Ultimate Guide to Brewing on the Aeropress
The Aeropress! One of our favorite coffee inventions of all time. It’s perfect for traveling, camping, the office, and everyday use. We designed the Disk to be your perfect Aeropress companion — it’s lightweight, durable, and performs similarly to a paper filter. If you already make coffee with an Aeropress, we suggest starting with your normal recipe. You’ll find our unique hole size and pattern allows you to approach brewing like you’re using a paper filter.
There are a million amazing ways to make an Aeropress; this recipe will give you a good starting point, but as always don’t be afraid to experiment.
Basic Disk recipe
Equipment needed:
- Able Disk
- Aeropress
- A scale that’s accurate in grams (Don’t have one? We’ve added alternate measurements below)
- A timer (your phone works well)
- Optional: a spoon or stick to stir
Our favorite recipe (makes one serving):
- 18 grams of coffee (about 1 heaping tablespoon)
- 270 grams of water (just over 1 cup)
- 2 minutes total brew time
First, boil your water. We’ll be doing a whole post on water (believe it or not, water quality plays a big role in the flavor of your coffee!), but a good starting point is making sure your water tastes great when you drink it. Any off flavors in your water will show through in the cup, since coffee is over 98% water.
While the water is boiling, grind your coffee to a medium-fine grind (a little finer than coarse sea salt). A quality burr grinder is best if you have one — but no matter what grinder you have, you’ll get the best results if your grounds are evenly sized, without too many big pieces or small fines.
Place the Disk into the Aeropress cap with the text facing up, and then screw the cap onto the Aeropress. Place the Aeropress on top of your cup or brewing vessel. Make sure your brewing vessel has enough capacity to hold 10+ ounces of coffee, and that it’s strong enough to withstand a firm press.
Add your ground coffee to the Aeropress. Now’s a great time to stick your nose in there and smell the goodness! You’ll soon be drinking this deliciousness.
Start your timer, and add all of your water to the Aeropress, making sure all of the grounds get wet. We like using water that’s just off boil, but anything above 200F will get the job done.
At this point we like to give the coffee a stir with a spoon or stick. This will make sure all of the coffee grounds contact the water, and will potentially help increase extraction. We do about five quick stirs with the spoon out of habit, but definitely feel free to experiment.
Now place the Aeropress plunger on top of the Aeropress — just enough so it stays in place but doesn’t actually push down. This will retain some heat and create a little bit of suction, keeping the grounds in contact with the water a little longer.
Once two minutes are up, it’s time to plunge! Place both hands on the top of the Aeropress plunger and press down firmly. (Note: make sure to remove your Aeropress from the scale before doing this!)
While pressing down, the amount of force you need can help you diagnose your grind size. Is pressing down super easy? You probably need to make your grind more fine. Is it almost impossible to press? You might need to coarsen your grind. Having said that — let your taste buds be the ultimate judge. We find that the Aeropress should have a healthy amount of resistance when you’re pressing down, but you shouldn’t be breaking a sweat.
You’ll know you can stop pressing when you hear a slight hiss. Remove the Aeropress cap and compost the grounds. Clean your disk in warm soapy water and dry. And most importantly, enjoy your fresh cup of deliciously simple coffee.