What's the Golden Ratio of Coffee to Water

[TxBrew]

So what's the best ratio?

1lb of coarse grinds for every 2 gallons?

 

[slym2none]

Is there even such a thing as a "golden ratio"?

 

[m00ps]

Is there even such a thing as a "golden ratio"?

about 1.618, duh. Ever heard of the fibonacci spiral?

 

[Gavin C]

Golden ratio.

As with so many things in nature, I'm going to assume it applies to coffee as well.

ETA: Dang it. Out-nerded by @m00ps

 

[m00ps]

1.618 lbs coffee per gallon of brewing water. No cream or sugar. Now that is my kind of joe

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

The ratio for golden coffee is about 1 tbsp per gallon.

I prefer mine black tho'.

 

[DrunkleJon]

In my aeropress I tend to go about 17 grams per 10-11 oz of water. Comes out quite good. I dont know where I got those figures in the first place, but whatever works.

 

[TallDan]

I believe Intelligentsia suggests 1:16 for most brewing methods. 50g coffee, 800g water is what I have been using in the chemex.

 

[torilen]

I learned how to make coffee from a tv show, Good Eats. I use a stove top percolator, and it comes out wonderful almost every time now. Sometimes I have the temp just a tad too high, and I'll get a few grounds in the coffee, but only about 35% of the time.

I have found 4 cups of water with 1-1/4 lbs of coffee. I would give the amount in tablespoons, but the scoop I use it between 3/4 T and 1 T. My scoop uses 6 scoops...so, maybe just under 6 T, I guess.

 

[PlexVector]

1.618 lbs coffee per gallon of brewing water. No cream or sugar. Now that is my kind of joe

Ah...Mother nature doesn't like it when you mix units!

 

[PlexVector]

about 1.618, duh. Ever heard of the fibonacci spiral?

Golden ratio.

As with so many things in nature, I'm going to assume it applies to coffee as well.

ETA: Dang it. Out-nerded by @m00ps

Just so we understand each other--The golden ratio is given by the series

 phi=(13)/8+sum_(n=0)^infty((-1)^(n+1)(2n+1)!)/((n+2)!n!4^(2n+3)) 	(12)
(B. Roselle). Another fascinating connection with the Fibonacci numbers is given by the series

 phi=1+sum_(n=1)^infty((-1)^(n+1))/(F_nF_(n+1)). 	(13)
A representation in terms of a nested radical is

 phi=sqrt(1+sqrt(1+sqrt(1+sqrt(1+...)))) 	(14)
(Livio 2002, p. 83). This is equivalent to the recurrence equation

 a_n^2=a_(n-1)+1 	(15)
with a_1=1, giving lim_(n->infty)a_n=phi.

phi is the "worst" real number for rational approximation because its continued fraction representation

phi	=	[1,1,1,...]	(16)
	=	1+1/(1+1/(1+1/(1+...)))	(17)
(OEIS A000012; Williams 1979, p. 52; Steinhaus 1999, p. 45; Livio 2002, p. 84) has the smallest possible term (1) 
in each of its infinitely many denominators, thus giving convergents that converge more slowly than any other continued fraction.
In particular, the convergents x_n=p_n/q_n are given by the quadratic recurrence equation

 x_n=1+1/(x_(n-1)), 	(18)
with x_1=1, which has solution

 x_n=(F_(n+1))/(F_n), 	(19)
where F_n is the nth Fibonacci number. 
This gives the first few convergents as 1, 2, 3/2, 5/3, 8/5, 13/8, 21/13, 34/21, ... (OEIS A000045 and A000045), 
which are good to 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, ... (OEIS A114540) decimal digits, respectively.

As a result,

 phi=lim_(n->infty)x_n=lim_(n->infty)(F_n)/(F_(n-1)), 	(20)
as first proved by Scottish mathematician Robert Simson in 1753 (Wells 1986, p. 62; Livio 2002, p. 101).

The golden ratio also satisfies the recurrence relation

 phi^n=phi^(n-1)+phi^(n-2). 	(21)
Taking n=1 gives the special case

 phi=phi^(-1)+1. 	(22)
Treating (21) as a linear recurrence equation

 phi(n)=phi(n-1)+phi(n-2) 	(23)
in phi(n)=phi^n, setting phi(0)=1 and phi(1)=phi, and solving gives

 phi(n)=phi^n, 	(24)
as expected. The powers of the golden ratio also satisfy

 phi^n=F_nphi+F_(n-1), 	(25)
where F_n is a Fibonacci number (Wells 1986, p. 39).

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoldenRatio.html

Edit: Sorry for the extreme off topic. It's just that you guys got me going. It's a Friday and my ADHD has kicked in and ready to do something else other than look at old code.

 

[passedpawn]

So what's the best ratio?

1lb of coarse grinds for every 2 gallons?

Of course, grind, roast level, and personal preference are everything. But it you need a place to start, the SCAA is the BJCP of the coffee world.

The Specialty Coffee Assn of America (SCAA) recommends

• 8.25 grams coffee per 150ml water
• 1.63 grams coffee per 1 fluid ounce
• 209 grams / 0.46 lb coffee per gallon. So yea, 1# per 2 gallons is pretty close to what they recommend

Look at the Cupping standards here: SCAA Resources

 

[twisted-brew]

2 Grams of fresh ground per ounce of water yields excellent medium roast hot coffee
.5 lbs:1 gallon of water for 18 hour cold brew

(used to own a coffee/craft beer bar)

 

[friedcoffee]

Try 16 gms to 18 gms with 1 gallon of water consequently and you will come out of what your tongue was demanding.

 

[z-bob]

I like a half cup of ground coffee to a full 10 or 12 cup coffee maker (about a half a gallon of water.) A level 1/2 cup scoop for a 10 cup, or a rounded 1/2 cup scoop for a 12.

Three scoops for a 30-cup electric percolator. That's probably my favorite coffee, but I usually can't drink a whole 30 cups by myself in one day.