Now I love my Chemex – it is my comfort brewer at the moment, though the vacpot is getting tempting (I just worry about committing to the technique to raise myself to the level of the barismo vac brewer kung fu). However I can’t stop worrying about the paper. I rinse religiously, and often wonder what it is keeping out of my cup (for good or bad).

Brewing some fine coffee this morning

What threw me is something I hadn’t considered up until this point – the way that the paper affects the flow of water through the coffee. I haven’t brewed much in the past with gold/titanium filters so I put my hands up as inexperienced. As I’ve said previously I have been using a much coarser grind with the Chemex, but the Kona has taken me a fairly long time to dial in the grind as the metal doesn’t provide the same resistance to the water that paper does. To get a decent brew time I had to grind finer than seemed right, and the cup was indeed a bit ropey. I am still not entirely convinced I’ve got it but I did get a very sweet cup from the Collective’s Daterra Sweet Collection.

I am brewing at 60g/l at the moment and would appreciate any input from people a bit more comfortable/experienced with them than me. Also I’d be curious if people have any particular techniques for pouring the water.