Re: How fine or coarse should I grind for vacuum brewer ?

In <mra6l1lkklgt4rbue9n0qlvimefmo0mk43@xxxxxxx>, on 10/17/05 at 12:57
AM,
David G. Imber <imber@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

"|>The volume I
"|>use is three very slightly rounded standard scoops

"|>; how does that compare with your by-mass 52 gm?

"| I've never measured the ground coffee,

Neither have I: I measure whole beans. As long as the beans are in
the same size range, that should give me uniformity from measurement
to measurement. With very large beans, such as some Kenya AA I tried
one time, I tend to add another half scoop to compensate for the voids
between beans.

"|>on the "5-cup" NCA-5, I fill the lower globe to about 5-6mm
"|>above the top of the 5---- line; after brewing, that
"|>leaves the coffee level right at the top of the 5---- line.
"|>My guess is that I am using between 26 and 27 oz. water.

"| The top of the five line is 20 fluid oz.

Interesting. I had never measured (obviously), and assumed that the
"cups" according to Hario were 5 oz. tasses.

"|> Do you vary the time according to how long it takes the water to rise?

"|I time from when the water is fully on top, but my water rises very
"|fast. I've also played around with different brands of denatured
"|alcohol, and found one that burns consistently hot. The downside of
"|using it is that it leaves black marks on the bottom of the pot,
"|which I have to scrub off every day.

As I have noted here before, "denatured" means that some wood (methyl)
alcohol, or methanol, has been added to grain (ethyl) alcohol, or
ethanol, to make the mixture poisonous and unsuitable for mixing into
beverages. That takes the mixture outside of state liquor control
regulations and allows it to be sold in hardware stores and to minors.
The methanol has a higher energy content than the ethanol, however, so
the higher percentage of methanol in a denatured alcohol, the hotter
it burns. Pure methanol also is available, most commonly under the
denomination gas line cleaner in the automotive section. For my Hario
Nouveau, I use Heet brand gas line cleaner, which is 100% methanol, as
the fuel. It burns very cleanly.

"|I previously used an alcohol that wasn't as consistent, but I found
"|that I could get the burn high and hot if I periodically blew out
"|the copper coil with canned air. This seems to revive the wicking
"|ability of the material within the coil.

I have not tried the blowing out technique, though, at the time I
refill the fuel reservoir, I usually "pump" the coil top when
replacing it on the reservoir, to prime the coil. Thanks for the
suggestion.

"|In either case, the rise to the top was quite fast, and any
"|variation was pretty much negligible. The only time it is slow is if
"|there is a strong breeze in the room and that causes the flame to
"|flicker somewhat.

I have found it does not take much of a breeze. I try to avoid
walking by the counter when the Hario is in the process of sending the
water north.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------
T. Guilbert
Portland, Oregon, United States of America
-----------------------------------------------------------

.

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