The Art of Home Brewing: 3 Tips About Water

In keeping with my short series about the variables I have control of when brewing coffee at home, I want to share some Coffee Maven tips about water. Remember, my goal in brewing coffee is to be able to recreate amazing coffee every time. There is a real science surrounding water standards for brewing coffee. If you are into the science aspect of home coffee brewing, check out the water standards and characteristics as defined by the SCAA Statistics and Standards Committee here. The reality is all water is not equal. I’m going to keep is simple, sweetie: Use fresh drawn cold filtered water. I keep to this even using a manual or pour over brewing methods.

Draw water for the coffee you are brewing right before you brew. We do bend this rule slightly here for the first pot of coffee of the day. We do draw cold filtered water the night before into a water pitcher so we just have to grind coffee, put it in the filter basket and pour water in the reservoir. It keeps things simple for us before our first cup of coffee. Why fresh drawn? Water will take on the taste and flavor characteristics of the container in which it is stored. Water will also take on flavors of foods in the refrigerator, especially an open container. The best way to prevent these flavor flaws is to draw water right before brewing.

Use cold water when filling any automatic coffee brewer. Most brewers give instructions to start with cold water. I don’t really know why this is, I’ll admit that upfront, but it would stand to reason that if the instructions say to start with cold water, there must be a valid reason to start with cold water! One of the most common reasons cited is: there is a perfect coffee extraction time to temperature ratio that is interfered with if you use warm water. With our modern technology and devices, I don’t know how much this truly matters except that most of our modern automatic or semi automatic brewers are programmed for the instant or rapid heating of cold tap water. Another reason often cited for using cold water is: cold tap water has not sat in nor been piped through the hot water heater. Unless you have one of the new instant hot water heaters, water has sat in the hot water heater waiting to be drawn picking up flavors and collecting some extra minerals from sitting in the appliance. In keeping with home brewing variable control, I start with cold water because that is my routine and I am trying to consistently brew amazing coffee. In order to do this, I must be consistent in every step I do. So, I start with cold water.

My biggest Coffee Maven tip about water, though, is use filtered water. Filtered water eliminates chlorine and other additives in our municipal water sources that will taint the brewed coffee flavor. There are total dissolved solids (TDS) and mineral ratios along with pH and alkalinity levels that make distilled water a no no for brewing coffee. Distilled water does not extract coffee correctly and can leave a flat mouth feel and uninspiring flavor to the coffee. Bottled water is acceptable, just be sure it is spring water and not from a municipal source. A municipal source typically is tap water. After years of using a Brita filter pitcher, we simply go through too much water (and coffee) to keep up with the filter replacement. I also had difficulty getting people to refill the pitcher. Then I was left waiting for water to filter so I could brew my coffee. Almost two years ago, Roastmaster Jeff, who is also an engineer, did some research on good under-sink or counter mounted water filtration systems. We did convert to one of those water filtration systems simply for ease and convenience. This filtration system keeps our municipal tap water filtered of chlorine and fluoride as well as filters out excessive amounts of minerals. As we move towards a retail location, the water filtration system we choose for our shop will meet the standards given by the SCAA Statistics and Standards Committee, as mentioned above.

Remember, to keep it simple, sweetie: Use water that is freshly drawn right before brewing, make sure it is from the cold water tap and be sure water run through a water filter each time you brew. For brewing consistently good coffee at home, or the office, or anywhere really, minimized the variables you have control over. As stated before, even when using manual or pour over methods of brewing coffee, I keep to my variables controlling routine. So far I have written about the variables I have control over such as: weighing coffee, being exact in measuring water by weight or by volume, and, now, starting with fresh drawn cold filtered water. I have also written about starting with quality fresh roasted coffee, experimenting with the coffee to water ratio, using quality brewing and grinding equipment, as well as a few other tips along the way like rinsing paper filters one to three times before brewing. Be sure to go back and read my previous blogs, if you haven’t already read them, to be more familiar with the variables of brewing amazing coffee at home every time. The final two variables I will write about in the coming weeks will be grind and time.

Thanks for reading and thank you for joining us on our coffee adventure!

#chemex #water #brewing