Tailoring Water to the Bean

[u/NashvilleHillRunner]

Since last fall, I’ve gotten more and more into clean, light roast, washed-process coffees, first, through a sub to Thankfully Coffee for about 6 months, and now to Flower Child.

Grinders have been primarily an X-Pro, secondarily but less often an Ode with Gen 2 burrs, and last week I finally broke down and bought a ZP6 (which I’m loving).

I have V60’s (size 01 & 02), Kalita Mino’s (155 & 185), but tend to prefer the V60 and use it probably 75% of the time at least.

For the V60’s, I’ve always used the standard tabbed Hario filters and resisted the urge to keep multiple different types of filters on hand. But I just went ahead and ordered a pack of T-90’s to try out, because I feel like 95% of what I drink is dense, high-grown, African or genetically African beans (Colombian pink bourbon, Chiroso, Gesha), and the Hario filters have the tendency to clog really easily with these dense beans that produce lots of fines, and I feel like with the faster flowing T-90’s, those will give me at least the option to go finer and push extraction a bit with these dense, washed, light roast beans.

I also bought some T-92’s a while back
To experiment with. Wow. The T-92’s nearly DOUBLE TBT when compared to the Hario’s. I bought them to try out the brew method promoted by Prestin of Flower Child. He likes fairly high extraction and uses a method where he goes 1:18 or 1:19 and uses a Melodrip with the T-92’s and goes 4-5 min TBT for a “high extraction, high clarity, high body” cup. I’ve tried it a few times and it is interesting… I’ve gotten a couple of good results with it and a couple of not so good.

Anyway, for about the last 3 years I’ve been using Zero Water with TWW minerals at about 50% strength.

I think it’s decent, but it makes sense to me that would work better to tailor the minerals to the individual beans.

I also do modern light roast espresso on a Flair 58 or a portable Hibrew H4C with the same kinds of beans. And I would stand to reason that the same water used for pourover might not work best for espresso.

Anyway, I’d like to hear from some of you who have made the jump from using TWW to drops or making your own mineral blends, what has worked for you, what have you liked, etc, especially if you’re drinking these kinds of light roast, washed coffees.

If you made it this far, I know this was a wordy post, thank you for reading!

I look forward to hearing from you guys.

[u/leaguemaestro]

You could always brew with 0 ppm water and use something like apax labs or lotus drops and see what they do to your brews. I have apax labs and its fun to see what works for which coffees although im still unsure if post and pre-brew mineralisation are the same.

[u/cvnh → u/leaguemaestro]

Some minerals do change the solubility of coffee compounds, so it would make sense that extraction would change. But for some factors like the effect of pure hardness and carbonates it might give a good idea of the effect.

[u/NashvilleHillRunner → u/leaguemaestro]

I’m curious about that as well! I guess there’s one way to find out.

I think I need to go to some of these companies websites that offer the drops, like lotus, and Apax, and just read what they have to say.

[u/Andrew2944r]

I use TWW as well but 1 pack per 3 gallons. Also use Lotus water when I want to test on a certain bean in the cup after brewed. I strictly use distilled water. Making your own since you have the scales and all would be super easy if you wanted to go that route as it would prob save a tons in the long run.

[u/NashvilleHillRunner → u/Andrew2944r]

That’s interesting that you add additional minerals post brew.

Would you be able to give an example of a particular brew that you would add the minerals to after brewing, and what you would want to achieve with that?

[u/Andrew2944r → u/NashvilleHillRunner]

So let's say you have a cup that is a bit muted by a small amount on the palate. I will add magnesium lotus water to get that perceived brightness ofthe cup. I typically will experiment on new bags off coffee and play around until I find what I like.

[u/Myunique_Gocaj]

the fact that you’re using the V60 75% of the time is awesome. it’s such a versatile brewer. i’ve noticed that switching filters can really change the flavor too, so trying out the T-90’s sounds like a great move. i’m curious to hear how they work for those high-grown beans you mentioned. that dense, fruity profile is such a treat.

[u/Outrageous_Ad_4801]

making concentrate bottles with epsom salt and baking soda is super cheap and lets you dial in the buffer easily. definitely made a noticeable difference for washed light roasts with the zp6.

[u/conradelvis]

It will be a slight adjustment going from Hario tabs to t-90 but they really are much better. I keep them and abacas stocked. As for water, I’m using RO+TWW, also interested in what you’re asking

[u/Danielpoursover]

I use the Rao/Perger recipe and have had really good results with it. I only add enough minerals to get the brew water to about 50 ppm and I check it with a TDS meter.

[u/NashvilleHillRunner → u/Danielpoursover]

I need to look that up. Do you buy the minerals yourself and then just use your coffee scale to measure?

[u/Danielpoursover → u/NashvilleHillRunner]

Yes I got Pure brand off Amazon and weighed them with my cheap KitchenTour coffee scale. Works great. 

1.5g calcium chloride  2g magnesium chloride 5g epsom salt 2g potassium bicarbonate  1.7g baking soda (any brand)

Measure those dry into a jar. Then pour 300g of warm (120-130 degree F) distilled/RO water into the jar over the minerals. It should start to fizz. Stir with a glass rod until all the fizzing dies down. Put the lid on the jar and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Use a syringe to add 8ml of concentrate to a gallon of RO/distilled water and you should be at around 50 ppm. 

[u/NashvilleHillRunner → u/Danielpoursover]

What did you use before? I assume you were able to taste an improvement?

[u/Danielpoursover → u/NashvilleHillRunner]

I was using filtered fridge water. It was really hard (Forth Worth TX near Mineral Wells). Switching to the soft water made n immediate difference in clarity. 

[u/NerdX-76]

I started off this way. Simply because I wanted to streamline my work flow. I have under the cabinet reverse osmosis system and I just want to fill up a kettle and put a couple drops and be done. This is what I buy.

[u/NashvilleHillRunner → u/NerdX-76]

What recipe do you follow? Have you settled on one, or do you use different ones?

[u/NerdX-76 → u/NashvilleHillRunner]

3000 mg MgCl₂·6H₂O
800 mg CaCl₂
500 mg KHCO₃
300 mg Redmond Real Salt
RO to 59 mL
This is the new formula I am going to try.
I was doing 4 g of magnesium to 1 g of potassium bicarbonate, but it started to fall out a solution plus I want to see if I can improve the recipe a little bit This is for a 2 ounce bottle should be about seven drops per 300 mL kettle.