If, like me, you got into coffee nerdery via James Hoffmann, it may be worthwhile to check out some different recipes if you haven't already.
Lance Hedrick's current pourover recipe is particularly worth a look IMO. Has a couple of advantages particularly in comparison to the Hoffmann approach:
- It doesn't require a fine grind or dictate dialing in with grind size
- This makes it less dependent on the quality of your grinder
- It reduces the risk of bitterness/astringency from overextraction
- You basically add differing amounts of agitation as needed during the drawdown to get the timing and extraction you want
- Because you're adjusting the agitation on the fly, part of your dial-in process is happening while you brew, instead of between brews.
- This means you can potentially have fewer bad brews on the way to getting a good brew
The downsides
- You have to look at the drawdown rate and then make decisions based on that. This could be stressful.
- Absolute reproducibility is probably quite a bit lower, even though I think brew to brew consistency across multiple coffees is higher
- For this reason I think Hoffmann's method probably makes more sense for a cafe setting