The Mini Batch Brew: My Mini Pulsar Recipe
I love the NextLevel Pulsar. In fact, I consider it to be the greatest of all pour-over drippers. Today, I want to share a recipe with you that is only possible on the Pulsar. Consider it a love letter to my favorite dripper.
I named this recipe “The Mini Batch Brew” because of the many ways it imitates real batch brews both in method and in taste. This recipe is my personal daily driver, and I think it yields a delicious and approachable cup with remarkable consistency.
I’ll start by explaining how the recipe works. If you don’t care beans (see what I did there?) about brewing theory and just want to make tasty coffee, feel free to skip to the bottom for the step-by-step instructions!
How It Works
Scott Rao once said, “At a certain extraction level, the coarser the grind, the better your coffee will taste.” Why might that be?
When we grind coffee, we expose the inside of the bean. The finer we grind, the more surface area we expose. The coarser we grind, the less surface area we expose.
Now, when we pour water on coffee grounds, the water has easy access to whatever soluble compounds are exposed on the surface of the grounds. For anything beyond that, the water must seep into the grounds, dissolve the compounds, and then diffuse back out. Here is the key: Compounds extracted from the outside of coffee grounds and compounds extracted from the inside of coffee grounds have different taste profiles, and the profile we get from inside coffee grounds is generally considered to be better.
Because coarser grounds expose less surface area to water, a greater proportion of the coffee extract they offer will come from inside the grounds. So, yes, at a given extraction level, the coarser the grind, the better your coffee will taste.
So, why don’t we grind super coarsely all the time? Well, it's actually pretty difficult to get soluble compounds from inside coffee particles. You need a few things to make it happen, and one of those things is time. The problem is, coarse coffee grounds offer less resistance to the flow of water, which means that water will flow faster through them, which means our brew will be over in a shorter amount of time. Alas! The very thing we need to extract coarse grounds, the coarse grounds themselves negate! That is where the Pulsar comes in. Unlike most drippers, the Pulsar has the ability to decouple grind size from flow rate. By only partially opening the valve, you can slow down the flow and therefore lengthen the brew time.
The Pulsar is ideal for extracting coarse grounds in other ways too. The valve allows for a “steeped bloom,” which soaks the grounds more efficiently than a drained bloom. The no-bypass design ensures that all the coffee grounds get their fair share of water exposure. The dispersion cap allows us to do several pours without excessive agitation, which in turn allows us to maintain a strong concentration gradient.
In short, the Pulsar is very efficient. While many use the efficiency of the Pulsar to maximize extraction, this recipe uses it to maximize grind size.
Step-by-Step
Here is what you will need: 1) 18 grams of coffee, 2) 300 grams of water, 3) a Mini Pulsar and 4) a needle. If you only have the regular Pulsar, you can roughly replicate this recipe by using 30 grams of coffee and 500 grams of water.
Step 1: Heat
Heat water to 93 degrees Celsius (about 200 degrees Fahrenheit). I find that this lower temperature keeps bitterness and astringency low while still giving plenty of acidity and sweetness.
Step 2: Grind
Grind 18 grams of coffee very coarsely. Grind as coarsely as you dare to grind and then work finer from there until you reach your desired brew strength.
The point of this recipe is to be able to grind as coarsely as possible, but a variety of grind sizes will work! As long as you grind coarsely enough that the valve–-not the coffee bed–-is the dominant flow resistor, the recipe will work just fine.
Step 3: Assemble
Take the base of the Pulsar and, with the valve closed, fill it with water until the water covers the ridges. Place two paper filters on top of the water, creped side up (click here for guidance on that). Open the valve and let the water drain just until the filter rests on the ridges then close the valve again. Insert the barrel, add your ground coffee, and shake to level the coffee bed. Place the dispersion cap on. Set the assembled brewer on top of a carafe, and the carafe on top of a scale.
Step 4: Bloom
When your water reaches the right temperature, remove it from the heat and allow it to settle. Start a timer and, with the valve closed, pour 60 grams of water. Immediately remove the dispersion cap and use your needle to sweep the inner wall of the dripper. This breaks the friction between the coffee grounds and the inner wall, allowing the coffee grounds to float to the top of the slurry.
At the 3-minute mark, with the valve still closed, pour 40 more grams of water. The falling water droplets provide just enough agitation to break the floating crust and allow the coffee grounds to sink. If the grounds settle in an irregular position, give the brewer a little swirl to level the coffee bed.
Step 5: Open
At the 3:30 mark, begin slowly opening the valve. As you do, keep your eye on the water level in the dripper and stop opening the valve when you see it sinking at the desired speed. Usually, this will be around the 1 o’clock position.
Step 6: Percolate
Do five more 40-gram pulses, starting each pulse when the water level descends to two marks above the coffee bed.
If at any point you see that the flow is too slow, slowly open the valve further until you reach the desired flow rate. If you open the valve and the flow does not speed up, then the valve is no longer the dominant flow resistor and you have probably ground too finely.
After your last pulse, close the valve just before the water level reaches the coffee bed. Set the brewer on a different vessel and open the valve fully to drain.
Step 7: Enjoy
Stir or swirl your brewed coffee to mix together all stages of extraction and then decant it into your favorite drinking vessel. Your total brew time should be 7 minutes.
I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Let me know how it goes for you or any questions you may have in the comments section below.
Until next time, have a wonderful day, and God bless!
