Aeropress Brew Guide

The Aeropress is the most versatile coffee brewer on the market. It is the only brewer that can be used both right side up and upside down! It is made of durable polypropylene (plastic) and is quite compact, making it an excellent addition to your kit when travelling. The brewer functions like a giant syringe. Forcing hot water and coffee through its filter, it uses the built up pressure to help extract your coffee. Alan Adler, the inventor, designed the Aeropress to brew a small amount of very concentrated coffee. But by increasing the amount of brew water, reducing the amount of coffee used, or adding water to your concentrate, you can brew a filter strength type of coffee. Because there are so many variables and ease of use, there are almost too many ways to brew with the Aeropress. 

With the versatility of this brewer in mind, there is a world wide competition called the Aeropress Championship. Where you can find brewers from all around the world, going head to head to find the best variables for a particular coffee. The rules are simple: everyone uses the same coffee and you can only use the tools that come in the official Aeropress box.

To get you started, we have two slightly different brew methods from members of our team. For other recipes that might fit your brew style, take a look at some of the best recipes in the world here: World Aeropress Championship 

Traditional Method

The traditional method starts with the Aeropress right side up. You can choose to stir, you can choose to add all your water at once, you can choose to plunge slower or try them all! Once you add all of your water, insert the plunger and pull back just a little bit to create a vacuum. This will stop your coffee from dripping out the bottom as you decide when to plunge. 

If you are interested in the traditional method, here's Cole with an instructional video. If you want to learn about the inverted method read on!

 

Inverted Method

The inverted method starts with the plunger in the top of the Aeropress, plunged just far enough to create a vacuum, and then flipped upside down. There is a small amount of danger that comes with the inverted method. If the plunger is not pushed in far enough, when flipping the Aeropress, the plunger sometimes escapes. However, the advantage with this method is that no coffee will escape the Aeropress until you are ready to plunge. Because no coffee escapes the Aeropress, this method benefits from swirling, stirring, and a coarser grind size. 

Paul, the Head Roaster at Rosso, came second in the 2018 Canadian National Aeropress Championship. If you'd like to try his recipe, here it is:

Paul's Silver Medal Recipe in 10 steps

  1. You'll need 350 mL of water at 89 Celsius. 
  2. While your kettle is heating, grind 32g of coffee at a medium coarse grind setting. Remove the *fines by shaking your grinds in a paper cup.
  3. Carefully pour 30g into an inverted Aeropress, making sure not to include the fines.
  4. Zero Aeropress on a scale, add 160ml of water, start timer and stir rapidly 30 times.
  5. Rinse paper filter and place on top of Aeropress with cap.
  6. Remove Aeropress from the scale and zero a sturdy jug on the scale.  Remove.
  7. When timer reaches 2 minutes, flip and press slowly into the jug.
  8. Place jug back on scale. You should have 115-120ml of concentrate.
  9. Dilute with hot water until final brew is approx. 260-270ml, depending on taste.
  10. Kick back, relax and enjoy!

*Fines are small particles of coffee that are a byproduct of coffee grinding. They are microscopic, near dust size, and can cause a brew to over-extract, tasting dry or bitter.

Interested in getting started? click here!

And remember to never plunge on your scales!!