PanHandler wrote:

"Sawney Beane" wrote in message
...
PanHandler wrote:

THEN use a French press. As
an alternative to a French press, get a vacuum type maker. Drip machines
don't make the water hot enough and percolators continue rebrewing and
boiling the coffee as long as you let it go.

How do you know a drip machine doesn't get the water hot enough?
Are they all the same? I suppose brewing 10 cups would get the
grounds hotter than 5.

If the water isn't hot enough to begin with it doesn't matter - the grounds
won't get as hot as they need to be.

I used a digital quick-read thermometer held in the output before the water
hit the grounds in six different drip machines. The hottest tested was my
Cuisinart at 194º, and the lowest was a year-old Mr. Coffee machine at 188º.
The heated water in the upper chamber of my vacuum maker as soon as it was
full was 207º.

Did you calibrate it? In preparation for such measurements, I put
a thermocouple into a pan of boiling water and got 217 F.

If I were going to measure the temperature of a drip coffee maker,
I'd put my probe into the grounds and close it up. With the
machine open, I imagine a small stream of very hot water will lose
heat very fast from evaporation and radiation.

With a French press, I imagine the water could cool below 200F as
it's poured into the brewing cup. Then the cup probably absorbs
significant heat from the water. I wonder how important it is. I
wonder if a longer brewing time can compensate for a lower
temperature.