5 Reasons To Own a Coffee Scale


Hario Coffee Scale

Lugging a myriad of coffee apparatuses with me to work raises quite a few eyebrows. Generally my coworkers find it all rather customary for brewing until they see my coffee scale. Introduce a scale into your brew ensemble and you might as well have rolled up with Jesse Pinkman and a 5000mL round bottom boiling flask.

Here are 5 reasons to bear the ignominy.

Accuracy

Coffee is a science. If you expect to brew consistently, you need to do it accurately. A scale provides you with the certainty that this variable will remain static throughout the course of your brewological expeditions. The Hario V60 Drip Pour Over Coffee Scale includes both a scale and timer combo (pictured above) for added precision.

Multimodality

Scales can be used for all kinds of things. The convenience of a scale can be wielded to weigh tea leaves, measure ingredients for cooking recipes, and of course brew delicious fresh roasted coffee with great consistency. Weight wins in the kitchen.

Precision

If you’re going to brew coffee correctly, you might as well do it right consistently. To know the amount of coffee and water going into your brew allows you to hit the sweet spot essentially every time.

Conservation

I’m always looking to make sure my coffee experience is both enjoyable and responsible. Scales eliminate waste by ensuring you’re using the exact amount of coffee you need, and not a gram more. Wasting a few grams per brew could cause you to lose up to two cups of coffee per 1lb bag (453.59g/bag with 32g per brew gives you approximately 14 times you weigh your beans… with 2-3g lost per weigh you could lose up to approximately 42g of coffee!). To conserve every last bean, I recommend buying the American Weigh SC–2KG digital scale. It’s under $20 and well worth the money. If you want to weigh more than 2kg at a time, the Jennings CJ4000 4000g x 0.5g Digital Scale (pictured below) is a great upgrade. The Hario scale mentioned earlier is at a higher price point, but others have merited it as the aesthetic winner when it comes to the kitchen counter culture.

Speed

It’s a hassle to measure water volumetrically, especially when you’re in a morning rush as a barista or preparing coffee at home before work. There are two approaches to using a scale. The first is weighing the water on the scale as you brew. You don’t have to worry about the exact amount of water you need to boil and you can think about the quantity once you begin pouring onto your tared (zeroed out) scale. Not only this, but you will know exactly how much H20 you have added throughout the brew process giving greater real-time precision. Since it can also be difficult to know how much water you have put into your kettle, the second approach gears towards the fast pace cafe environment. Using a scale initially allows you to know exactly how much hot water is going into your pouring kettle so you don’t have to think about it during the brew process. We’ll leave it up to you to decide which is right for your setting.

Jennings Coffee Scale

Photo credits: Coffee Circle under the Creative Commons License and Darren Jennings

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