How to Brew Great Coffee with a Percolator

The best tasting, rich, and strong coffee you can get is coffee made in a percolator. The flavor and aroma evoke old time memories. For this reason, a lot of people will not make coffee with anything else apart from a percolator.

Even many of those who were using French presses and drip machines have all embraced the use of a percolator.

However, with the right amount of heat and technique, you can produce a perfect brew each time by following these steps:

Use quality coffee with a clean pot and filtered water

These are three factors vital to a good brew. Make sure that any coffee residue that contains coffee oils that could have become rancid is cleaned from the pot.

Make use of freshly ground and good quality coffee with clean, filtered water. Bottled water is fine to use and there is no need to oxygenate the water as the percolation process provides sufficient supply of oxygen.

In fact, lots of research has been done on the type of water which could result the greatest coffee.

Although, choosing between soft – like distilled water – or hard water – full of minerals – mostly depends on the kind of coffee bean you’re using, but many experts believe in order to get the better flavor in coffee, the tap water would be enough – that is, the one in most parts of the US.

Use just enough coffee

For each cup of water in the pot, let there be a corresponding heaped spoon of coffee.

It is quite easy to use less quantity of coffee than is needed for a good brew as a result of the size of the percolator, many of which are quite huge. Some persons prefer to use filter paper in a filter basket, and 3.5 inch filter disks can easily be bought for this purpose.

This will stop the finer grounds from entering the coffee. Ensure that you make use of good quality acid-free filter paper that will not adversely affect the flavor of the coffee.

Start the brew

Before you placing the filter basket and stem inside, add water to the pot. The water level should not get to the filter basket. Simply turn it on if you have an electric model and wait for the process to begin. For a stove top percolator, set it on a low to medium heat.

Now, this is the critical part, because a wrong move here will spoil your brew. Turn the heat down immediately the first burble touches the glass bubble.

Your aim here is every 3 to 5 seconds, there should be only 1 “perc”. Anything other than this will cause the coffee to boil and produce a burnt flavor.

Make sure the water in the pot maintains a temperature of 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow the steam pressure to increase in the stem and gently bubble over. Allow this to continue for up to 4 minutes.

Watch out for the heat

Remove the pot from the heat when the brew is finally completed. Open the pot and remove the stem and filter basket.

This is to prevent the steam from condensing inside the pot lid and continue to drip through the used coffee. Do not give in to the temptation to use the “keep warm” feature if you have an electric model.

Decanting the coffee into a pre-warmed, clean, thermos flask is much better. The “keep warm” feature of any coffee maker always affects the flavor.

This process needs a lot of attention and patience. You will enjoy a rich, good, and strong brew when you are done.