Coffee with April Episode 72: Why Bloom Coffee When Brewing?

This week, Patrik is back in the roastery to discuss his thoughts regarding blooming coffee.

It's a technique that the majority of coffee professionals are accustomed to doing when brewing, but what are the benefits to cup quality? As always, there are many variables to consider such as roast degree/freshness as well as brew method. In this weeks video, Patrik discusses the topic as a whole as well as providing his particular opinion on the subject.

We're always interested in hearing what topics you're most curious to hear us discuss, and social media is a great way of reaching out to us if you would like to make a request.

We welcome your thoughts and feelings on the topics raised in this weeks video, as well as other ideas you would like to see us discuss in the future. We really appreciate your feedback and support.

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Produced by April Coffee - 2019

[TheByronian]

Hi, man. It is a very interesting video and explanation. I totally agree with you regarding blooming differently taking into account the variety, density and roasting profile. However after reading and testing my data is completely different. It is true nowadays we don't roast the same, most of the times, and we tend to find more and more lighter and faster roast profiles. The result of those roasting profiles is a more dense coffee which struggles more degassing. I personally find medium-light roast taking 2-3 weeks to degass enough in order to perform good.
Because of that I approached blooming the other way around you did and tested it with refractometer and a panel. Conclusions I got:

Blooming-No Blooming: Almost all coffees got a higher extraction yield when we bloomed. Sensory-wise those coffees tended to give a more clear and sweet cup (that can be result of no-bloom coffees being underextracted as they had some salty notes).

Bloom ratio: Surprisingly enough we did not find all coffee absorbing1:2 or 1:2.2, ratio coffee-water. Instead most coffees were in an absorbtion ratio of 1:2.4/2.8. That pushed me to start blooming 1:3 instead of traditional 1:2, leading to again higher extraction and cleaner cup.

Bloom time: If we infeer that lighter roasts and faster roasts (there is an SCA handout/ppt about it for ASTs at least talking about this) has higher density and takes longer to degass, the denser the coffee the more we wait. Therefore very fresh coffees or dense benefit from a long blooming time (45-55sec) while the opposite would just need shorter blooming time (15-30sec).

I don't know if you have tested this way but hope you find this insightful as blooming techniques are full of misconception and misleading information around. Le me know what you think,

John

PS: have only tested using cone filter (V60) and it is true some results can vary using a flat bed brewer like kalita. When I have time I wanna see those variances.

[bradsyoutube]

Great video, thank you! I caught myself constantly wanting to tell you “ your coffee is getting cold!” Lol

[BrentGoodale]

I love to see your insight on these topics! I have also been doing the two pours on the v60 exactly as you described and found it to bring more sweetness. Looking forward to the next one. Cheers

[lito_sp]

I patched together a recipe from your recent comments on pour over, I'm sure it's not exactly what you do, but fun to test.
V60, 13g of light roast ethiopian, boji(Oslo, srw), ground right before brewing. 10second pour of 100grams, let it drain completely(hole in middle), at 1:15 a 15sec 100g pour. Drained through at 3:05. Water was approx 96 degrees at start. 1.4tds 18.5%ext. Extremely sweet cup, aromatic, clean, soft, not bitter, not astringent, but only slight juiciness and acidity. Would lower temp be the way to go for a juicier cup... I will certainly try. Thank you for your videos, etc. !

[waroros]

Cool. Please do another v60 video with 12:200, 100-100 pour. Your last v60 video was 40g pours.

[inuyashaspet]

I've been using the two variations of the WBC recipe you shared with us recently (using the kalita wave filter with a large hole dripper) and it's the cleanest yet sweetest cup I've ever had. Is it still your go-to recipe for non-competition?
I love these very specific breakdowns for each step. I would love to watch a whole video on how you deal with calibrating unwanted flavors by altering water mineral content vs. water temp vs. grind coarseness vs. pour times and in what priority order you would try changing them.

[simon_gautherin]

Thanks Patrik for initiating this kind of conversations, I agree with your approach regarding blooming. Age and roast profile are the two main things I take into consideration when brewing. However you did bloom for 30 seconds during your final presentation in Boston right? (I had to rewatch the video to make sure). Was that because you still needed to get the CO2 out despite grinding a long time before?

[zahranramadhan]

Hello patrik, thank you for explained blooming coffee. Anyway, as you mentioning about profile roast, i have a problem when buy a beans from different roaster. I know every roaster has a different style, but when i get a darker roast I'm confused to brew it because it gets more bitter. How do you do when you brew lighter or darker roast coffee? Thanks for sharing!

[hyunsukko]

Thanks for sharing your experience . Most sucrose is breaking down in roasting process . So what compounds you are thinking to organize the sugars in brewing coffee ??

[emile]

Interesting, I always thought that exposing ground coffee too oxygen for extended periods allowed the aromatic compounds to become stale. I'll have to test this.

[trihoang]

I just know a little about coffee. I like brewing but I dont know how and where to learn more. tks u so much

[ddurian]

Could you please give more details about your 100-100 pour V60 method? What is the total brew time and what is the time interval between each pour? Would be really helpful, thanks!

[dowhatIdo]

Hai patrick, so I'm kinda confuse about how brewer tells about pouring the water slow vs very hard when blooming. So what is do you think best? I tend to do it very slow, since I have thought that slower pour will not set the fines to the bottom dripper and cause choke. I need kinda enlightment on this. Thanks b4 man

[cchianwei]

You mentioned grinding the coffee a lot sooner before brewing, so should the coffee ground constantly exposed to the air during this period or sealed with a mini container?

[evenaicantfigurethisout]

do you favor higher or lower temps? and does fresher coffee have more or less sweetness?

[wyocoyotewyocoyote]

rather not bloom 7ish...grind "x" amount of time ahead of brewing! No stir MINUTE 5 30 Roasting close to competition (super freshly roasted beans) MINUTE 9. Very interesting.

[marvinduncan]

Hey Patrik thanks for the video! Just a quick question I want to ask. I've been practicing with coarser grinds for pour overs, but I've been struggling with extractions. How do you push for stronger extraction rates and higher TDS % without making it finer?

[caminoeli]

CO2 exist since the raw bean or is it in roast process if it is in which part of roast process do develop co2 ?

[pacmanXD]

Great! What about blooming with an Aeropress or other immersion methods? It doesn't make sense right?

[thorns]

I have a question, I often notice that coffee starts to taste different as it "ages" i.e. as you brew it over a week or two, for example it might lose sweetness or just start tasting quite different (I see this with naturals). Do you have any tips for how to adjust the brewing parameters in this scenario?