Brewing Great Coffee.

[seemax]

I love my coffee almost as much as my beer !

It's all about fresh beans, grind on demand and correctly (burr over blade), don't extract too much and keep your gear clean.

Beans - buy locally roasted (as per above suggestions) .. Coffex in Brunswick... the other big names I'm not too keen on. Most recently I've tried Braziliano from WA , and really for $16/kg in beans it's damn good.

Grinder - ideally burr but that will be $180+ ... otherwise Aldi $20 blade... not TOO fine otherwise it just gets clogged.

Machine - they're all 15bar now with thermoblock, my $150 sunbeam makes good coffee, but its slow to heat, has less stainless and more plastic bits..

Preheat cups, extract maybe 50mL for a double shot.... steam up your milk to 65C mac and pour!!

 

[thelastspud]

Those little stovetop units are great and really really common over here. If you go to the equivalent of Big W over here youll find a wall of them all different sizes from 1 cup up to 20.

In the house we have three a 1, a 2 and a 6 cup.

If you like black coffee or dont care about the milk foam these are the way to go.

 

[King Brown]

I agree with the recomendations of the stove top. Get good beans and only grind as much as you need. If you are in Melbourne get your beans from places like Padre Coffee in East Brunswick or from Brother Bubba Budan on Little Collins. If you want to order off the net 5 Senses have good beans. Don't buy your beans from the supermarket.......

Supermarket beans is equiv to using out of date Kit extract.
Freshly fround beans is equiv to using freshly cracked malted grains.

As with beer brewing, water is important, a small water filter jug will do wonders for the taste.

You can get a manual grinder from somewhere like http://www.thingscoffee.com.au/ (no affiliation) which will do you for now.

Once your pallate matures you can get yourself one of these (see below). Combine a Japanese siphon with fresh single origin beans and a bit of practise and you will be in coffee heaven. I would rather use brew methods for my coffee at home and leave the espresso to when i go to a cafe.

The world of coffee is like the world of brewing, full of cool shiny expensive stuff.

A cafe near me uses them, definetly very cool.

Just like brewing cleaning is very important too, can't make good coffee with a dirty machine.

 

[wambesi]

I use a Kyocera hand grinder and Aeropress for work coffee (sort of like an espresso shot) and at home I have an Sunbeam espresso machine (EM6910) at home with Sunbeam grinder.

I roast my own coffee so it's always fresh and find when I do my own espresso, sugar is not needed, some coffee shops on the other hand.....

As to beans, I buy mine green from coffeesnobs.com.au and they sell roasted as well.
The aeropress is a nifty little device you can take on the road with you, comes in handy when there is only instant available....

 

[goomboogo]

I use a Kyocera hand grinder and Aeropress for work coffee (sort of like an espresso shot) and at home I have an Sunbeam espresso machine (EM6910) at home with Sunbeam grinder.

I roast my own coffee so it's always fresh and find when I do my own espresso, sugar is not needed, some coffee shops on the other hand.....

As to beans, I buy mine green from coffeesnobs.com.au and they sell roasted as well.
The aeropress is a nifty little device you can take on the road with you, comes in handy when there is only instant available....

The aeropress is a good option when away from home. I pack it along with the beans and grinder before packing anything else. I see it as more important than a change of clothes. Priorities.