Meet the Precision Brewer
Everybody has different tastes whether you like lighter, medium or darker roasts. Enjoy your coffee exactly how you like it with our drip coffee makers.
Ready to master your perfect brew?
01. Roast Level
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most important factor influencing taste was the roast level of the coffee beans. Before roasting, coffee beans are green with little or no taste. Roasting develops different aroma compounds, and the length of the roast affects these compounds and determines the flavour. Many people choose a medium roast, but it’s worth exploring both lighter and darker roasts to get a greater appreciation for different flavours, and learn which roast suits you.
Lighter Roast
Light brown in colour with no oil on the surface of the beans, light roasted coffee is commonly more acidic with fruity, bright flavours. A light roast retains the unique origin flavours of the beans to a greater degree.
Medium Roast
A medium roast is brown in colour and offers more body than light roasts. The coffee starts to approach the darker, caramel sweetness of a longer roast, and exhibits a more balanced flavour and aroma.
Dark Roast
A dark roast has low acidity, heavy body, and deeper, darker flavours. The origin flavour of the coffee is overtaken by the roasting flavours, with a taste that is bitter, smoky and earthy.
02. Filter shape
This factor might surprise you, but the shape of the basket has a greater impact on flavour than most other variables. By simply swapping out the filter basket, you can dramatically transform the flavour of the brew. The experts found that certain flavours are associated with different basket shapes, so you can choose a basket for brewing that matches your flavour preferences.
Flat bottom basket
Sweet, floral, dried fruit and chocolate flavours were emphasised with brewing in flat bottom baskets.
Semi-conical basket
Bright, berry, citrus and fuller-bodied brown roast notes were emphasised with brewing in semi-conical shaped baskets.
03. Brew Ratio
This is the ratio of ground coffee to water used to brew, and it makes sense that varying the ratios will affect the flavour of your coffee. Most baristas would use brew ratios of between 1:15 and 1:18, which means for every gram of ground coffee they are adding between 15 grams to 18 grams of water.
Less Coffee
The less coffee that is used, the increased perception of sweetness. The coffee will offer a more mellow and rounded taste with gentle acidity.
Recommended
The brew ratio you decide upon will be guided by your personal taste preferences, but a ratio of 1:18 will deliver a rich and balanced flavour.
More Coffee
With more coffee used in the brewing process, the coffee will be more concentrated, with a rich, crisp taste and greater acidity.
04. Grind
Grinding coffee beans increases the surface area of the coffee that comes into contact with the water, and how coarse or fine the grind is determines how quickly water can pass through it. In turn, this influences how your final brew tastes. Your personal taste preference will determine the ideal grind size.
Fine
A finer grind has the coffee packed closer together, so water takes longer to pass through, leading to greater extraction, more bitter flavours and a thicker body.
Coarse
A coarser grind allows water to flow through the coffee more quickly, with a shorter brew time and less extraction, creating floral and dried fruit flavour notes.
05. Brew Time
The length of time the coffee stays in contact with the water affects the level of extraction, which is the process of drawing the flavour compounds from roasted and ground coffee. These compounds are not all extracted at the same time. First up are the fruity and acidic notes, followed by sweetness and balance, and lastly bitterness. As a result, the brew time produces different coffee flavours.
Shorter
When the coffee is brewed for a shorter time, fruity, sweet, and spicy notes are emphasised, along with brightness which coffee tasters refer to as acidity.
Longer
Coffee brewed for a longer time will have a fuller-bodied and thicker taste as the compounds that create sweetness and acidity will be overwhelmed.
06. Temperature
During extraction, water draws the flavour from the coffee grounds. The temperature of the water is an essential part of the process because if the water is too hot you risk an over extraction, resulting in a bitter tasting coffee, and if the water is too cold, under extraction may occur leaving a weaker, sour-tasting coffee. As part of the research, we found within our temperature testing range of 188-200°F (87-93°C) there wasn’t a significant flavour difference, but coffee connoisseurs might appreciate the flavour subtleties.
Discover what makes your perfect brew
In-depth coffee brewing research reveals the influence different variables have on flavour. Explore the six sensory factors in more detail and how they guide you to your perfect tasting coffee.
Roast Level
Filter Shape
Brew Ratio
Grind
Brew Time
Temperature
Personalisation to the next level
The Sage Precision Brewer™ gives you complete control so you can brew your perfect cup.
Five preset brewing modes
Brewing a coffee made perfectly for your flavour preference couldn’t be easier thanks to five convenient preset modes with customisable settings.
Gold Cup
In Gold Cup preset mode, the Sage Precision Brewer™ automatically adjusts the water temperature and brew time to meet the standards set by the SCA for a precisely balanced cup.
Features
- Bloom timeCoffee bloom occurs when hot water first comes into contact with ground coffee. Pausing the water delivery during blooming allows the coffee bed to fully saturate, ensuring an even extraction. This setting allows you to adjust the length of the bloom time so you can extract your favourite flavours.
- Flow rateYou can control contact time with the coffee by adjusting the water flow rate. Choose between Slow, Medium and Fast. A slower flow rate will increase contact time and is perfect if you enjoy a bolder tasting cup, whereas faster speeds suit coffee drinkers who prefer a lighter tasting brew.
- TemperatureDifferent coffees taste best when brewed at different temperatures. Too hot and the coffee will taste ashy. Too cold and the coffee will taste grassy and undeveloped. Our research found that the ‘thickness’ or ‘body’ of a coffee was mostly aligned to the percentage of extraction of the coffee, so brewing at a higher temperature will make the coffee taste full-bodied and thicker. With PID temperature control, you can personalize brew water temperature at ± 2°C steps to get your preferred taste from your favourite coffee.
- Steep and release valveThis innovative feature controls water and coffee contact time when brewing single serve volumes up to 600ml or when making cold brew, automatically ensuring the flavours you love are extracted by controlling this critical variable.
- Love pour over coffee?The pour over adapter (sold separately) allows you to use your favourite pour over dripper, such as Hario V60 or Kalita Wave, in place of the regular brew basket for perfect tasting coffee, just the way you like it.
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