Are you wondering how to use a French Press? Good news! The French Press is one of the best coffee brewers for beginners. It is inexpensive, easy to use and can make a rich cup of coffee.
In this article, we will describe the French Press brewing process and provide some recommendations to help you improve your brewing technique.
What is a French Press?
The French Press is a full-immersion coffee brewing method. This means that the coffee is extracted by immersing the coffee grounds in water for a certain amount of time. Generally, full-immersion brewers are easier to use than pour-over brewers. If you are a beginner home brewer, the French Press is a great place to start your journey.
The French Press consists of two main parts: the beaker and the plunger. The beaker is the main container where the coffee grounds are submerged in water. After the coffee is brewed, we use the plunger, which is attached to a mesh strainer, to press the coffee grounds to the bottom.
How to brew coffee with the French Press
Before starting the brewing process, you need to decide what ratio to use and how much coffee you want to make.
Recommended Ratios
The first step in the process is choosing the ratio. Most experts recommend a coffee to water ratio between 1:12 to 1:17. Evidently, the lowest ratio will give you a very strong cup and the highest ratio will give you a cup more on the weaker side. For this recipe, we will be using a ratio of 1:15 which should give you an average strength cup of coffee.
How much coffee to use?
The next thing we need to decide is how much coffee we want to brew. For this, you need to know what the maximum capacity of your French Press is. The standard French Press has a capacity of 1 liter or 4 cups. However, they come in 4 different sizes: 0.35 liters (11.8 ounces), 0.5 liters (17 ounces), 1 liter (33.8 ounces), and 1.5 liters (50.7 ounces)
E.g. If you have the 1L French Press, you can probably brew up to 900 ml because you still want to leave room for the coffee grounds of course. Using the 1:15 ratio, you would need 60g (900/15) of coffee grounds for 900 ml of water.
Brewing French Press Coffee in 7 easy steps
Ingredients
- Coffee beans or pre-ground coffee
- Water
Equipment
- French Press
- Kitchen Scale
- Grinder (if using coffee beans)
1. Preheat your French Press
The first step is to boil water to preheat your French Press. Fill your French Press with hot water while you are working on the next steps.
You may wonder if this step is really necessary. It is not in the sense that you will still get your coffee if you skip this step. However, preheating the French Press will make the coffee taste better. We want to preheat the French Press to try to maintain a higher temperature during the brewing process. Of course, we will be using almost boiling water to brew our coffee but if the French Press is cold during the process this will contribute to temperature loss. If the temperature gets too low during the brewing process then we risk under extraction which leads to an overly acidic cup.
2. Weigh your coffee
Use the 1:15 ratio to calculate how much coffee you will need. Simply divide the amount of coffee you want to get (in milliliters) by 15.
E.g if you want to get 500ml of coffee (about 2 servings), then use 33g of coffee (500 divided 15) Then, use your scale to measure your coffee. Use the same weight regardless of if you are using whole beans or pre-ground coffee.
3. Grind coffee
If you are buying coffee pre-ground, look for a coarse or French press grind. If you are using whole beans, which we highly recommend, grind the coffee beans right before brewing. The fresher the grounds, the better our coffee will taste. For French Press brewing go for a medium-coarse grind size. If you grind too fine, you may end up with an over-extracted and bitter cup.
4. Boil (more) water
Next, you need to boil more water. This is the water you will use to brew the coffee. Once it reaches boiling point, turn the burner or electric kettle off. We do not want to use the water at boiling temperature. Ideally, we want the water to be at around 195°F so wait about 45 seconds before pouring. This should be enough time to bring the water to the right temperature.
5. Add the coffee and water
Now, you can pour out the water you used to preheat the French Press. Then, put the French Press on the scale and add the coffee. Zero out your scale and add the required amount of hot water following the 1:15 ratio. The scale can take a few seconds to register the weight so do not go too fast when you are getting close to your target water amount. Remeber that 1 ml of water equals 1 g of water.
6. Stir and wait 4 minutes
Stir to make sure all grounds are submerged. Then, start a 4 minute timer and let your coffee brew. You can go make breakfast while you wait.
7. Press the plunger down
After your timer goes off, it is time to press the plunger down. Make sure to press all the way down or your coffee will continue to brew. And that’s it! Now, you are ready to serve
French Press Coffee Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- 1. The first step is to boil water to preheat your French Press. Fill your French Press with hot water while you are working on the next steps.
- 2. Use the scale to measure 60 g of coffee beans or coffee grounds.
- 3. (Optional) If you are using coffee beans, you need to grind your beans using the medium-coarse setting.
- 4. Next, you need to boil the water you will use to brew the coffee. Once it reaches boiling point, turn the burner or electric kettle off. We do not want to use the water at boiling temperature. Ideally, we want the water to be at around 195°F so wait about 45 seconds before pouring.
- 5. Pour out the water you used to preheat the French Press. Then, put the French Press on the scale and add the coffee grounds. Zero out your scale and add start adding the water. Stop when the scale hits 900 g (900 ml of water)
- 6. Stir to make sure all grounds are submerged. Then, start a 4 minute timer and let your coffee brew.
- 7. After your timer goes off, it is time to press the plunger down. Make sure to press all the way down or your coffee will continue to brew. And that’s it! Now, you are ready to serve.
Conclusion
It looks simple, doesn’t it? Just make sure you get two things right: the ratio and the brewing time and you will get great tasting coffee every time. We hope this quick guide helps you improve your French Press coffee.