Will using two coffee filter bags make coffee that's twice as strong?

by Jeff
(Fort Wayne,IN.)

Over-extracted and under-extracted coffee.

Over-extracted and under-extracted coffee.


QUESTION:

I have a co-worker that uses 2 filtered coffee bags when brewing coffee in a regular Bun drip coffee maker. She thinks that the coffee will be twice as strong. Does anyone know if this is true?


ANSWER:

Jeff, hi

Yes and no.

The brew will certainly taste a little stronger, but not twice as strong. And it will be a horrible brew. The coffee won’t taste as good. It will be under-extracted.

Here’s the thing...

If you are making instant coffee, adding two spoonful’s instead of one doubles the strength. But when brewing with ground coffee, it doesn’t work that way.

There is a reason for the recommended proportion of water to ground coffee. You need just the right amount of water to soak the ground coffee and extract its flavors.

Too little water – proportionately – and the coffee is under-extracted. Too much water and it’s over-extracted.

When you use two filter bags, it basically means you are using just half the correct amount of water. This means there isn’t enough water flowing through to extract the full flavor and strength from all the ground coffee.

So although it might appear you’re going to get coffee that is twice as strong, that’s not what happens. By the time the water has flowed through the two bags, a lot of the flavor and caffeine is still untapped and thrown away when you toss out the used bags.

If your colleague wants stronger coffee, she might want to try out some different brands of coffee.

I hope this helps a little.

Nick

Comments for Will using two coffee filter bags make coffee that's twice as strong?

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make strong brew
by: Anonymous

what i do for making strong brew

i only drink 1 cup day so i just fill my coffee maker with 12oz water and when i brew i do not allow to flow to cup/container

i let it sit in the top of machine for about 5 min and then i let the coffee flow to my cup

so its much stronger as the coffee is soaking in the grounds for 5 min not 5 seconds like normal brew
I meant
by: pistachio

regarding the drip and brewing twice:

That you would double the grounds and brew the pot
then
use that brew Again over the same grounds

although this seems foolish and impractical - I think the result is that Stronger Coffee that the first writer wanted.

to add:

There is no substitute for Coffee !
My answer
by: Nick (CoffeeDetective)

True for the perc and the silex. Not, I think, for the drip brewer. If you just brew twice with the same double coffee in the filter you're back where you started.

Nick
stronger coffee
by: pistachio

Ok, so Nick

I have been thinking about this since it was posted.

What you are saying is strictly for Drip brewing because the water passes over the grounds only Once.

If you want to get stronger coffee with drip then the only thing I can think is to run the water through twice. I know this is probably incorrect for good coffee but I am addressing the concept.

so, suppose we change the method to perc.. then we can perc the added coffee amount for a longer amount of time to get stronger coffee.

Same with Silex, double the contact time and approximately double the strength.

Is this true or not?

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