Auto-Drip

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You have some good questions, and I have answers. So hopefully this will help. Let’s start with rinsing the paper filters. In my experience, this is only necessary if you’re using unbleached filters - the brown ones. Those tend to taste like a paper sack, and if you don’t rinse them before brewing, it tastes like you’re drinking out of one. Assuming you’re using white, bleached filters, pre-rinsing is just a waste of water in my opinion. 

Ratio. When we make pourovers, we use a 1:12 ratio of coffee to water. But in auto-drip, we tend to go with a 1:16 ratio, especially in larger batches. The smaller the ratio, the more coffee you’re using, so the beverage will simply be stronger. That’s just a taste thing. If you go with too big of a ratio, you will risk your coffee being over-extracted, which will not only taste weak, but also astringent. So if you were goin to do a 1:16 and brewing a “10 cup pot” (coffeemakers consider one cup to be 4 ounces - which is half a cup - I’m assuming this is some very old marketing ploy), that would be 40 fluid ounces of water - or 1183ml. Water is easy to convert from ml to grams because it’s a one to one ratio. So that means you’re using 1183 grams of water. Divide that by 16 and you get the weight of coffee you should use: 74 grams. I’d start there, and go up or down a few grams to see how you like the coffee best.

Grind size is the trickiest of all your questions. Once your ratio is set, the water temp will be relatively constant in your machine, and you can play with the grind size to finally dial in the last variable. For drip, you want to use a medium grind - whatever that means. It shouldn’t be powdery like espresso but not too coarse like a pile of sesame seeds. If the grind is too fine, the coffee will taste bitter, too coarse and it will taste weak. There’s no magic bullet for this one - just takes experimentation to get it right. But that’s part of the fun. 

If you ever want to step up your game to the next level, I’d recommend checking out a pourover kit to make coffee by hand. It can really accentuate all the variables you asked about, and take your understanding to the next level. We have all the gear you need to get started on the website: DoubleShotCoffee.com

And the baristas are always happy to show you how everything works.