re: Power is Out: Percolator Time

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My grandmother in Steele, AL

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I drove through there years ago. We stopped at a BBQ joint that had the menu up on the wall like a McDonald's. I had to laugh when I read a choice of a meal... It said enough for 4 people or 2 hogs.

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If you understand how a percolator works, you also understand that there are other brewing methods that have every benefit of the percolator with none, or at least fewer, drawbacks.

Fortunately, Alec has done all the work that it would take me to elaborate on this. And before anyone assumes he's a coffee snob, he basically sings love songs to drip coffee pots. Even the cheap ones.

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He is complaining about electric percolators. I agree they are not nearly as good.

I use a stove top percolator. The result is tremendously better. I think it is because the water is heated to an more optimal temperature before it is exposed to the coffee. An electric percolator uses a pump and immediately begins to pump cold water over the coffee then heats up the extraction as it continues. An externally heated percolator does not expose the water to the coffee until the water has heated enough to naturally percolate through the mechanism. If you make enough, you clearly understand the differences between the two based on how smell and sound changes while brewing, just like a lot of good foods are cooked more according to feel and smell than time and temp.

In short: I don't like electro-perc either, though many home drip machines aren't even that good.

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MawMaw and PawPaw were no coffee nerds. MawMaw probably would've crushed a cig on your neck for this.

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My PawPaw woulda crushed his cig on your neck. Nanny woulda spit snuff in your eye when you were down.

Both lived into their 80’s drinking shitty coffee, using tobacco, eating high carb/high fat diet, and working all damn day.

I haven't watched all the video because I find he little sh!t very annoying. You are right, his electro-perc doesn't have a pump. A variation of that design has a diaphragm in the heating element area that constantly circulates water independent of temp. I haven't seen one that didn't have that but I have really only seen three different models because I never really liked electro-perc coffee, but still find it better than most drip coffee.

That glass percolator illustrates why I went through all the trouble to find 50 year old percolators on Ebay. The boiling action he is complaining about is exactly why I don't like any of the modern percolators available today, though you can get good enough results with some of the stainless steel percolators sold today. The problem is the thermal properties of the glass, or steel, or if you've ever seen it, the old Corning Ware percolators (I have two). The various materials affect the process, just like a cast iron pan does some things really good. In the glass percolator, there is too much heat build up inside the percolator and it is causing the coffee to boil. I agree, that will ruin it. In modern stainless percolators, the steel is too thin and at least on an electric stove, it is very easy to scorch the coffee, probably because the heat conducts faster. The older stainless Revere is thicker, and by the time the coffee begins to percolate, you reduce the heat and the percolation continues at a slower rate. This is where the sound and smell comes in I referred to earlier, if you use those things to guide yourself you adjust the heat and get it right.

Note on the Corning Ware: it is a ceramic material with thermal characteristics somewhere between stainless and glass. A smaller one I have does alright, not great. It was given to me by someone who really didn't know what it was. A larger one I have sucks. We bought it when we couldn't find Revere anymore in the early 1970's. The larger one does that same thing as the glass one in the video.

That kid in the video is probably too young to have done any of the things I mentioned, but he is right that coffee made both ways in those two percolators he had will suck.

He is also right that coffee that is put into an insulated container (i.e thermos) will taste better than coffee that is kept warm in an open container, regardless of how it is made.

The Revere seems to be the right amount of thermal mass to be well matched to most stove tops, both gas and electric, and it won't, under normal circumstances, do what the glass one did in his video. I haven't tested it, but percolation occurs at lower than boiling point temps, just like your shower puts off steam at much lower temps than 212 F. I know I drink freshly made coffee out of a percolator, so it can't possibly be 212 degrees F or I'd be dead. In proper use, if there is boiling action it is minimal.

I will measure the temp of my first cup of coffee tomorrow morning to be sure.

That is a lot of typing about percolator coffee, probably more than is available anywhere else in the world today. Most people adapted to the crappy stuff fifty years ago just like most men adapted to sh!tty light American beer after World War II. If you really want to know more, I will continue.

Yet, the equilibrium temperature when the 212 F degree water hits the lower temperature coffee grounds is close to the top of that 195F to 205F range for at least part of the percolation cycle. That would jive with my own suggestion of lowering the heat once the coffee starts to perc, which slows down the percolation. Running it lower would keep it in that range longer. I have noticed this effect for years. Remember also that once I was able to remove the basket and measure the temp of the coffee in the pot, it was 207 F. The actual temp at the point of extraction from the coffee could be at the top end of that range.

The 212 F temp was measured with a meat thermometer inserted into the spout while it was percolating. Hot water rises and would naturally collect there. At the point of percolation there is a natural evaporitve cooling effect, then the solution temp will be reduced due to equalizing with the temp with the coffee grounds.

If I can think of a good experiment I will get back to you.

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Yet, the equilibrium temperature when the 212 F degree water hits the lower temperature coffee grounds is close to the top of that 195F to 205F range for at least part of the percolation cycle. That would jive with my own suggestion of lowering the heat once the coffee starts to perc, which slows down the percolation. Running it lower would keep it in that range longer. I have noticed this effect for years. Remember also that once I was able to remove the basket and measure the temp of the coffee in the pot, it was 207 F. The actual temp at the point of extraction from the coffee could be at the top end of that range.

The 212 F temp was measured with a meat thermometer inserted into the spout while it was percolating. Hot water rises and would naturally collect there. At the point of percolation there is a natural evaporitve cooling effect, then the solution temp will be reduced due to equalizing with the temp with the coffee grounds.

If I can think of a good experiment I will get back to you.

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I get that you could, with enough intervention, get a perc to not be terrible. There just isn't much of a point, in my opinion. At which point you've made it there, using a french press creates an equal or better product with less work. There's nothing that a perc brings to the table as a benefit that you can't have better using a different, less fiddly product.

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I have only had French Press one time and I was not impressed.

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Out of curiosity, what didn’t you like? That will help guide what was done wrong.

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Out of curiosity, what didn’t you like? That will help guide what was done wrong.

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It was cool and flavorless with no body. It was at a restaurant that made it in front of you. They knew there was a problem with the process because they poured boiling water in your cup to warm it up, then emptied it before they poured the coffee in it. It was still cold.

I’m honestly intrigued. You come off as a coffee nerd but prefer a stove top percolator. Most coffee nerds go down the pour over or espresso route. What kind of beans and grinder do you typically use?