How many stages can the segmented water injection of hand-brewed coffee be divided into? What should I pay attention to for three-stage brewing? What is the relationship between time and water injection method?

Whether you are a rookie who has just come into contact with hand-made rookies, or an old player who has been making coffee for many years, segmented style is the most commonly used method of water injection. So for extraction, what factors will be affected by the number of segments? What's the point of dividing it into several paragraphs?

How to define sectional water injection?

In view of the fact that the stifling before formal water injection extraction is a preparatory action that most people have reached a consensus, so whether the water injection after steaming is paused or not is the basis for us to judge whether there are segments or not.

Once all the water is injected after steaming, it is considered to be a "one-size-fits-all flow" without segments, and as long as the amount of water after steaming is divided into more than two stages, that is, there will be a pause midway, even if the water is injected by stages. Among them, the "three-stage" which divides the main extracted hot water into two stages is the most widely used, which is not only the default method of daily production in Qianjie, but also a more suitable extraction mode for beginners.

Why segment it?

For novices who are not adept at controlling the flow of water, whether the hot water in the filter cup has been filtered within the expected time is usually the key point for everyone to judge whether there is something wrong with the filling of this pot of coffee. According to the cooking experience, the extraction time is too short, which means that the water injection is too fast; if the extraction time is too long, it means that the water injection is slow.

When we choose to pour hot water all at once after steaming, whether it is fast or slow, we can only stare at the coffee "resigned to fate" and cannot be remedied. If the water is injected in stages, the pause will provide an opportunity for the brewer to observe the change in the water level.

For example, the front street uses a three-stage style to brew a pot of Panama 90 + Manor Eleta Rose Summer. When the second stage of water is injected, it is found that the coffee liquid has all seeped into the pot in less than 1 minute, so the third stage needs to use a small flow to slowly fill the remaining water to pull back the total extraction time of about 2 minutes. Similarly, when the second stage of water injection takes too long, we can increase the flow so as to avoid soaking for too long.

In fact, the drip-filter extraction by hand can be seen as a process of scouring the mixing powder layer, and the water column makes the coffee powder tumble in the filter cup, that is, by artificially changing the flow rate, pause times, circles and other details, to get coffee flavor substances reasonably. Therefore, increasing the segmentation means prolonging the time of scouring the powder layer, making the final extraction efficiency higher.

Qianjie has made a comparison, because there is no pause after steaming, the brewing time is shorter, and the coffee tends to be bright, refreshing and clean, while the three-stage water injection with a pause takes about 10 seconds more extraction time, while the extra stage washing also improves the release efficiency of soluble substances, giving the coffee a higher alcohol thickness and a richer sense of layering.

Segmented water injection, at most, can be divided into several sections?

In order to directly show the influence of the number of segments on flavor, Qianjie designed a comparative experiment for your reference.

Here, Rose Xia Village Red Standard Rose Xia was used as the extraction object, with the corresponding parameters (powder quantity: 15 grams, grinding degree: EK43s scale 10, water temperature: 93 degrees Celsius, ratio of powder to water: 1:15), the steaming stage was consistent (30 grams of water for 30 seconds), and three pots of coffee were poured out of three-stage, four-stage and five-stage types respectively.

Three stages: 30 grams + 95 grams + 90 grams, 1 minute 28 seconds stop water injection, extraction time 2 minutes 08 seconds. Flavor: sweet orange and yellow lemon with bright acidity and the shortest finish among the three pots of coffee.

Four stages: 30 grams + 70 grams + 70 grams + 55 grams, 1 minute 39 seconds stop water injection, extraction time 2 minutes 19 seconds. Flavor: the aroma of peach, citrus and black tea is outstanding, the taste is sweet and round.

Five stages: 30 grams + 55 grams + 30 grams, 1 minute 51 seconds stop water injection, extraction time 2 minutes 22 seconds. Flavor: strawberry jam, jackfruit, light flower fragrance, tea feeling, the most abundant layers, the best sweetness, the long-lasting finish of dried fruit.

According to the comparative data of several groups above the front street, in the same proportion, the more the number of segments, the less the amount of water injected into each section, the more difficult it is to raise the silt layer. Similarly, the more segments, in addition to prolonging the total extraction time, also means that we need to judge the more time nodes of water injection, then the instability of cooking will be greatly increased.

In order to achieve uniform extraction, the liquid level height of each stage of water injection should exactly reach the height of the previous water injection. When the liquid level does not reach the original height, the particles at the top cannot participate in the extraction; if the subsequent water level overflows the previous powder wall, then the hot water will slip away from the ribs of the filter cup, both of which may cause what we often call underextraction.

Left: five-stage water injection right: three-stage water injection

On the whole, more stages can indeed maximize the extraction of flavor substances, so that the coffee shows a rich aroma and hierarchical sense. In daily cooking, it is most common to be divided into 2 or 3 stages, because it is easier to hit a reasonable extraction time, and it can also be adjusted according to different coffee beans to reduce the error of extraction time.

In addition, to take more stages of water injection, there is a prerequisite that the coffee beans themselves contain a variety of good flavors and are resistant to extraction. Otherwise, many times of high-temperature water washing not only did not bring a positive extraction effect, but also may add some unpleasant bitter taste at the end.

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Front Street Cafe

No. 10 Baoqian street, Yandun road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province