Episode: 2123
Title: HPR2123: How I make coffee
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2123/hpr2123.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 14:36:02

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This is HPR episode 2,123 entitled How I Make Coffee and In Part of The Serious Coffee.
It is hosted by Alpha 32 and in about 6 minutes long.
The summary is a show about how I use my coffee gator.
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Hello Hacker Public Radio, this is Alpha 32 coming to you again from St. Louis.
I want to talk to you today about how I make coffee.
We're going to keep this show going, this series going on coffee.
I am hyper caffeinated, it is going to be a good day.
Let's get going.
So in the mornings I wake up, roll out of bed, start the kettle.
That is my Goosnet kettle, a little one liter.
It's from a company called Coffee Gator.
It's got the long curving neck on it so you can get a really fine pour.
This one is really nice because it also has a thermometer.
So I can get the water at just the right temperature for brewing.
Other essential parts, I've got my bird grinder.
It's this big old electric deal.
It's got a hopper on top of the hold about 12 ounces of beans.
So that's good.
It's pretty nice, it will hold a whole bag of beans.
The bottom will hold, I don't know how much, I've never filled it up.
I would need to, I usually grind.
What it says is about 10 to 12 cups worth of ground coffee,
but I find it lasts me probably two or three days of doing my pour overs.
So for what I do in the mornings, I use a medium coarse grind.
About the same as I would use for my arrow press.
Finder than you'd do for French press,
but coarser than you'd do for a regular drip coffee,
or certainly coarser than you'd use for espresso.
So just there to the coarse side of medium is perfect, I find.
I give my water about 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is, I don't know what, 98, 95, something Celsius.
Somewhere around there, just shy of boiling,
is apparently optimal for coffee.
So I do my pour overs in this device called a coffee gator.
It's kind of akin to a Chemex.
It's got the cone on top that you put the filter in.
It's got the big bulb at the bottom that you,
that the coffee collects in, and around the middle it's got a grip.
So let's jump burn yourself and you're pouring it.
The one on my device, the collar is silicone,
which means it's a bit more durable and machine washable.
On the Chemex is their wood.
So that means you probably shouldn't put it in the dishwasher,
which I am not generally okay with.
I like things that are machine washable.
So I get my course, my medium course grind,
get my water up to about, about 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
I use one scoop.
That's actually the scoop out of my arrow press kit that I use.
I just do one of those scoops into the comical filter that goes with the gator.
The filter for the gator is reusable.
It's one of those metal mesh kind.
It's a really, really fine mesh, finer than you have in a French press,
which means that it keeps out more of that sediment that you get to the bottom of your cup
and you use a French press.
I really don't like that settlement.
It's kind of unpleasant.
It doesn't taste very good.
It's just kind of gross.
But with this, with this coffee gator,
you got a little bit of sediment in the bottom of the cup,
but you can just swirl it around and it's not bad.
It's a very small quantity of it.
So that scoop that I use is, I guess, maybe an ounce, ounce and a half.
I don't know how many milliliters it would be, maybe 20 or 30 milliliters.
It's not real, not real big.
So just one of those in the comical filter.
Then you get your swan net kettle, boost net kettle, whatever you want to call it.
Get a pretty fine pour going, just moist in the grounds.
Get them good and soaked.
Let it sit for a second.
Let them soak up some of that water.
And then you can get going, get your pour going again.
You want to try and get the thinnest stream you can.
And just, I'm moving a counterclockwise direction,
just trying to evenly distribute that water.
And the coffee will drip through and collecting that big bulb at the bottom.
So once I've got that bulb mostly full, I will stop pouring
and just let the coffee drain through the grounds.
And then you've got a pretty good quality of coffee.
Take your filter off, pour it in your mug,
put whatever you want in there, milk, sugar, whiskey.
It depends on what kind of day it is, I guess.
I generally take it black.
That's not it here or there.
So you got your morning coffee.
That's a pretty good quantity of it.
And that's how I wake up.
So there you go.
Alright.
That is how to make coffee in a coffee gator,
also known as Alpha 32's Perfect Morning.
So, that's it.
You'll have a good day.
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