Recipe for brewing coffee on Chemex

Many people receive a new manual brewer as a gift or want input or tips on how to brew even better coffee at home. In this series, we will cover the best brewing methods with specific recipes you can try. And as usual, we want to emphasize that this is not the definitive guide. The best taste is what you think tastes best! (But with a little practice and an open mind, this can change; coffee is a world of flavors)

Chemex

Chemex – the icon of coffee brewing in the 60s. Good, American craftsmanship. One flask, one filter. Simple.

The Chemex carafe is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a design classic.

Like the Hario V60, the Chemex is a popular brewing method, but it allows you to brew a much larger volume. Chemex gives you a very clean and elegant brew.

To get a good brew, we need to control time and quantity, so we use a scale and timer. For a good extraction, you need a good grinder that provides a consistent grind size. If you're missing a scale, you can find one here

In previous articles, we have explained how to think about strength and extraction. How much you dose will determine the strength of the brew, while extraction tells us what proportion of the actual coffee is in the brew. Extraction is directly linked to grind size and brewing time. Here we use 6g of coffee per dl of water. Find a grind size suited to your brew and adjust to your taste. If the coffee tastes sour, you can try grinding a little finer; if it tastes bitter, you should grind a little coarser.

To make a good pour-over, we recommend using a gooseneck kettle, which gives you better control over how quickly and how you distribute the water. Boil fresh cold water, rinse the paper filter, and preheat the brewer.

We brew Chemex like this: 36-39 g coffee, 600 g water, 4-4.5 minutes contact time

• Pour about 85 g of water – let it sit for 30-40 seconds; this is called blooming, where gases from the coffee beans rise up as small bubbles.
• After this, add water to the center of the filter holder with the same flow rate as it drips out of the bottom of the brewer, but make sure all the coffee is always covered by water. Continue pouring until you reach 600g.
• Ensure you finish pouring in about 3 minutes; the brew should be complete in 4-4.5 minutes.

You can pause occasionally, and if you notice the water flowing slower, use both hands to lift the filter slightly, allowing the air channel between the filter and the pouring spout to open up. Agitation will rotate the mass, and along with opening the air channel, you will again facilitate better flow.

The trick and challenge to getting a good Chemex brew is to manage to get the coffee to flow through at the right time. Grind a little coarser than for drip coffee, but not as coarse as for French press or boiled coffee. And experiment with pouring technique; remember that if you pour too early to the edges, the brewing will stop, and you will exceed the desired time. It's better to start pouring in the middle and gradually move outwards in circular movements until you hit the correct brewing time.

And remember, no matter which brewing method you use, coffee tastes best when you use fresh ingredients and clean equipment. We also include an illustrated brewing guide with every Chemex purchase from us, illustrated by local artist Didrik Andresen.