inside Paper Tiger Coffee Roasters, while sipping on some Koke. This plant was brought back as seeds from Oaxaca and has reached a total height of 11 inches to date.

This is my Grandfathers cane, inside of it is a 6 ounce glass vial, for liquor of course.

Tossing out the old, out-of-date blog, and starting with a new more frequently updated one.

Cheers

Ryan