AeroPress Creativity Primer, Part 2

Three new ways to brew with an AeroPress

BY JOSHUA  DUSK-PEBBLES
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE

Part 1 of this story, which included the first of three recipes, appears HERE.

CONCEPT 2: AEROSHAKER

What you need besides an AeroPress:

Get your hands on the plunger from a second AeroPress.

How it’s done:

¢ Place 25g of drip grind coffee into an inverted AeroPress and level it. Make sure the plunger is inserted at least ½-an-inch into the cylinder.

¢ Start a timer and pour 100g of 200F water.

¢ At 00:30 on the timer, put the second  plunger in the top and rock it back and forth, moving it down, until it is at least ½-an-inch into the other side of the cylinder.

¢ At 00:40 on the timer, get a solid grip on both plungers and shake that baby like a martini for 45 seconds.

¢ At 1:30 on the timer, remove the second  plunger and lower the cylinder until the brew bath is close to the top.

¢ Wet a filter and screw it onto the AeroPress.

¢ At 2:00 on the timer, flip and press for 10-15 seconds.

Challenges:

¢ Make sure to hold both plungers straight and steady. The gas released as you shake will put a surprising amount of outward pressure on the plungers.

¢ The high coffee-to-water ratio requires you to press pretty hard.

Why try it:

The coffee produced through this method is quite similar to a well-extracted espresso. It provides an incredible burst of flavor on its own, and can be used to make a very nice cortado.

CONCEPT 3: AEROCUPPING

What you need besides an  AeroPress:

You’ll need a larger container into which you can set your inverted AeroPress ”I’ve used a 1000ml beaker. It’s wide enough to catch the coffee but low enough to stay out of the way when plunging.

How it’s done:

¢ Place 19g of medium/coarse ground coffee into an inverted AeroPress and level it.

¢ Start a timer counting up and quickly add 250g of water.

¢ Carefully move the inverted press into the larger container.

¢ At 5:00 on the timer, break the crust to start releasing the trapped heat.

¢ Skim the foam and floating grounds off and discard them.

¢ You can start tasting the top of your brew with a spoon at about 15 minutes.

¢ Once the flavor really open up, just rinse your filter, screw the filter basket onto the press, set a cup on top, and press slowly until you get just past the “1”. I usually do this right around 20 “21 minutes.

¢ Remove the cup and then pull your press out of the liquid.

Challenges:

This is a relatively slow brew method. If you want to speed up your brewing time a bit, you can grind 22g of coffee very fine and stir the brew gently for a full minute right after you finish pouring your water. Doing so should allow you to initiate your plunge at around 7 “8 minutes.

Why try it:

You end up with a really smooth cup of coffee which you can stop brewing according to taste and you don’t have to consume entirely with a spoon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joshua Dusk-Peebles  is a lifelong explorer, experimenter, and learner. He enjoys nothing more than sharing what he is learning with other people. When he was young, he would get legitimately angry if his dad forgot to let him smell the coffee every time a new bag was opened. Unfortunately, the much less pleasant corresponding beverage kept him away from coffee until his 30s, when he smelled and then tasted a well-handled natural process Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, and everything made sense again. He plans on getting his own new-born son started much sooner.