How do you make coffee?

Rusty Lewis said:

Nothing ruins a peaceful morning on the hook in a quite anchorage like the sound of someone's generator. We heat water in a teapot on the propane stove and pour it through a Malita filter into a cup or thermos.

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An elitist's - Whaaaa!

I recommend ear plugs if any boater does not want to hear the general goings on that make-up the boating world. 30 to 45 minutes of a well tuned, clean running, well muffled, considerably quite genset at 9 ish in the morn - or for that matter 6 ish in the eve - anchored well separated, is (should be) no real problem to others. There are many situations that call for low decibel human actuated sounds to occur throughout the day in the boating world... most for the purpose of elevating family enjoyments.

Art said:

An elitist's - Whaaaa!

I recommend ear plugs if any boater does not want to hear the general goings on that make-up the boating world. 30 to 45 minutes of a well tuned, clean running, well muffled, considerably quite genset at 9 ish in the morn - or for that matter 6 ish in the eve - anchored well separated, is (should be) no real problem to others. There are many situations that call for low decibel human actuated sounds to occur throughout the day in the boating world... most for the purpose of elevating family enjoyments.

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Guess they really hated me when I would buzz them in a USCG helo while smiling and waving..

psneeld said:

Guess they really hated me when I would buzz them in a USCG helo while smiling and waving..

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:lol:

I'm a coffee snob, so I get my whole beans from Al Ameed in Kuwait. I grind the beans and then I use a thermal coffee maker. The grinder is more important than the maker itself. If all of the grounds are the same size and shape, you are assured of the most accurate amount of surface area in which the water makes contact with the ground, ensuring a better flavor. Hot plate style makers heat the bottom of the carafe and have a tendency to raise the acidity level in the coffee after just a few minutes. Plus, the grinder uses less amps than the hot plate style maker and so does the thermal style maker.

Ok guys... Be nice!

We tried the percolator this morning. I have a little in-line digital AC ammeter to check stuff like this. It drew 8 amps while percolating (maybe 5 minutes?) and dropped to less than 1 amp after that. I am not sure if it runs thru heating cycles to keep it hot or not after the perc stage. Tomorrow I will do the same thing with the $12 POS Target Mr. Coffee machine we usually use. I have to admit that the percolator coffee tastes pretty good (especially with Bailey's Irish Cream in it). The downside is that it's a bit more of a PITA to clean. Well, for Bess to clean.

There are lots of unnatural noises that break the silence of an anchorage...including your arrival if your the second boat...so to blame a generator for ruining your day is a tough way to enjoy the cruising life....

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It doesn't ruin my day. Just the peacefulness of the morning. I like it when everyone tries to keep those unnatural sounds to a minimum.

Rusty Lewis said:

It doesn't ruin my day. Just the peacefulness of the morning. I like it when everyone tries to keep those unnatural sounds to a minimum.

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OK - - > I Agree with you Rusty... I believe some of the sounds should be not much before 9AM or after 6PM... i.e., in general, sounds to a minimum!

Cheers, Art

Sitting here at the mountain cabin enjoying a cup of mountain coffee. Made with pure mountain well water (no chlorine) and perked. The air is cooling and there is a tinge of color on the leaves. Yes, morning coffee in the mountains is the best.

Art said:

OK - - > I Agree with you Rusty... I believe some of the sounds should be not much before 9AM or after 6PM... i.e., in general, sounds to a minimum!

Cheers, Art

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Early morning, sitting in a quiet anchorage with other boats around, the water is still, coffee in hand, the sounds of nature, and what's that I hear? It sounds like a roar. Yes, it is the roar of the Raritan.

Really can't argue with that, Dan. My favorite moment for coffee has always been above 5000 ft..

Moonstruck said:

Early morning, sitting in a quiet anchorage with other boats around, the water is still, coffee in hand, the sounds of nature, and what's that I hear? It sounds like a roar. Yes, it is the roar of the Raritan.

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Now, Don, you've really gone and done it! You speak of a delightful coffee time, and, we'd simply been discussing sounds from relitively clean doings. But - Then - You bring in Bathroom Humor! That willl get us all nowhere!! :lol:

The roar of the head in the morning after the first cup of coffee is a reassuring sound indicating all systems are "go".

Generators are just part of the experience. Its like bugs. You have to just deal with them sometime to enjoy the big picture.

73 (now 74) responses to "How do you make coffee?"

I guess we should be able to do it now if we couldn't before.

As for the "roar of the Raritan", a friend once described scene he observed:

Waking up one morning in an anchorage, he was sitting and drinking his morning coffee when he saw a stunning looking, scantilly clad young woman walk out on the bow of a neighboring boat. Then, she turned, squatted, and took a dump off the bow.

Ron - Really now! I was previously enjoying input to this thread.... GEEEEZZZZ!

psneeld said:

There are lots of unnatural noises that break the silence of an anchorage...including your arrival if your the second boat...so to blame a generator for ruining your day is a tough way to enjoy the cruising life....

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True enough but I think Rusty makes a good point. We don't use the marine parks in the San Juans that much anymore as we have other destinations that we prefer now. But during the boating season in the parks there are always people either on the docks or at a buoy running their generators all day. Even when they go for walks they leave the generator going. And the folks with electric galleys are constantly firing up their generators trhoughout the day to heat water or microwave something. And as FF points out, if you're downwind of these boats it can make for a pretty unpleasant day.

Some boats have very quiet generators but they never seem to be the ones that run for hours at a time. It's always the people with loud, booming or droning generators. Of course the worst are the people with portable Honda generators who fire them up and leave them running for hours on the foredeck or the dock.

The parks have a curfew for generators--- IIRC it's 9:00am to 9:00pm but I could be off on that by an hour or so. But there were plenty of boaters who cranked them up on the dot or even before or ran them in the evening right up to the night cutoff.

In southern waters I can understand the need as AC seems to be pretty much a requirement for boating in the Gulf and along the east coast.

Marin said:

............... In southern waters I can understand the need as AC seems to be pretty much a requirement for boating in the Gulf and along the east coast.

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You realize, I hope, that some people in the South don't even have air conditioning in their homes. And our service men and women don't have it in their tents in Iraq and Afganistan.

No doubt it's nice to have, but a requirement?

I lived in Vero Beach for 8 years and I never saw a house without one. It is just to damp.

rwidman said:

You realize, I hope, that some people in the South don't even have air conditioning in their homes. And our service men and women don't have it in their tents in Iraq and Afganistan.

No doubt it's nice to have, but a requirement?

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rwidman;106031 No doubt it's nice to have said:

requirement[/B]?

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From the posts on this forum from people who boat down there it sure sounds like it is if you want to be comfortable. The times I've been in Virginia and North and South Carolina in the summer the people I met who didn't have air conditioning in their homes, cars, etc. all wanted it and the people who did have it wanted more. And it's sure a requirement for me when I'm there.

While I love solitude as much as anyone else here...it isn't easy to find when a second cruiser is there or comes along...whether you like the guys guitar playing or not play on whether you LIKE or DISLIKE that now not quiet anchorage...It can be too much aircraft noise to trucks on a distant highway to the generator across the water. Yes the noisy ones are a PIA and if directly downwind I understand...but the original comment painted the whole issue with a broad stroke that I felt as a little harsh to those who have and chose to use their gensets.... Being polite carries way beyond just a genset issue in anchorages.

Wonder what these are??? Must be BIG coffee makers....

rwidman said:

73 (now 74) responses to "How do you make coffee?"

I guess we should be able to do it now if we couldn't before.

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As the OP, I am glad it went on this long (and generally stayed on-topic). I was really interested in all the different ways people made their morning Joe without killing the batteries at anchor. Even though it only takes a few minutes, out Mr. Coffee smoked away 80 Amps from the batteries. There HAS to be a better way and now I know about all of them.

:lol:

GonzoF1 said:

As the OP, I am glad it went on this long (and generally stayed on-topic). I was really interested in all the different ways people made their morning Joe without killing the batteries at anchor. Even though it only takes a few minutes, out Mr. Coffee smoked away 80 Amps from the batteries. There HAS to be a better way and now I know about all of them.

:lol:

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"Amps" aren't things that are removed from the battery. Electrical current use over time is measured in amp hours, an amp hour being one amp of current flowing for one hour.

If your inverter drew 80 amps for ten minutes, that's 13.33 amp hours. We would hope that's nowhere near the capacity of your house bank even considering it's best to use only 50% of capacity. As a point of refference, my house bank has a capacity of about 400 amp hours so I could brew coffee using your coffe maker continuously for fifteen hours and stay within the recommended 50% of discharge. And of course, once you start your engine(s) you begin to replenish the power that you consumed.

But other ways work as well. On a previous boat, I boiled water and poured it through a Melita filter and holder into a cup.

GonzoF1 said:

Even though it only takes a few minutes, out Mr. Coffee smoked away 80 Amps from the batteries. There HAS to be a better way and now I know about all of them.

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You don't realize how much power seemingly insignificant AC appliances draw until you start powering them from batteries. Microwaves are the same way.

This is one reason we dumped the Mr. Coffee that was on our boat when we got it. Didn't want to start the generator every time we wanted coffee, didn't want to suck the power out of the batteries, and the thing took up galley space that was more useful for other purposes. We carry plenty of propane so it seemed a no brainer to use that and a French press instead of the electric coffee maker.

Propane stove....doesn't take any longer than the electric perc....

dvd said:

I'm sitting here drinking coffee from my "Handpresso" portable, manual espresso maker. I heated the water on an induction cooktop, but if I want to "run silent" early in the morning, I heat water on the one burner butane stove (cartridges stored on deck).

dvd

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This is a great idea. I tend to be an early riser. Moving around in the galley making coffee disturbs others' sleep. There is a perfect place to set up this little one burner butane unit. The helm deck has a wet bar with ice maker. I can make my morning coffee to drink in the cockpit or on the helm deck. I am happy, and no one is disturbed. Thanks for posting this.

Morning Java: It's not for amateurs

This topic of coffee came up seven years ago on the Cape Dory forum. At the time I owned a very nice little 27 foot sailboat with two group 27 batteries and an oil-fired stove. With that as background, below is my little tongue-in-cheek posting on the subject. I must disclose that I now I have a drip coffee pot, 400 AH of batteries and and big inverter. To preserve a little NW dignity, I still grind the beans by hand using the knee mill.

From my 2005 posting on the subject of brewing coffee...

In a recent topic the subject of morning coffee was broached. Now, I'm not a coffee snob, really, but after reading that some of you might be brewing coffee in 12V percolators obtained from truck stops, I felt morally obligated to step in. You see, I live near Seattle, home of Starbucks. We practically invented coffee here.

Coffee is so important to Northwest boaters I that I'm going to suggest that John Vigor's new book be titled "Making Coffee Afloat: And 19 Other Useful Ceremonies, Superstitions, Prayers, Rituals, and Curses".

I can't do the topic justice here, but I'll try to cover the basics of brewing coffee. I don't have the equipment for latte's at sea, so for latte's I either dinghy ashore, or wait for the latte boat to come around. I've been thinking about yanking out the Yanmar and installing a steam engine. I figure with a good source of steam on board, I could have latte's even while underway.

A great cup of coffee starts with a quality roasted whole bean. It doesn't matter where it's grown, as long as it's passed through a Seattle port and roasting company. Starbucks or Seattle's Best are both good brands.

You'll need a good grinder. I use a Zassenhaus Model 156 knee mill. These are adjustable so that you can get the perfect grind. They don't use electricity and take very little space. These mills aren't cheap, but unless they've been abused they'll last forever. I bought mine on ebay. If you buy used, make sure the burrs haven't been damaged. The Zassenhaus mills have hardened burrs so they're unlikely to be worn. When you get right down to it, we're talking about coffee, so price really shouldn't be an issue. You'll want to periodically clean the burrs by grinding uncooked rice.

The Zassenhaus knee mill has a little compartment on top that holds just about the right number of beans for my coffee press (as you gain experience, you won't need to count the individual beans).

My coffee press is the BonJour 3-cup model shown here. It's made of polycarbonate and seems to be unbreakable. The only thing you need to watch with this unit is the removable rubber base. You'll want to take the base off before you commit the grounds to Neptune, otherwise you run the risk of loosing it overboard.

Ok, so you have the beans, the grinder and the press. You'll also need an accurate timepiece. Any modern quartz watch with fresh batteries will do, or you can use the time display on your GPS unit. The GPS unit offers the best accuracy as the time base is a rubidium clock. Note that some of the satellites use cesium clocks. This won't affect the taste. Avoid using balance wheel watches and clocks.

Finally, you need good water. Obtaining high quality water while afloat is an advanced topic that I'm not going to attempt to cover here. Perhaps John can include a few chapters on water in his book.

At this point, you can use almost any method available to heat the water provided you don't introduce contaminates (a charcoal grill is out). You can probably even use that trucker's 12V coffee pot if it's clean and you have the batteries for it. I find that I can obtain good results with a diesel stove. A coffee snob would probably object to heating the water in an aluminum container, but my palate isn't so refined that I can tell the difference. Even so, it would probably be best to use a glass or Pyrex pan.

Now that you have the right equipment, here's how you make coffee in 10 easy steps:

1. Fill a clean pan with water and apply heat.
2. Fill the grinder's hopper with beans and grind while the water is heating
3. Just before the water is comes to a boil, put a little bit in the coffee press to preheat it.
4. Just as the water comes to a boil, empty the coffee press and pour in the coffee from the little drawer on the coffee grinder. I do all of this over a paper towel because it can be a little messy if you're not careful. I find that it's best to open the drawer while holding the mill over the press.
5. Note the time and pour the boiling water over the grounds, filling the press. Leave enough room to install plunger. I fill to the top of the handle band.
6. Install the press plunger and push the filter screen down just far enough to submerge the coffee. On the BonJour press turn the top so that the pouring spout is covered by the integral shield. This will keep the coffee from cooling as quickly.
7. After four minutes, use some of the leftover boiling water to preheat the coffee cups.
8. After six minutes, slowly press the on the plunger to push the screen all of the way to the bottom. This traps the grounds at the bottom. How tightly you trap the grounds is a matter of taste.
9. Empty the preheat water from the cups.
10. Turn the BonJour lid so the pouring screen covers the pouring spout, fill your coffee cup and enjoy.

That's it. It's not difficult, but you'll probably want to practice several times at home before heading out to sea.

Originally Posted by dvd http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/how-do-you-make-coffee-7307-post105136.html#post105136
I'm sitting here drinking coffee from my "Handpresso" portable, manual espresso maker. I heated the water on an induction cooktop, but if I want to "run silent" early in the morning, I heat water on the one burner butane stove (cartridges stored on deck).

Moonstruck said:

This is a great idea. I tend to be an early riser. Moving around in the galley making coffee disturbs others' sleep. There is a perfect place to set up this little one burner butane unit. The helm deck has a wet bar with ice maker. I can make my morning coffee to drink in the cockpit or on the helm deck. I am happy, and no one is disturbed. Thanks for posting this.

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I can well appreciate your enthusiasms for early morning coffee, and being an early riser I do same when at home, in our Nor Cal beach house or in a hotel/condo on vaca! But... On our Tolly family boat... with children, grand kids, extended portions thereof, or Admiral herself aboard alone with me... I spend time reading or futzing on items aboard till all coffee drinkers awake. Then we each dive into the Big C-Pot simultaneously to help maintain a semblance of morning energy level continuity! Yeah Baby! Coffee, Coffee, COFFEE... Makes Us Feel So Fine!!!

I don't drink coffee unless someone else makes it. At most, consume 24 cups a year. Most people seem to be addicted. Awful to think much generator usage is due to coffee drinking.

markpierce said:

I don't drink coffee unless someone else makes it. At most, consume 24 cups a year. Most people seem to be addicted. Awful to think much generator usage is due to coffee drinking.

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Mark - Why do you even bother with just 2 cups-minus of coffee per month? That would drive me crazzzzzy. Sort of like having only one bite of steak per week... Oh the Humanity!

And, Yeah - I do love steak too!! LOL