DISK Pour-over?

A Brief DISK Brewing Proposal:

I posted a brief review of the DISK yesterday, detailing normal brewing perimeters for brewing based of my experiences with Coava’s recipe. However, the other day I had an idea that i’m sure will turn out to be unoriginal, but as of now, I have not seen. If you remove the plunger completely, it is possible to use the DISK + Aeropress as a flat bottom pour-over, with the added perk of being able to brew larger than 200ml batches with the aeropress, as using the chamber with the plunger restricts the volume considerably. Plus the combo costs significantly less than a Chemex + Kone package.

Not only was this idea interesting to me, it also has turned out to make some ridiculously tasty brews with far less soot than the Kone. I’m not sure I completely understand how the odd brewing structure of a narrow dense bed affects extraction, but it seems that the coffee benefits from a increased dwell time that occurs within the aeropress, as opposed to most pour-overs which have a quicker drain time.

Here’s the recipe I’ve been using: 24g/400mls, ground at 25-28 on a Virtuoso Preciso, pour a 80ml bloom to completely saturate the coffee (it’s a very dense bed), dump the fines and drips of coffee that leak out into the brewing receptical, then pour the remaining water finishing around the 2 minute mark with the aeropress full to the rim, let the remaining water drip through over the next minute and a half, then you can use the plunger to quickly clear the grounds out of the aeropress chamber into the trash bin.

400ml is my preferred batch size for most of my brewing methods, but I would imagine that doing a batch size a little bit larger would work just as well. I’ve yet to try it with the aeropress paper filter, but I’m expecting more resistance than I would desire. As well I’ve been moving further and further away from paper filtration for coffee. The ‘Paper taste’ that haunts many people does not really bother me unless they are ‘natural’ brown filters, but I do appreciate the increased body and aromatics that cloth and metal filters give. (and I have a completely un-tested hypothesis that paper leads to flatness in the brew mid-palate)…

Try this out and see what you find, I’m very interested in this sort of brewing bed architecture as I have some other ideas cooking. Report back what you find and also give me a heads up if I am completely unoriginal and have just copied someone else or why this is a horrible idea and I’m an idiot for posting it. 😉

Watch out over the next week or so for a review of the Virtuoso in regards to it as a home espresso grinder. I’m going to pair it up with the updated Mypressi Twist espresso brewer (which I loved when I tested the first one). Should be a fun and frustrating week of experiments.