How to Brew Coffee with a Juicy Mouthfeel? How to Brew Anaerobic Coffee? What Water Temperature for Pour-Over Coffee?

Understanding Anaerobic Coffee Processing

Compared to conventional processing methods, anaerobically processed coffee beans typically exhibit more intense and distinctive flavors (in most cases), as their fermentation tends to be deeper. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's 90+Eleta from their selection features prominent longan, spice, and citrus notes, or FrontStreet Coffee's Boundary Manor·Large Navel, with distinct blackcurrant and blueberry flavors.

Challenges in Brewing Anaerobic Coffee

While anaerobically processed coffee offers exceptional flavor profiles, brewing them well is no simple task. As FrontStreet Coffee has consistently shared, due to the different structure of anaerobically processed coffee beans, many friends find their coffee unsatisfactory when applying conventional brewing patterns. The result is often either a thin mouthfeel or bland flavor—in short, the brewed coffee falls short of being truly enjoyable. That's why today FrontStreet Coffee will share how to brew a great cup of anaerobically processed coffee.

Optimizing Grind Size for Anaerobic Coffee

Many friends struggle with brewing anaerobic coffee primarily due to under-extraction! Because of insufficient extraction, the coffee's concentration and extraction rate don't meet standards, resulting in a thin mouthfeel and weak flavor. The primary cause of this issue is still the grind! Most people, when grinding anaerobically processed coffee beans, use a conventional medium-light grind for medium-light roasted coffee. However, anaerobically processed coffee beans actually require a finer grind size, as most coffee beans don't have particularly strong water "retention" capabilities.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that during daily brewing, everyone has noticed that anaerobically processed coffee drains faster during brewing—water poured over the coffee bed quickly passes through the filter. This is because anaerobically processed beans have a relatively loose structure. Most beans undergo prolonged sugar infusion during processing, and during roasting, the sugar coating causes more intense caramelization reactions, making parts of the bean structure more porous and reducing water retention capacity.

Faster drainage shortens extraction time, reduces extraction efficiency, and makes it difficult to achieve full-bodied flavors. Adjusting to a finer grind can significantly improve this issue. Finer grinding increases the surface area of coffee particles in contact with water, accelerating the dissolution of flavor compounds. Simultaneously, drainage slows down due to reduced spacing between coffee particles—achieving two benefits with one adjustment. Therefore, when brewing anaerobically processed coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee always uses a grind one setting finer than conventional processing methods. For example, when brewing medium-light roasted Guji, FrontStreet Coffee uses setting 10, while for anaerobically processed Sidra, setting 9.5 is used.

Water Flow Techniques for Anaerobic Coffee

Beyond grind size, water flow rate during brewing is another aspect we need to adjust. There are two reasons: first, water flow rate affects drainage speed. When we use a larger flow rate during brewing, water finishes pouring more quickly, resulting in faster drainage, and vice versa. Therefore, we need to extend extraction time by using smaller water flow rates to achieve more thorough extraction—something that's difficult to accomplish solely by adjusting grind size.

Secondly, the coffee bed of anaerobic coffee is more difficult to raise, and when using large water flow, it's easy to over-saturate the bed, creating bypass water. Therefore, when brewing anaerobic coffee, appropriately reducing the pour rate can also help prevent thin mouthfeel from occurring.

Adjusting Coffee-to-Water Ratio

We can often detect savory aromas similar to "soybean paste" or "fermented black beans" in heavily fermented coffee beans. This is due to the high concentration of coffee aromas becoming too concentrated, resulting in aromatic changes. "The Science of Coffee Aroma" cites an example: when a fruit-based aroma isn't as concentrated, we might associate it with peach fragrance, but if its concentration continuously increases to a certain level, it might smell more like vomit.

Due to excessively high aroma concentration, it becomes difficult to distinguish specific aromatic notes. This is why anaerobic coffee is often perceived as unacceptable: the aroma concentration is simply too high. Whether smelling or tasting, many friends find its intense fermentation notes and spice flavors off-putting. For those who prefer less "intense" flavors and want lower coffee concentration, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a 1:16 or higher coffee-to-water ratio when brewing heavily anaerobic coffee. Increased water volume reduces coffee concentration, making aromas and flavors less concentrated! The coffee not only becomes more approachable but also allows for easier detection of premium coffee flavors.

Above are the extraction parameters to pay attention to when brewing anaerobic or heavily anaerobic processed coffee beans. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to brew anaerobically processed coffee beans.

Brewing Demonstration

The coffee bean used in this demonstration is FrontStreet Coffee's Boundary Manor·Sidra from their selection, currently the most popular heavily anaerobic coffee bean in their café. It not only offers extremely rich flavor profiles but also provides exceptional value! Extraction parameters are as follows: Coffee dose: 15g; Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15; Grind setting: 9.5 on Ek43, with 75% pass-through rate on #20 sieve, fine sugar grind; Water temperature: 92°C; Brewing method: Three-stage pour; Dripper: V60.

Step-by-Step Brewing Process

First step in brewing remains the ever-consistent bloom! Use twice the coffee weight in water for a 30-second bloom.

After the bloom ends, we start pouring from the center and slowly spiral outward to wet all coffee grounds, then use a small water flow in large circles to inject the second portion of hot water. This segment requires 120ml of hot water.

After completing the hot water pour, we first observe the drainage speed. If drainage is very fast, it's best to divide the third portion of hot water into two segments or use an even smaller flow rate to increase extraction time. When the second portion has mostly drained, we use small water flow in small circles to inject the third portion of hot water, totaling 75ml.

Then simply wait for all the coffee liquid to drip into the server below, and we can remove the dripper to complete extraction! Total time is 1 minute and 55 seconds, still somewhat shorter than conventional coffee extraction time.

The resulting Sidra immediately presents distinct grape, passion fruit, and apricot sweet-tart notes upon first sip, accompanied by subtle floral aromas and hints of spice, with a smooth and full-bodied mouthfeel—it can truly be described as a very full-bodied grape juice! As the temperature slightly decreases, the berry and grape acidity becomes even brighter, while spice and chocolate flavors become more apparent, with rich and varied layers that are truly satisfying!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473