I've found a few fundamental things that I've been doing wrong with the Chemex. I can't stress enough how much this has caused me some serious brain drain! I've been obsessing about the Chemex for the past 4 weeks since I've got one, and here's what I've figured out so far.
1. Dark roast tastes like crap in the Chemex. I bought a dark roasted Rwandan coffee from Costco that wasn't exactly fresh, but their beans are kept in giant vacuum packed bags. So I gave them a shot. Completely horrible in the Chemex. This could also have something to do with #2...
2. I just realized that the coffee storage method I've been using is completely wrong. I've been using an airtight metal/plastic container. I bought beans just roasted a week ago, and as soon as I got home I put them in this container. The first cup wasn't bad, but after that it just got more and more rancid tasting. I was scratching my head, trying to figure out what the heck I was doing wrong. I figured out that the flavors from the dark roast were causing some real problems, even though I washed the container and dried it before putting the coffee in there. I'm going to buy a ceramic airtight container today.
I think these two things have caused me some serious headaches.
There are about 15 different things to consider when making the coffee, and these have to be just right in order for it to be great. So far, I've got one great cup of coffee, and I think this has been because of the two items above. Soon I'm getting a new Baratza grinder, so that will help in the consistency department.
When trying to dial in a perfect Chemex cup of coffee, consider the following.
Roast - go with a medium to light
Time - approximately around 4 minutes
Water - I use Primo bottled water that goes through a water cooler. I just cleaned out the water cooler, so this should be fine. I haven't used a Brita, but I hear that is a good way to go.
Amount of coffee is around 60 grams per liter, or 30 if you are doing around 500ml. The thing that no one tells you about the Chemex is that there is hardly any way you are ever going to make 10 cups or 50 oz of coffee in this thing. I bought the "10 cup" model thinking that it would be a perfect replacement for my standard coffee maker. It's not. This thing will realistically only do about a half a liter of coffee at a time. Any more than that, I'm going to have to get a better grinder.
Grind Setting - As I just mentioned, the grind I used is the coarsest possible, and I can't get much more than 500ml out of the Chemex in 4 minutes. I have a crappy grinder, so this might not be a reality for some people.
Rinse the filter - I bought the brown Chemex unbleached filters and I am happy with it so far. But you do have to rinse them with quite a bit of water. I'm looking forward to trying the bleached ones.
If you are looking to buy a Chemex, get the one with the glass handle and not the wooden collar. I bought the one with the wooden collar and I would much prefer the other one.
All in all, I have faith in the Chemex, but I've been buying the wrong kind of coffee and I've been storing it improperly. I'm running out of problems to fix! The scary part is, what if I get all of this stuff right and the coffee still doesn't taste near great? That is my big concern. Right now I'm getting caffeine headaches trying to figure it all out. I'm anxious to get that perfect cup of coffee and at the moment it's just not happening.
Thoughts?