# Coffee quantity for french press



## andyt23 (Nov 24, 2013)

Hi,

maybe this is a more subjective one, but since I've started measuring a quantity of grind for espresso, when I came to use my french press this morning (decided to stick with french press until my hausgrind arrives instead of struggling along with rubbish espresso results) it crossed my mind that it's always been a bit of a random process for me, especially for larger quantities.

I think the answer may be that it's a matter of personal taste, but if I don't ask I'll never know for sure.

So, for my single mug Bodum french press, is there a quantity of grinds I should use as a starting point? if I weighed, I'd start getting predictable results? I have a fixed amount of water, a fixed brewing time (4 mins), so it would make sense.

And once I decide on a quantity, do I simply multiply that quantity to make a large pot of say 4 mugs worth?

I also figured that the grind I need is basically gonna be the largest setting on my grinder?

thanks


----------



## Neill (Jun 26, 2013)

I think it depends on steep times. I have tended in the past to go for 70g/litre for a 4 minute steep but I think there's guys on here getting great results from 50g/litre with much longer steep times.


----------



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

There is no exact recipe to follow, but start with 65g/L and tweak from there

One way if tweaking is to try 65g/L and change the grind size only (keep time constant)

Alternative keep the grind size the same and change g/L ratio (eg 60g/L and 70g/L)


----------



## Iwwstriker (Dec 6, 2013)

I still have my french press with me. It's a 4 cups serving size. So I followed the initial procedure given by the seller when I bought it. It's 7g of coffee per cup. So that makes 4 scoops and hot water until the line where it says stop. I suppose. I may be wrong. Please correct me if I do.


----------



## andyt23 (Nov 24, 2013)

Thanks for the replies,

I thought it might be a 'suck it and see' type thing, but a general guideline as a starting point is great, so thank you for your suggestions.

I guess consistency is then the key thing again like espresso, so same time, coffee, grind and tweak the quantity to taste.

right, I'm off to put croissants in the oven . . .


----------



## kikapu (Nov 18, 2012)

Iwwstriker said:


> I still have my french press with me. It's a 4 cups serving size. So I followed the initial procedure given by the seller when I bought it. It's 7g of coffee per cup. So that makes 4 scoops and hot water until the line where it says stop. I suppose. I may be wrong. Please correct me if I do.


As per the advice given already would weigh the amount of water you usually use and use ratios given as a guide for amount of coffee


----------



## Iwwstriker (Dec 6, 2013)

kikapu said:


> As per the advice given already would weigh the amount of water you usually use and use ratios given as a guide for amount of coffee


Thank you, @kikapu. Refreshes what I need to know about French press.


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

andyt23 said:


> So, for my single mug Bodum french press, is there a quantity of grinds I should use as a starting point? if I weighed, I'd start getting predictable results? I have a fixed amount of water, a fixed brewing time (4 mins), so it would make sense.
> 
> And once I decide on a quantity, do I simply multiply that quantity to make a large pot of say 4 mugs worth?
> 
> ...


For a small pot, don't grind super coarse (in fact, I wouldn't for any size pot), pre heat the pot thouroughly as the small brew mass won't hold heat as well as a large pot, grind as fine as you can tolerate. Make sure the grinds are throughtly wet at the very start, keep folding them gently in with the back of a spoon, until you just have pale tan foam at the top, submerge with the plunger & give it a couple of little pumps to encourage the grinds to sink...after this point do your best to not disturb the grinds bed.

I'd check the brew at what ever time you feel appropriate (4 mins?), pour off the 1st 1/8-1/4 cup & discard (oily), then pour a little coffee into the cup, swirl to cool, taste...if it's not delicious, don't pour the rest, leave it and come back in a few minutes...repeat. If you don't get to the point where it ever gets delicious gradually grind finer &/or reduce your dose until it does. It's easier to brew with a bigger pot/brew volume.

I haven't been able to find any correlation between grind size & brew time, a coarse grind may be limited to a lower extraction level (but may not take significantly less time to hit it's limit), as may a smaller pot that cools more quickly.

Ratio of coffee to water principly sets the brew strength, it's a matter of taste from 14g-17g per 250g of water? Scale up for more cups.


----------



## kikapu (Nov 18, 2012)

MWJB said:


> For a small pot, don't grind super coarse (in fact, I wouldn't for any size pot), pre heat the pot thouroughly as the small brew mass won't hold heat as well as a large pot, grind as fine as you can tolerate. Make sure the grinds are throughtly wet at the very start, keep folding them gently in with the back of a spoon, until you just have pale tan foam at the top, submerge with the plunger & give it a couple of little pumps to encourage the grinds to sink...after this point do your best to not disturb the grinds bed.
> 
> I'd check the brew at what ever time you feel appropriate (4 mins?), pour off the 1st 1/8-1/4 cup & discard (oily), then pour a little coffee into the cup, swirl to cool, taste...if it's not delicious, don't pour the rest, leave it and come back in a few minutes...repeat. If you don't get to the point where it ever gets delicious gradually grind finer &/or reduce your dose until it does. It's easier to brew with a bigger pot/brew volume.
> 
> ...


What about water temp? Just off the boil?


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

kikapu said:


> What about water temp? Just off the boil?


Yes, just off boil, or 30 seconds off boil - I put the water in first, which drops the temp by the time the slurry is brewing, maybe 95C-97C water temp if pouring onto the grinds (I personally don't like doing this)...but I don't think you can go far wrong once the water has stopped rolling, heat loss is inevitable, but higher temps may accentuate acidity.


----------



## andyt23 (Nov 24, 2013)

Ooh so are you pouring your water first, then stirring your coffee in from the top!?

and you're also plunging at the start rather than after brewing?

This is fascinating!


----------



## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

I find that for grind, not far from a V60 fineness works well for long 30~1 hour steeps.


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

andyt23 said:


> Ooh so are you pouring your water first, then stirring your coffee in from the top!?
> 
> and you're also plunging at the start rather than after brewing?
> 
> This is fascinating!


Yes, I more fold in the coffee with the tip/back of a spoon/stirrer...not stirring so much, more dabbing?

I do a couple of little plunges at the start, only about a cm deep each to break up any cake of floating grinds (you'll still get a little bit at the start), then leave the plunger at the surface. When the brew is finished, I pour through the plunger mesh - still at the top of the brew, hold it in place, this seems to lessen the silt in the cup, you still get a bit but hopefully just a light dusting at the bottom of the cup, rather than a few mouthfulls that you'd otherwise leave.


----------



## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

MWJB said:


> Yes, I more fold in the coffee with the tip/back of a spoon/stirrer...not stirring so much, more dabbing?
> 
> I do a couple of little plunges at the start, only about a cm deep each to break up any cake of floating grinds (you'll still get a little bit at the start), then leave the plunger at the surface. When the brew is finished, I pour through the plunger mesh - still at the top of the brew, hold it in place, this seems to lessen the silt in the cup, you still get a bit but hopefully just a light dusting at the bottom of the cup, rather than a few mouthfulls that you'd otherwise leave.


I just add the water then the coffee and from there don't disturb it until its time to pour.

With my french press, I found not plunging stops the pour, so I have to plunge.

The point is, as many ways to do it there are people doing it that way.


----------



## andyt23 (Nov 24, 2013)

So I see, most reassuring.

I guess experimentation is the way forward then ;-)


----------



## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

As long as you reach a target TDS then it should taste good, there isn't really an optimal way to reach it, but you should be consistent with your own rules.

Don't ask me what the TDS is though there are some here who would be more than happy to discuss the specifics with you.


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Whilst TDS measurements certainly aren't irrelevant to French press, they can be much more illuminating regarding drip & espresso, where you're balancing strength, beverage & extraction yield (think 3D?).

With French press, TDS & yield have a much more linear (2D?) relationship...in simple terms, once you've combined coffee & water, your brew mass is largely fixed & it's more of a waiting game (look at a brew ratio line on the brewing control chart & just imagine the values rising along that line from bottom left, up & right, as an illustration - it's a little more complex than that, but hopefully you see the idea). Taste intermittently and you'll probably hit a couple of points where the coffee tastes good (but different)...and a flat spot between those 2 preference points that can take some patience to get through. If you steep so long that the coffee is cold & never tasted good at any point, then you may need to adjust dose/grind...or stop agitating whilst it's steeping (after initial wetting, as this can ruin the flavour). ;-)

A french press will typically run to 22-23% yield at the highest (drip you can run all the way up to 29% and all that's coming out the beans is brown, bitter water) and FP can taste great at the higher end. I wouldn't go so far as to say you can't overextract, but it takes concerted effort.


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Kyle548 said:


> As long as you reach a target TDS then it should taste good, there isn't really an optimal way to reach it, but you should be consistent with your own rules.
> 
> Don't ask me what the TDS is though there are some here who would be more than happy to discuss the specifics with you.


On reflection my last response was probably a bit verbose (unusual for me...














) - TDS is the "brown" in your drink, the longer you wait, the more TDS (dissolved coffee), the browner it gets. At the right brown-ness it will taste sweet.


----------



## TheBoy (Jan 28, 2014)

Mmmm - this thread has given me food for thought. Whenever I make coffee in the French Press, I add the coffee first - 2 good tablespoons per decent sized mug - then the hot water, then give it a good stir and wait for about 2 minutes. I then give it a second good stir, wait a further 2-3 minutes, plunge and poor.

I've never thought any more about it but it's interesting that I don't really see people mention stirring it a lot, let alone twice - time to experiment more!


----------



## andyt23 (Nov 24, 2013)

Want to say thanks again for the ideas on this thread - I hadn't used a french press since before I decided to start making espresso (about 10 weeks ago), and my previous approach had been decidedly no-scientific!

Before: I would grind on the biggest setting, throw a spoonful into the pot, fill 'er up with boiling water and leave for an undetermined amount of time (until I remembered I was supposed to be making coffee!)... obviously with very mixed results.

Sometimes it would taste okay, so I just kept doing it hoping to hit lucky again.

After: I'm putting more coffee in (22g in 350ml) using a better water temp, using a finer grind than I was, adding a stir and timing a 4 minute brew, I'm making VASTLY improved coffee with my french press.

And it's gone from a haphazard sloshing together of random elements, to a repeatable, tuneable and delicious process.

Here's to my new found appreciation of the good old french press!


----------



## Tiny (Apr 8, 2014)

I was wondering about this today, the packet ( no grinder yet ) says a table spoon per cup, well is that heaped, level spoon, what size cup etc, so I dragged out the scales to try and get some idea of best taste and repeatability,

in my one cup press I used a heaped spoon which gave me 22 g, was a bit strong so will try less tomorrow. I will also measure the weight/volume of water too

my method is coffee in pre heated press, add just off the boil water, stir and wait 4 min, then press

the engineer in me want to experiment and find an optimum for my taste!


----------



## davetucker (Apr 7, 2014)

I found the HasBean Brewing Guide to French Press to be a good starting point.

Basically 75g/Litre, 30 second bloom + 4 mins steep time.

I'm waiting for a replacement nut screw for my Bodum before I give this a try as without it plunging is impossible.

I measured my mug at 290ml, so for 1 Mug that's 19-22g (65-75 per Litre) of coffee.

-- Dave


----------

