All good advice....my 2c below:
I use french presses a lot both at home and when running sailing charters/cruising.
Here is how I brew coffee using one: add coffee to taste, add water just below boiling, insert press, depress till grinds are just below the surface of water, let steep for 5-10 minutes, slowly depress press until it hits bottom.
I own several double walled stainless steel presses by Thermos/Nissan -- great product. You can buy this on on amazon, just search for "Thermos Nissan 34-Ounce Vacuum Insulated Stainless-Steel Gourmet Coffee Press". The stainless is good quality and does not rust. Not just the body is stainless, but all metal parts are stainless too. No parts have rusted over a period of several years despite regular rinsing out with salt water.
I don't like the glass presses because they are fragile...had one shatter explosively once while pressing...hot water and grind everywhere (lessons learned: don't make your grind too fine because it will clog the screen and don't use a cracked glass press!).
Also since this product is double walled it holds the temp pretty well.
We typically use the press to make coffee and then pour into an insulated carafe so that we can make more coffee while the first batch is being consumed. It is very important not to run out of coffee in the early AM ! You can just pitch more coffee in on top of the old grinds for the second batch...this cuts down on clean up effort and conserves a little coffee since you don't need quite as much for the second batch.
Re water temp: I find that using water just below boiling makes for a better cup of coffee (at least for my taste). Boiling water tends to make the brew a bit more bitter.
The quality of coffee you use of course also makes a big difference regardless what you use to brew it. Fortunately we live in a region of great coffees (Central America) so have access to lots of good stuff. Just brewed a blended mix this AM of 3 parts Welches to 1 part Dieseldorff Expresso (ground coarse). These coffees are from Copan, Honduras and Coban, Guatemala respectively. They work quite well together with the Dieseldorff Expresso giving the Welches a little extra kick. It was a good morning...great blended coffee combined with the nice hoppy smell of the IPA I just brewed chugging away in the fermentor....yum. (...and then the genset quit running....oh well...just another F'ing day in paradise!)
I have also used a press in brewing beer...to salvage an accidentally under-hopped beer. Used boiling water and hops to make a "hop tea" in the press and then added to the wort (which had already been added to fermentor before I discovered the error). Worked OK, but produced a minor grassy/astringent taste.
