Brewing coffee with the Chemex is one of my absolute favorites as far as the whole experience is concerned. In addition to being a beautiful process, it is also a fragrant and calm almost ceremonial event, and I love the simplicity of this beautiful brewing method.
When you brew coffee on a Chemex, it is important to follow some simple guidelines to achieve success. Chemex is what is called a pour over brewer and uses their own special filters that are slightly thicker than what you might know from the V60 filters. The thick filter means that you have to grind your beans a little coarser than for the V60, which gives a longer throughput time.
Chemex is a "cleaner" taste experience than V60, and a brew where the fine nuances from the bean can really stand out.
Chemex comes in several sizes and styles. Classic , Hand-blown and Hand-blown with handle . Regardless of what you have, it is important that you use the Chemx filters for your brewer.
You must use this
- Chemex coffee maker + filter
- 40 g freshly ground coffee ( No. 2 , No. 3 or No. 5 )
- 600 ml. water at 98ºC.
- Coffee scale
Brewing guide with a Chemex 6 cup Classic flask
- Take your Chemex filter and fold one of the four sides to form a cone shape with three pleats on one side and a single pleat on the other
- Place the filter in your Chemex with the side that has three pleats facing the pour spout.
- Rinse the filter with hot water until it is completely soaked while heating up your Chemex. The water is then poured out.
- Place the coffee in the filter and make a small indentation in the center without squeezing the coffee. Use possibly a small stick of wood for it.
- Place your Chemex on the scale and reset it.
- Start your stopwatch and pour 150g of water over the coffee, starting in the center and working your way around in small circles, rotating the flask to ensure all the coffee is wet.
- Let the coffee 'Bloom' for 30 sec. to release CO2 from the roasting.
- Add 300 g of water over the next 30 seconds so that there are 450 g of water in the flask when the stopwatch reaches 1:30.
- Then 150 g of water is poured over the next 30 seconds, so that there is a total of 600 g of water in the flask when the clock shows 1:45.
- Wait until all the coffee has run through. It should take somewhere between 4:00 and 4:30.
- A little hack is to leave the filter in the flask, as it will retain the heat. Turn if necessary the top of the filter so you can grab it and lift when pouring.
Have you used a lightly roasted coffee such as No. 3, there will be a delicious aroma and taste of fresh forest berries emerging. The clean and gentle taste will be a slightly acidic but not hard coffee.
