I can buy a range of filter brew coffee gear at just about any local specialty coffee cafe here in Melbourne. As of yet, only a very select few actually offer a filter roast. A filter roast is coffee that has been roasted with a roast profile specifically geared towards delicious filter brew coffee, and thus tends to be a lighter roast. The trick is roasting said coffee in a way that it is not grassy or under-developed. I have always felt that filter roast is more difficult to nail than espresso roast, at least in my own amateur non-professional and quite limited experience.

Since filter roast can be tricky to find, it leads me to believe that most coffee drinkers are probably using espresso roast through their filter gear. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily bad, but a filter roast could be a little more delicious, perhaps. Espresso roast can work well in filter coffee, but (for my taste) only if it's on the light side of 'espresso'.

I have an e-61 espresso machine at home, and i brew filter coffee at work using chemex or aeropress. I prefer the aeropress because i find the 1-3 cup chemex has such a long narrow shape that it is difficult to get an even extraction. I use a hario hand grinder and it's simple, clean and pretty easy to get a delicious filter brew coffee going at work. But despite the ease with which anyone can pick up a Hario v60, a chemex, an aeropress or even a Hario syphon, it's still difficult to find filter roasted coffee.

Where I get filter roast coffee

Because of the difficulty in finding filter roast, i've been either using my own filter roast ... (which i don't like doing because i find filter roasts done in a real roaster such as a Probat are superior - my espresso roasts on the other hand, i can live with and they are actually pretty good when i get things right) ... or, i've been getting filter roast from Market Lane or Proud Mary. 

Theory why filter roast is hard to find

I can understand why most cafes would shy away from adding yet another option to their roasted coffee line-up. Good cafes that only sell freshly roasted beans inevitably end up with some left-overs, and adding filter roast could mean more of this.  It's also another batch of roasting to be done, another batch of roast cupping to be tracked, etc. It's not as simple as just popping some filter roast into bags.

Maybe it's a good thing that there are a select few with the focus to do filter roast - and they are doing it well.

Ministry Grounds soon to offer filter coffee

I was also delighted to read that Ministry Grounds are also now going to begin offering filter roast Australia wide through their web store. I've always found their espresso roasts to be around the right roast level for my own personal taste, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with on the lighter side. I'll try to secure a sample of their filter roast to examine shortly, and see how it goes up against a typical espresso roast. 

I find that 9 times out of 10, a filter roast tastes way sweeter and has a lot more flavour clarity than the equivalent espresso roast when brewed through a filter device.

Know a cafe that sells filter roast?

If you know of a cafe who sells filter roast (I know Cup Coffee in Brisbane does a pretty awesome filter roast, for example), shout out in the comments.  I'd love to compile a list of filter roast locations!

In the increasingly popular world of filter brew coffee, there are two main types of filters - paper and steel. Paper filters have been around for as long as you or I have probably been alive. Heck, my parents-in-law used them back in the 60s! Granted, they have improved since then, but i'd often wondered just how good the new breed of stainless steel filters was. Could they eliminate paper filter taste, were they really re-usable and designed to last, and would they taste as good, or better than coffee brewed using a throw-away paper filter?  After acquiring the fancy new Coffeecatcher mesh filter from Wine of the Bean (which sells in their web store for a paltry $30, compared to about twice that much for competing stainless steel filter brands) I set about testing the device to see if it really did all that it promised.

First up, let's take a real close look at the Coffeecatcher mesh filter from Wine of the Bean, using our magical macro vision digitally enhanced technology!

Examining the Coffeecatcher mesh filter

Inside:

Outside:

You can see in these shots the construction of the dual-layered mesh. It is stiched together using sterling silver thread, is held together nicely and the quality was excellent. It feels strong and the seams are all nice and even.

Testing the Coffeecatcher mesh filter

I decided to test the coffeecatcher using my chemex, the reason being the chemex is clear glass whereas my clever dripper or v60 brewer are not see through. The chemex will give us a nice view of the mesh filter as we brew, and fitted quite nicely into the small 3-cup chemex despite being sized for the wider mouth of the v60.

For this test i've roasted some lovely Kenya 'Mtaro' peaberry and Guatemala 'San Francisco' beans to a filter roast depth, with first crack at 10:00 at 195 degrees, dumped at 12:00 at 201 degrees. 

The coffee - Kenya Mtaro peaberry + Guatemala San Francisco

In terms of grind, i found a medium filter grind setting similar to what you would use with paper filters works well. Since the coffeecatcher is designed to mimic the flow rate of paper filters, you don't need to use a different grind setting. As usual, just adjust grind according to taste and flow rate.

Filter coffee dose

In terms of dose, i normally use about 7.5g of coffee for every 100g of water. For this pour i was aiming for 230g of coffee (about an 8oz cup) so i dosed 17g of coffee. I've found in the past that 17g of coffee for 230g of water has always worked well when working with a v60 or other filter brew device of similar size.

Filter coffee pour

Don't forget to reset your scales at this point to zero. Your brewer should already be pre-heated using boiling water. Now we're ready to pour. I always do a wetting/pre-infuse stage of about 25 seconds before beginning the pour. I fill, let the bed sink then fill again. Some people like to keep the bed lower, some take it higher. I find the amount of agitation is what affects the brew more than just the number of pours used or the height of the bed. Coffee is soluable and we are using water as a solvent so like any science experiment the agitation plays a big factor in how much coffee ends up in the water below your filter.

Now we have our 230g of filter brew. Let's take a look at the final bed of coffee.

It looks just as you'd expect, and it performed just like any good paper filter would. Excellent!  After a quick rinse in hot water, the filter looks clean and hasn't collected any fines. I was worried a dual layer mesh might not clean up easily but i've actually found it to be very quick and simple. No scrubbing or soaking required, just a quick rinse seems to do the job. Very impressed.

How did it taste?

Let me start by saying this. Obviously, there is no paper filter taste to contend with here so you're guaranteed that there won't be paper filter taint in the cup.But even above and beyond that, the resulting brew from the coffeecatcher filter actually surprised me by how sweet and flavourful it was.

I think i'll be reaching for the coffeecatcher mesh more often than my paper filters from now on.

Not that paper filters are necessarily bad, but I just think that this filter has outperformed others on so many levels. It doesn't need rinsing (except for pre-heat), it's easy to clean, it's affordable at $30, the pour rate mimics paper filters and the resulting brew, to my taste, was super delicious!

 

You can buy the coffeecatcher mesh filter over at the Wine of the Bean web store.

This has puzzled me for a while. Filter brew devices are now so common that an IT dude at work came to me the other day and told me he'd picked up an aeropress. Just about every specialty coffee cafe is selling some sort of filter brew device, whether it be hario v60, chemex, syphon, clever coffee dripper or some other paraphenalia. And now it seems just about every other cafe is selling them too.

And people are buying them! Which, I think, is great.

Are people using the new filter brewers as replacements for their old plunger devices, and using the same coffee as always? If not, then where are they buying their coffee?  I would like to think that in Brisbane, a lot of filter brew drinkers would order online from places like Ministry Grounds, or Market Lane. Cup Coffee sell great filter roast, but are they the only ones here in Brisbane?

Where is all the filter roast coffee in all of this? Sure some people might not mind espresso roast used in a filter brewer (with a shorter brew time i'd assume?). But if a filter roast tastes so much better then why settle for anything else?

Perhaps the problem is not just lack of availability, but also lack of awareness of the treasures that filter roast brings. While most consumers would have a vague concept of what roast depth is, they may not know that it correlates to a particular brew method. And I would doubt they would have an understanding of how roast depth affects flavour. Can we teach them? Should we? Do they want to be taught?

I think we can't insist on everyone caring as much as we do about such trivial matters as coffee flavour. But we can try to offer a better choice, if it's viable to do so. If filter brewers continue to sell, at some point it should become financially viable for cafes to stock filter roast for their customers.

I also think that filter coffee is easier for the average joe to get right than espresso. Expensive machinery not required, and if you know the recipe, have technique and practice a little, chances are you can hit the sweet spot. Of course having a good grinder helps too.

It's not often you hear of, or have the opportunity to taste a coffee which rates higher than 95 points. Much less one which is rated a whopping 99 points by a respected roaster/importer/expert in the specialty coffee industry.  Thanks to a stroke of luck in a spur of the moment giveaway on Twitter, @Hasbeanroaster was kind enough to send me a sample of the very special Bolivian coffee from the Machacamarca de Berengula farm.  This is a world farm exclusive coffee which to my understanding means that HasBean have sourced, imported and are probably the only ones distributing this coffee to a lucky few customers. 

The other Bolivian coffee i sourced recently is Cafe Familia Montano via Ministry Grounds. Interestingly the tasting notes for these two coffees are remarkably similar!

• Grape acidity
• Pronounced sweetness / super sweet
• Caramel & toffee

Hmm, I wonder how the two will compare! I'm yet to roast any of the Montano, so the comparison will come later, but for now, let's look at the Machacamarca from Has Bean:

Roasted on the 1st of April, thanks to a slight hold up in Australian customs i've received it today, the 18th. Not ideal but definitely still fresh enough!  My wife and I will get through it in a couple days, i'm sure.

The roast depth and development on this coffee is absolutely beautiful. As an amateur roaster, i spent quite some time analysing the beans and just trying to imagine what kind of roast profile was used. It's a light espresso roast, about the same roast depth as i normally aim for - retaining all that varietal/origin character and yet it is not lacking in roast development or flavour.  Just how I like it.

Update: Roast time is approx 13 mins and drawn out from first to second crack.

Part of the reason i roast at home, is because i prefer a lighter roast than many cafes (but not all) offer when you buy their beans.  I think it's great to see Has Bean not afraid to use this kind of roast profile for high quality coffees like this one, which respond so well to a lighter roast.

How did it taste?

First up, as espresso I've tried it with a 19g dosed triple basket into 80mL of milk, and 170mL of milk (unhomogenised Maleny Dairy gold top). Then as a chemex.

I definitely agree with the tasting notes on this one. White grape acidity is a great descriptor, and the sweetness is extremely high and lasting. But at the same time, there is this clean, powerful body in perfect balance. The dry fragrance alone is quite astounding.

My own tasting descriptors would be similar:

• Refined acidity in balance with a clean, powerful body
• Extremely high, lingering sweetness not unlike a Kenyan but not quite as citrus or sharp but more of a refined acidity (probably helped along by the lighter roast)
• Flavour reminded me of a melted caramel
• The acidity is more like grape juice, not grapefruit

Is it worthy of 99 points? I would say it could very well be yes, simply because it's an extremely sweet coffee that is perfectly balanced and also has unique flavour attributes which i really enjoy. The beautiful roast depth and development on this one make it a 99 point coffee for me.

Huge thanks to Has Bean for sending this one down under, and for the awesome red HasBean towel!

For more info on this amazing coffee or to grab some for yourself check out the HasBean web site.

No kenyan coffee was harmed in the making of this pour over...

I recently ordered a nice glass hario server in red (to match my cups) and it came with a cheapy plastic V60 pour over cone, so I thought i would do a quick, albeit unscientific test. 

I wanted to see if the plastic cone could hold heat as well as my glass chemex. Obviously, glass and ceramic are far better conductors and retainers of thermal energy, so i was not expecting the plastic to be anywhere near as good. Turns out i was right... although with a very thorough pre-heating of the plastic cone you could probably still serve up a fairly decent pour over beverage and the temp difference was marginal.

Hario clearly advocate the pouring in the middle technique:

I would throw away this little plastic scoop... i weighed out just 10g of ground coffee when filled to the brim - not nearly enough for a 12oz beverage as per the marking on the scoop. I prefer 15g of coffee for around 250ml, but it depends on the coffee.

Water was allowed to cool to 96 degrees before beginning the pour sequence... as you can see, there is quite a lot of thermal loss involved in pour over. We are nowhere near 92 - 96 degree espresso temps. Both chemex and plastic v60 were preheated with 300ml of boiling water.

Plastic @ 86 degrees first pour - thermal loss of 10 degrees already:

End of second pour, coffee bed has dropped to 81 degrees:

Glass chemex @ 88 degrees first pour - thermal loss of 8 degrees (slightly better than plastic v60):

End of second pour, coffee bed has dropped to 83 degrees:

 

Both the v60 and chemex lost 5 degrees throughout the pour over, though the chemex retained more heat at the start. 5 degrees lost during the pour isn't too bad, but you really need to preheat the plastic v60 more thoroughly, and i think if you waited around before beginning the pour the plastic would lose heat at a faster rate than the glass.

So plastic is probably OK if you preheat well, but it's not quite on par with glass.

Taste wise I think technique and the coffee itself will have far more effect on your brew. For this experiment, my technique was pretty awful as i was juggling the camera, and i was only using some rubbish coffee i had lying around.